Upper tier car park TEN pounds per game
After 1pm or for cars with less than 4 passengers.
Season ticket holders still £5.
Not sure what I think of this but £10 is a LOT of money for a league two car park space.
And not everyone wants to arrive two hours before kick off for every game (especially when they are likely to be stuck in the car park until 6pm afterwards).
0
Comments
Just buy an upper tier car park season ticket. A good deal if you are attending all home games and also covers cup games.
I suspect this may be designed to deliberately price people out of parking there in an effort to reduce the volume of cars leaving the car park after the game and therefore make it quicker to get away
Here we go again, season ticket or you're not welcome policies.
Thing is, I don't mind paying £5 per game or buying a car park season ticket.
But doesn't this seem to discourage first time attendees from ever returning?
'Picked up a leaflet in town this week, took the two kids to Adams Park today for the Morecambe game - it cost me £10 to park!'
@Blue_since_1990 But a terrible deal for walk-ups, for whom we should be moving heaven and earth to get into AP.
This does strike me as being not well thought through. There is a sort of logic (fill your car and I assume it's still free) but ultimately it seems to say we want to tip you off. Not the best PR
Or even rip you off. (Dark pub - failing eyesight)
It's now gone up to £5 for before 1PM, full cars and season ticket holders.
As the land fir the uppwr tier car park is leased (from Carrington estate?) and not owned by the trust the charges have to raise enough money to cover the cost otherwise its a drain on the limited funds we have.
You can argue about the best pricing structure but not about the fundamental economics. The car parking needs to be an income generator for the club.
@Twizz Yes, but if it now becomes half as full as it was last season and the ridiculous £10 fee puts casual punters off buying match tickets, you don't generate any more income.
I imagine it will also annoy a lot of fans, both home and away.
I think it's an outrageous fee to charge people to park for the privilege of queuing for an hour or more at the end of the game.
It doesn't affect me personally as I park 15 minutes walk away, or if I'm bringing my 4 year old we park in one of the units down the industrial estate. But I think it will definitely piss off first timers who rock up and find they're being fleeced like that. Not exactly going to encourage them to come back is it?
I sincerely hope that whoever made this decision has done their sums correctly. One of the reasons given is that the number of cars arriving before 1pm and thus parking for free was an issue - well unless those people were sat in their cars for two hours then surely they were contributing money to the club in another way, in the bars? And if those people now choose not to come early now that the incentive has been removed then surely the bar takings will be affected?
I can't make it to the forum next week but I sincerely hope that a massive stink is kicked up about this as I genuinely feel this could affect the ability of the club to win over those floating casual supporters that we so desperately need to convert into regulars.
Another issue is those with limited mobility. They won't come 2 hours before a match and being penalised/fleeced for a tenner is hardly going to encourage them either. If they have limited mobility they need to park as close to the ground as possible so they have now very limited options. What's the betting that the opportunists that run the side car parks put their charge up to £7 now?
Just pull over on your way up the industrial estate and invite a couple of passing punters to join you for the final 100 yards. You might get reported for kerb crawling, but it's worth a try.
@Len. I guess my wording could have been better. Actually I agree that £10 is a bit steep for parking on the upper tier (no pun intended).
The point I really wanted to make was that we don't own the land. Therefore, someone has to make some guestimate of a pricing structure that will generate income.
There are some valid points raised regards the perception of visiting fans, casual fans etc that we are trying to fleece them. Let's hope that the sums do add up come the end of the season on this issue.
On further reflection, £10 is an absoloute rip off and I sincerely hope no one pays that.
i really strongly feel that if someone rocks up and is charged £10 there is almost a zero percent chance of a return visit, and on top of that, there is likely to be a resentment towards the club in future.
No, I haven't done the sums as I don't have any data available. I don't have an issue with £5 for anyone at any time. If something needed to be done I'm sure there were several alternatives that could have been discussed. Off the top of my head: £6 for everyone at any time and/or volunteers collecting money (issuing tickets to everyone so that money all goes where it should) in exchange for free entry/parking/general goodwill/ice cream.
Our situation is unique amongst clubs. The parking situation doesn't really stem from laziness. We are not in the town or within (sensible, regular) walking distance of the town. I would imagine most people cannot simply walk to AP. Therefore parking really should not be a luxury, it is s necessity. The O2 arena can charge £10 per hour to park, as there are so many other options in terms of public transport that only people who really, really, really can't be bothered to walk park there. AP is different with two buses following one route each match, which would not be enough to carry all the people that park to the game. Added to that, they sometimes don't run midweek for whatever reason.
The club should be looking at the bigger picture and somehow subsidising this ludicrous £10 parking fee from another area of its operations, with 10p added to teas/beers/coffees/programmes/tickets or 10p removed here and there from player wages/bonuses etc. Of course it's not that simple, but it can't be hard either. It may seem silly, but ideally we do want new people coming to watch football at Ap for years to come.
