Benefits to their Communities from Small Town Professional Football Clubs

Many small town professional clubs operate on the border of viability and threats to their survival are often real. But their activities may generate benefits that they are unable to capture in ticket sales; for example they provide a focus of interest even for some residents who do not attend the stadium. The paper presents results from applying contingent valuation methodology in two towns with clubs in the bottom-tier of English professional football. Collective willingness-to-pay for the survival of the clubs through taxation proved to be significant relative to the revenues the clubs were able to generate through ticket sales. There appears therefore to be a case for local governments to consider intervention in some circumstances where a club's survival is in question.