: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:43 am  

Dave Lister wrote:

I agree its a bit snide if they are charging you on the gate too, but I don't see a problem with paying a fee to use the online ticketing service, which as i've said before, is an added luxury for the fans convienience that the club are not obliged to supply, and costs them money to do so.

disagree 100%.
Yes, if you are a football club filling a 60k stadium 20 times + a year, then yeah, supply and demand dictate that you can get away with a charge, but when you are failing to sell any more than 25% of your capacity, it would seem a bit churlish to charge a 20% booking fee for a £15 ticket.
By all means, when we are getting the same gates as our brothers charge for picking your seat, but only when the stewards make you sit in the right seat.
It is a rip off that probably doesn't even generate money for our club, but instead goes towards paying what the Union lot paid for it.

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:49 am  

gutterfax wrote:

disagree 100%.
Yes, if you are a football club filling a 60k stadium 20 times + a year, then yeah, supply and demand dictate that you can get away with a charge, but when you are failing to sell any more than 25% of your capacity, it would seem a bit churlish to charge a 20% booking fee for a £15 ticket.
By all means, when we are getting the same gates as our brothers charge for picking your seat, but only when the stewards make you sit in the right seat.
It is a rip off that probably doesn't even generate money for our club, but instead goes towards paying what the Union lot paid for it.

So you argue that a football club making a fortune on tickets should charge people to use its ticketing system, and the team struggling to make any money runs the system without trying to cover the amount it costs to implement and maintain? Are you mad? The ticket system is invaluble for those who want a decent seat.

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:11 am  

Dave Lister wrote:

So you argue that a football club making a fortune on tickets should charge people to use its ticketing system, and the team struggling to make any money runs the system without trying to cover the amount it costs to implement and maintain? Are you mad? The ticket system is invaluble for those who want a decent seat.

I am saying that the club need to be doing everything they can to make the whole experience pleasurable to the audience and by charging 20% on top of a £15 ticket isn't the way forward.
£180 will buy 12 tickets in the jesters over the season........but another £36 if you choose to do it online. Given that AH and AJ fill up fairly quickly, the walk up new fan gets a choice of either a front row seat or the experience of sitting near the northern hordes in AA AB.
Now, given most first timers will roll up and pay on the day, this negates the chance of them coming back after being subjected to some of the antics of our visitors this year (shirt burning anyone?)
As I have said in another thread, I would hope that AF AD AE are allocated for ST holders next year, with AH AJ unallocated for home fans only and AA AB unallocated for all..........and £10 for all unallocated tickets.
As it is, I have purchased a £15 ticket for nearly every game this year and sat wherever I wanted, so if the £3 is designed to reserve a decent seat, I am proof that it isn't working.

I digress....£3 to book a seat in advance, when the club is on it's knees when it comes to attendances seem like a bit of an own goal, in my opinion that is. Especially when the booking system is as tempremental as medusa with PMT.

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:15 am  

gutterfax wrote:

I am saying that the club need to be doing everything they can to make the whole experience pleasurable to the audience and by charging 20% on top of a £15 ticket isn't the way forward.

The club are doing so by providing a ticketing system to buy the best ticket for the experience. Charges are nothing new ffs, why won't this get into your head?

gutterfax wrote:

£180 will buy 12 tickets in the jesters over the season........but another £36 if you choose to do it online.

If anyone is stupid enough to buy 12 tickets online over the season then they deserve all they get.

gutterfax wrote:

Given that AH and AJ fill up fairly quickly, the walk up new fan gets a choice of either a front row seat or the experience of sitting near the northern hordes in AA AB.
Now, given most first timers will roll up and pay on the day, this negates the chance of them coming back after being subjected to some of the antics of our visitors this year (shirt burning anyone?)
As I have said in another thread, I would hope that AF AD AE are allocated for ST holders next year, with AH AJ unallocated for home fans only and AA AB unallocated for all..........and £10 for all unallocated tickets.

I agree.

gutterfax wrote:

As it is, I have purchased a £15 ticket for nearly every game this year and sat wherever I wanted, so if the £3 is designed to reserve a decent seat, I am proof that it isn't working.

You are proof that the stewarding isn't working, not the ticketing system. If you went to nearly every game it would have been beneficial to you and the club to buy a season ticket. Maybe you could not have forseen being able to attend so many games, but thats the risk you take.

gutterfax wrote:

I digress....£3 to book a seat in advance, when the club is on it's knees when it comes to attendances seem like a bit of an own goal, in my opinion that is. Especially when the booking system is as tempremental as medusa with PMT.

