We have sold 3250 ST's and targeting 4500

[CreamofSumYungGai]

Me and Norbs got our first season tickets as kids in 95 too.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

I’m sure you’re correct about the 4 games. The £5 ones aside they happened to be two of the biggest games of the season.

Look, I understand the need to attract young supporters but I still think that anything under £100 for a season ticket is very reasonable. If you don’t use it then that’s your problem. Why buy a product that you know you aren’t going to use properly?

The argument of “kids don’t go to all games so their season tickets should be really really cheap” seems very bizarre to me.

Maybe introduce a “kids season ticket” which excludes weekday games and is only available in the family stand. Can charge a much reduced fee for this ticket and add the option of purchasing the midweek games for £5 a pop.

Estoban, You may have something there with the "kids season ticket"

If many people are using their kids season ticket in the way being described here (only using it for a limited number of games) the it essentially should be a different product.

As a product a season ticket is something which gets you into 20+ matches. If lots of people are using it different for their kids (only going to 10 or so matches) then it seems a wildly illogical step to fix this by drastically lowering the cost of the product.

Surely it makes more sense to develop a product which caters to the way its being used. Maybe the kids season ticket is essentially a token for 10/15 games which you look and choose. You could set a deadline to request to use it for a certain game (let’s say up to 24 hours before kick off). If you miss the deadline the seat then becomes available for somebody else to purchase. This really would solve the issue of the “sold out” games as a load of tickets will become available within 24 hours before kick off, for general sale.

Logistically this may be impossible to arrange, but I’m just trying to think of a way to give kids the option to actually attend the game whilst preventing a wasted seat if they don’t.

from what I gather the argument is that a season ticket as it exists isn’t being used as the product it is. So why not create one which works!

Agree with what you’re getting at.

The suggestion of unallocated seating could get around this without being anywhere near as complicated, although obviously not as precise. The club would have an idea of how many would attend, then could sell on the remainder.

[Esteban]

Estoban, You may have something there with the "kids season ticket"

If many people are using their kids season ticket in the way being described here (only using it for a limited number of games) the it essentially should be a different product.

As a product a season ticket is something which gets you into 20+ matches. If lots of people are using it different for their kids (only going to 10 or so matches) then it seems a wildly illogical step to fix this by drastically lowering the cost of the product.

Surely it makes more sense to develop a product which caters to the way its being used. Maybe the kids season ticket is essentially a token for 10/15 games which you look and choose. You could set a deadline to request to use it for a certain game (let’s say up to 24 hours before kick off). If you miss the deadline the seat then becomes available for somebody else to purchase. This really would solve the issue of the “sold out” games as a load of tickets will become available within 24 hours before kick off, for general sale.

Logistically this may be impossible to arrange, but I’m just trying to think of a way to give kids the option to actually attend the game whilst preventing a wasted seat if they don’t.

from what I gather the argument is that a season ticket as it exists isn’t being used as the product it is. So why not create one which works!

Agree with what you’re getting at.

The suggestion of unallocated seating could get around this without being anywhere near as complicated, although obviously not as precise. The club would have an idea of how many would attend, then could sell on the remainder.

I’ve always been a big fan of unallocated seating.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Any system that requires the club guess how many kids will be there and importantly what seat will be free is near impossible. Though I applaud the thought process that is going on. Not too sure the club has many options but to price as they deem fair and hope buyers are those who will attend. Too cheap and kids don’t bother coming, no loss, too dear and they don’t buy at all.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

But it is a loss, a loss of future fans.

[RientO]

Any system that requires the club guess how many kids will be there and importantly what seat will be free is near impossible.

If there was unallocated seating, it would be simple. The expected no shows can be calculated based on the opposition and time of game and oversell accordingly. Airlines do this on flights with smaller less predictable numbers. It not guesswork, it’s statistics.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Any system that requires the club guess how many kids will be there and importantly what seat will be free is near impossible.

If there was unallocated seating, it would be simple. The expected no shows can be calculated based on the opposition and time of game and oversell accordingly. Airlines do this on flights with smaller less predictable numbers. It not guesswork, it’s statistics.

It’s a fair point, unallocated seating offers flexibility and demand forecasting is routine and sophisticated these days. The down side is that when people buy season tickets they have a set seat(s) which some may well like and arriving two minutes before KO don’t matter. You also get to know the people in seats around you and adds to the social aspect of the game too. Lot to be said for an allocated seat.

