[cite]Posted By: randy andy[/cite]Season ticket prices look good, but individual prices are a complete and utter rip off. From the table on the OS the AVERAGE price for lower north tickets next season is £25, which is simply outrageous in League 1. I'm not renewing because at the moment £290 is a lot of money that I can't afford and I'll likely to have missed 8 games by the end of this season (some through work, some through cricket and a couple because it was simply too depressing). So my plan next year was to go to around 16 homes games and try to get to 4 aways. £25 a pop for 16 homes games is £400! This will almost guarantee me coming to only a handful (or even fewer) home games next year, so well done Charlton, having been to around 90%+ of home games since the return you're now driving me away by charging prem prices for league 1 football.
So you should get a S/T for £290. Even if you only go to 16 games that works out at £18 per game. If you go to 23 games it works out at less than £13 per game.
I thought the club offered a finance deal to spread the cost over a season if you can't afford £290 up front. If the club don't offer finance then what about credit cards (interest free if possible) or a loan ?
Agree with CE and Mr Largo
You get great value at £290 if you go to all the games or even if you go to 16.
I'm paying £425 for the East. My choice for the best view in the house but it's a bargain.
Will be interesting to compare with other League 1 clubs
[cite]Posted By: Covered End[/cite]This was what Airman Brown (Rick) said on page 1 :-
The season-ticket price in the lower north has nothing to do with the matchday price. We tried to create a price incentive there last year by making it relatively cheap, but there wasn't much evidence that people moved in off the back of it. In fact, one of the big trends last summer was migration to dearer seats that became available as some of the PL season-ticket holders disappeared.
The club would have liked to have had a lower price for everyone this time, but it was felt that at £12.60 a game the lower north was already good value and we needed to target further savings at U18s and families in particular.
One thing I have learned over the years is that there is no right answer to setting the prices and you're never completely sure if you got it right, even after the event. However, along with others I only advise, so the credit (or the blame) belongs to the directors!
Thanks mate , I miseed that , good to see fellow CAFC rallying round
Mr Largo is spot on. Our prices have been some of the lowest going over recent years so we've been spoilt. The club do offer a pay per month option too so i think you'd be cuttinh your nose off not to get a s/t & pay per game instead. Well done CAFC!
[cite]Posted By: randy andy[/cite]Season ticket prices look good, but individual prices are a complete and utter rip off. From the table on the OS the AVERAGE price for lower north tickets next season is £25, which is simply outrageous in League 1. I'm not renewing because at the moment £290 is a lot of money that I can't afford and I'll likely to have missed 8 games by the end of this season (some through work, some through cricket and a couple because it was simply too depressing). So my plan next year was to go to around 16 homes games and try to get to 4 aways. £25 a pop for 16 homes games is £400! This will almost guarantee me coming to only a handful (or even fewer) home games next year, so well done Charlton, having been to around 90%+ of home games since the return you're now driving me away by charging prem prices for league 1 football.
So you should get a S/T for £290. Even if you only go to 16 games that works out at £18 per game. If you go to 23 games it works out at less than £13 per game.
I thought the club offered a finance deal to spread the cost over a season if you can't afford £290 up front. If the club don't offer finance then what about credit cards (interest free if possible) or a loan ?
Seeing as I have no income (or next to no income) I can't get finance or a credit card, nor do I have £290 to splash out in one go.
As for MrLargo's comments, there's no need to be insulting mate. I don't expect to get in for a fiver, I just expect a sensible price for 3rd division football. I've spoken to my mates about next season, and we all agreed we were willing to pay £15 - £20 per game, but £25 is just a rip off. Just because Portsmouth are ripping their fans off to the tune of £620 a year has absolutely no bearing on what I think is a fair price for 3rd division football. As someone mentioned above, they paid £24 to see England v Ukraine, how can anybody think the club is justified charging £25 to see charlton v crewe.
For comparison, Millwall are chargin £20 behind the goal for their top of the table clash with Peterboro on saturday, whilst charlton are propossing to charge £25 for similar seats in a similar fixture next season, so only the odd 25% more then.
