Premier League ticket promise: Fans will be winners if Huddersfield Town go up

The Terriers, sitting third in the Championship and firmly in the hunt to end a 45-year absence from the top flight, yesterday revealed a cut-price season ticket deal for the second year running.

Adults will pay just £199 to watch the 2017-18 campaign at the John Smith’s Stadium, regardless of which division Town are competing in.

A cap of 17,000 will be placed on sales, a figure the club expects to reach after selling 15,001 season tickets for the current campaign.

“The season ticket offer is quite simple and part of our overall strategy,” said Hoyle, speaking to The Yorkshire Post at the relaunch of the club’s official charity, the Huddersfield Town Foundation.

“Bums on seats help everyone, our home record shows that. I firmly believe that good record is down to the support we have had.

“We reduced the prices last summer and, in terms of what we hoped would happen with regards numbers through the gates and the atmosphere inside the stadium, it has exceeded our targets.”

Huddersfield’s offer, which will see junior season ticket holders aged eight to 17 pay £79 and Under-8s just £29, is the latest to benefit football fans in Yorkshire.

Bradford City recently held their adult prices at £149 for next season, while Doncaster Rovers this week announced youngsters aged 17 and under will pay just £30 at the Keepmoat for what is looking like the return of League One football.

Should Huddersfield win promotion, the adult price would compare favourably with the £461 that Middlesbrough fans had to pay for the 
cheapest adult deal ahead of their club’s own return to the elite this term.

During Hoyle’s nine years at the helm, this is the third time Town’s prices have been pegged at a low level.

The first was a one-off to mark Town’s centenary in 2008, but it is the current campaign where the true value of such an approach has been felt.

Average crowds are up by almost 7,500 and the atmosphere generated has, Hoyle believes, helped head coach David Wagner’s side become the surprise package of the Championship.

Town have claimed 41 points from 18 games at the John Smith’s, a tally on home soil only Brighton & Hove Albion (45) and Leeds United (42) have bettered – and, even then, both have played 19 and 20 times respectively.

“We sold 15,000 season tickets on the back of finishing 19th last year with a few green shoots in evidence,” added Hoyle. “We have had a really enjoyable season so far and I would expect us to sell all 17,000.

“We have to leave some for walk up on the day, but 17,000 are up for grabs. A year ago, we sold something like 10,500 in the first few days so, let’s be fair, they are going to go.”

As for a run-in that begins on April 1 with the visit of Burton Albion to the John Smith’s, Hoyle added: “It is going to be frantic. There will be twists and turns.

“I would say the top two in Brighton and Newcastle are expecting to now get promoted. But, if we win our game in hand, we will be three points behind Brighton, four behind Newcastle. That would leave us with a chance.

“Are we good enough to take advantage if the opportunity does come along? We are about to find out.”

Huddersfield’s season ticket offer fits in with lifelong fan Hoyle’s desire to help the wider community in Kirklees.

The Town Foundation, set up in 2012 to help youngsters in the area after Hoyle and wife Janet had been moved by the plight of one disadvantaged boy at a local school, has provided almost 650,000 breakfasts for children who may otherwise have had to go without.

Now, following yesterday’s relaunch, the aim is to extend the Foundation’s work into other areas of the community.

“The local football club should act as the beacon for its town,” he added. “And, as chairman, I feel I have a moral duty to our community.

“I was born into a single parent family, I lived in a back-to-back house with a tin bath. I started right at the bottom so I understand what needs to be done.

“I am not saying I am a saviour because, believe me, I am a million miles away from that. But I do live in the community and know, in Kirklees, we have fantastic areas next to really working class areas and then also deprived areas. We have to try and bring those communities together.

“Social inclusion is now a really big problem for Kirklees, and, if we can bring people together under the umbrella of football – which people globally understand – then we have to leverage our brand to do so.

“But we can’t do it on our own. We need the university, the council, businesses to all rally round. Together, we can be stronger.”