jason dickinson

Die-hard Owls fan with h & a season tickets. Club historian, author of nine books on the club and matchday programme contributor! Indie music fan.

[Fred Spiksley @SpiksleyBook]

With just 12 days remaining until our event please remember to look out for our event information that will be sent out over this coming weekend to all ticket holders. Just 5 tickets left from 200. More to follow…

[Fred Spiksley @SpiksleyBook]

We are excited to share with you that we will be screening our new 20 minute mini-doc 'Introducing Ambrose' for the first time at Burngreave Cemetery Chapel on 14 June 2026. @Dunsbyowl @wedwarehouse1 @SWFCTrust @AlanBiggs1

[Kris Wigfield @kr62209]

I've noticed there is still a lot of online questioning of Henrik Pedersen.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion - and friendly debate is one of the reasons we all love football - but I want to give an alternative view.

Firstly, the new owners have made their decision. They have chosen to give Henrik an opportunity. Whether people agree with that decision or not, surely the best thing for Sheffield Wednesday now is for supporters to get behind him and give him the best possible chance of succeeding. If he succeeds, the football club succeeds.

From my own experience of spending more than six months at the club and being there every day, this is what I personally saw and heard:-

• A coaching team that was fully behind him.
• Players who, despite operating in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable, continued to play for him every week.
• A squad that never stopped competing, even with everything that was going on behind the scenes. In fact, I'm still amazed we didn't suffer some real hammerings given the challenges the group was facing.

I also saw a manager with relentless positivity.

Straight after defeats he was already looking forward and motivating players.

Every day on the training ground he attacked the job with energy and enthusiasm. Whether you agree with his methods or not, nobody could question his commitment.

What I heard was equally interesting.

Opposition coaches, scouts and football directors would regularly tell us what a remarkable job he was doing under the circumstances. Many simply couldn't believe how competitive he had managed to keep the team given the challenges he was facing.

Perhaps most importantly, some of the biggest clubs in the country clearly rate him……

Manchester City, Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Chelsea were all proactive in wanting to place or keep young players at Sheffield Wednesday. They weren't doing that as a favour to us. They were doing it because they believed their players would develop under Henrik and that he would improve the value of their assets.

These are clubs with some of the best recruitment and player development departments in world football. They must have seen something they liked.

Does any of this guarantee success? Of course not, it doesn’t even always work out for Jose Mourinho.

Football is unpredictable and nobody knows what the future holds.

But there is a big difference between questioning whether somebody will succeed and declaring that they cannot.

The owners have seen enough to give him a chance.

The people working with him every day have seen enough to support him.

Some of the biggest clubs in England have seen enough to trust him with their young talent.

That doesn't mean they are right.

But it does mean there may be more to Henrik Pedersen than some are prepared to acknowledge.

Now that the decision has been made, I hope supporters give him a fair chance.
Because every now and then in football, the good guy does win.

Wouldn't it be brilliant if that happened here?

Up The Owls! 🦉

[Bolton Wanderers (P) @OfficialBWFC]

🙌 Introducing your 2026/27 Bolton Wanderers home kit!

👉 https://t.co/G8hXaa7xJi

#bwfc

[Owls Extra @OwlsExtra]

🎉 Happy 120+3 Day to all that celebrate.

🙌“Is there time for a winner?”

[Dave † 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇸🇮🇪🎸🎶 @daveguitarjones]

Singer Neil Diamond stated his career as Neil Coal.

He changed his name when the pressure got to him.

*Not a lot of people know that*

[Footy Humour @FootyHumour]

Southampton’s new badge for next season

[Gaz @Gaz3putt]

Disappointed to see some lazy, xenophobic comparisons of Tuchel with Hitler.

Adolf would never have picked Jordan Henderson.

[Hull City @HullCity]

No cheating, lads 🃏

#hcafc

[Kris Wigfield @kr62209]

SWFC have sold 15,000 season tickets in less than a week and should comfortably exceed the 21,000 target.

I’ve seen some supporters asking:
“Is that definitely good financially? Wouldn’t fewer season tickets and more matchday sales generate more revenue?”

The answer is nuanced.

In pure theory, if 25,000 fans all paid matchday prices every game, revenue would exceed 25,000 season ticket holders.

But football economics are not that simple.

The key question is, How many season ticket holders would actually attend regularly without a season ticket?

I was amazed to learn that historically at least 10% of Wednesday season ticket holders do not attend every home game.

So let’s use some rough but reasonable assumptions based on the last League One season when Wednesday averaged 25,378 attendance:

2,000 away fans at an average yield of £20 (remember VAT is excluded and you have concessions, kids etc) = £0.9m revenue

4,000 home matchday sales at an average yield of £23 across 23 games (higher average price than away tickets) = £2.1m revenue

500 commercial customers that we will discount from this summary.

