don't go along with the recession theory. 10,000 more in the premier league if we were there now imho. but ask yourself would you want premier league glory boys sitting with you? in my opinion i wouldn't. i like the 16,000 that attend now as i know i'm sitting with supporters of the club and not fans of the premier league. didn't look like hull brought that many to the game.
I was also expecting a bigger crowd yesterday, but many factors to take into consideration, Bank holiday weekend meant many had other plans.
May have been plenty of others who had planned to attend but changed their minds on the day due to 2 major factors............the weather forcast and the closing of the A2 earlier in the day, due to the guy on the bridge.
but I'm sure I saw we have about 1500 more season tickets than we ended last season on? It's the walkup which has gone down.
I was an ever-present last season but didn't have a season ticket. This season I do, so there's one ticked off the list.................................
Experience suggests that once there is sufficient spare capacity the match sale isn't affected by rising and falling season ticket numbers. I think this is because just as a group of regulars trade up to season tickets so the match tickets become more attractive to occasional attendees. And vice versa.
We offered discounts to people who bought both Leicester and Hull together in advance (a couple of hundred) and have made the same offer for Blackburn and Watford, because we recognise there is sensitivity on price. We have a plan for the season. No panic!
Ken, with respect, how is 15,500 for the 2nd home game against less than glamorous oppo during the summer hols a concern?
Because they count season ticket holders , wether they are there are not.....or should it be 'weather' they are there are not. Just been with a fan today, ex season ticket holder who said that he did not go because of the price? Unlike some on here I do not have all the answers, just supporting the view that cost has a major impact on attendance, and the teams we play against. Surely a big crowd has to be a good thing for the club, the atmosphere, and getting behind the players. Finances aside, and it is easy to dismiss that part of the situation, I thought the team performance midweek would have encouraged the casual fan to come down. Looks like I was wrong dosen't it......
Experience suggests that once there is sufficient spare capacity the match sale isn't affected by rising and falling season ticket numbers. I think this is because just as a group of regulars trade up to season tickets so the match tickets become more attractive to occasional attendees. And vice versa.
We offered discounts to people who bought both Leicester and Hull together in advance (a couple of hundred) and have made the same offer for Blackburn and Watford, because we recognise there is sensitivity on price. We have a plan for the season. No panic!
Sorry Airman, did not see your post which does support what I was getting at, should have realised the club would have been on top of this one.
I agree, not a crisis, but a concern surely, after all the first Saturday home game, after an excellent midweek performance, and a good point against the brum. Weather, A2, bank holiday etc all reasons why not to come, but we are beginning to sound like the goverment blaming the non recovery due to the bad weather, royal wedding, and people not finding loose change behind the settee. You can find a hundred reasons not to go, but the main one seems to be price. £25 for a walk in for the shall we say casual fan. Why not price the Millwall and Palace games to £30, and lower yesterdays games to £15. Or a three ticket home game red card holder/lapsed season ticket holder for £40 including palace. I think we have to get people back into the 'habit' as others have mentioned on here.
This is spot on. We have never been a big club with a big fan base. We got 27k every week in the Prem but almost every club brought 3,500 fans and a good 5,000 came and sat in home areas to watch cheap Premier League football, not to support Charlton.
£25 is a lot of money to charge someone to come along to a match where they have no real love for either team. Add to the fact it's not just £25, it's travel, a few beers, lunch etc and it's soon a £50 outing.
Experience suggests that once there is sufficient spare capacity the match sale isn't affected by rising and falling season ticket numbers. I think this is because just as a group of regulars trade up to season tickets so the match tickets become more attractive to occasional attendees. And vice versa.
We offered discounts to people who bought both Leicester and Hull together in advance (a couple of hundred) and have made the same offer for Blackburn and Watford, because we recognise there is sensitivity on price. We have a plan for the season. No panic!
Do you have a target average home attendance for the season?
I agree, not a crisis, but a concern surely, after all the first Saturday home game, after an excellent midweek performance, and a good point against the brum. Weather, A2, bank holiday etc all reasons why not to come, but we are beginning to sound like the goverment blaming the non recovery due to the bad weather, royal wedding, and people not finding loose change behind the settee. You can find a hundred reasons not to go, but the main one seems to be price. £25 for a walk in for the shall we say casual fan. Why not price the Millwall and Palace games to £30, and lower yesterdays games to £15. Or a three ticket home game red card holder/lapsed season ticket holder for £40 including palace. I think we have to get people back into the 'habit' as others have mentioned on here.
