I don't believe that the finances are any more fcked than they have been fcked since we became a fan owned club in fact last years play off final and the Villa games plus whatever we got for Ingram means we are a little less fcked than we could have been although still fcked
All clubs are selling season tickets earlier and earlier.
As an example I'll mention Derby County, purely because I work near their ground.
Season tickets have been on sale since early February. Their owner, Mel Morris, is worth an estimated £400m in the Sunday Times' latest 'Rich List'. I would suggest this shows that early season ticket sales are not necessarily an indication of finances being 'well and truly fucked'.
If you look around other clubs in our league OAP's get a really poor deal in terms of discount compared to an adult ticket. The club is setting itself up to please the social media generation which will hopefully bring in new fans.
Troube is the grey pound is a powerful one. It would be a shame to milk the cash cow for too long.
I've not looked at other prices so this is a genuine question - is that because our adult prices are lower to start with? Are our senior tickets more expensive than other clubs, or just less of a discount?
@Chris
From a little bit of web surfing last night our OAP prices are amongst the highest I found in our league but the adult prices were pretty reasonable in comparision. Some clubs give OAP season tickets at 50% of the adult price and many double digit discounts. FOr next season ours is 3% off for OAPS's in the two main stands.
So it answer your question it's a bit of both but probably about 75% the lack of perceived discount.
On a seat for Saturday the club give an OAP a discount of £3 on the adult ticket. On a season ticket over 23 games this differential is only £13 or about 50p per match. This means the season ticket saving is far less for an OAP than it is for an adult. I'm not sure where the incentive is there to buy in advance.
Ironically Wycombe give a greater differential on season tickets from Adult to OAP on the terrace than they do in the seats. Not sure what this says about the fitness of our fanbase.
As far as I can tell we have the cheapest prices for standing compared to comparative clubs (£2 to £3) and usually cheapest sitting too. Great you might think. But unless that generates more boots through the door, expensive.
23 games *4000 *£2.50 = £230,000 less income per season.
Does it really generate more punters - frankly I doubt it - I suspect the real number who will pay £15 but not £17 is close if not at zero.
But lets say 100 would go if prices went up, so income lost
2310015 = £34500 revenue lost
You need to deduct VAT from that, but that looks like around £160k or so lost every year by a decision to have low prices.
Anybody till wondering why we cant afford that creative midfielder?
As always pricing is a balance and everybody would prefer lower prices. I do wonder if its wise though.
"Early bird" for me and my lad (Adult + Junior) in the Family Stand will cost me £9 less for next season than it did this. Can't complain about the value, whatever playing style the team may adopt.
I'll let my lad have the difference towards a new replica shirt.
OI... Less of the OAP please. Some of us will be lucky to ever get an old age pension the way things are going :-)
When you compare senior discounts between clubs you need to also look at the age cutoff. We do 60 which is good (for me) but many others make the cut at 65; or as I found at Port Vale last weekend 62, which was particularly frustrating as I am not 62 till next month.
One of the things that makes getting old slightly less bad is getting stuff cheap even though I still work full-time and don't really need the concession. Complaining about stuff is good also.
Old gits like me are just damn pleased to be getting any kind of discount at all and personally I'm not at all concerned that some other club may be giving a heftier discount on adult prices. It's the pricing of tickets for juniors and young adults which should be uppermost in the minds of those that set them. Old gits are far less likely to change allegiance or decide to start attending in than are younger people. By the way I'm not sure that OAP is PC these days, most oldies prefer Senior Citizen although I'm quite happy with 'old git'.
On a general note, as the number of older people in society continues to increase I expect to see a decrease in the price reductions available to older people across all areas of sport, entertainment, transport, etc. The raising of pensionable age will also have an effect: if a person is (expected to be) still working and earning a wage at 67, why should they be given a discount at 60 or 65?
With the ratio of full-paying adults to older people decreasing, the alternative of continually hiking full prices to subsidise the discounts could eventually push those full-paying adults out; and, if they get used to not attending during their middle age, they may well continue not to attend when they are old enough to get a discounted ticket. I support keeping prices low for children and young people, so that attendance is affordable for families, students and those who have only just started earning, but don't price out the 30, 40 and 50 year olds: once they're gone, many of them will stay gone.
Interesting to hear how magnanamous some posters are on here about not expecting a larger discount on consention/senior citizen pricing. Personally I've heard nothing but complaints from the real world so this puts some sort of context on it.
I still think the season ticket reduction is still massively out of line with the market and the single game reduction. I don't think that is fair or a good marketing strategy but if most of those eligible aren't that fussed then the club have gauged it right.
