Fans launch a petition as Bradford City axe a much loved part of matchday experience in buying, reading and treasuring programmes.
The Bantams say they are to stop producing matchday programmes after more than 100 years due to rising costs and the environmental impact of printing.
The League Two club, who have sold over 14,000 season tickets for 2022/23, said it was an “extremely difficult decision” to axe The Parader and understood the “disappointment” this might cause supporters, adding that despite its popularity, the fanzine was “no longer efficient” in the “digitally-minded era”.
š | We have made the difficult decision to discontinue our official matchday programme – from the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign.
ā”ļø | Read: https://t.co/Dtro3YyYmY#BCAFC pic.twitter.com/JKvr6r3nxP
ā Bradford City AFC (@officialbantams) July 7, 2022
CLUB STATEMENT:
Bradford City AFC has made the difficult decision to discontinue its official matchday programme, from the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign.
Starting from this weekendās friendly against Derby County (Saturday July 9), The Parader – which has been produced in partnership with Curtis Sport for the past five years – will be retired following extensive internal consideration.
Cityās director of brand, marketing and media, Luke Flacks, said: āThis decision has been an extremely difficult one to make. Buying a matchday programme is a long-standing tradition in the English game, but in a more digitally-minded era with the rise of social media and online content, we feel as a club it is no longer efficient for us to continue producing a matchday programme.
āWhile The Parader remains a popular product among sections of our supporter base, concerns have grown significantly over its financial viability.
āFor the last two seasons which have seen supporters able to attend fixtures in person, the productās creation of financial income has considerably declined, with sales in 2021/22 significantly down.
āFurthermore, as part of our attempts to become a greener organisation, we feel the production of a programme in its energy consumption, ink and paper usage is an unnecessary output in our increased sustainability efforts.
āWe appreciate this move will come as a disappointment to a number supporters young and old, though having carefully examined the pros and cons of each eventuality, we feel we have made the most suitable decision.
āDiscontinuing The Parader provides a greater opportunity for us to focus on delivering more exciting and exclusive, up-to-date content across other channels over the course of a season, including our official Bradford City app, and our City Talk newsletter which currently reaches over 25,000 of you each month.
āWe would like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at Curtis Sport for their fantastic work in producing what we hope has proved an enjoyable and worthwhile product throughout the past five seasons, as well as the countless contributors who have helped make The Parader over the years, and the many sellers based at Valley Parade who have ensured you have been able to pick up a copy on matchday.ā
Fans Chris Benson and his 10-year-old son Eric set up a petition calling for the club to look at other options with Chris saying Eric has a collection of more than 100 matchday programmes and is “gutted” to hear the decision.
“I think it’s an important part of the football experience that needs saving,” he said.
“You get the comments on the team they are playing, the manager’s thoughts, there’s a kids’ page.
“They’re a snapshot of history.”
He suggested the club might consider a digital edition, putting up the cost of the Ā£3 programme or reducing the size of the booklet.
As mentioned, fans launch a petition as Bradford City axe a much loved part of their matchday experience, this is how the news went down…
@Chris_Taylor32: Canāt say fairer than that
@BillingsleyJo: Hiya, long term supporter and school librarian here, do you think you might consider producing sone other print based output in the future? As someone whoās passionate about helping kids to read itās great to have things theyāre interested in, perhaps a quarterly magazine or annual might be viable? I understand the decision to scrap the match day publications, but there might be a market for something else.
@EmArSee1: fair enough – but on a side note, the app is terrible – it’s a glorified links page – every article/link takes you to an external page, defeats the point of having an app
@socialistfire: I think the mistake is chasing the glossy magazine market,when there is no market. With the demise of paper tickets&demise of spare cash in people’s pockets what many die hard fans still want is a simple & cheap (free!) match day momento. Something to look back on/show the kids.
@Banktopbantam1: Having collected for 50+ years and have got over 5000 different city programmes will be gutted
@john_jjwbarker: Letās support @thecitygent, I know itās not a programme but provides a great printed record of each season as the season progresses.
@BantamHunter: More people could buy @thecitygent instead if they want some proper city related reading matter
@pearson1911: What a real shame, I have collected these for so many years.
@BenDunne2: I love a match day magazine.. this would be the end of an era. Canāt beat the smell of a fresh programme!! Just me I guess š
@Armsden1: That’s tinpot not having a programme specially for us who collect them. What sort of club are we.