This is spot on. We have never been a big club with a big fan base. We got 27k every week in the Prem but almost every club brought 3,500 fans and a good 5,000 came and sat in home areas to watch cheap Premier League football, not to support Charlton.
£25 is a lot of money to charge someone to come along to a match where they have no real love for either team. Add to the fact it's not just £25, it's travel, a few beers, lunch etc and it's soon a £50 outing.
£25 does seem a lot but is pretty much the going rate in this league, certainly not the most (see the joke of a ticket price Ipswich are charging us).
It'd be cool to do something creative like for every home ticket you buy you get an additional 2% off, so game 1 that you go to you pay £25, game 2 you pay £24.50, and by the end of the season you could earn up to 46% off your match ticket. I've plucked 2% out of the air and it would have to be done on such a way that buying a s/t was still cheaper, but this would be a great way to reward fans who can't stump up for a season ticket for whatever reason and would incentivise people to come back.
The season ticket is obviously very good value and clubs will naturally reward the more loyal fans for buying upfront to attend every match.
That said I reckon there are loads of fans out there who either don't want to commit to every match (work, family, money). However, when they get a free Saturday or whatever don't feel £25 is sufficient value.
I'm sure that the club have done their analysis though and concluded £25 gives them the best financial return.
There are £20 and £22 tickets plus £15 family tickets so for an adult and an U11 it costs £20.
That is pretty good value compared to going to the pictures with a child.
Obviously people do look at the price but the club has to get the balance right between income and crowd numbers.
Personally I think that crowds will pick up as the school holidays end and the various offers kick in but if people are expecting 25k gates every week then perhaps they are setting their sights too highfor this season at least.
On the "real" fans v "plastics" I think it's pointless and self-defeating to set up divisions or grades of fans. We were all new fans once. Some can come every week, others can't. Some pick and choose, some have moved, some lost interest when times got bad and started doing other things.
They are still fans and the Club works very hard to get these people back as well as growing new fans. Some of those fans who came just because it was the premiership are still around and are as "real" fans as any on here. I know a couple of lifers in that category, neither grew up in the area but both have "converted". They chose Charlton, I had no choice so who is the real fan?
The fact is, clubs can't please every fan, inc any potentials. Doesn't matter what they do, there will always be some who still can't make it for one reason or another. Nothing better than a full, rockin Valley, but priorities change for some, whether for the good or bad.
I personally would be happy buying a 3-5 ticket pass, where I could pick and choose which match to go to. I would quite understand that I'd have to book up before to get to a match, and quite possibly not get my first choice if sold out. I know this could be a headache to the club, but a limited run and in the terms and conditions something could be sorted out with entitlements.
I toyed with buying a season ticket again, but as I've worked a lot of saturdays/evenings in the last few years I just couldn't get to even a quarter of the games. A short open gamed season ticket -maybe ruling out Palace and a few other big/rivval teams - would be perfect for me, coupled with encouraging me to book up for saturday games well in advance. I love seeing shit teams, or teams such as Donny and Blackpool, maybe I'm different to the majority who knows? However anyone argues for passion or for willfull personal financial hardships, football will have to be flexible and pioneering especially around November and December weekday games when traditionally you get poor turnouts - it's a no brainer to me. Why not a weekday multi-ticket that would include home matches in winter? You don't have to abuse the monetary investment season ticket holders make, and degrade their savings compared to an occasional fan over the whole season.
Oh and commercially there's no fact is. I you can pioneer something that identifies something in a new market, it doesn't need a tired old observation.
The club have already done both those deals you described.
The Jackson Five last season was five tickets for five games of your choice. There are no plans to offer one for this season as of yet but I'm pretty sure it is something the Target 40k focus group will look at again later in the season.
The perfect pair was on offer for the Leicester and Hull games and will be for other specified pairs of weekend and midweek games. You can save £10 on the joint price.