Sorry to hear that randy andy. However, it still sounds like more a case of choosing not to pay it, rather than being unable to pay it. In your words "you are willing to pay £15- £20 per game". Would you be willing to pay more if we were in The Prem? Unfortunately, it's not Charlton's fault that you have no income as I presume it is not yours either.
[cite]Posted By: Covered End[/cite]Sorry to hear that randy andy. However, it still sounds like more a case of choosing not to pay it, rather than being unable to pay it. In your words "you are willing to pay £15- £20 per game". Would you be willing to pay more if we were in The Prem? Unfortunately, it's not Charlton's fault that you have no income as I presume it is not yours either.
Last month I had zero income, this month £80 so far, but obviously hoping for more. I need to pay per game as I won't know if I can afford to go to a game until the game arrives. Technically I have the money in my bank to pay £290, but I can't spend it, I have to think about paying the mortgage and feeding my family first whilst I build up my business. My vain hope was that I would have enough income by september to get to a few games, but then I saw that the on the day price is double the upper north season ticket price. Basically the club are sacrificing per game sales (which I'm guessing will be next to nothing next season now) to try and secure more season ticket holders. This basically means you have to commit now to going to at least 50% of the games next year, or pay double what the bloke sitting next to you is paying to watch the same game.
Am I the only one who thinks that £25 a game in the 3rd division is crazy? You pay less than that to watch top flight football in virtually every other league in the world. Even if I had the money spare I would still feel like I'm being forced into paying for a season ticket that I should need, I'm only going to see 50-75% of the games next year and realistically I should be able to do that paying on the day.
To use an over simplified example, imagine if you went into a pub and ordered a pint and it was £1, then you go back to the bar to order a half and they wanted £95p. You'd feel ripped off, and rightly so, yet the club do the same thing (I want to go to 11 of the 23 games say, it would cost me £275 compared to £290 for all 23). Everybody who's replied seems to think the solution is to buy the pint, drink just over half and pour the rest on the carpet, rather than question the landlord on his pricing.
[cite]Posted By: Barn Door Varney[/cite]I'm with Randy Andy on this one. Call it what you like but I'm not prepared to pay £25 quid for league 1 football.
Fine.
if you get a season ticket for £290 you'd be paying and you only go to 16 games that works out at £18 per game.
If you go to 23 games it works out at less than £13 per game.
Lot less than £25 either way and you are helping the club out by paying upfront.
[cite]Posted By: Barn Door Varney[/cite]I'm with Randy Andy on this one. Call it what you like but I'm not prepared to pay £25 quid for league 1 football.
That's my point "not being prepared to pay the entrance fee" is different to not being able to afford it. As I said if you take up Charlton's finance offer to spread the cost it works out at £13 plus any finance cost. Still think it's a bargain myself.
[cite]Posted By: randy andy[/cite] you're now driving me away by charging prem prices for league 1 football.
I'd have thought they were driving you away by playing utterly shit football, not because of the prices!
Have you seen the price of premiership football these days? Cos you certainly haven't been paying similar prices down at the Valley.
Andy I take your point entirely and am sorry for where you are at. However, I can't honestly say that Charlton are driving you out. It's your unfortunate lack of income that's the issue.If we were still in The Prem it would cost even more per match. Best wishes.
I can see where you are coming from and that you need to be careful when setting up your new business. Running a business is hard. I know what it is like being self employed and chasing money and work so can only wish you luck.
I still think your analogy with a pub is false. A better comparison would be a train ticket. I don't commute as I freelance so don't get the benefit of the much cheaper season tickets. I have to pay full price when I do get a train so am paying a lot more than the person sitting next to me. (and in Bickley I can't even use an Oyster Card). Is that fair? Well maybe the train prices should be lower but those that travel everyday will feel that they deserve a cheaper ticket than me for their loyalty.
Charlton is a business too. yes, it wants to get as many ST in as possible for both financial and football reasons. The tickets were already cheap and they have come down in price. For some games I'd guess there will be cheaper match day prices (Crewe, Aldershot?) and for others (Millwall, Leeds, Forest etc if they are in our division) they will be higher.