Current situation will be father and two sons, arriving at 1:15pm on a Saturday, buying three tickets, a programme, two shirts (if the kids happen to be XXXXL adult in proportions), three burgers, three hot chocolates, seeing a 0-0 to York, and leaving with complete resentment at having paid £10 for parking. When asked by anyone how the game was, the positives will be forgotten and the answer will be 'I paid £10 to ******* park on a muddy hill and missed the X factor as I wasn't home til midnight'.
I think it's essential for tickets to be issued. I'll say no more.
Having a dogmatic determination that then car park will make money, even if doing so creates greater losses in other departments is hardly the most business savvy thing I've ever seen. The losses made on renting the car park and charging £5 for a large number of the users must be astounding if it can't be made to at least break even after the early arrivals have given the bar and food outlets some custom.
Adams Park relies on providing cheap and cheerful parking owing to its location and poor service from public transport, especially for those with some degree of mobility problems or very young children. Making this prohibitively expensive will have a greater impact than it might do in other case studies that Howard & co presumably have looked into at other grounds.
Secondly, this is bad PR and even if it is rescinded after having proved to be a bad decision, the mud will stick and will set us back in the hard slog of getting more people through the gates, either as casual supporters or (hopefully eventually) regulars.
Just a really poor business decision, with zero understanding of punter economics theory. I don't have a problem with the club trying to increase revenues, but this is just plain stupid and counter productive. I wonder if it was a Beeks idea?
I would have thought that one of the biggest earners for the club is the bar. If the loss of free parking before 1.00 only puts off 10 supporters from going in the bar, then surely any profit from the car parking rip off is lost.
Whilst I accept that the club will suffer financially short term, the only way to overturn this ridiculous decision is for everyone to boycott using it until the original charge is restored.
Also, without doing the maths as I'm away on holiday. Having purchased 2 season tickets at the early bird rate for myself and young son, a guesstimate tells me that it costs 2/3 rds of the cost of buying the match tickets to park the car! Totally out of proportion and I feel kind of mugged as my mobility issues leave me with no choice.
The Bigger picture here is that they are trying to get more people in each individual car, rather than have 1 car per person that turns upto the game. Which in turn may reduce the number of cars coming to each game, potentially the number of people walking up and down Hill Bottom Road and hopefully a quicker get away after each game. With only 1 driver, more people can have a few more beers in the bar and they can do it on a rotational basis making it fair to all.
An inventive person would stop moaning about the price hike and organise a car share scheme, negating the high cost of parking.
If only there was a WWFC public forum that could have a "car share" section on it.....
@TheDancingYak Good luck with the car sharing scheme. I have offered free seats in my car for away games many times in the past and only once has anyone taken up the offer. Little to no chance for home games. Most will want to do their own things right up to the last nano seconds for home games.weekends are limited with time.
Yet another disincentive for Wycombe fans who have moved out of the region to make the pilgrimage home.
@EwanHoosaami Car sharing - excellent idea. Have seen your generous offers of lifts to away games before but have hesitated because a long journey with someone I've probably never met might possibly be uncomfortable. Home games are another matter and I would definitely be up for that. I currently have just one passenger.
Looks like it's £5 again now.
Glad that's over
Following supporter feedback on various social media a compromise solution has been agreed by the Club Board - statement is now on the website.
£5 per car regardless of time of arrival and number of passengers.
Season car park pass is available for £70 still
@EwanHoosaami Maybe the higher parking cost and a bit of organisation, could have mobilised people to have a bit of medium term planning and got it done. If anything, home games would be easier.
A Simple "I'll be driving passed the new Tesco's at 13:30ish. 2 spots in my car, who wants them". The cost is just for entrance remember, only have to have 4 on the way in. Allows people to do what they want at the end, but most people are gonna be getting there for before kick off. Which is a pretty fixed time......
Really wouldn't have be difficult. But moaning about it is just even easier I guess.
Or just dragged a couple of people in the car on the way down the road. Although Kidnapping for lower car parking might be frowned upon
Thank goodness the club have seen sense and made a U turn on this.
Club must be commended for that. Anyone with sense can see that £10 to park a car is not even close to being reasonable at a league two stadium.
Not everyone is a season ticket holder (I am), and not everyone sees every football match as a chance to spend 6 hours in the pub.
Let's hope the majority of non supporters have not got wind of this or it will be very hard to drag any first timers down to AP this season.
@TheDancingYak I've never understood why there is a belief that people should have to plan well in advance to attend a League 2 football match.
I don't do any medium term planning when I go to watch football. With a few exceptions a season, I decide on the day and I go. Or I don't.