@Mgdservices1972: Thatās a shocker. No programmes and no tickets for games is not good. And yes I am old but love having momento of the game ā¹ļø
@rhunt321: Aww man. Thatās such a shame. My dad collected them before me and Iāve carried it on. Weāve got thousands of them. š¢
@matthewlamby19: Embarrassing, considering non league clubs produce them weekly with a far far lower budget
@tina_hardy: Thatās a real shame, my hubby has collected them for many, many years and always buys one at every game. He will be gob smacked at this stopping, surely something else can be done smaller or add online for those that want to print it off to keep?
@mazkotpl: Keep the team working on the program just upload it online. Simply add QR code on each ticket to the program and all ticket holder could have what they need. Sad times anyway š¢
@Jed_Die: Gone are the days in football where you marked up the program with whoās playing, subs made, goal scorers and bookings/red cards.. Another tradition goes not only from Bradford, but happening across football.. Digital season tickets have done my head in
@groundhopper67: Disappointing, there is room for both ā¹ļø
@ThornhamJohn: Can we pick up a free team sheet from inside the ground? Doubt it. Slim the Programme down, don’t use so much colour and charge more for advertising. It might make money then.
@SimonEnglish10: @officialbantams disgraceful
@NonLgeProgs: Wrong decision š
@natelvi: Its a shame but a lot of clubs gone this way. Would be great if the club was to still produce a couple of programmes each season, one to cover 1st game of season and possibly one to cover end of season to raise funds for burns unit etc #bcafc
@reynoldseffect: Programmes cost too much to make and don’t bring enough in. I understand the decision.
@Mr___Ree:
A lot of work needed on the app if thatās the planā¦
And maybe wifi in the stadium too.
#bcafc
@FatbearDiaries: A scandalous decision, Bradford City should be ashamed, and using the green card as an excuse is pathetic. Even non-league clubs who stop printing a programme due to financial reasons still provide an on-line version.
@90minutesonline: Think this is a really poor decision by @officialbantams, and they’re not the only @EFL club to have done so š. Fact is #football programmes are part of the experience for many fans. Can’t impact on #climate be saved elsewhere? #footballopinions
@walmsley_steven: Total wrong decisionā¦ people like collecting programmes. Not the same having digital.
@lankylibero14: Reasons not to visit Valley Parade this season… Again, takes the piss out of certain non-league clubs with volunteers who produce the quality that they do on next to nothing resources in comparison.
@PointlessKits: Seems to be a trend as of late and another football tradition sadly dying. Personally used to buy one every game home and away but stopped in 19/20 season when realised I was spending about Ā£160 per season for a booklet of pretty much just adverts
@nottmbantam: I havenāt bought a programme for years, home or away. Last one was probably Wembley ā13, as a souvenir, not looked at them since. Not a surprising decision. I still think itās a sad day tho that there is no hard copy of a match day souvenir. Yes,I know Iāve contradicted myself.
@Calvey94: Within 5 years I can see there being almost no clubs in the EFL selling physical programmes. Times change and there’s just not the market for them anymore to make them worthwhile at this level. Felt like they were phasing them out last season. #bcafc
@Laurencereade: With the crowds they get that’s hard to understand.
@MilligansJr: No physical tickets or programmes to show the next generation of city fan our memories, utter modern shite in my opinion. Call me old fashioned I donāt care itās poor š¤·š»āāļø
@SoccerSteve_: Another nail in the beautiful games coffin.
@PlannerMarj: Donāt you dare @SunderlandAFC!
@Michaelaveyard: The quality of the programme went down tremendously over the last few years. A full page advert every other page, no wonder it was barely selling. Although, a huge well done to my Grandad Steve who has been running and apart of selling the programmes for over 40 Years. #bcafc
@jpieslak: One of the few reasons I could drag my boys to VP at points last season, was a copy of the Parader. Understandable decision tbf though.
@bantamsonline: Not quite sure what to think about this. The issues with matchday programmeās have been getting worse from a viability point of view for years. But still an important part of the experience. Iām sure more clubs will do the same as #bcafc as time goes on.
Forever missed.#bcafc https://t.co/6vxmWEKPKC pic.twitter.com/JQvNE87tah
ā Bantams Banter (@bantamsbanter) July 7, 2022
ā Ian B (@mrpeavley) July 8, 2022

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