My first Bury FC experience at Gigg Lane

I attended a game at Gigg Lane in March 2017 to look for the forgotten Birmingham City savior and it happened to be something special to me.

I paid through the phone a few days in advance and I was told to collect my pass at the stadium reception. The presentation was rather basic but functional, a ticket to the director’s box in a white envelop together with a lanyard to wave at security guards while you walk around. It was the same networking as I settled down, getting to know people on my table and some usual football conversation. I instantly became an interesting figure at Bury being a random Chinese from Newcastle. Now it would not be a surprise as people flock to see the Hong Kong born midfielder. I exchanged opinions with supporters on chances of our teams staying up as Birmingham City is also in a relegation battle, as well as the commercial side of the Blues that brought me to the game.

Out of my expectations, I had a chance of meeting Lee Clark at his office. I believed the staff thought I was a Newcastle supporter as they said “the boy from Newcastle”. I generically asked Clark whether he had been enjoying his job and jokingly said we wanted him back at Birmingham. As kick-off is approaching, I wished him best of luck and walked straight to the stands.

Like many stadiums, Gigg Lane has a dedicated seating area for premium spectators. The first two rows are padded and the rest are plastic chairs, and obviously the directors’ chairs more padded. I was assigned to one of the seats on the top few rows and the view was fantastic, except a few steel supports preventing a panoramic watch, definitely not for perfectionists. It was nice to see James Vaughan scoring for fun and Paul Caddis’ superb involvement in the counter attacks. It gave me a feeling of Huddersfield Town during the “SuperNovak” era.

As food was only served in half time with limited availability, people began queuing moments before the whistle with paper plates in hands. There were choices of sausages, minced pies, chips and potato soup in a buffet style. Staffs were kind and helpful; I was offered an extra pie with more chips when the sausages were gone, apparently they could have been less generous to the front person. Drinks were at local pub prices, which is very considerate to the supporters and it is beneficial for their inventory flow as well.

The game ended 3–0 for Bury and they gained much needed points and goal difference to boost their survival hope. Without as much international exposure as teams in higher up, the club depends a lot on local fans’ spending per head. Last season’s stats shows an average attendance of 3800 to league games; in an area faced with competitions from the likes of two Manchester giants, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn is a huge challenge. I managed to work out their expected revenue and estimated wage budgets for the season. Although I am not showing my workings here, I can conclude the margins are a lot more sensitive than clubs above, earn very little or lose big; so the operation budget is very much down to the owner’s wealth and his financing abilities to support the running of the club.

If people say the Championship is a very difficult league, I would say League One is mind-blowing. Every other season, three teams go up with imaginations of the Premier League while four teams go down to play with potentially semi-professionals. The difference in weekly wage between League Two and Championship can be up to 100 times, so every change that happens to League One clubs can affect their destinies. Finally, I wish Bury could put on some imagination of Premier League at the end of this season.

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