‘I’m not letting up’ – Thomas Sandgaard on Charlton’s Fill The Valley campaign

Charlton owner Thomas Sandgaard has explained his decision to give away free tickets to season-ticket holders for Saturday’s home game against Plymouth.

The Addicks launched their Fill The Valley campaign at the end of last week. Sandgaard sanctioned the move to allow season-ticket holders to bring along three family members or friends without paying a penny to watch the League One fixture.

Charlton’s official Twitter account claimed earlier today that more than 25,000 are expected to be in attendance.

And table-topping Plymouth are set to be roared on by nearly 3,000 supporters.

The Addicks’ biggest gate of the campaign was on the opening day – 17,639 for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday.

And Sandgaard, who has spoken before about his desire to see The Valley full every week, is looking to draw more people to SE7 on a regular basis.

Charlton have averaged 14,323 this season – putting them behind Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton and Portsmouth.

“I’m not letting up until we have a full stadium at every single home game,” said Sandgaard. “Even when we may not have some great results. I’d rather have it full then and then it is hard to get a ticket when we’re doing well. That’s my goal.

“Full stadiums have a positive side-effect on the football. There are a lot of good reasons to do that.”

Asked about the financial hit of letting people sample The Valley for nothing, Sandgaard responded:  “We can continue to do things the way it is normally done and keep losing many millions every year. Or we can take some initiatives and invest in filling the stadium, then build on that to get a better revenue streams from the catering – food and beer – and selling more, and better, sponsorships, as well as more merchandise. Otherwise it is going absolutely nowhere. Then it is just a big black hole and a question of how much money I want to lose.

“I’m trying in a lot of ways not to do that. Just look at the previous owners over the past several decades. They have been able to accumulate non-operating loss, they call it an NOL, of more than £100million. So, doing things the way they used to be done in the past is not an option for me. We have to change the way we think – on the football side as well as on the business side.

“One of the more visible initiatives is fill the stadium.

“It will be the biggest attendance of the season. My guess is we’ll be just over 27,000.

“I was talking to season-ticket holders this morning [Wednesday], more than a handful of them. I left some voicemails and talked to some people – one actually called me back on my mobile. Everybody I’ve talked to so far, they’re coming.

“We’re doing everything we can to try and fill all the seats. Let’s see if we get closer to 27,000 towards the end of the week.”

PICTURE: PAUL EDWARDS