Removing this reduces the value of a ST over pay on the day.

Last season first in near 60 years I’ve bothered with a ST, caught up in the 4000 target. never get to all games, midweeks are near impossible, add holidays and family occasions etc. For me and many others I would guess, a ST doesn’t save very much. I also lost the flexibility that I enjoyed switching the stand I viewed the game from.

But I’ve got to know the people around me, have a good seat view and can have a pint before the game knowing my seat is safe when arriving just before KO. So I’ve renewed and having a ST I’ll definately make more of an effort to see those games I,d probably give a miss too with pay on the day. If it were an unallocated seat I definitely would not have renewed.

Not quite as simple as it seems.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

You’ve gone from it being near impossible to routine in 2 posts.

Most games it wouldn’t be an issue, you’d generally sit in the same sort of areas anyway. And if you were really keen, you’d just have to get there a bit earlier. This is merely for the north stand we’re talking about here.

[Esteban]

You’ve gone from it being near impossible to routine in 2 posts.

Most games it wouldn’t be an issue, you’d generally sit in the same sort of areas anyway. And if you were really keen, you’d just have to get there a bit earlier. This is merely for the north stand we’re talking about here.

Also, you could just buy your season ticket in another stand which would be allocated.

Having a stand of unallocated seats fixes a lot of problems.

[Thor]

It also creates a lot of issues when it’s busy and you can’t sit with your friends as old lardy arse needs to two seats. Also people leave a seat next to someone most times so as to garner more room and space so suddenly you have a lot of ghost seats now rather than ghost kids!

[CreamofSumYungGai]

Give you an allocated seat number as you go through th3 turnstile on those 3 games a season it’s anywhere near full.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

You’ve gone from it being near impossible to routine in 2 posts.

Most games it wouldn’t be an issue, you’d generally sit in the same sort of areas anyway. And if you were really keen, you’d just have to get there a bit earlier. This is merely for the north stand we’re talking about here.

Near impossible with allocated seat numbers to routine without allocated seat numbers. Not a complex distinction. Issues are the same irrespective of the stand.

[Cheshunto]

We need youngsters to come along on a regular basis but Season Tickets for £9 or £11 etc is way too cheap and these prices make it easy for kids to turn up once or twice a season.
On the other hand its expensive for a parent with 3 kids to buy them one each at say £99 plus their own ticket.
Why not, as I`ve posted above somewhere above here, charge the FIRST Child the £99, making sure the ticket has some value and is used, but make subsequent tickets a more affordable £25 each.

Kids probably won`t attend many midweek games so maybe we should just give them STs for weekends only ??
Its difficult to keep everyone happy, but we definitely need to encourage Kids to come along as our support is getting `older` every season.

I`m assuming that Kent Teague give tickets away when he does his speeches / visits to local schools etc

[CreamofSumYungGai]

You’ve gone from it being near impossible to routine in 2 posts.

Most games it wouldn’t be an issue, you’d generally sit in the same sort of areas anyway. And if you were really keen, you’d just have to get there a bit earlier. This is merely for the north stand we’re talking about here.

Near impossible with allocated seat numbers to routine without allocated seat numbers. Not a complex distinction. Issues are the same irrespective of the stand.

We were already talking about unallocated seating, keep up fella

[CreamofSumYungGai]

We need youngsters to come along on a regular basis but Season Tickets for £9 or £11 etc is way too cheap and these prices make it easy for kids to turn up once or twice a season.
On the other hand its expensive for a parent with 3 kids to buy them one each at say £99 plus their own ticket.
Why not, as I`ve posted above somewhere above here, charge the FIRST Child the £99, making sure the ticket has some value and is used, but make subsequent tickets a more affordable £25 each.

Kids probably won`t attend many midweek games so maybe we should just give them STs for weekends only ??
Its difficult to keep everyone happy, but we definitely need to encourage Kids to come along as our support is getting `older` every season.

I`m assuming that Kent Teague give tickets away when he does his speeches / visits to local schools etc

If a kids season ticket was £99, for the first or the subsequent tickets, I wouldn't buy one. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be alone.

If the issue with the kids tickets is that they're not being used enough, then even at £25 that wouldn't ensure they're utilised. I know it's a personal thing depending on your income but I'd say you've got to charge £50 or upwards to make sure only those who intend to use them regularly buy one.

Or you bring in something like I've already suggested - £50 or so for a ticket but if the kid attends a certain number of games, they get a free shirt for next season. You could have Theo in the North Stand taking a register to tick them off to add to the fun.