The wider pricing policy of the club is a good one. I'm happy with my season ticket renewal. I just don't think it is fair in this area.
@Uncle_T it's a hard decision all round really. Some will blindly pay whatever, some will moan about whatever the club do. How do you please everyone, while trying to attempt to maximise one of our key revenue streams?
Kids/Young adults/students cheap are an absolute essential to me. I remember getting a 3 year season ticket for £120 in my secondary school/student cross over years! Wow, the value.
Get them hooked in, and you have a fan for life.
As for not putting off 30-50s, isn't a terrace ticket about £230,and seating £300?
That's 23 games, and probably that person's main interest.
Maybe it's me, but I couldn't imagine a scenario where that isn't great value. (yes, even pending some poor football at times!)
Free tickets for your sons or daughters regardless of where you sit or stand in the ground is the best investment the club could make yet ripped that policy up a couple of years ago.
When I go to away games I always ask for "Old age" concession on the turnstile. I am 57 and have never been refused. I have been doing this for at least 5 years.
@Onlooker That was not a good policy. Everyone with kids took up the offer on the off chance they might occasionally want to use them. For the majority of games the kids didn't come resulting in numerous empty seats dotted around, usually in the front rows, which of course the club couldn't sell.
I think it's a shame in a less than half-full stadium that the junior ticket for the Frank Adams is £92 more than it is in the family stand.
Most of my mates with kids don't want to sit in the family stand but it's a lot cheaper. But those of us without kids don't really want to head down to the family stand. We'd all prefer to sit together in decent seats where the rain doesn't soak you and the view is better.
While the upper tier remains at least half-empty I think there should be a junior ticket priced somewhere between the current level and the price of the family stand ticket.
Comments
Cheer up you miserable bastard. We nearly disappeared from existence less than 3 years ago and have some of the best prices in the football league.
Sorry Bill.
Bad sign though.
Selling next years season tickets early usually mans the finances are well and truly f*cked.
Possibly in part due to the fact that we have some of the "best prices in the league".
I don't believe that the finances are any more fcked than they have been fcked since we became a fan owned club in fact last years play off final and the Villa games plus whatever we got for Ingram means we are a little less fcked than we could have been although still fcked
Least I get a grumpy old bastards discount still.
Club can't win can they.
Don't price up early, loads of moans
Do price up early, lots of moans.
What would be the exact correct date to reveal the prices?
We all came back after the worst football, crappest results miserable season ever, so I dare say we'll be back after this one.
Early bird job, couple of hundred quid, easily done.
If grumpy old bastards were made to pay more, rather than less, then that would probably solve the club's financial issues at a stroke.
Doubt it. Oh sorry you were being ironic.
All clubs are selling season tickets earlier and earlier.
As an example I'll mention Derby County, purely because I work near their ground.
Season tickets have been on sale since early February. Their owner, Mel Morris, is worth an estimated £400m in the Sunday Times' latest 'Rich List'. I would suggest this shows that early season ticket sales are not necessarily an indication of finances being 'well and truly fucked'.
Perhaps season tickets should be means tested and rich grumpy old bastards have to pay more than the less well off but equally grumpy old bastards.
If you look around other clubs in our league OAP's get a really poor deal in terms of discount compared to an adult ticket. The club is setting itself up to please the social media generation which will hopefully bring in new fans.
Troube is the grey pound is a powerful one. It would be a shame to milk the cash cow for too long.
I've not looked at other prices so this is a genuine question - is that because our adult prices are lower to start with? Are our senior tickets more expensive than other clubs, or just less of a discount?
@Chris
From a little bit of web surfing last night our OAP prices are amongst the highest I found in our league but the adult prices were pretty reasonable in comparision. Some clubs give OAP season tickets at 50% of the adult price and many double digit discounts. FOr next season ours is 3% off for OAPS's in the two main stands.
So it answer your question it's a bit of both but probably about 75% the lack of perceived discount.
On a seat for Saturday the club give an OAP a discount of £3 on the adult ticket. On a season ticket over 23 games this differential is only £13 or about 50p per match. This means the season ticket saving is far less for an OAP than it is for an adult. I'm not sure where the incentive is there to buy in advance.
Ironically Wycombe give a greater differential on season tickets from Adult to OAP on the terrace than they do in the seats. Not sure what this says about the fitness of our fanbase.
As far as I can tell we have the cheapest prices for standing compared to comparative clubs (£2 to £3) and usually cheapest sitting too. Great you might think. But unless that generates more boots through the door, expensive.
23 games *4000 *£2.50 = £230,000 less income per season.
Does it really generate more punters - frankly I doubt it - I suspect the real number who will pay £15 but not £17 is close if not at zero.