500 complimentary tickets (press, scouts, agents etc).

That leaves roughly 18,378 season ticket holders.

At an estimated average net yield of £300 per season ticket (after VAT, concessions etc), that equals:-

£5.5m season ticket revenue

Total estimated ticket revenue:
£8.5m

Now compare that to 21,000 season tickets sold.

That alone would generate roughly £6.3m

Meaning Wednesday would only need around £1.3m additional home matchday revenue (assuming away revenue is the same).

That equates to fewer than 2,500 additional matchday tickets per game to match the revenue above.

Given expected demand, that seems highly likely.

And that is before considering:-

increased sponsorship value
higher corporate demand
stronger kiosk sales
higher merchandise revenue
improved cashflow certainty

Because Hillsborough’s capacity is significantly above Wednesday’s historic average attendance, there is little doubt in my mind that higher season ticket sales are overwhelmingly positive financially.

Personally, I think Wednesday will exceed 23,000 season tickets.

It shows what is possible with:

sensible pricing
positive messaging
optimism
and reconnecting supporters with the club.

[Rob Morgan @robbiemorgz]

The under 25’s group that doesn’t make it past judge’s houses

[jason dickinson @owlmanac]

#swfc

[Hallam FC @HallamFC1860]

SAVE THE DATES 📆

Take a look at the Countrymen's 26/27 pre-season fixtures!

#HallamFC

[jason dickinson @owlmanac]

@all_wednesday @storchyowl @SWFCTrust @swfc Totally agree!

[jason dickinson @owlmanac]

After watching the man in person, I am again hugely impressed with CEO David Bruce. He seems a man of integrity, passion for the game & total respect for the fans ! A total opposite of what came before. He may be the best appointment @storchyowl will make @SWFCTrust @swfc

[Second Tier podcast @secondtierpod]

This will always be regarded as one of the greatest moments in football history.

[jason dickinson @owlmanac]

@swfc My mate who sits ten rows behind me suddenly being next to me!

[Reverend&TheMakers @Reverend_Makers]

Three years ago today

I doubt we’ll ever witness a better game than that semi final second leg. We went home and away that year too. Cried buckets

My eldest boy always tells me it’s one of the favourite moments from his childhood.

Big up @liamjpalmer for the core memories ✊ 🦉

[Leanne @Lea_Leeman]

Just been to sort my season ticket out. There’s still a queue even now! Also, David Bruce came into the shop holding a tray of biscuits for the fans waiting. What a gent! 💙🦉⚽️ #swfc #wawaw

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

VAR

I enthusiastically welcomed it. Was sold on the higher percentage of right decisions so we could all go home knowing football justice had been done and we could concentrate on which player was crap instead.

But I was wrong. Woefully and completely wrong.

Waiting 5 minutes for a decision to be made alone means the system isn't fit for purpose. Why? Because I sat with TV producers who said everything would be wrapped up in 10-30 seconds. It has literally taken the spontaneous joy from the most important part of the game. A goal.

Then, one thing completely blindsided me and many others.

Subjectivity.

I thought there would be science and a nailed on guarantee of a successfully and universally accepted decision. How wrong we were. Instead, arbitrary lines are drawn that simply can't with any certainty say whether a player is offside or not. So a human in a portacabin, 200 miles away only does what the referee can do, make a best guess.

Likewise handballs, dives, any penalty decision to be honest. A subjective decision decided out of stadium allowing an increasingly small and poor refereeing pool a get out of jail free card. Instead of them making a shit decision and owning it, they just pass it on 200 miles away so 3 men in a portacabin can make a shit decision instead. Lunacy.

For the love of the game, let's go back to investing in getting more referees, respecting them so that they join the trade and don't feel constantly abused. In short, treat them like rugby referees. Ultimate respect.

Then, fuck VAR off, it's ruined the game, made it petty and chaotic, and taken that one ingredient that you simply can't replace, instantaneous joy.

As a player and fan I accepted a referee making a bad decision in a game in the same way I accepted fucking up a shot or pass. We're all human.

Let's get back to that, humans doing their best, everyone walks away from the ground accepting that and less unrealistic pressure put on officials to be perfect when perfection doesn't exist in any walk of life.

VAR stinks. A system designed to help is a massive hindrance and it's about time pundits, fans, players, referees, clubs put pressure on authorities to get rid of it. We only need goal line tech, the rest can and should be refer refereed by humans making their best judgement. A best judgement that was over 98% right( audited fact pre VAR).

Enough is enough, fuck it off.