International Weekends
This season we have five International Weekends to contend with and a good chance we will have three internationals missing each time or our opposition will. Here are the five games that look highly likely to be moved to midweek.
Home Sep 4th v Ipswich
Home Oct 9th v Gillingham
Home Nov 13th v Portsmouth
Home Jan 29th v Franchise
Home Mar 26th v Fleetwood
With all five games being at home we could be set for a big loss of revenue due to changing to midweek.
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Flip side of that is no extra long away trips in midweek - plus I expect the Ipswich, Pompey and MK games would get sizeable crowds regardless.
But how surreal is it to be in a position where we could be the ones requesting postponement because of international call-ups?!
Oh arse. That requires me taking leave to make the most of my ST!
Looks like I’ll be making good use of my new flexible working options. That’s a horrible lot of Saturday matches to lose.
Great analysis there, as I dare say most like me hadn't given it much thought.
Will make sure my exile mate is aware, so that he doesn't book up too early!!
I wonder how many other clubs are at home for every single international weekend. Five free Saturdays and five extra midweek games isn't great for fans and is bordering on a competitive disadvantage
That Jan 29th International weekend is not normal right? Guessing this has something to do with the abomination in Qatar but anyone know for sure?
Pretty sure the January one is only AFC (Asia) and CONMEBOL (South America) as they've got postponed qualifiers to fit in.
The January edition is these games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_AFC_Third_Round
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_CONCACAF_Third_Round
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(CONMEBOL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(OFC)
So all qualifiers apart from UEFA and CAF(Africa)
I think we can safely say we should be OK for the January game.
Thanks for this information wwfcblue. I’ve had a season ticket for the last 35 years but have decided not to get one this time round. I find it difficult to get to midweek games because of my working hours and with so many Saturday home games being moved due to international breaks I started to wonder if I was getting value for my season ticket. I invariably miss the odd Saturday home game due to other non football events coming up. When the owners put the prices up (which I didn’t have an issue with) it really gave me food for thought. It now works out cheaper for me to pay full price for the games I can attend rather than £342 for a terrace season ticket.
It feels very strange not having a season ticket after so many years! I always like the idea of the club having the money up front but after forfeiting my season ticket refund for last season and the part refund for the season before I decided to make the break.
Another factor was my mate who I’ve stood with since the mid 80’s decided he wasn’t renewing. He didn’t miss the matches as much as he thought he would during the pandemic so has decided to pick and choose the games he attends going forward.
Interestingly I know several other regular season tickets holders who haven’t renewed either. My Dad, My Uncle and a friend of theirs who are all over 75 feel the prices are too high. They also felt a bit disgruntled due to the move towards more digitalised services. One of them doesn’t own a smartphone or any other device. The clubs decision to allow physical cards was a good one I feel.
Interesting thoughts @StonyBlue, especially around those who also haven’t renewed. Supporting a club at our level is such a ‘habit,’ it’ll be interesting to see how many others have found better things to do with their Saturdays.
I’ve always renewed as early as possible and have never given it a second thought. My mate not renewing was a huge factor in my decision. I think paying per game is all well and good but I think it ends up with you gradually stopping going altogether. When you have a season ticket it does commit you to going to an extent. When you pay by the game it’s probably very easy to stop going because of bad weather, the team not doing so well as you’ve not paid up front.
I’ve had so much angst over my decision not to renew. It’s driven my other half to distraction! I spend hours musing out loud over the pros and cons of having or not having a season ticket. It’s painful stuff. Ultimately it’s come down to value for money and not wanting to stand on my lonesome!
@StonyBlue I also get where you are coming from. I tend to try and juggle work days and leave so I can make the rescheduled games I've coughed up for. I have renewed ( and usually do early) because it would be quite tricky for me to decide which individual games to just turn up for given money, transport, being lazy and other commitments popping up. I worry that there is a chance of me losing the game-going habit.
@StonyBlue
No problem.
I only started to investigate this morning having somehow not renewed my season ticket back in April. I know I did it and set it all up and pressed enter to confirm as such but it seems it was never processed.
Now knowing I am going to miss around 8 games this season through holidays, family commitments, work commitments and now getting tickets for the Community Shield game at Wembley next week, I probably won't bother with a season ticket.
My guess is I will get to about 14 games at best which works out at £35 a game. So is it worth paying £100 extra for the hope it might get me a cup ticket for a big game!
If we play well tonight I will probably have a season ticket 5 minutes after I get home.
I had the same issue last season. Money gone from my account but no record of my purchase on the WWFC system. Was a real pain to resolve and was made to feel like the club were doing me a favour by processing the ticket I could enjoy the iFollow access.
Was never told why it happened. I don't think anyone knew or cared.
I had no end of problems with the club last season over issues around not getting emails. I ended up missing the Coventry game because they didn’t send me a code even though I renewed on the day season tickets came out. I stupidly ranted about it on Twitter and got a very curt DM from Rob Couhig basically telling me to clear off and take my support elsewhere! I apologised but outlined the endless frustrations I’d had with getting even minor things sorted. Pete also got involved and Ben rang me. Apparently it was to do with my Spam settings all of which were fine from everything I could see. I’m still none the wiser as to whether it was sorted out. I did get a call from the club a month or so back as they were obviously chasing up non renewals. I can’t take my phone into work so was unable to answer.
I know others have had good experiences with the admin side of the club. Mine haven’t been positive although I accept the last 18 months have been far from easy for clubs.
Season ticket or otherwise fingers crossed for a great season. No doubt I’ll regret my decision when we get a plum home tie in the 3rd round of the FA Cup!
A little bump to remind people that the home game against Ipswich in 2 weeks and the home game against Gillingham in seven weeks could be moved to a Tuesday night due to International call ups.
Hopefully Ipswich is moved - would be good to have a bit of respite with so many injuries already.
We just started advertising the Ipswich game, presumably the ticket dept are aware there's a good chance the game will be moved...
Second paragraph
Who reads the things they share on the internet anymore!
True. So much so that Twitter brought in that feature asking you if you've read the article before posting ?
I’ll have to try that out. ‘None of your business,’ is the correct response.
For selfish reasons, I'm hoping the Ipswich match gets rescheduled as there is something else I will probably be obliged to do on 4th September and would miss it.
They should bring in some sort of rule that your 3 internationals either have to be regulars, or have played in xx% of games.
It can't be right that we could get a game called off because we have a Gibraltar international who hasn't even got on the pitch for eg?
And I think Ipswich had some U21 who wasn't a regular to help get the game moved v us 2 seasons ago?
Does anyone think the five games all being at home could be the EFL putting the boot in to Derby more than us, as our scheduled match?
Ipswich rings a bell, they moved the game purely because their best striker was injured, of the players they quoted to get it moved I think only one was on the bench and none in the team for the rearranged game.
No, as they were never going to be able to switch the fixtures over,
So if it was, they've managed to spank us all ends up.
With that silly Burton game in the Fat boy Pizza cup too.
Our fixtures still match, so Derby potentially lose revenue for five home games getting moved too.
I doubt they'd go for a sly little one like this.
After all, costing them money when they have money problems just means more issues to deal with.
Or more accurately, more issues to bottle dealing with.
Speaking of internationals, Sully Kaikai’s Sierra Leone have been drawn with Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast in the 2022 AFCON. They’ll play January 11, 16 and 20.