[cite]Posted By: BigRedEvil[/cite]I read this VAT rise.
I read it as the club are desperate for more season tickets sales as soon as possible!
It's a good excuse but then so what? On the flip side if the club never gave that warning and prices went up then fans would be moaning that they club didn't warn them and it was just about making money.
[cite]Posted By: BigRedEvil[/cite]I read this VAT rise.
I read it as the club are desperate for more season tickets sales as soon as possible!
It's a good excuse but then so what? On the flip side if the club never gave that warning and prices went up then fans would be moaning that they club didn't warn them and it was just about making money.
I had one idea put to me as a suggestion for fans helping the Club ...let me see what the general impression is.
Having already bought their own season ticket, fans (either individually or as a small group) buy another one, a spare. Then, as each matchday approaches, you persuade non-ticket holding mates, neighbours, family etc that they really should attend and that you have a spare ticket - which can be theirs for whatever you feel inclined to charge (not greater than face value, of course).
If they get the taste, they can take over the ticket for the rest of the season. If not, well there will always be someone else you know who might be interested for the next game.
There are bound to be some negative aspects associated with this idea (the hassle of 'selling' your spare ticket for each game, the reduction in walk-up sales numbers etc), but the big advantage is that the Club gets guaranteed income up front. And maybe at fairly minimal cost to individuals if the small group idea seems workable.
What's the feeling? Would you and and a couple of mates do it?
interesting that the comments are from Steve Kavanagh. And he attended the FL meeting in Walsall a few weeks ago. And I heard a rumour that one of the two top knobs were on their way this summer. Where's Waggy ?
[cite]Posted By: Dave Rudd[/cite]I had one idea put to me as a suggestion for fans helping the Club ...let me see what the general impression is.
Having already bought their own season ticket, fans (either individually or as a small group) buy another one, a spare. Then, as each matchday approaches, you persuade non-ticket holding mates, neighbours, family etc that they really should attend and that you have a spare ticket - which can be theirs for whatever you feel inclined to charge (not greater than face value, of course).
If they get the taste, they can take over the ticket for the rest of the season. If not, well there will always be someone else you know who might be interested for the next game.
There are bound to be some negative aspects associated with this idea (the hassle of 'selling' your spare ticket for each game, the reduction in walk-up sales numbers etc), but the big advantage is that the Club gets guaranteed income up front. And maybe at fairly minimal cost to individuals if the small group idea seems workable.
What's the feeling? Would you and and a couple of mates do it?
No, i'm not made of money. If i had the money, then a five year season ticket would have been purchased.
Strangely enough Dave, that's exactly what we have done this season. For the cost of an extra £49 I've bought a junior season ticket on which I may occassionally take my grandson (he's a bit young still), but on other occassions just upgrade the ticket to an adult for friends and family.
[quote][cite]Posted By: shirty5[/cite][quote][cite]Posted By: Dave Rudd[/cite]I had one idea put to me as a suggestion for fans helping the Club ...let me see what the general impression is.
Having already bought their own season ticket, fans (either individually or as a small group) buy another one, a spare. Then, as each matchday approaches, you persuade non-ticket holding mates, neighbours, family etc that they really should attend and that you have a spare ticket - which can be theirs for whatever you feel inclined to charge (not greater than face value, of course).
If they get the taste, they can take over the ticket for the rest of the season. If not, well there will always be someone else you know who might be interested for the next game.
There are bound to be some negative aspects associated with this idea (the hassle of 'selling' your spare ticket for each game, the reduction in walk-up sales numbers etc), but the big advantage is that the Club gets guaranteed income up front. And maybe at fairly minimal cost to individuals if the small group idea seems workable.
What's the feeling? Would you and and a couple of mates do it?[/quote]
No, i'm not made of money. If i had the money, then a five year season ticket would have been purchased.[/quote]
If it was you and three mates, you are looking at an extra outlay of £75 to £125 each (approx) much of which you would get back over the season if you 'sold' each matchday ticket at something like face value. I recognise that none of us are made of money, but I'm not sure that amount would have bought you a five year season ticket.
[cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]lots of people do that already Dave, either for family / friends, or for bringing clients.
Spot on. Seven of my family/friends have season tickets, and for whatever reason one of them could not attend then the ticket gets offered to one or two others at no cost to them. Buying another season ticket for that reason is a total no brainer.
[quote][cite]Posted By: shirty5[/cite][quote][cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]lots of people do that already Dave, either for family / friends, or for bringing clients.[/quote]
Spot on. Seven of my family/friends have season tickets, and for whatever reason one of them could not attend then the ticket gets offered to one or two others at no cost to them. Buying another season ticket for that reason is a total no brainer.[/quote]
This idea is not about offloading your existing season ticket to family and friends when you miss the occasional game. I guess that pretty much everyone does that.
This is about buying a genuine spare which you (and a couple of mates) take responsibility for 'selling' to someone who would not normally go to games. You are effectively recruiting another paying spectator on behalf on the Club, but taking the financial hit up front to benefit the Club. Not just making sure that the season ticket you have already bought gets maximum usage.
This idea is not about offloading your existing season ticket to family and friends when you miss the occasional game. I guess that pretty much everyone does that.
This is about buying a genuine spare which you (and a couple of mates) take responsibility for 'selling' to someone who would not normally go to games. You are effectively recruiting another paying spectator on behalf on the Club, but taking the financial hit up front to benefit the Club.
Still a no brainer for me i'm afraid, but all the best with this idea.
Dave, I think you'll find that the T&Cs of a season prohibit the 'selling' of it to others.
I think you'll also find that there are a large number of £49 season tickets being used by adults, so the club are clearly keen to avoid allowing groups to buy a couple of these cheap seats on the basis that the seat is guaranteed if/when you have someone that wants to use it and pay the upgrade.
When my Dad is away I can't even find someone to come for free so the spare season ticket would probably hardly ever get used, and having someone pay for it I would imagine is very unlikely.
It's a nice idea but my own experience tells me selling a ticket will be difficult.
I have a season ticket for one of my daughters whom is at university so misses matches. There are times I cannot even give the seat away let alone sell it!
It might be that I am a particularly obnoxious person thus nobody wants to sit next to me but I do think in reality it is lack of interest in third division football.
[quote][cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Dave, how do you plan to promote that to fans.
I can see what you are getting at but what's the sales pitch?[/quote]
No plans to promote it yet, Henry. Step 1 is to find out if there is any merit in the idea. Step 2 would then be to address the Terms & Conditions bit with the Club. The sales pitch might then be Step 3.
But .... I get the strong view that there isn't merit in the idea, so it bites the dust. And I'll feed that back to the originator.
agree len .... i have 3 sisters who had season tickets, now only two of them bother and it is hard to get rid of the ticket for the odd game here and there .....
still it's the price we pay to have the exciting chance of winning a game against dagenham, rather than knowing we'll lose to man utd
[cite]Posted By: Essex_Al[/cite]Strangely enough Dave, that's exactly what we have done this season. For the cost of an extra £49 I've bought a junior season ticket on which I may occassionally take my grandson (he's a bit young still), but on other occassions just upgrade the ticket to an adult for friends and family.
[cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]lots of people do that already Dave, either for family / friends, or for bringing clients.
Spot on. Seven of my family/friends have season tickets, and for whatever reason one of them could not attend then the ticket gets offered to one or two others at no cost to them. Buying another season ticket for that reason is a total no brainer.
Same for us. There's 8 of us in our group who have ST's and i think last season out of 23 home league games, there were probably only about 7 or 8 matches that all 8 of us attended. For some games when there were spares you couldn't even give it away. Try asking your mate if he wants a spare for Hartlepool at home on a tuesday night when there's champions league on tv and see what response you get.
Why would we need to buy a 'geniune spare' as you put it when for most games we can't even give a spare away for free?