[Cheshunto]

We need youngsters to come along on a regular basis but Season Tickets for £9 or £11 etc is way too cheap and these prices make it easy for kids to turn up once or twice a season.
On the other hand its expensive for a parent with 3 kids to buy them one each at say £99 plus their own ticket.
Why not, as I`ve posted above somewhere above here, charge the FIRST Child the £99, making sure the ticket has some value and is used, but make subsequent tickets a more affordable £25 each.

Kids probably won`t attend many midweek games so maybe we should just give them STs for weekends only ??
Its difficult to keep everyone happy, but we definitely need to encourage Kids to come along as our support is getting `older` every season.

I`m assuming that Kent Teague give tickets away when he does his speeches / visits to local schools etc

If a kids season ticket was £99, for the first or the subsequent tickets, I wouldn't buy one. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be alone.

If the issue with the kids tickets is that they're not being used enough, then even at £25 that wouldn't ensure they're utilised. I know it's a personal thing depending on your income but I'd say you've got to charge £50 or upwards to make sure only those who intend to use them regularly buy one.

Or you bring in something like I've already suggested - £50 or so for a ticket but if the kid attends a certain number of games, they get a free shirt for next season. You could have Theo in the North Stand taking a register to tick them off to add to the fun.

I think that Stevenage are giving a shirt away this season if a kid buys a ticket in their new stand................Its a good idea.
How about if the kid attends at least 50% of the games he gets a discount from the following years ticket ??
Maybe proof in the form of a book which Theo stamps every time the kid attends.......
These are all gimmicks, I know, but these kids are the future support.

[RientO]

...give tickets away when he does his speeches / visits to local schools etc

Orient used to give a lot of tickets to schools, maybe they still do judging by the youngsters in the east stand, but as my son isn't at school anymore, I can't be sure. Thing is a lot of those tickets don't get used, and the likes of me used to get them.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

We need youngsters to come along on a regular basis but Season Tickets for £9 or £11 etc is way too cheap and these prices make it easy for kids to turn up once or twice a season.
On the other hand its expensive for a parent with 3 kids to buy them one each at say £99 plus their own ticket.
Why not, as I`ve posted above somewhere above here, charge the FIRST Child the £99, making sure the ticket has some value and is used, but make subsequent tickets a more affordable £25 each.

Kids probably won`t attend many midweek games so maybe we should just give them STs for weekends only ??
Its difficult to keep everyone happy, but we definitely need to encourage Kids to come along as our support is getting `older` every season.

I`m assuming that Kent Teague give tickets away when he does his speeches / visits to local schools etc

If a kids season ticket was £99, for the first or the subsequent tickets, I wouldn't buy one. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be alone.

If the issue with the kids tickets is that they're not being used enough, then even at £25 that wouldn't ensure they're utilised. I know it's a personal thing depending on your income but I'd say you've got to charge £50 or upwards to make sure only those who intend to use them regularly buy one.

Or you bring in something like I've already suggested - £50 or so for a ticket but if the kid attends a certain number of games, they get a free shirt for next season. You could have Theo in the North Stand taking a register to tick them off to add to the fun.

I think that Stevenage are giving a shirt away this season if a kid buys a ticket in their new stand................Its a good idea.
How about if the kid attends at least 50% of the games he gets a discount from the following years ticket ??
Maybe proof in the form of a book which Theo stamps every time the kid attends.......
These are all gimmicks, I know, but these kids are the future support.

Say I'm like most north stand parents and spend £10 plus £40 on a shirt for each kid, £50 total spend. If the issue really is unused seats, then doing it this way will encourage them to attend.

I don't think that's what it's actually about tho - it's about maximising current revenues. Everything else about the way the club is now run backs that up.

Re:free tickets to schools, no issue with that but I guarantee you've got more chance of gaining a future fan for life by targeting the kids of current fans rather than random kids in local schools.(Not to say the club shouldn't be trying to bring in both).

[Esteban]

If a kids season ticket was £99, for the first or the subsequent tickets, I wouldn't buy one. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be alone.

If the issue with the kids tickets is that they're not being used enough, then even at £25 that wouldn't ensure they're utilised. I know it's a personal thing depending on your income but I'd say you've got to charge £50 or upwards to make sure only those who intend to use them regularly buy one.

