View: Portsmouth to lose thousands out of supporter subsidisation for Blackburn
Portsmouth are set to lose out on thousands of pounds as they make subsidisations for supporters.
In a well-praised, but obvious move, the club have agreed to offer free coach travel to those who were booked onto supporters’ coaches for the postponed trip to Blackburn Rovers on 23 November.
The date of the rearranged fixture has been confirmed via the official Portsmouth FC website [29 November] as Wednesday 15 January, with an additional two Lucketts coaches taking fans for free.
After these have been fully booked, supporters can book return travel via the official partners’ coaches for £45 for adults and £40 for children aged 15 and under.
Portsmouth make right choice despite losing thousands
The news comes as a small hit for Portsmouth but certainly the right gesture of goodwill to supporters – many of whom were already in the Lancashire area four hours before kick-off when the match was postponed, due to a waterlogged pitch.
As rarely as it comes in the Championship, Pompey fans have had a rough ride with the fate of their matches, as the Fratton Park contest against Millwall succumbed to a local power outage just 10 minutes before kick-off four days later.
Official travel provider Lucketts usually accommodate up to 63 passengers on their standard coaches, which when multiplied by £45 hits a figure of £2,835. Doubled for the two free coaches on offer makes £5,670 – onto which the number of original coaches headed to Blackburn will be added.
With Rovers’ stadium Ewood Park usually offering one of the largest away allocations in the Championship, a significant number of coaches are set to depart for the rearranged clash in January – and more demand is expected due to its midweek evening kick-off and consequent restricted public transport options.
All in all, Pompey will sacrifice an easy five-figure sum to help out their fans in a move, which for the sake of maintaining PR with the faithful, is really a no-brainer.
In other Portsmouth news, Don Goodman gives his verdict on John Mousinho’s future.
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