Essentially the more tickets sold, the lower the price eveyone pays. I am not saying season tickets should go as low as the £100 Hartlepool fans paid but a great way to generate early season interest and sure to generate some more sales.
At the end of the day, it could be a scheme, if well thought out that fans and club alike benefit from
It is worth remembering that Hartlepool revereted to "normal" ticket prices this year
So if they have 5300 people paying £150 for example as it says on there. That would make a total of £795,000
Split that over the 23 home games in a season 34500. So we get 2000 a a home game paying £15 thats £3000.
So on them sums it works out better off. So even if you charged a little more on the tickets. plus all the extra food and shirts and stuff we would sell. COuld be better off. So well done to Hartlepool.
Indeed top thread Andy, I think our club has its pricing structure spot on, Hartlepool may well be a prime example of a club who have got it so badly wrong it is untrue just one look at the current League 1 table shows Hartlepool 24th with 9 points from 22 matchs, they are possibly fielding the worst side in the entire history of the 3rd tier in English football.
We did the £199 season ticket a couple of seasons ago, yes I brought one however as a long time full price season ticket holder of the club it was my right, however it does appear to have cost our club a small fortune, if our club was to reduce prices nothing would change our gates would not rise by enough to cover the loss let alone add to the clubs income, their is real apathy amongst the people of the bay, believe it or not I have met quite a few who tell me that they wish the club didn't even exist.
That leads me onto Torquay in the Premier league, it will never happen purely because this area as a whole is no hotbed of football if a rich oil barron knocked on our door and gave us £300 million it would not be enough to put Torquay in the premier league, the difference between us and say Hull City is when they started to rise through the leagues thier gates went up with it going from 4,000 to 25,000, if we built a ground that could hold 15,000 and were in the Championship not sure you would much more than 5,000 home fans in it .
I have seen Spurs, West Ham, Newcastle, Chelsea, Leeds to name a few over the years in the premier league and every time I come back and stand at Torquay I feel right at home, honest players, fans mixing with out real problems, players in touch with supporters a real working class feel to it, what football was built on and that has been destroyed by the premier league, however would I stop supporting Torquay if a mircale was to happen..no, I bleed Yellow.
Oh b,t,w yes you can go and watch premier league football for around £25 but it depends where in the ground you go the best seats in the house can cost you up to £60, also the bigger clubs can afford to reduce prices they have 30,000 fans buying programmes most have bars inside the ground so are selling beer directly to 30,000 fans aswell as food and corperate hospitality on a grand scale.Which of course us league 2 minnows don't have.
I have always advocated the reduction in ticket prices in order to get more bodies inside Plainmoor, once inside they may buy some food, drink or a programme but i do think that overall Nickgull is right in saying that for the extra that we add onto the gate, it still won't be enough of an influx to really make ends meet on a regular basis. The cash from the extra food and drink that they may buy may just be making up the shortfall of the lower ticket prices thus we would end up losing money on catering and things ultimately.
My only annoyance with clubs such as ours is their general dismissiveness of the very people who make them exist in the first place - the fans. Torquay United, in my humble opinion patronize us and do not appreciate the income generated from the hardcore supporters who turn up week in week out regardless. As fans we are just providers of numbers on a balance sheet and clubs like ours that only have a couple of thousand fans actually keeping them in business should be busting a gut to make us feel appreciated and reward us for our support.
I've said this before but i can't accept that offering us kids for a quid or a mate goes free is somehow a viable reward for loyal supporters and makes their life a little easier. It doesn't even touch the sides. I want a loyalty scheme where you get a free home game after attending every 5 or 8 or 10 or whatever. TUFC is a business and it should be offering fans a real tangible incentive to keep returning to Plainmoor and to make life a little easier for them in this harsh economic climate. The fans then would actually FEEL that the club has a heart and the club cares about it's supporter base and understands the importance of my, your support. This idea wouldn't impact on the revenue of the club nowhere near than reducing ticket prices would and season ticket holders i believe, get a reduction overall for pre-purchasing which is the equivalent to more than a couple of matches at full price if i'm not mistaken. For the fans who get whenever they can and don't have a season ticket, this scheme would be most welcome and i urge the club to trial it.
Torquay United should not underestimate the power of reward, they make people feel good, they make people feel they are getting something in return for support and dedication and they are more likely to make more games than usual in my opinion. This idea is so simple and could be so effective, it would create a feelgood factor about Plainmoor and would make fans, many who have become disillusioned with the club, appreciate that the club are trying to give them something back and truly value their support. I feel passionate about clubs just taking the fans for granted and ripping them off and although i don't believe we are generally being ripped off by Torquay, i do strongly feel that their total apathy towards making life easier and appreciting the lifeblood of it's very existence - the fans - by offering us nothing when most of us have got nothing is on a Scrooge level and is really short sighted management. There are lots of distractions nowadays on saturdays for people to do instead of going to Plainmoor and anything that gives that bit more encouragement HAS to be tried.
So Torquay, give us the endorphins and give us freebies in return for support.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
i do love my fellow northerners "mad as a fish" threads................. 8/
i think that if it was to happen then plainmoor would have lots of fairweather, well off corperate tw*ts turning up.
anything is possible - wigan is the best example, and tonight for instance, brighton who lost their ground and nearly went under have played in front of 25,000 fans tonight - and that was against millwall! =D
Member of the Yorkshire Gulls Supporters Club - Sponsors of Lirak Hasani, 2024-2025
Driving South to all games!
You know us northerners Super, always trying to get something for nowt! :~D
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
=D