Or you bring in something like I've already suggested - £50 or so for a ticket but if the kid attends a certain number of games, they get a free shirt for next season. You could have Theo in the North Stand taking a register to tick them off to add to the fun.

I think that Stevenage are giving a shirt away this season if a kid buys a ticket in their new stand................Its a good idea.
How about if the kid attends at least 50% of the games he gets a discount from the following years ticket ??
Maybe proof in the form of a book which Theo stamps every time the kid attends.......
These are all gimmicks, I know, but these kids are the future support.

Say I'm like most north stand parents and spend £10 plus £40 on a shirt for each kid, £50 total spend. If the issue really is unused seats, then doing it this way will encourage them to attend.

I don't think that's what it's actually about tho - it's about maximising current revenues. Everything else about the way the club is now run backs that up.

Re:free tickets to schools, no issue with that but I guarantee you've got more chance of gaining a future fan for life by targeting the kids of current fans rather than random kids in local schools.(Not to say the club shouldn't be trying to bring in both).

Interestingly, the reason I started going to football was because my school used to run a 5-a-side club after school (a little weekly competition where you'd play in a team with your mates) and each week the best team would get tickets to a home game as a prize.

Unfortunately, because i'm rubbish, it took me a while to win tickets but after going once I enjoyed it so much I asked my dad to take me back. The rest is history.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

Interestingly, the reason I started going to football was because my school used to run a 5-a-side club after school (a little weekly competition where you'd play in a team with your mates) and each week the best team would get tickets to a home game as a prize.

Unfortunately, because i'm rubbish, it took me a while to win tickets but after going once I enjoyed it so much I asked my dad to take me back. The rest is history.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

...give tickets away when he does his speeches / visits to local schools etc

Orient used to give a lot of tickets to schools, maybe they still do judging by the youngsters in the east stand, but as my son isn't at school anymore, I can't be sure. Thing is a lot of those tickets don't get used, and the likes of me used to get them.

Back when I paid on the day it was not uncommon to see people selling tickets outside the ground. Often season tickets when a friend could make it. No issue with that, the ticket has been bought and paid for.

A couple of times I’ve been offered cheap tickets, that turned out to be complimentary, issued free. Fans trying to make a buck at the clubs expense. I’d sooner buy from the ticket office.

[Cheshunto]

I bought 3x£10 Tickets for my Three Sons
One of them and I go regularly and have Gallery Season Tickets
The other two occasionally.
Many criticise Hearn but I think that was a good move and I recall our fan base grew a lot IIRC.

[RientO]

A couple of times I’ve been offered cheap tickets, that turned out to be complimentary, issued free. Fans trying to make a buck at the clubs expense. I’d sooner buy from the ticket office.

I used to leave the spare complimentary tickets I had in the pub or outside turnstile. Doubt many were used.

Whenever I went to Charlton that there were always kids selling the freebie tickets for a fiver or less. Trainee touts! I used to take them up on it as I wasn't too worried about Charlton getting my money.

[RientO]

But I’ve got to know the people around me...

So have I. I am not sitting there next season :-)

[Thor]

If a kids season ticket was £99, for the first or the subsequent tickets, I wouldn't buy one. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be alone.

If the issue with the kids tickets is that they're not being used enough, then even at £25 that wouldn't ensure they're utilised. I know it's a personal thing depending on your income but I'd say you've got to charge £50 or upwards to make sure only those who intend to use them regularly buy one.

Or you bring in something like I've already suggested - £50 or so for a ticket but if the kid attends a certain number of games, they get a free shirt for next season. You could have Theo in the North Stand taking a register to tick them off to add to the fun.

I think that Stevenage are giving a shirt away this season if a kid buys a ticket in their new stand................Its a good idea.
How about if the kid attends at least 50% of the games he gets a discount from the following years ticket ??
Maybe proof in the form of a book which Theo stamps every time the kid attends.......
These are all gimmicks, I know, but these kids are the future support.

Say I'm like most north stand parents and spend £10 plus £40 on a shirt for each kid, £50 total spend. If the issue really is unused seats, then doing it this way will encourage them to attend.

I don't think that's what it's actually about tho - it's about maximising current revenues. Everything else about the way the club is now run backs that up.

Re:free tickets to schools, no issue with that but I guarantee you've got more chance of gaining a future fan for life by targeting the kids of current fans rather than random kids in local schools.(Not to say the club shouldn't be trying to bring in both).

Every little helps as the slogan goes.

If that’s all you Spend though it’s best you go over the marshes