We can only make our choices on our own circumstances and the club can only set its prices in a way that attracts both the most people and the most income. Difficult to get that 100% right every time and for everyone but I think they do it pretty well most of the time.
I don't know yet whether or not I will be able to renew but that is my problem.
In uncertain financial times season tickets give the Club some degree of certainty re revenue and facilitates the budgeting process. It is therefore entirely understandable why the Club has chosen to provide a price incentive to buy season tickets rather than on a match to match basis.
Please someone explain to me how to get finance when self employed and you've yet to generate income? I know I can't get a loan off my bank, so why would anybody else give me credit? And why would I want to tie myself into a finance contract when I don't know what my future income will be? How do I say to my wife and soon to arrive baby "sorry, we can't eat this week, charlton finance have taken this month's instalment".
The club has basically given up on per game/walk up sales, I don't think you will find that many people willing to pay £25 for 3rd division football, so you have a choice of pay up front and hope nothing stops you from going to the games you've already paid for, or not going at all. I can't afford to pay upfront, can't secure the credit and won't pay £25 for 94 mins of 3rd division football. So I guess next year I'll get to only a couple of games if/when I'm feeling flush after completing some client work.
To use my pub analogy again, you all seem happy to go into a pub and get told you have to pay for 5 pints up front at the bargain price of £1.50 a pint, otherwise it's £3 a pint, if you don't want 5 pints, hard luck, if you have to leave early for some reason, hard luck, but if anybody complains about the £3 a pint that get told to quit whining, it's only £1.50 a pint, whilst ignoring the attached strings with that deal.
Thanks guys, you've made me realise that I'm being selfish by not wanting to commit to every game and still expecting to pay a reasonable price for the games I do see.
[cite]Posted By: Plaaayer[/cite]Andy, if you still want to go to games but aren't prepared to pay £25 to sit in the North Lower why don't you sit somewhere else thats a bit cheaper?
Where is cheaper than the north lower?
However I have thought of a solution possibly, depending on how much it costs to upgrade a child season ticket to an adult match ticket (is it still £15?). I buy my soon to be born son a season ticket for £49, then if I do manage to get to 11 games, I'm looking at £19.45 per game, which is still the top end of what I think is reasonable for 3rd division football, but better than £25
Andy, I'm trying to help here and not wind you up.
It says the overall minimum cost on a match day basis is £391. If you divide that by 23 it works out at an average of £17 per game. Therefore I assume most games will be £15 eg Colchester and some games will be £25 eg Millwall or Forest. Unless I've got this wrong.So it seems to me you can afford to go in any case to a number of games at £15 a time ?
[cite]Posted By: Covered End[/cite]Andy, I'm trying to help here and not wind you up.
It says the overall minimum cost on a match day basis is £391. If you divide that by 23 it works out aa an average of £17 per game. Therefore I assume most games will be £15 eg Colchester and some games will be £25 eg Millwall or Forest. Unless I've got this wrong.So it seems to me you can afford to go in any case to a number of games at £15 a time ?
Fair enough, and that's a lot more reasonable. Didn't mean to go off the depend, I just feel let down by the club. I'm probably overreacting, being a season ticket holder for the last 15 years I've been insulated by the rip-off increases in football prices in this country, so this has come as a bit of the shock to the system. So I was wound up to start with and then I just can't believe that nobody seems to see a problem with paying what is a huge amount of money to watch third tier football if you're not a season ticket holder. Everybody's answer seems to be "just get a season ticket then", but I just can't do that at this time, simple as that.
The answer appears to be that if you are paying on a match by match basis, you do not sit in The Lower North. If you sit elsewhere it looks like it will cost £15 per game for the majority of the games. They will no doubt charge more for the big games (which won't be many).
If you sit in the Lower North it will cost you £25, so that we can also charge the away fans £25.
At first glance, while it's always good to see the price come down, so it should, because the standard of football on offer next year will be worse. I know that's hard to believe, because this is the worst team for 735 years, or whatever it is, but it will be.
Having said that, League One is actually better football to watch than the Championship. The players aren't as good, but the end product is better, and I say that having seen a fair bit of both and having spoken to lots of players from both. In the Championship it's all about speed cutting down space, denying the opposition time etc. If you had a pound for everytime a Championship football manager uses the word 'tempo', you'd have enough to pay off the club's debts.
