David Sullivan, Chairman of the holding company of English Premier League club Birmingham City claims most of the team's supporters are 'armchair fans' who only come to St Andrews for the biggest games. 24,898 fans attended Birmingham's first Premier League game of the season against Sunderland and the figure only increased slightly to 24,981 for the visit of West Ham at the weekend. St Andrews has a capacity of 30,000 but only 13,700 fans are season ticket holders.
"Many clubs in the Championship get bigger gates than us and the other promoted clubs, Sunderland and Derby, have 32,000 and 28,000 season ticket holders respectively," he said. "Our season ticket prices and match day admission prices are the second lowest in the division."
Sullivan and his partners, David and Ralph Gold, have sold 29.9 percent of the club to a Hong Kong company controlled by Carson Yeung but Sullivan told Lewis Rutledge of Sky Sports he and the Golds will only relinquish power if they feel someone can take the club forward. "I know some people are concerned about what is going on with the club's shareholding and I want to assure them there have been no changes," he said. "The club is being run by the people who have done a great job for the past 14-15 years and therefore the club is in good hands. We welcome the investment of Carson Yeung's company Grandtop. David Gold and I will only cease to be majority shareholders if we think someone can do a better job of running Birmingham City than we have."
"Many clubs in the Championship get bigger gates than us and the other promoted clubs, Sunderland and Derby, have 32,000 and 28,000 season ticket holders respectively," he said. "Our season ticket prices and match day admission prices are the second lowest in the division."
Sullivan and his partners, David and Ralph Gold, have sold 29.9 percent of the club to a Hong Kong company controlled by Carson Yeung but Sullivan told Lewis Rutledge of Sky Sports he and the Golds will only relinquish power if they feel someone can take the club forward. "I know some people are concerned about what is going on with the club's shareholding and I want to assure them there have been no changes," he said. "The club is being run by the people who have done a great job for the past 14-15 years and therefore the club is in good hands. We welcome the investment of Carson Yeung's company Grandtop. David Gold and I will only cease to be majority shareholders if we think someone can do a better job of running Birmingham City than we have."