WANDERERS are putting on a brave face despite a reported decline in season ticket sales.

Sunderland arrive in town this afternoon to kick off the new Premier League campaign, with some quarters predicting there will be a significant drop in attendances at the Reebok over the next nine months.

Although no official figure has been released by the club, The Bolton News understands that around 12,000 season tickets have been sold to date, a figure marginally less than at the same stage last year.

The Whites reported a seven per cent increase in attendances last season on the back of a significant reduction in prices for children and in the North Stand.

More price cuts were made this summer — and in June the club reported that 24 per cent of season ticket applications were brand new requests, with sales described as “encouraging”.

But it is now thought that Wanderers have failed to hit targets set when tickets went on sale in May.

Despite the drop in business, Wanderers chief executive Alan Duckworth has predicted that crowds will generally remain stable, given the current financial pressures on supporters and their families during the recession.

After we contacted the club for an update on sales, Wanderers issued the following statement.

“Following extensive discussions with our supporters and given the tough economic climate everybody is experiencing, we set ourselves some challenging targets and we are pleased with the response.

“Season ticket sales to over-65s and under-18s, in particular, have been extremely strong with volumes increasing markedly in these categories year on year.

“We will continue to listen to our supporters across a number of areas as their views are very important to us. We will be further developing our ticketing life cycle strategy with regards to our pricing policy.

“We also have an additional initiative that will further benefit season ticket holders and we will be finalising that during the course of this season for implementation in the 2010/2011 campaign.

“With seven local North West derbies to look forward to this season the club remains confident that attendances will hold up well despite the very challenging economic climate our supporters are experiencing.”

In the 2003/4 season, the club announced a record 16,700 season tickets had been sold.

A year later, commercial director Gareth Moores reported that a 20,000 ceiling limit had been set six weeks before the season began.