In the Premiership, the game is desperately quick, but the first touch tends to be very good and the skill levels are high, so the game still flows. In the Championship, managers can match the fitness levels (there's not a vast difference between the two these days) but can't re-create the levels of skill and talent. The end result is players moving pretty much as quickly in the Championship as they do in the Premiership, but with insufficient talent to control the game at that speed. There's no time on the ball, no space and no-one prepared to 'put their foot on the ball' and look for a pass. Tempo is king, and the result is bloody ugly. It's like a collective panic has overtaken the division, and it's all eyeballs out, quicker and quicker, faster and faster, every week.
In League One, the fitness levels are diminished and the pace slower, but as a result, there tends to be more football played. The players aren't as good (obviously) but the reduced speed allows them to look better than their Championship counterparts do. I would honestly go to watch League One football, albeit it with reduced skill levels, than Championship football. The coaching at Championship level is, for the large part, uninspired - we are a classic example.
The problem with the season tickets though, as I see it, is that there's no reason to buy one. Nobody apart from a hard-core (and good luck to them) who have always been there and always will, wants to see every game that the forthcoming season will serve up. Some will be crap - real dross. People will pick and choose, going to 15 or 16, I suspect. They'll miss a few at the start, while holidays and waiting to see if the team's any good take over, and they'll miss some over Christmas and Easter, when family commitments press harder. It's one thing missing a family gathering because you're playing a top for Premiership side, and quite another to do it because Yeovil are in town.
And when you get there, you'll be able to pick a stand, pick and block and sit where you like. Why restrict yourself to one seat, when for the first time in years, you can turn up and sit where you want?
I hope it works out, but I fear the worst. Too many of the people behind the scenes on the playing side, who have cocked up so badly, will still be hanging around. How is the brilliant scouting network that brought us Christensen and has loaded us with dead-wood ever since? Who holds them to account, because the stories of their attempts to acquire players, and the ones who've turned us down, have been almost as funny as they are depressing. There is an option for a clean start, and it needs to be taken, because there's no leadership either on the pitch or in the dug-out. The figures don't lie - Phil Parkinson has won 7 games in 44 attempts as a manager in the Championship - he's there because we can afford him, not because he can sort things out. Claiming that he'll thrive in League One, as someone told me the other week, isn't based on anything other than wide-eyed optimism. And, when 25 decent people are getting their redundancy warnings, and he's still sitting there telling the press that there's nobody more upset about it than him, he's not in touch with reality, either.
I hope it works out - I really do - but I have terrible doubts. I fear the worst for my football club, I really do.
I have similar doubts Mick on slightly differing issues, which i'll try and get down later.
As someone who hasn't seen any Division 3 football, but happier currently watching non-league / park level than premiership, i'm encouraged by your assessment of Division 3.
Well here we go.... All of us in our row are going to renew! We've decided that as supporters of CAFC the least we can do is cough up for a season ticket. (This is a gesture of support to the club NOT the manager). Just don't expect me/us to be there rain or shine if it's similar dross to this season.
I don't generally buy the credit crunch excuse. I say generally because there will be people who have lost their jobs and I can see that. What I would question is could you find that money if we were playing premier football next season? So is it VFM the real problem or is it really the credit crunch?
It's both. You can't separate the two - obviously.
If there's a glut of cash, you don't mind if the occasional treat doesn't turn out to be as good as it might have been. If there's a lack of cash, you want it to stretch as far as it can.
The 'credit crunch' causes people to seek out the best value for money that they can find. It's not an either/or situation - the two are completely and inextricably interlinked.
Unless you've been unfortunate enough to become out of work I just don't get this poverty angle? Without going too much off topic I would seriously like to know. Or is it just the fear factor and uncertainty of what is or could be round the corner?
My mortgage has gone down over £200 a month from it's peak, ok I'm on a salary reduction program (13.33%) at present but still find myself better off in real terms*.
*edit : actually I'm not but I'm still going to support the club.
