I think its a very clever idea, and i think the club should be rightfully applauded for both innovation and constructing a scheme in favour of supporters.
BUT...
there is a part of me that feels they have simply misjudged the current situation and have been reckless with their decision-making.
3 months ago i fully agree an incentive such of this may of been needed to have ensured such a decent renewal count, but i now feel that the feel-good factor has returned in the past two months to such an extent that a discount of such magnitude is, to be blunt, too generous. Or more than what is necessary to maximise the fine line between maximising support and revenue.
If you could find me someone who will renew on this basis, yet would not have had the offer of been for a half price ticket, rather than free, i would be very, very suprised.
On that basis the club may have easily done itself out of a potential £2m, which would of paid for the salary of 3-5 squad players for that season.
The quotes about rewarding fans etc. are all very laudible, but at the end of the day the club has rightly told us on numerous ocassions it is now a multi-million pound business and finances and potential income planning are at the forefront of its decision making.
So had the club simply been a cross between generous and clever, or have they slightly recklessly gone too far in their attempt to both retain support, and make favourable headlines ?
[cite]Posted By: AFKA Bartram[/cite]On that basis the club may have easily done itself out of a potential £2m, which would of paid for the salary of 3-5 squad players for that season.
Could it not be argued that the club is investing that £2m(ish) on the twelfth man - us?
but my key question is what do we think the margin is between those that would renew on this deal compared to those who would of done had it been half price and not free ?
I think it would still of attracted very close to whatever figures we will get.
Ultimately it only becomes an issue if we go down and come straight back up. In which case, we'll be on the receiving end of the vastly improved TV money and it will have been money well spent.
There are lots of figures being bandied about, but the general consensus is that the new deal is worth £15-20m more per club per season. All this means is that it's "only" £13-18m for us for one season.
I think the diehards would have renewed anyway, but the floating support (the ones that are allegedly only here cos it's a cheap way to see Prem games) probably wouldn't. With a half price deal you'd basically be getting a Championship season at Premiership prices, followed by a Premiership season at not much less than Championship prices (not withstanding the difference in the number of games) so it's a lot less of an incentive than the free offer. One advantage to the club of the free offer as opposed to the half price one, is that they save on the administrative costs of processing the payments.
I think its a good way of firming up support/ST revenue should we go down. Which is very important to keeping a decent squad should that happen. The reason it is such a dramatic amount to reward fans, but also easily affordable under the new prem payments if we do go back up.
Comments
BUT...
there is a part of me that feels they have simply misjudged the current situation and have been reckless with their decision-making.
3 months ago i fully agree an incentive such of this may of been needed to have ensured such a decent renewal count, but i now feel that the feel-good factor has returned in the past two months to such an extent that a discount of such magnitude is, to be blunt, too generous. Or more than what is necessary to maximise the fine line between maximising support and revenue.
If you could find me someone who will renew on this basis, yet would not have had the offer of been for a half price ticket, rather than free, i would be very, very suprised.
On that basis the club may have easily done itself out of a potential £2m, which would of paid for the salary of 3-5 squad players for that season.
The quotes about rewarding fans etc. are all very laudible, but at the end of the day the club has rightly told us on numerous ocassions it is now a multi-million pound business and finances and potential income planning are at the forefront of its decision making.
So had the club simply been a cross between generous and clever, or have they slightly recklessly gone too far in their attempt to both retain support, and make favourable headlines ?
but my key question is what do we think the margin is between those that would renew on this deal compared to those who would of done had it been half price and not free ?
I think it would still of attracted very close to whatever figures we will get.
There are lots of figures being bandied about, but the general consensus is that the new deal is worth £15-20m more per club per season. All this means is that it's "only" £13-18m for us for one season.
...but we're staying-up, so it's a moot point!
Staying Up!