As the year draws to a close, we assess the performance of Hull City’s owners – the Allams – during the year of 2016.
A trip to Wembley, promotion to the Premier League, an FA Cup fifth round replay at the Emirates and reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup. On the pitch, it was yet another successful year for the Allam family as owners of Hull City, despite the Tigers currently languishing in 19th place in the Premier League.
A half-empty end at Wembley for the play-off final, 10,000 empty seats at the KCOM Stadium and even club sponsors voicing their displeasure on the pitch perhaps tells a better story of how the Allams ownership throughout the year of 2016 ought to be assessed though.
As part of HITC Sport’s ‘Festive Features’, I was tasked with rating Hull City’s owners over the last 12 months. However, it is plainly obvious how Hull City fans rate the Allams performance this year. In November 2013, Assem Allam said, “Fans can choose to vote with their feet. If they are not happy, they can stay away.” In 2016, Hull City fans did just that.
Hooligans: Hull City fans protest before their game vs Brentford
Hull City went into 2016 in 3rd place in the Championship, one point off second and two points off the league leaders Middlesbrough. On field success was not reflected in the stands, where the Tigers were regularly averaging around 16,000 at home games, fewer fans than the club averaged in their last season in the fourth tier, the 2003-04 campaign.
With the club well-placed in the league table, Dusan Kuciak and Nick Powell were the only winter arrivals, and neither went on to make any kind of impact. A dreadful March and a poor start to April saw the Tigers hopes of automatic promotion quickly slip away, and it became clear that a fourth placed finish was both the best case and most likely scenario for the last couple of months of the season.
It was fourth that the Tigers finished, setting up a play-off semi-final against Derby County, where an emphatic 3-0 first leg away win was enough to take Steve Bruce’s men to Wembley, despite Derby winning 2-0 at the KCOM Stadium. At Wembley, a classy and complete performance, rounded off by an exquisite goal by Mo Diame saw Hull quite comfortably emerge victorious from the play-off final.
Mo Diame scores the winner for Hull City at Wembley
Yet, for all the joy the play-off final brought, a decision made by the Allams a couple of months earlier had left many indifferent to promotion and indifferent to supporting the team. In March 2016, Hull City announced that they were to scrap traditional season tickets or cards and replace them with a membership scheme.
In theory, it is a reasonable idea. However, the Tigers membership scheme included no concessions, meaning whether you are 3, 33 or 83, you pay the same price for your ticket at Hull City. This is still a fact that doesn’t seem to have reached many sections of the national media, and their continued confusion at the number of empty seats at the KCOM Stadium can largely be attributed to it.
As a result of Hull City’s new membership scheme, a child’s ticket at the KCOM which would have cost £66 last season, would now be priced at £570. Whilst the Allam family have made a number of unpopular decisions since purchasing Hull City, from their name change attempt to the Airco Arena debacle, the membership scheme was somewhat unique in that virtually no-one seemed to defend it.
For many Hull City fans who had remained staunchly pro-Allam through their many controversies, this was the tipping point. Red card protests were held to try and convince the Allams to rethink their scheme, something which is notoriously difficult to do, and once again, they proved ineffective.
The result is a huge chunk of Hull City’s supporters having been driven away, whether that be due to the financial implications (if they typically attend games with children or elderly) or simply the moral objection to supporting a regime which continues to show seeming disregard for it’s paying customers, loyal supporters and future generations of fans.
When the BBC’s sketchy ‘Price of Football‘ survey came out and the club boasted of offering the cheapest season ticket in the top flight, they were hollow claims. Of all the damaging decisions made at Hull City, the scrapping of concessions could prove the most devastating. Securing young fans is absolutely crucial, and something which can be difficult to recover. The fact that the next generation of Hull City fans are being priced out of attending matches is both sad and potentially catastrophic for the future of the club.
Some young fans have been priced out at Hull City
Hull City’s 2-1 opening day defeat of the reigning Premier League champions Leicester City was the most enjoyable game at the KCOM Stadium for a long, long time for many Hull City fans. The shock win, the manner of the victory and the spirit showed by a depleted and threadbare squad was just a part of it.
As the suspected potential owners and investors celebrated Adama Diomande and Robert Snodgrass’ goals as though they were genuinely passionate about the club, there was a twitch of optimism, a feeling that a change of ownership was a real and distinct possibility.
Four-and-a-half months on, that optimism no longer exists. There is a tide of opinion among Hull City fans that the club’s owners have no intention of selling up, or at least not at a price any right-minded person would be willing to stump up.
Hull City has reportedly been up for sale since April 2014
Talk of asset stripping seems bizarre, as a sale would see a far greater return on their investments than any potential asset stripping. Just what the Allams plans are is a mystery. A sale would seemingly be the best case scenario for everyone involved with Hull City AFC, but such a scenario currently seems unlikely.
All this has happened to a backdrop of stealth rebranding (the continued reluctance for anything produced by the club to use the club’s name) and a woefully underprepared pre-season ahead of what promised to be an enormously challenging Premier League campaign.
Steve Bruce’s departure following promotion speaks volumes, as does the time in which it took Hull City to identify a permanent replacement. Summer signings were left to the last minute and it has shown, with all barring Dieumerci Mbokani having been unimpressive. To rate the Hull City owners for 2016 one would say they have seemingly outdone themselves, and despite promotion to the Premier League, 2016 has probably been their worst year yet.
Hull City manager Mike Phelan still doesn’t know if he’ll have money to spend in January
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