[cite]Posted By: MickCollins[/cite]I hope it works out, but I fear the worst. Too many of the people behind the scenes on the playing side, who have cocked up so badly, will still be hanging around. How is the brilliant scouting network that brought us Christensen and has loaded us with dead-wood ever since? Who holds them to account, because the stories of their attempts to acquire players, and the ones who've turned us down, have been almost as funny as they are depressing. There is an option for a clean start, and it needs to be taken, because there's no leadership either on the pitch or in the dug-out. The figures don't lie - Phil Parkinson has won 7 games in 44 attempts as a manager in the Championship - he's there because we can afford him, not because he can sort things out. Claiming that he'll thrive in League One, as someone told me the other week, isn't based on anything other than wide-eyed optimism. And, when 25 decent people are getting their redundancy warnings, and he's still sitting there telling the press that there's nobody more upset about it than him, he's not in touch with reality, either.
I hope it works out - I really do - but I have terrible doubts. I fear the worst for my football club, I really do.
I'm pretty sure we'll have a very different team next season. Maybe we'll hang onto the odd high earner, maybe Gray or Fortune for example, but we'll see a very different team and it's down to Parkinson, or whoever the manager is, to get the right players in.
We both have a season ticket in the lower west, to renew this will cost us £850.00 the problem with that is my Wife was made redundant this year and we just cannot afford to renew at the moment. If she gets permanent employment then we will renew but it is not looking good. Maybe we can get half season tickets later in the season if our situation improves.Other needs must, the credit crunch has hit us and my job is far from safe.
Comments
Agree with CE and Mr Largo
You get great value at £290 if you go to all the games or even if you go to 16.
I'm paying £425 for the East. My choice for the best view in the house but it's a bargain.
Will be interesting to compare with other League 1 clubs
Thanks mate , I miseed that , good to see fellow CAFC rallying round
Seeing as I have no income (or next to no income) I can't get finance or a credit card, nor do I have £290 to splash out in one go.
As for MrLargo's comments, there's no need to be insulting mate. I don't expect to get in for a fiver, I just expect a sensible price for 3rd division football. I've spoken to my mates about next season, and we all agreed we were willing to pay £15 - £20 per game, but £25 is just a rip off. Just because Portsmouth are ripping their fans off to the tune of £620 a year has absolutely no bearing on what I think is a fair price for 3rd division football. As someone mentioned above, they paid £24 to see England v Ukraine, how can anybody think the club is justified charging £25 to see charlton v crewe.
For comparison, Millwall are chargin £20 behind the goal for their top of the table clash with Peterboro on saturday, whilst charlton are propossing to charge £25 for similar seats in a similar fixture next season, so only the odd 25% more then.
Last month I had zero income, this month £80 so far, but obviously hoping for more. I need to pay per game as I won't know if I can afford to go to a game until the game arrives. Technically I have the money in my bank to pay £290, but I can't spend it, I have to think about paying the mortgage and feeding my family first whilst I build up my business. My vain hope was that I would have enough income by september to get to a few games, but then I saw that the on the day price is double the upper north season ticket price. Basically the club are sacrificing per game sales (which I'm guessing will be next to nothing next season now) to try and secure more season ticket holders. This basically means you have to commit now to going to at least 50% of the games next year, or pay double what the bloke sitting next to you is paying to watch the same game.
Am I the only one who thinks that £25 a game in the 3rd division is crazy? You pay less than that to watch top flight football in virtually every other league in the world. Even if I had the money spare I would still feel like I'm being forced into paying for a season ticket that I should need, I'm only going to see 50-75% of the games next year and realistically I should be able to do that paying on the day.
To use an over simplified example, imagine if you went into a pub and ordered a pint and it was £1, then you go back to the bar to order a half and they wanted £95p. You'd feel ripped off, and rightly so, yet the club do the same thing (I want to go to 11 of the 23 games say, it would cost me £275 compared to £290 for all 23). Everybody who's replied seems to think the solution is to buy the pint, drink just over half and pour the rest on the carpet, rather than question the landlord on his pricing.
Fine.
if you get a season ticket for £290 you'd be paying and you only go to 16 games that works out at £18 per game.