Agree with last point but £3 in todays modern era to book a ticket is absolutely fine and not going to put people off (apart from Chris Brown, and even he gritted his teeth and paid up).

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:26 am  

So, let me get this straight.

IF the club were to market the Castleford or Salford game at £5 a ticket, using posters, leaflet drops, local press etc etc etc.....and let's say, Mr Smith of 1 Twickenham Road, Twickenham TW2 1BR decides that this is a great offer, goes on-line to book and then gets nailed for another £3 to choose his seat, is he going to
a/ press purchase anyway....?
b/ decide to just walk up on the day (if he remembers)?
c/ think bluddy hell.....rip off. No way I am going down there...buch of thieves.....!

The £3 charge is another revenue stream Why not just up the price of tickets and be done with it?
Tell you what, I am suprised there isn't one of those £1.75 cash machines beside the ticket office....it would do a roaring trade

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:40 am  

gutterfax wrote:

So, let me get this straight.

IF the club were to market the Castleford or Salford game at £5 a ticket, using posters, leaflet drops, local press etc etc etc.....and let's say, Mr Smith of 1 Twickenham Road, Twickenham TW2 1BR decides that this is a great offer, goes on-line to book and then gets nailed for another £3 to choose his seat, is he going to
a/ press purchase anyway....?
b/ decide to just walk up on the day (if he remembers)?
c/ think bluddy hell.....rip off. No way I am going down there...buch of thieves.....!

A £5 ticket wouldn't be for a premium seat though, would it? This £5 ticket thing sounds great in the theory of getting loads of people in because its cheap, but how the hell do the club manage to implement such a thing? It would have to be £5 for everyone if you did it your way and allowed them to choose their seat online which would be utterly ridiciulous. The only way of doing it would be to give the tickets to people in their hands or sent through the post or made available to collect from the club - no say in where they sit - they are paying a fiver ffs, you think they should be able to book one of the gold seats online? If Mr Smith was tempted to come a long, I doubt he would think about going on the website and booking a ticket - he'd probably get off his backside and walk down to the ticket office to see what the craic is.

gutterfax wrote:

The £3 charge is another revenue stream Why not just up the price of tickets and be done with it?

Because that would penalise though who pay cash on the gate who are not making use of the SERVICE provided.

gutterfax wrote:

Tell you what, I am suprised there isn't one of those £1.75 cash machines beside the ticket office....it would do a roaring trade

TBH that surprise me too.

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:28 am  

Dave Lister wrote:

.......Because that would penalise though who pay cash on the gate who are not making use of the SERVICE provided.

I blame O'leary at ryanair.......everyone just accepts this charge with a shrug of the shoulders. It is a REVENUE stream that costs very little to manage. In fact, I would think that the Union Lot paid a fair amount to get it up and running in the hope that by year 2, it will make THEM money.
At Griffin park, the vast majority of fans paid on the gate and we had more fans then. Why go down the "book on-line route". I will tell you why, because it instills a certain demand that wasn't there before...fear of getting a crap view even though you are paying the same money as someone with a better view.

If the club are serious about getting NEW fans through the gate and then GETTING THEM BACK, this stupid pre-booking scenario works against them.
If I walked up to my first game and got a seat at the front of the east stand where I couldn't see a thing or even worse, beside a warrington fan trying to burn his jersey whilst calling one of his players loads of nasty names, it would be my last trip.

Scrap the charge, offer un-allocated seating (other than the ST area) and make it as easy as possible for potential new regular fans to come to a game.....

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:33 am  

You seem to be going around in circles and going back on yourself. Agree on unallocated seating though, especially the idea of having 3 allocated blocks.

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:52 am  

Dave Lister wrote:

You seem to be going around in circles and going back on yourself. Agree on unallocated seating though, especially the idea of having 3 allocated blocks.

BTW....we are 420 down on last years average and according to the IL calculator...that's nearly £4k a game.......

1. where have these 420 gone?
2. why have these 420 gone?
3. what can we do to get these 420 back?
4. how will the club survive without the potential £1,260 a game they are missing out on due to the £3 booking fee

: Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:59 am  

Paddock Punter wrote:

I was at the club yesterday and mentioned the £3 booking fee and £3 credit card fee and was told that was nonsense - just one £3 (credit card fee).

It's not nonsense. When I booked my Magic ticket, filling in the form sent to me by the club and posting it, it seemed clear to me that there would be a £3 booking fee PLUS a £3 credit/debit card fee. I posted a cheque in order to avoid the card fee. I assume the wording for purchases via the website is similar, so if this booking fee doesn't apply someone with a grasp of English grammar needs to have a look at it and amend it so it can be clearly interpreted.