Season Tickets - Is the price really too high?

[The Flying Scotsman]

It appears that the majority of us, including myself, are a bit peeved at the £50 increase in season tickets, which represents an increase of around 16%.

However, last season the tickets were reduced greatly to encourage supporters to renew after relegation which seems to have worked. Now that prices are going back up the problem has only been delayed a year i fear.

Just crunching some numbers - the last time we were in league 2 (2004/05 season), and having finished 17th in the previous two season, prices were set at £305 a season ticket and £16.50 for a matchday ticket.

Allowing for inflation at 3% each year and excluding the recent increase in VAT, if we had stayed in League 2 instead of having two promotion, two relegations and some decent cup runs and prices had increased at the rate of inflation each season we would have been paying the following:

Season Tickets for 2011/12 - £375.12
Matchday Tickets - £20.29

Therefore prices this year appear to be a bargain!!

 

[Jam_Man]

The actual price is not too high, it is still competitive with most League Two sides, and may be even more so when they all increase their prices for next season.

The problem is they gave us cheap tickets by reducing the cost by 20% and now taking that away and adding a 10% increase makes it look like a massive hike and people are understandably annoyed by that.

 

[The Big Shrimp]

.....but compared to other Div 2 sides?

If you compare our matchday ticket prices we're more expensive than nearly most of the division. I Gillingham are the only team more expensive. If that is replicated to the season ticket prices, then its not as much of a bargain.

 

[TravellingBlue]

For me it is not the cost of the ST or even the rise in the cost of the ST - but where the money for the ST is going.

My family and I have many ST's between us - we would gladly renew. However, the club must give some sort of guarantee that the monies for ST is not just being paid into some black hole of RM's debt.

I cannot continue to pay for another mans debt - I would glady pay for the plesure to watch my team at my home ground - but until a full and frank explanation of the club finances - without the smoke and mirrors is given - then we will abstain.

 

[Jam_Man]

.....but compared to other Div 2 sides?

If you compare our matchday ticket prices we're more expensive than nearly most of the division. I Gillingham are the only team more expensive. If that is replicated to the season ticket prices, then its not as much of a bargain.

Yes compared to other season tickets ours is competitiveneven at new price. Old price was very cheap. I posted a list yesterday and we are no where near the top. I didn't check matchday prices.

You can get cheaper tickets at some grounds for standing but I looked At main stand seating.

 

[canveyshrimper]

For me it is not the cost of the ST or even the rise in the cost of the ST - but where the money for the ST is going.

My family and I have many ST's between us - we would gladly renew. However, the club must give some sort of guarantee that the monies for ST is not just being paid into some black hole of RM's debt.

I cannot continue to pay for another mans debt - I would glady pay for the plesure to watch my team at my home ground - but until a full and frank explanation of the club finances - without the smoke and mirrors is given - then we will abstain.

How can any club or company for that matter give such a guarantee, particularly in such uncertain financial times? And by the way you are paying for another mans debt (Gordon Brown and his Government) in your taxes.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Yes compared to other season tickets ours is competitiveneven at new price. Old price was very cheap. I posted a list yesterday and we are no where near the top. I didn't check matchday prices.

You can get cheaper tickets at some grounds for standing but I looked At main stand seating.

I agree with you about the prices being competitive, but are they value for money? That IMO is the underlying question, and FWIW I don't think they are. It's a buyers not a sellers market as I think the club may well find out.

 

[wiggy]

For me it is not the cost of the ST or even the rise in the cost of the ST - but where the money for the ST is going.

My family and I have many ST's between us - we would gladly renew. However, the club must give some sort of guarantee that the monies for ST is not just being paid into some black hole of RM's debt.

I cannot continue to pay for another mans debt - I would glady pay for the plesure to watch my team at my home ground - but until a full and frank explanation of the club finances - without the smoke and mirrors is given - then we will abstain.

Same here, it's not the 50 quid extra, it's where it's going. Down the drain, can't fund his dream any longer, horrible little bull ******* that walks over decent people, not any more my son!

 

[Beefy]

I cannot continue to pay for another mans debt - I would glady pay for the plesure to watch my team at my home ground - but until a full and frank explanation of the club finances - without the smoke and mirrors is given - then we will abstain.

There's a full and frank explanation of the Club's finances published annually at Companies House. It's more depressing and more damning on the financial mismanagement of the Club than any explanation you'll get from RM.

 

[Jam_Man]

I agree with you about the prices being competitive, but are they value for money? That IMO is the underlying question, and FWIW I don't think they are. It's a buyers not a sellers market as I think the club may well find out.

Thats a question for all football clubs though.

Clubs our size charge the same as Blackburn and Blackpool do, so value for money wise they get to watch Premiership games for the same price we get to watch League two. They however get a touch more sponsorship !

As for a buyers/sellers market as has always been the case but football clubs dont work the same as other business and customers dont change brands.

I do think that the size of the increase, whether the end price is competitive or not, will end up in less season ticket sales and no doubt smaller crowds so agree they may end up losing more money.

 

[TravellingBlue]

How can any club or company for that matter give such a guarantee, particularly in such uncertain financial times? And by the way you are paying for another mans debt (Gordon Brown and his Government) in your taxes.

I was about to say Gordon Brown and his Government - you're stuck in a timewarp!! But then realised you are probably referring to the higher taxes we need to pay now to cover his mis management of Government.