If you go to 23 games it works out at less than £13 per game.
Lot less than £25 either way and you are helping the club out by paying upfront.
That's my point "not being prepared to pay the entrance fee" is different to not being able to afford it. As I said if you take up Charlton's finance offer to spread the cost it works out at £13 plus any finance cost. Still think it's a bargain myself.
I'd have thought they were driving you away by playing utterly shit football, not because of the prices!
Have you seen the price of premiership football these days? Cos you certainly haven't been paying similar prices down at the Valley.
I can see where you are coming from and that you need to be careful when setting up your new business. Running a business is hard. I know what it is like being self employed and chasing money and work so can only wish you luck.
I still think your analogy with a pub is false. A better comparison would be a train ticket. I don't commute as I freelance so don't get the benefit of the much cheaper season tickets. I have to pay full price when I do get a train so am paying a lot more than the person sitting next to me. (and in Bickley I can't even use an Oyster Card). Is that fair? Well maybe the train prices should be lower but those that travel everyday will feel that they deserve a cheaper ticket than me for their loyalty.
Charlton is a business too. yes, it wants to get as many ST in as possible for both financial and football reasons. The tickets were already cheap and they have come down in price. For some games I'd guess there will be cheaper match day prices (Crewe, Aldershot?) and for others (Millwall, Leeds, Forest etc if they are in our division) they will be higher.
We can only make our choices on our own circumstances and the club can only set its prices in a way that attracts both the most people and the most income. Difficult to get that 100% right every time and for everyone but I think they do it pretty well most of the time.
In uncertain financial times season tickets give the Club some degree of certainty re revenue and facilitates the budgeting process. It is therefore entirely understandable why the Club has chosen to provide a price incentive to buy season tickets rather than on a match to match basis.
The club has basically given up on per game/walk up sales, I don't think you will find that many people willing to pay £25 for 3rd division football, so you have a choice of pay up front and hope nothing stops you from going to the games you've already paid for, or not going at all. I can't afford to pay upfront, can't secure the credit and won't pay £25 for 94 mins of 3rd division football. So I guess next year I'll get to only a couple of games if/when I'm feeling flush after completing some client work.
To use my pub analogy again, you all seem happy to go into a pub and get told you have to pay for 5 pints up front at the bargain price of £1.50 a pint, otherwise it's £3 a pint, if you don't want 5 pints, hard luck, if you have to leave early for some reason, hard luck, but if anybody complains about the £3 a pint that get told to quit whining, it's only £1.50 a pint, whilst ignoring the attached strings with that deal.
Thanks guys, you've made me realise that I'm being selfish by not wanting to commit to every game and still expecting to pay a reasonable price for the games I do see.
Where is cheaper than the north lower?
However I have thought of a solution possibly, depending on how much it costs to upgrade a child season ticket to an adult match ticket (is it still £15?). I buy my soon to be born son a season ticket for £49, then if I do manage to get to 11 games, I'm looking at £19.45 per game, which is still the top end of what I think is reasonable for 3rd division football, but better than £25
It says the overall minimum cost on a match day basis is £391. If you divide that by 23 it works out at an average of £17 per game. Therefore I assume most games will be £15 eg Colchester and some games will be £25 eg Millwall or Forest. Unless I've got this wrong.So it seems to me you can afford to go in any case to a number of games at £15 a time ?
He would literally be the youngest ever season ticket holder ever and surely destined to play for Charlton one day !!
Do it !!
Fair enough, and that's a lot more reasonable. Didn't mean to go off the depend, I just feel let down by the club. I'm probably overreacting, being a season ticket holder for the last 15 years I've been insulated by the rip-off increases in football prices in this country, so this has come as a bit of the shock to the system. So I was wound up to start with and then I just can't believe that nobody seems to see a problem with paying what is a huge amount of money to watch third tier football if you're not a season ticket holder. Everybody's answer seems to be "just get a season ticket then", but I just can't do that at this time, simple as that.
If you sit in the Lower North it will cost you £25, so that we can also charge the away fans £25.
Sorted.
At first glance, while it's always good to see the price come down, so it should, because the standard of football on offer next year will be worse. I know that's hard to believe, because this is the worst team for 735 years, or whatever it is, but it will be.
