EVERY backside on every seat at the Macron next season will be worth its weight in gold.

Wanderers freely admit without a significant take-up in season tickets next season their business plan in League One will be tested.

After inheriting a top-heavy wage structure, the co-owners know it will not disappear completely over the summer. No doubt efforts will be made to move on the high-earners but thanks to the poor planning of the previous regime Wanderers will not be negotiating from a position of strength.

Relegation this season does not make Wanderers any cheaper to run. The shortfall in funding is significant.

Add to that the concern which already exists about how the takeover was funded and how payments will be serviced, and you can see why every penny placed in the coffers is so vital.

With due respect to Dean Holdsworth and Ken Anderson they have not rolled into town promising luxuries. In Holdsworth’s case in particular, saving the club from the frightening thought of extinction was the sole aim.

Wanderers no longer have a benefactor or a bar tab, they must be run like a business. And that made pricing season tickets this season all the more difficult.

A whole generation of supporters will know nothing of life outside the top two divisions. Getting them to pay in advance for a Tuesday night game against AFC Wimbledon or Accrington Stanley is not a simple task, and asking them after a campaign which could go down as the worst in the club’s history is even more awkward.

Many believe a grand gesture was needed. Wigan Athletic, for example, have produced a fantastic offer with fans paying between £179 and £229 for Championship football and under-12s are also being invited in for free.

Budget-wise, the Latics are on a very different level to Wanderers right now and have romped League One with a wage bill of around £9million. Hats off to David Sharpe and his grandfather Dave Whelan, it is a gamble which paid off handsomely and was well-executed by their bright young manager Gary Caldwell. No wonder they are feeling charitable.

Other clubs have used the increase in TV money at Championship level to pass on savings to their fans: Plaudits to Huddersfield Town chief Dean Hoyle, for example.

In the rather more pragmatic world of Wanderers a balance had to be struck between reducing prices relative to the level of football, and making a financial decision which does not risk the club’s future.

My initial reaction is that they have succeeded.

Football fans stick with their club for probably the same reason you are holding this newspaper right now, out of tradition or habit. And it is quite hard to shift.

For those of you browsing this on the web – every click counts!

Wanderers have certainly given even their most loyal supporters plenty of reason to abandon them but the reaction to Thursday’s announcement on prices was encouraging.

I conducted a Twitter poll answered by more than 750 supporters, and at time of writing 61 per cent had said they were renewing, 19 per cent were undecided and just 20 per cent said a firm no.

Estimates put the number of season tickets this campaign at around 10,000, so the poll is quite a decent representation. And, with great respect to the older fans out there, they are less likely to be answering a question on social media from an upstart like myself.

For too long in the Premier League era Wanderers’ supporters were treated like customers. Now the power is back with them.

A lot of work has gone into repairing the relationship, creating the match-day experience, but crowds have still fallen more than 30 per cent from an average of 23,670 in 2012 to 15,074 this season. And we all saw the vast swathes of empty seats in games against Reading and Middlesbrough.

What can bring the fans back? Why winning games, of course.

Wanderers could conjure the greatest marketing campaign in Christendom but if they continue to serve up losing football, fans will not buy in.

At times in the last five months those loyal supporters have had their patience stretched to the limit, wondering at times whether the club would even survive this season.

Wanderers need those same people now more than ever. The question is, can fans forgive the sins of the past to help the future?