Early bird season ticket deadline extended!

Burnhamgull · Post by **Burnhamgull** » 30 May 2014, 20:40

Despite having had my ST renewed for me as a "gift" from the family, I'm still disappointed by the clubs lack of charm offensive in the off season. No attempt to woo me and almost taking for granted the fact I will renew.

It would be interesting to see some numbers on ST renewals so far.

So.....when do the fixtures come out?

I'm watching the Peru match and I'm equally as uninspired as I have been since August at club level.

DerbyshireGull · Post by **DerbyshireGull** » 30 May 2014, 20:52

Burnhamgull wrote:Despite having had my ST renewed for me as a "gift" from the family, I'm still disappointed by the clubs lack of charm offensive in the off season. No attempt to woo me and almost taking for granted the fact I will renew.

It would be interesting to see some numbers on ST renewals so far.

So.....when do the fixtures come out?

I'm watching the Peru match and I'm equally as uninspired as I have been since August at club level.

That's the point I've been making for a while Burnham and thank God somebody else appears to concur with me. You've hit the nail on the head. They should be trying anything and everything to get the money out of us but we don't even get any attempts to do so. They don't want our custom enough is the opinion I'm forming. They very well might get their wish.

It's tough times. We've lost our league status, been playing absolute shocking football for the past 2 years or so, appointed a rookie boss who has zero experience of assembling a squad of footballers on a shoestring, we've got some really poor footballers at the club we are stuck with and we can't sign anyone half decent because we've got no cash. The response should be dynamic, power packed, brimming with intent, bursting with resolve and determination, offering us hope, renewed vigour and selling us the new adventure.

The response we have is that nobody seems to be bothered. Renew or not renew? That is the question. (Knew my Shakespeare would come in handy one day. =D ).

It's further apathy and indeed the reason why we can't do a Cambridge. Not because of fans not being interested. If they are not interested then there is a pretty good reason why.

Post by **Dave** » 01 Jun 2014, 17:28

Bumped in to a mate this afternoon, who renewed his season ticket after 4pm Thursday, he asked how many had been sold and was told 374, roughly 50 % down on this point the previous year.

Neal · Post by **Neal** » 01 Jun 2014, 19:17

I couldn't bring myself to buy one unfortunately. I can't bare the thought of seeing Hawley, Harding, Tongue, Benyon etc again in a TUFC shirt. I will go on game to game basis hoping not see any of those

PlainmoorRoar · Post by **PlainmoorRoar** » 01 Jun 2014, 19:46

forevertufc wrote:Bumped in to a mate this afternoon, who renewed his season ticket after 4pm Thursday, he asked how many had been sold and was told 374, roughly 50 % down on this point the previous year.

Not good at all!

Maybe with a few more in the deadline we can assume approximately 400.

Only hinders CH budget, he'll need to sign well to persuade some more to renew!

Basically on the figures so far looks like we will end on 500 :/

Post by **Dave** » 01 Jun 2014, 20:13

No, not good at all, kind of makes me feel guilty for not renewing mine, however I just couldn't and hope people understand my reasons for not doing so.

Oil Beef Hooked · Post by **Oil Beef Hooked** » 01 Jun 2014, 20:26

I may have misheard, but when I renewed mine and my son's on Friday afternoon, the figure quoted was around 470 ish.

Post by **Dave** » 01 Jun 2014, 20:30

Which when you take into account the club had sold 374 by Thursday and there's always a last minute rush, I would say that figure would be about right, still 50 % down, as when I've asked last two season when I renewed mine, usually on the last day, we had sold around 900.

PlainmoorRoar · Post by **PlainmoorRoar** » 01 Jun 2014, 21:15

forevertufc wrote:No, not good at all, kind of makes me feel guilty for not renewing mine, however I just couldn't and hope people understand my reasons for not doing so.

I don't think anyone can be blamed for not renewing forever!

If what Oli says above is true we could make closer to 600 and each one does help

I still don't think the club have made a ST a fan friendly option, I've said it on another thread, maybe programmes for £2 instead of £3 for ST holders/ a free message on the big screen/ a free birthday gift in the shop (ie something costing only a few pounds!/ bring a friend for free vouchers/ just a few off the top of my head

Would any of that made a difference to you forever?

brooker · Post by **brooker** » 01 Jun 2014, 23:27

I screwed up. My mum said she would get me one as a birthday present, and id pay half back. But went over hers today and she thought i was buying it, and she was going to give me half! Anyway, does anyone think that the club would let me have the early bird price if i renewed tomorrow?