Having said that, League One is actually better football to watch than the Championship. The players aren't as good, but the end product is better, and I say that having seen a fair bit of both and having spoken to lots of players from both. In the Championship it's all about speed cutting down space, denying the opposition time etc. If you had a pound for everytime a Championship football manager uses the word 'tempo', you'd have enough to pay off the club's debts.
In the Premiership, the game is desperately quick, but the first touch tends to be very good and the skill levels are high, so the game still flows. In the Championship, managers can match the fitness levels (there's not a vast difference between the two these days) but can't re-create the levels of skill and talent. The end result is players moving pretty much as quickly in the Championship as they do in the Premiership, but with insufficient talent to control the game at that speed. There's no time on the ball, no space and no-one prepared to 'put their foot on the ball' and look for a pass. Tempo is king, and the result is bloody ugly. It's like a collective panic has overtaken the division, and it's all eyeballs out, quicker and quicker, faster and faster, every week.
In League One, the fitness levels are diminished and the pace slower, but as a result, there tends to be more football played. The players aren't as good (obviously) but the reduced speed allows them to look better than their Championship counterparts do. I would honestly go to watch League One football, albeit it with reduced skill levels, than Championship football. The coaching at Championship level is, for the large part, uninspired - we are a classic example.
The problem with the season tickets though, as I see it, is that there's no reason to buy one. Nobody apart from a hard-core (and good luck to them) who have always been there and always will, wants to see every game that the forthcoming season will serve up. Some will be crap - real dross. People will pick and choose, going to 15 or 16, I suspect. They'll miss a few at the start, while holidays and waiting to see if the team's any good take over, and they'll miss some over Christmas and Easter, when family commitments press harder. It's one thing missing a family gathering because you're playing a top for Premiership side, and quite another to do it because Yeovil are in town.
And when you get there, you'll be able to pick a stand, pick and block and sit where you like. Why restrict yourself to one seat, when for the first time in years, you can turn up and sit where you want?
I hope it works out, but I fear the worst. Too many of the people behind the scenes on the playing side, who have cocked up so badly, will still be hanging around. How is the brilliant scouting network that brought us Christensen and has loaded us with dead-wood ever since? Who holds them to account, because the stories of their attempts to acquire players, and the ones who've turned us down, have been almost as funny as they are depressing. There is an option for a clean start, and it needs to be taken, because there's no leadership either on the pitch or in the dug-out. The figures don't lie - Phil Parkinson has won 7 games in 44 attempts as a manager in the Championship - he's there because we can afford him, not because he can sort things out. Claiming that he'll thrive in League One, as someone told me the other week, isn't based on anything other than wide-eyed optimism. And, when 25 decent people are getting their redundancy warnings, and he's still sitting there telling the press that there's nobody more upset about it than him, he's not in touch with reality, either.
I hope it works out - I really do - but I have terrible doubts. I fear the worst for my football club, I really do.
As someone who hasn't seen any Division 3 football, but happier currently watching non-league / park level than premiership, i'm encouraged by your assessment of Division 3.
I don't generally buy the credit crunch excuse. I say generally because there will be people who have lost their jobs and I can see that. What I would question is could you find that money if we were playing premier football next season? So is it VFM the real problem or is it really the credit crunch?
If there's a glut of cash, you don't mind if the occasional treat doesn't turn out to be as good as it might have been. If there's a lack of cash, you want it to stretch as far as it can.
The 'credit crunch' causes people to seek out the best value for money that they can find. It's not an either/or situation - the two are completely and inextricably interlinked.
My mortgage has gone down over £200 a month from it's peak, ok I'm on a salary reduction program (13.33%) at present but still find myself better off in real terms*.
*edit : actually I'm not but I'm still going to support the club.
I'm pretty sure we'll have a very different team next season. Maybe we'll hang onto the odd high earner, maybe Gray or Fortune for example, but we'll see a very different team and it's down to Parkinson, or whoever the manager is, to get the right players in.
This link on the OS gives all the info for anyone that has not seen it already. Match day adult prices are £17 minimum.