Bradford City's average admission price is the lowest in the First Division, Football League figures have revealed today.

The Bantams have this season enjoyed their highest crowds in 68 years with 292,869 fans watching their 19 league games at Valley Parade at an average of 15,414.

And Football League figures show that City charged the lowest average admission price in the 1996/97 season of £5.94 - 60p less than nearest rivals Sheffield United.

The figures are based on the gate receipts for each club over their 23 league games and the number of fans who paid to watch those matches.

Last season, City's 23 league home games were watched by 297,280 fans paying receipts of £1,765,843.

Huddersfield Town came tenth in the table with an average admission price of £7.55 while the dearest club to watch was West Bromwich Albion with an average of £9.49.

City's average was so low because their season ticket prices have remained unchanged since 1994. The club also has 4,500 junior season tickets thanks to their policy of charging just £23 per season.

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond was delighted to see confirmation that City fans are charged, on average, the lowest admission prices in the First Division.

He said: "The pleasing thing for us is that these figures refer to last season and I believe the gap will have widened even further in the current season.

"Obviously the figures are not available for this term but our prices are again unchanged so I am confident our average price will be even better in comparison.

"We are top of the league in this respect and have a much lower price than the majority of Second and Third Division clubs as well."

With four games remaining at Valley Parade this season against some of the better supported sides in the division, City are on course to enjoy their best crowd average since 1929-30 when the figure stood at 16,366 per game.

Meanwhile, the Bantams hope to announce season ticket prices for the 1998/99 season at the start of next week with Richmond pledging that any increases will be kept to a minimum.

The City chief says the other 91 league clubs have all increased their season ticket prices since the last rise at Valley Parade. And with the club's wage bill rising dramatically since promotion to the First Division nearly two-years-ago, Richmond believes the board may have to agree an increase.

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