[cite]Posted By: AFKABartram[/cite]lots of people do that already Dave, either for family / friends, or for bringing clients.
Spot on, I have 4 x saeson tickets, I use one (obviously), I have converted a salesman who works for me from supporting Liverpool to a Charlton fan, and we use the other two to entertain clients on match days i.e. a meal and a few beers in Legends.
Going back to the original post, I appreciate the club letting us know.
I realise that part of the motivation behind this is that they want to sell tickets, but it is a fact that the tickets will go up if VAT is increased. Strong rumor is that it will go up to 20%.
This will also affect everyone who intends to buy tickets on a match by match basis. I am beginning to think I should've sold the car and gone for the 5 year deal! Oh well, too late now.
The point of restricting resale of season tickets is 1) touting is illegal and 2) because when we were in the Pl we had agencies trying to buy season tickets for resale to corporate/away fans at the big matches.
The Ts and Cs used to say that only the holder could use their season ticket, but we changed this to reflect arrangements of this kind. We're not interested in pursuing people who share season tickets informally within the same price category ; on the other hand we couldn't condone an arrangement at the other extreme where spare vouchers are sold in the pubs. Hence the requirement to have the booklet at the turnstiles.
I don't think people would buy extra season tickets on this basis because third parties suggest it; as people have said it already happens where it makes sense.
Finally, for conspiracy theorists, the VAT story came about because I suggested it to Steve Kavanagh and he took it to the board. I then wrote the story with Matt Wright, quoting Steve K. Steve Waggott isn't quoted because he wasn't involved.
By upgrading one of the kids tickets for a mate to use which started only on school night matches, we have converted an armchair villa fan into an Addick and he has bought his own ST this season.
Comments
I read it as the club are desperate for more season tickets sales as soon as possible!
It's a good excuse but then so what? On the flip side if the club never gave that warning and prices went up then fans would be moaning that they club didn't warn them and it was just about making money.
I'm sure the Club want to sell as many ST as possible but 7k (in line with what we had sold this time last year) isn't shabby IMHO.
I thought it was 1. A clever way to push ST sales 2. being upfront about a possible price rises.
so true.
Having already bought their own season ticket, fans (either individually or as a small group) buy another one, a spare. Then, as each matchday approaches, you persuade non-ticket holding mates, neighbours, family etc that they really should attend and that you have a spare ticket - which can be theirs for whatever you feel inclined to charge (not greater than face value, of course).
If they get the taste, they can take over the ticket for the rest of the season. If not, well there will always be someone else you know who might be interested for the next game.
There are bound to be some negative aspects associated with this idea (the hassle of 'selling' your spare ticket for each game, the reduction in walk-up sales numbers etc), but the big advantage is that the Club gets guaranteed income up front. And maybe at fairly minimal cost to individuals if the small group idea seems workable.
What's the feeling? Would you and and a couple of mates do it?
No, i'm not made of money. If i had the money, then a five year season ticket would have been purchased.
Having already bought their own season ticket, fans (either individually or as a small group) buy another one, a spare. Then, as each matchday approaches, you persuade non-ticket holding mates, neighbours, family etc that they really should attend and that you have a spare ticket - which can be theirs for whatever you feel inclined to charge (not greater than face value, of course).
If they get the taste, they can take over the ticket for the rest of the season. If not, well there will always be someone else you know who might be interested for the next game.
There are bound to be some negative aspects associated with this idea (the hassle of 'selling' your spare ticket for each game, the reduction in walk-up sales numbers etc), but the big advantage is that the Club gets guaranteed income up front. And maybe at fairly minimal cost to individuals if the small group idea seems workable.
What's the feeling? Would you and and a couple of mates do it?[/quote]
No, i'm not made of money. If i had the money, then a five year season ticket would have been purchased.[/quote]
If it was you and three mates, you are looking at an extra outlay of £75 to £125 each (approx) much of which you would get back over the season if you 'sold' each matchday ticket at something like face value. I recognise that none of us are made of money, but I'm not sure that amount would have bought you a five year season ticket.
