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The Fans
When I joined the club in 2012 there were the same faces I would see at games and watching the players train all the time. Our stadium holds 41,044 seats but we barely filled 25,000 week in week out in my first season. Season ticket sales were below 10,000 and this was affecting the finances, as we weren’t maximising our revenues available.
This was disappointing but also disturbing. Lyon is a great club with a great history but fans are so fickle these days. Our prices aren’t even the highest in the league yet we couldn’t fill the stadium. The obvious solution was to win trophies and that’s exactly what we started doing. Winning the league title in 2012 bought in more fans and more money, which was always a hidden aim in my managerial role. Then cup final wins followed and more fans would be turning up.
We started the 2nd season of my reign and this time we were getting 30,000 fans in and had managed to sell just over 10,000 season tickets. We have a total of 18,058 season tickets to sell and were still way off the total but the improvement was good. There were a few occasions where we were teetering on the edge of 40,000 fans at the European matches and this was a great positive. Champions League football was helping to bring in more fans who were glad to see success return to their great club.
The 3rd season that just finished had ended with the best figures as we had 40,000 fans attend games regularly and season ticket sales hit 15,000 for the year. It was clear that fans just want success but there will always be a solid backbone that will always be at every game they could make. The positive in this for me was the fact that the supporters of our club were happier and enjoyed coming to support their team. Now, heading in to the 4th season of my reign I have just been given the numbers of season ticket sales and for the first time in many many years we have sold all of the allocated tickets. A great moment for the club but perhaps what is even greater is that in just a few months time we will move to a bigger and better stadium, Stade des Lumières that will hold 61,556 people. With architect Populous in charge, we have a stunning and gorgeous stadium with designs that are exceptional. I cannot wait to hear the noise our fans make inside this ground and we will make sure they have plenty to sing and shout about!