Hi all,

We’re approaching the 7th anniversary of Ballers, and from day 1 the price has been £5 per player, per game. It’s something I’ve been keen to maintain in financially difficult times for everyone, but as my prices have remained the same, the costs associated with running the business have only gone up.

When I started, I could get reasonable footballs for around £4.50, now they are £7 and that is only because John at Reddish North End gets that price due to the volume of footballs they order (most of which are probably mine!), I’ve put referees pay up twice in that time, and the costs of my pitches at Woodley have gone up 25% in the last two years.

This is as close as I’ve got to having to put the price up for the first time, as I’ve got my corporation tax due this month and it’s touch and go as to whether the company currently has enough money to cover it, which should be scary but I’m weirdly cool about it. So, here’s a couple of things teams can do in the short term to try and make sure we stick with how we are.

1. Make sure all the lads pay! On certain nights, certain teams make us do extra work to get the money in, and if we didn’t do that I’m fairly sure we wouldn’t get it. I occasionally have people ask if they can pay double the next week when money is tight, and I don’t think I’ve ever said no, so don’t just try and pull a fast one. Also, please make sure to pay before the game, it’s not hard. Some people say it’s only a fiver, like we shouldn’t miss the odd one, but it all adds up. I can assure you I’m not living a life of luxury from the Ballers billions (but I’m running my own business doing what I want to do, so it’s swings and roundabouts!)…
2. Please don’t use our match balls to warm up with. We probably lose more footballs getting kicked over between games than we do in games. At times I’ve seen people kick a ball over, then just go and grab another. You pay £5 for your game, if you kick a £7 ball over before you even start I’m down £2 just from you being there! Losing footballs in play is something we can’t do anything about, but I need to try and limit how many footballs we’re losing. We’ve recently gone through a box of 24 footballs in a week, that isn’t sustainable.
3. Just generally keep me in the loop and give me early notice on a weekly basis if you’re struggling for a team. The more notice I have, the better chance I have of sorting out an alternative fixture for your opposition, therefore keeping the money coming in that pays the pitch fees! I know things can come up on the day, but if you’re cancelling on the day because lads are on holiday, or going to United / City / County, that’s something that I could know earlier. Even an early message saying you’re missing some regular lads but you’re trying to find fill ins can help, because at least then I can look at my options if you do end up cancelling.

That’s pretty much it for now. I suppose the main takeaway here is that if everyone keeps paying their fiver, hopefully the price will remain a fiver for everyone!