by Tippy Tappy Football » Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:30 pm
"Port Vale were among the most-watched teams in League Two on iFollow last season, the club has revealed. Vale earned £270,983.75 from streaming games, around the seventh-highest in the division during a season played behind closed doors. That came from supporters buying more than 39,000 match passes over the season. The IFollow service also allowed the club to offer a way to watch home matches to their 4,100 season-ticket holders, the vast majority of whom opted not to ask for a refund.
Playing the entire season behind closed doors meant the club was still left with a shortfall of more than £1m through lack of gate receipts and other match-day income such as hospitality.
Vale’s viewing figures, at around seventh-best in the division, were above their actual performance in the league as they finished 13th after rallying following Darrell Clarke’s appointment in February. Garlick added: “Just looking at those figures, we were in and around that number. You can probably guess who were the bigger clubs in there….Bolton, Bradford, ex-Premier League clubs that have a bigger following, but we were up there.”