Yeah, let's talk about a sore subject here and on quite a few football forums, the issue of filling your ground. I know it's two games in, I am by no means having a go but 16,000 for a saturday afternoon in the championship? Really? Last time we were in the championship we hardly ever got under 20,000. I thought the lure of being in the second tier would bring people back, but for the opening two matches I guess not, 16k was roughly our league 1 average. Just asking on opinions about why our ground was half empty today, and if people think it's gonna be a common sight this season.
On the basis of us having 11k season ticket holders we would struggle to get 20k at the moment unless we are top three continuously. An average of 18k this season I think will be respectable, a damn sight more than our friends from SE16 and SE25
Comments
May have been plenty of others who had planned to attend but changed their minds on the day due to 2 major factors............the weather forcast and the closing of the A2 earlier in the day, due to the guy on the bridge. I was an ever-present last season but didn't have a season ticket. This season I do, so there's one ticked off the list.................................
We offered discounts to people who bought both Leicester and Hull together in advance (a couple of hundred) and have made the same offer for Blackburn and Watford, because we recognise there is sensitivity on price. We have a plan for the season. No panic!
Just been with a fan today, ex season ticket holder who said that he did not go because of the price?
Unlike some on here I do not have all the answers, just supporting the view that cost has a major impact on attendance, and the teams we play against.
Surely a big crowd has to be a good thing for the club, the atmosphere, and getting behind the players.
Finances aside, and it is easy to dismiss that part of the situation, I thought the team performance midweek would have encouraged the casual fan to come down. Looks like I was wrong dosen't it......
£25 is a lot of money to charge someone to come along to a match where they have no real love for either team. Add to the fact it's not just £25, it's travel, a few beers, lunch etc and it's soon a £50 outing.
It'd be cool to do something creative like for every home ticket you buy you get an additional 2% off, so game 1 that you go to you pay £25, game 2 you pay £24.50, and by the end of the season you could earn up to 46% off your match ticket. I've plucked 2% out of the air and it would have to be done on such a way that buying a s/t was still cheaper, but this would be a great way to reward fans who can't stump up for a season ticket for whatever reason and would incentivise people to come back.
That said I reckon there are loads of fans out there who either don't want to commit to every match (work, family, money). However, when they get a free Saturday or whatever don't feel £25 is sufficient value.
I'm sure that the club have done their analysis though and concluded £25 gives them the best financial return.
There are £20 and £22 tickets plus £15 family tickets so for an adult and an U11 it costs £20.
That is pretty good value compared to going to the pictures with a child.
Obviously people do look at the price but the club has to get the balance right between income and crowd numbers.
Personally I think that crowds will pick up as the school holidays end and the various offers kick in but if people are expecting 25k gates every week then perhaps they are setting their sights too highfor this season at least.
On the "real" fans v "plastics" I think it's pointless and self-defeating to set up divisions or grades of fans. We were all new fans once. Some can come every week, others can't. Some pick and choose, some have moved, some lost interest when times got bad and started doing other things.
They are still fans and the Club works very hard to get these people back as well as growing new fans. Some of those fans who came just because it was the premiership are still around and are as "real" fans as any on here. I know a couple of lifers in that category, neither grew up in the area but both have "converted". They chose Charlton, I had no choice so who is the real fan?
I toyed with buying a season ticket again, but as I've worked a lot of saturdays/evenings in the last few years I just couldn't get to even a quarter of the games. A short open gamed season ticket -maybe ruling out Palace and a few other big/rivval teams - would be perfect for me, coupled with encouraging me to book up for saturday games well in advance. I love seeing shit teams, or teams such as Donny and Blackpool, maybe I'm different to the majority who knows? However anyone argues for passion or for willfull personal financial hardships, football will have to be flexible and pioneering especially around November and December weekday games when traditionally you get poor turnouts - it's a no brainer to me. Why not a weekday multi-ticket that would include home matches in winter? You don't have to abuse the monetary investment season ticket holders make, and degrade their savings compared to an occasional fan over the whole season.
The club have already done both those deals you described.
The Jackson Five last season was five tickets for five games of your choice. There are no plans to offer one for this season as of yet but I'm pretty sure it is something the Target 40k focus group will look at again later in the season.
The perfect pair was on offer for the Leicester and Hull games and will be for other specified pairs of weekend and midweek games. You can save £10 on the joint price.
All the details are on the OS.
Apparently a lot of Hull fans didn't make it as well as CAFC.