But lets say 100 would go if prices went up, so income lost
2310015 = £34500 revenue lost
You need to deduct VAT from that, but that looks like around £160k or so lost every year by a decision to have low prices.
Anybody till wondering why we cant afford that creative midfielder?
As always pricing is a balance and everybody would prefer lower prices. I do wonder if its wise though.
"What you doing, washing your smalls?"
"Nah, drowning the kittens"
Copyright Harry Enfield and Chums - The Old Gits
"Early bird" for me and my lad (Adult + Junior) in the Family Stand will cost me £9 less for next season than it did this. Can't complain about the value, whatever playing style the team may adopt.
I'll let my lad have the difference towards a new replica shirt.
OI... Less of the OAP please. Some of us will be lucky to ever get an old age pension the way things are going :-)
When you compare senior discounts between clubs you need to also look at the age cutoff. We do 60 which is good (for me) but many others make the cut at 65; or as I found at Port Vale last weekend 62, which was particularly frustrating as I am not 62 till next month.
One of the things that makes getting old slightly less bad is getting stuff cheap even though I still work full-time and don't really need the concession. Complaining about stuff is good also.
Old gits like me are just damn pleased to be getting any kind of discount at all and personally I'm not at all concerned that some other club may be giving a heftier discount on adult prices. It's the pricing of tickets for juniors and young adults which should be uppermost in the minds of those that set them. Old gits are far less likely to change allegiance or decide to start attending in than are younger people. By the way I'm not sure that OAP is PC these days, most oldies prefer Senior Citizen although I'm quite happy with 'old git'.
On a general note, as the number of older people in society continues to increase I expect to see a decrease in the price reductions available to older people across all areas of sport, entertainment, transport, etc. The raising of pensionable age will also have an effect: if a person is (expected to be) still working and earning a wage at 67, why should they be given a discount at 60 or 65?
With the ratio of full-paying adults to older people decreasing, the alternative of continually hiking full prices to subsidise the discounts could eventually push those full-paying adults out; and, if they get used to not attending during their middle age, they may well continue not to attend when they are old enough to get a discounted ticket. I support keeping prices low for children and young people, so that attendance is affordable for families, students and those who have only just started earning, but don't price out the 30, 40 and 50 year olds: once they're gone, many of them will stay gone.
Ditto @LordMandeville.
Interesting to hear how magnanamous some posters are on here about not expecting a larger discount on consention/senior citizen pricing. Personally I've heard nothing but complaints from the real world so this puts some sort of context on it.
I still think the season ticket reduction is still massively out of line with the market and the single game reduction. I don't think that is fair or a good marketing strategy but if most of those eligible aren't that fussed then the club have gauged it right.
The wider pricing policy of the club is a good one. I'm happy with my season ticket renewal. I just don't think it is fair in this area.
TBH I'd be quite happy to pay the full price if they were to raise the concession age
Tom - I expect you and any other senior (60+) can pay the full price if they want to - or invest the extra back into the club via Share Scheme.
I already do invest in the share scheme :-)
@Uncle_T it's a hard decision all round really. Some will blindly pay whatever, some will moan about whatever the club do. How do you please everyone, while trying to attempt to maximise one of our key revenue streams?
Kids/Young adults/students cheap are an absolute essential to me. I remember getting a 3 year season ticket for £120 in my secondary school/student cross over years! Wow, the value.
Get them hooked in, and you have a fan for life.
As for not putting off 30-50s, isn't a terrace ticket about £230,and seating £300?
That's 23 games, and probably that person's main interest.
Maybe it's me, but I couldn't imagine a scenario where that isn't great value. (yes, even pending some poor football at times!)
Free tickets for your sons or daughters regardless of where you sit or stand in the ground is the best investment the club could make yet ripped that policy up a couple of years ago.
When I go to away games I always ask for "Old age" concession on the turnstile. I am 57 and have never been refused. I have been doing this for at least 5 years.
A bit dishonest don't you think?
@Onlooker That was not a good policy. Everyone with kids took up the offer on the off chance they might occasionally want to use them. For the majority of games the kids didn't come resulting in numerous empty seats dotted around, usually in the front rows, which of course the club couldn't sell.
I think it's a shame in a less than half-full stadium that the junior ticket for the Frank Adams is £92 more than it is in the family stand.
Most of my mates with kids don't want to sit in the family stand but it's a lot cheaper. But those of us without kids don't really want to head down to the family stand. We'd all prefer to sit together in decent seats where the rain doesn't soak you and the view is better.
While the upper tier remains at least half-empty I think there should be a junior ticket priced somewhere between the current level and the price of the family stand ticket.