Lots? How many?
And how about we aim for lots more?
Spot on. Seven of my family/friends have season tickets, and for whatever reason one of them could not attend then the ticket gets offered to one or two others at no cost to them. Buying another season ticket for that reason is a total no brainer.
Spot on. Seven of my family/friends have season tickets, and for whatever reason one of them could not attend then the ticket gets offered to one or two others at no cost to them. Buying another season ticket for that reason is a total no brainer.[/quote]
This idea is not about offloading your existing season ticket to family and friends when you miss the occasional game. I guess that pretty much everyone does that.
This is about buying a genuine spare which you (and a couple of mates) take responsibility for 'selling' to someone who would not normally go to games. You are effectively recruiting another paying spectator on behalf on the Club, but taking the financial hit up front to benefit the Club. Not just making sure that the season ticket you have already bought gets maximum usage.
Still a no brainer for me i'm afraid, but all the best with this idea.
I can see what you are getting at but what's the sales pitch?
I think you'll also find that there are a large number of £49 season tickets being used by adults, so the club are clearly keen to avoid allowing groups to buy a couple of these cheap seats on the basis that the seat is guaranteed if/when you have someone that wants to use it and pay the upgrade.
When my Dad is away I can't even find someone to come for free so the spare season ticket would probably hardly ever get used, and having someone pay for it I would imagine is very unlikely.
Sorry Dave, but I don't think this is a goer.
I have a season ticket for one of my daughters whom is at university so misses matches. There are times I cannot even give the seat away let alone sell it!
It might be that I am a particularly obnoxious person thus nobody wants to sit next to me but I do think in reality it is lack of interest in third division football.
Just an opinion.
I can see what you are getting at but what's the sales pitch?[/quote]
No plans to promote it yet, Henry. Step 1 is to find out if there is any merit in the idea. Step 2 would then be to address the Terms & Conditions bit with the Club. The sales pitch might then be Step 3.
But .... I get the strong view that there isn't merit in the idea, so it bites the dust. And I'll feed that back to the originator.
still it's the price we pay to have the exciting chance of winning a game against dagenham, rather than knowing we'll lose to man utd
exactly what I'm doing but for my daughter.
Same for us. There's 8 of us in our group who have ST's and i think last season out of 23 home league games, there were probably only about 7 or 8 matches that all 8 of us attended. For some games when there were spares you couldn't even give it away. Try asking your mate if he wants a spare for Hartlepool at home on a tuesday night when there's champions league on tv and see what response you get.
Why would we need to buy a 'geniune spare' as you put it when for most games we can't even give a spare away for free?
Spot on, I have 4 x saeson tickets, I use one (obviously), I have converted a salesman who works for me from supporting Liverpool to a Charlton fan, and we use the other two to entertain clients on match days i.e. a meal and a few beers in Legends.
I realise that part of the motivation behind this is that they want to sell tickets, but it is a fact that the tickets will go up if VAT is increased. Strong rumor is that it will go up to 20%.
This will also affect everyone who intends to buy tickets on a match by match basis. I am beginning to think I should've sold the car and gone for the 5 year deal! Oh well, too late now.
The Ts and Cs used to say that only the holder could use their season ticket, but we changed this to reflect arrangements of this kind. We're not interested in pursuing people who share season tickets informally within the same price category ; on the other hand we couldn't condone an arrangement at the other extreme where spare vouchers are sold in the pubs. Hence the requirement to have the booklet at the turnstiles.
I don't think people would buy extra season tickets on this basis because third parties suggest it; as people have said it already happens where it makes sense.
Finally, for conspiracy theorists, the VAT story came about because I suggested it to Steve Kavanagh and he took it to the board. I then wrote the story with Matt Wright, quoting Steve K. Steve Waggott isn't quoted because he wasn't involved.