Last week, we mentioned a unique (as far as we know, anyway) initiative by Blue Square Premier side Mansfield Town to let supporters set their own entrance price for their game against Gateshead on Saturday at Field Mill.

On the face of it, it was a big success. Attendance more than doubled from the previous game, with over 7,000 showing up. Many gave more than the previous standard ticket price, with gate receipts expected to be bumper for the club.

For many fans, it was a reminder of better days at Field Mill, Mansfield’s home since 1909.

The club has a loyal hardcore base, with 2,747 season ticket holders, but this initiative aimed to bring new and old fans outside of this base to Field Mill: the average attendance of the club over the past three seasons has been hovering around 3,000 since their relegation from the Football League in 2008.

Unfortunately, Mansfield lost the game 2-0, but that’s not the point here. Hopefully many of those who showed up feel re-engaged by the club’s effort to get them out to a game, whatever they could afford to give on the day.

This initiative by the new owners should be applauded. Mansfield have been through a lot: the current owners, Mansfield supporters Andrew Perry, Andrew Saunders and Steve Middleton, purchased the club from the deservedly unpopular Keith Haslam a couple of years ago.

This was shortly after Haslam came close to selling the club to John Batchelor, who had an insane plan to rename the club Harchester United after the Dream Team television drama. Seriously (Batchelor also once wanted to drive York City, who he drove into the ground, York City Soccer Club to attract American interest).

From soap opera to sanity, it’s looking up for Stags fans.

Big Story
Alright, so some of us might not pay very much to watch Mansfield Town, but here is an interesting promotion by the club for their game this weekend against Gateshead, as they let supporters set their own ticket price:

Blue Square Premier side Mansfield Town are offering fans the chance to pay whatever they want to see their home game against Gateshead on Saturday. The club’s owners thought up the scheme to boost the crowd and thank fans and the people of Mansfield for their support since the 2008 takeover.

“Let’s pack the ground for this match and roar the team on to victory,” said chairman Andrew Perry.

The scheme also applies to away fans at the 10,000-capacity Field Mill ground. People will be able to turn up on the day and pay any amount to watch the game. They will be able to sit where they want, except in the seats reserved for season-ticket holders.

Of course, one couldn’t do this regularly, or no-one (presumably) would buy season tickets. Unless, perhaps, they were pairing that up with an initiative from FC United of Manchester we mentioned last summer, who decided to let fans set their own season ticket prices. A scheme that worked very well for FCUM, in fact.

Will we see more clubs around the world try either initiative to boost interest and give supporters a chance to pay their club what they think they’re worth to watch?

Worldwide News

• The Culture of Soccer has an excellent piece on a new film that sounds worth checking out, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Pablo Miralles’s documentary on the US-Mexico soccer rivalry, Gringos at the Gate.
• Here’s a strange piece by Louise Taylor in the Guardian, in which she simultaneously questions why Victor Moses, sold by Crystal Palace to Wigan this week, attracted so much attention, and suggests it’s because Premier League managers and scouts rarely watch Championship games in person…and then says she’s never seen Moses play, either. Still, overall an interesting piece on why Football League talent may be overlooked in England.
• David Conn concludes that the spending in the transfer window in England, at its lowest for some years, reflects the fact that “the Premier League clubs have suddenly realised they cannot keep borrowing and spending to fuel rampant transfer inflation.” Finally!
• Steven Goff has the latest on DC’s stadium efforts…And it’s more no news is bad news for DC United fans.

The Sweeper appears every weekday, and once at the weekend. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

You may scoff, but I think you’ll find John Batchelor, the prospective owner in question, has an irrefutable logic behind this proposal:

“Football supporters in general have to understand that if they want professional football in their town, they have to accept it has to be done on a commercial basis.

“Harchester is more promotable than Mansfield. That’s not any form of insult to Mansfield at all because it’s a club with a long tradition but it’s just a fact of life.

“One club has been on the television for 10 years and the other one hasn’t.”

Mr. Batchelor has, as they say, form on this kind of behaviour. Of his many ill-fated schemes while helping drive York City into the ground, one included renaming the club York City Soccer Club to attract American interest. Batchelor has confessed to asset-stripping companies, making £120,000 out of York City (having bought it for £1 eighteen months earlier) before its collapse.

Dream Team ran on Sky for a decade until 2007, attracting something of a cult following that Batchelor apparently believes would start supporting Mansfield Town if they were renamed Harchester.

To be fair to Batchelor, he’s not exactly shy about revealing his motives, as he told fans recently:

Let’s be clear, I want a football club, preferably one in the league. The ONLY reason that I want it is to make money, the only reason that I want to do that is to look after my immediate family. I can only do that by making it work on the pitch and as a result making it work commercially. This would be MY club, if you like what you see come and watch, if you don’t, then stay away. I am not even interested in discussing it with “fans”, however, I will talk to customers anytime. If Mansfield is going to host professional football, it has to accept that there need to be some HUGE changes at this club. If the fans don’t want to host it, all they need to do is not turn up. I have a plan, and I have a vision of what football needs to do, I am going to do my best to achieve it, I am not a multi-millionaire, just a guy who has some idea’s who is prepared to have a go and take a risk”

“I will budget for no fans turning up at the ground, which really every club should do. As you will have seen from my replies, I am not trying to attract negative thinkers, either get behind this, or watch football somewhere else. IF I am successful in achieving ownership, this will be MY club, MY business and up to me to provide entertainment, it is MY risk. Come and watch if you want. I’m sorry if all of that sounds a bit brutal, but those would be the facts of life, and I do not want to get off on the wrong foot by telling anybody something that is misleading, as I said in an earlier response I have that T-shirt. What do you want? I would have thought that it would be better to start off with honest responses. I am in this to make money.

Will current owner Keith Haslam actually sell to Batchelor after this has hit the news? Haslam himself is wildly unpopular in Mansfield for mismanaging the club for many years, but many fans now fear it could get worse before it gets better.