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 01 Jun 2014, 23:29

If we have 1000 ST holders and the programme is reduced by a pound for every home game and all 1000 ST holders take up the offer, that'll cost the club £23,000 over the course of the season. We need to sell an extra 78 STs to make up the loss.
The club shop thing, say four pounds, well, that's £92,000 or 312 extra tickets.

There's no way that over 300 people would go to Torquay every week, but don't because they don't get a genuinely shit tea mug or calendar from the club shop. It's only just conceivable that an extra 8% of locals would stump up to save themselves £23 over the year, as if the £96 saving (taking a Popside adult ticket as a representative example) on tickets wasn't enough.

Bringalongafriend voucher and message on the big screen are both cost free suggestions, which makes them much more likely to make us money. However, given that a ST already gives a number of benefits, both financial and non-financial which vastly outweigh any of these suggestions, you've got to wonder just how much of an incentive any of these ideas will really affect sales.
Andy made this argument on another thread, that he basically wants something, almost anything else, which smacks a little bit of wanting to take from someone you perceive to be better off. It's the whole "stealing a Mars bar from Sainsbury's doesn't matter because Sainsbury's won't notice" argument. Sainsbury's already provides you with a much cheaper alternative, free parking, convenience, choice, variety and a host of other services, yet people always want more.
If there wasn't already a club shop discount with the ST, that's what you'd be asking for. If programmes were already cheaper with a ST, you'd be asking for something else.
People always want more, it's the capitalist way and it's one of the greatest failings of the human condition, but resisting it (such as by the club not offering an overly generous perk package for ST holders) is the right thing to do up to a point.

The only thing which will sell more STs is success on the pitch and even that is somewhat unlikely to succeed. There are a finite number of people willing to come and watch Torquay. Hector (Gawd bless 'im) keeps banging the "if you build it, they will come" drum and equally often, the EverBright ForeverTUFC brings up stats which prove that we didn't see a noticeable increase in attendances when we made the playoffs over seasons when we were flirting (like a cheap tart on a Saturday night) with relegation. If we go up to L1 and we stay there, we might (MIGHT!) get an extra couple of hundred geriatrics to potter along to the ground every other Saturday and pretend they love the club. They'll be there for the football, not for the free teddy bear from the club shop.

Matt.

A Candy · Post by **A Candy** » 02 Jun 2014, 06:31

Hi Brooker,
Yes we will. Any problems ask for me.
Regards,
Andrew

Magpiegull · Post by **Magpiegull** » 02 Jun 2014, 08:06

Nice touch Andy. Great to see that you were 'available' at such an early hour to help him out! Maybe you could confirm the number of STs sold at the end of the EB offer?

Post by **Dave** » 02 Jun 2014, 10:36

PlainmoorRoar wrote: I don't think anyone can be blamed for not renewing forever!

If what Oli says above is true we could make closer to 600 and each one does help

I still don't think the club have made a ST a fan friendly option, I've said it on another thread, maybe programmes for £2 instead of £3 for ST holders/ a free message on the big screen/ a free birthday gift in the shop (ie something costing only a few pounds!/ bring a friend for free vouchers/ just a few off the top of my head

Would any of that made a difference to you forever?

Get where your coming from there, to make season tickets as value added as possible is never a bad thing, however for me it wouldn't have made a difference, for me, the main selling point for any football club is what happens between 3-4.45pm and the product as far as our club is concerned for two full seasons hasn't been good enough, no where near. last two season we've managed 13 wins and 19 defeats, which in the main doesn't bother me to much, it's the manner of the majority of those defeats, I was leaning towards not renewing my season ticket regardless of whether the club stayed in the league or not, however just being honest here, if League 2 football had been on offer next season temptation probably would have got the better of me, so being in League is part of it.

That said, was a season ticket holder last time the club went out of the league, and had no problem renewing, it wasn't because of new owners, new beginning, it was largely down to the fact like many I felt that our league status had been stolen of us, this time around it feels like our league status has be flushed down the toilet, maybe I shouldn't feel this way, but I do.

I've already put me season ticket money in the savings account, now I have the choice, there are obviously a heck of lot more midweek match's in the conference, I'm in a position now, where I'm not committed to going, I have the choice.

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