'We understand' - Peter Ridsdale's message as Preston North End shift 11,000 season cards

Preston North End director Peter Ridsdale has thanked the Deepdale faithful for shifting 11 thousand season cards.

The early bird period opened in mid-May for supporters of the Lilywhites, and finished at 8:30am today (June 17). North End swiftly confirmed that more than 11,000 had been sold, with it seven-and-a-half weeks until the 2024/25 season starts. Ridsdale has been pleased with the take up and expects to, at least, match the sales of the previous campaign.

“Yeah, we don’t sell a lot more after the early bird period,” said Ridsdale. “I think it’s a tremendous tribute to our supporters. I accept that some had misgivings about whether we’re ambitious enough and where we finished last year. I would like to think the early bird price and the opportunity to guarantee next year’s price, has helped assure some of those who were having second thoughts.

“All I can say is that I really appreciate the support from the supporter base, because it’s not that long ago we were having seven thousand season ticket holders - which makes filling the stadium and generating atmosphere a bigger challenge. The last three seasons has been outstanding and I think this mornings number is marginally up on last year. So, that in itself is a testament because at the end of last season everyone was telling me we’d have a massive drop off.

“It’s just a big thank you to the fans and we understand that means they’ve thrown responsibility back on the club, to do better than last season. From the final number last season, we are about four or five hundred under. After the early bird period last year, we sold that sort of number and then topped it up with half season cards. I would be very surprised if this season is anything different - it certainly won’t be less than last year.”

Ridsdale touched on atmosphere and it has been a talking point, among fans, in the last year or so. Not many stadiums rock from minute one to 90, but improvement at Deepdale has been called for in certain quarters. It’s something Ridsdale believes is largely influenced by the product on offer, albeit there are other factors at play.

“I think the fans will tell you it’s the football which drives the atmosphere,” said Ridsdale. “I think a number of things drive it. Another thing is who you’re playing, because if you sell out the Bill Shankly Kop then you get a different atmosphere to when you’ve got 250 coming in the same taxi. We are conscious of that.

“The problem we’ve got is that we did try splitting the Kop a couple of years ago. It costs us a fortune because we have to steward it differently and it doesn’t sell any more tickets, it just dilutes the other parts of the ground. We do have a number of big games this year and we’d like to think the atmosphere will be great. Our home fans, when they get behind the team, are as good as anybody’s.”