I pay taxes because that's the law of the land.

I pay for my ST's because I want to be entertained, generally on a Saturday afternoon and watch a good game of football. That is choice.

I do not want to pay for my ST's just to help an individual repay his debt ridden companies - that is charity. But it is also choice.

 

[Firestorm]

Thats a question for all football clubs though.

Clubs our size charge the same as Blackburn and Blackpool do, so value for money wise they get to watch Premiership games for the same price we get to watch League two. They however get a touch more sponsorship !

As for a buyers/sellers market as has always been the case but football clubs dont work the same as other business and customers dont change brands.


I do think that the size of the increase, whether the end price is competitive or not, will end up in less season ticket sales and no doubt smaller crowds so agree they may end up losing more money.

The comparison against prem sides is unfair, 50 quid off of 20,000 season tickets equates to 1 million, which is around 2 percent of a Blackburns clubs turnover.

50 quid off of 3,000 season tickets is 150K which is over 4% of a turnover of 3.5M and currently one tenth of our wage budget

 

[Dick Bate's Protege]

I always have to miss in the region of 5 games a year through family and other commitments so a season ticket is not of value to me. I buy one when our average crowds are high, but in League 2 I can't see why anyone would bother giving the man their money up front.

Even allowing for a big cup draw, you'll always get a ticket if you're prepared to send your wife/mum up to the ground to queue; which I am. In 25 years of going to Roots Hall, I've never been forced to miss a game through shortage of tickets, and I'm pretty confident I never will despite what the club would have me believe.

I also believe that if people pay on the gate instead of buying season tickets it may force our illustrious Chairman to manage his money better over the course of the season rather than it burning a hole in his pocket.

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

Never had a season card/ticket in my 30 years of following the shrimpers due to cost mainly but i now have one for the Berrichonne but at E75 its stupid not not to.
BUT southend are in the poop and need the money so hence the price hike,fair no worth it no but as a giffen good what can you do.

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

For me it is not the cost of the ST or even the rise in the cost of the ST - but where the money for the ST is going.

The money is going towards the 'running' of the club and 'paying' players and staff etc.
I don't understand why people think that Ron is emptying the tills and putting the dough in his inside jacket pocket. In my opinion and looking at TFS's figures there, the season ticket price is not too high. We all must have expected it surely?
What we can see from these posts is that a few of us aren't annoyed at the rise in ticket prices but they are annoyed at the money going down the drain, which happens at every football club.

Will people really not go?
Does not getting a season ticket mean, 'I won't be going back to watch Southend United next season!' I don't think it does. Just because you don't get a season ticket doesn't mean you are banned from attending.
We will be able to get to the bog and get the burgers in much quicker with less fans in the ground.

 

[TravellingBlue]

The money is going towards the 'running' of the club and 'paying' players and staff etc.
I don't understand why people think that Ron is emptying the tills and putting the dough in his inside jacket pocket. In my opinion and looking at TFS's figures there, the season ticket price is not too high. We all must have expected it surely?
What we can see from these posts is that a few of us aren't annoyed at the rise in ticket prices but they are annoyed at the money going down the drain, which happens at every football club.

Will people really not go?
Does not getting a season ticket mean, 'I won't be going back to watch Southend United next season!' I don't think it does. Just because you don't get a season ticket doesn't mean you are banned from attending.
We will be able to get to the bog and get the burgers in much quicker with less fans in the ground.

OBD,

But it's not is it? We cannot afford to pay the players or the staff - Sainsbury's do that on our behalf.

The tills were empty some time ago, there's nothing left for him to take.

The ST price is irrelevant, whatever their cost, if I believed my money was going to PS for the re-generation of the squad and the running of the club I would gladly pay - I firmly do not believe this to be the case.

I will not repay another individuals debt - therefore I will no longer buy my ST's in advance and will instead pick and chose what games and where I wish to attend next season.

I can understand blind loyalty my friend, I have followed this team for all of my life - I just no longer believe a word RM or TB say and I believe I'm not alone there.

 

[Beefy]

TB, do you have any evidence that the club is "paying another individual's debt"?

 

[TravellingBlue]

TB, do you have any evidence that the club is "paying another individual's debt"?

Beefy, no my friend, just a gut feeling, nothing more. Years and months of incessant bullcrap, mis-information, lies, smoke and mirrors etc has just ground me down.

My family and I and our friends who have followed for many, many years no longer get much enjoyment or the 'buzz' out of following anymore - we try to put our finger on the reason and all come up with the fact that the club has been in our opinion mis-managed for a considerable amount of time and the financial state of the club is held firmly at the door of the Chairman (as rightly it should be).

 

[Beefy]

Your 519 posts on here don't portray you as someone with no enthusiasm for the Club anymore. You can't have missed many games this year.

As for your second paragraph, the Club has been financially mismanaged for a long time and the Chairman should be accountable for that. But I don't think our current problems are down to that mismanagement. What we're seeing now is the horrid, brutal reality of how out of touch with the real world the business model of a lower league football club in England is. It's been so graphically displayed for all to see because we have a Chairman without a pot to **** in and therefore there's no way of him hiding the truth any longer. If Southend United were any other business in any other sector we'd have been liquidated long ago.

 

[The Big Shrimp]

TB, do you have any evidence that the club is "paying another individual's debt"?

Probably not, but with the way money is moved between companies within TefRon's group, it is possible.