Season Ticket

[orpheus]

Emma [believe me]is non committal. all things will be acknowledged from her but she will not take sides. Mr Casson is her boss not us...Emma is a very strong lady [sorry guys she is not on this forum] . Give her some space...she WILL make a difference...given the chance

[barrowfan_chris]

Please tell me we are not going to say we need another year to get it right.

The whole purpose is to employ someone who knows football and how to work it comercially.

We are years behind almost every club at this level and some below.

I just hope my concerns are unfounded.

#stilllearning

[Moribund]

Can we get season tickets for those that want to drink on the terraces on Saturday matches, but sit in the stand without a drink on a midweek game?

[Ray Johnstone]

The club is not offering any packages outside of a full 23 game ticket, Moribund. I am unable to attend most fixtures due to a regular weekend engagement. My preferred ticketing arrangement would have been a non-Saturday season ticket and I proposed this idea on the blog last week. The club have ignored my suggestion and unfortunately I and many others have had the option of becoming season ticket holders taken from us. May I again suggest the Barrow AFC board of directors discuss my suggestion at the next board of directors meeting. The season is still 2 months away and there is plenty of time to implement the idea.

[barrowaberdeen]

All joking aside, I think being able to purchase tickets in a block of 10, to pick and choose home games is a good idea. I haven't had an ST for a couple of years because of working away, might have bought that.

As Emma is reading this and not commenting (which is common sense frankly or you'd be drawn into every moan and groan on here ) and so is Paul Casson (ditto) I would say that decisions regarding pricing have to be laid at Paul's door and to a lesser extent the rest of the board (I wonder if Ian got much of a say?). No one can expect a commercial manager to come in and convince an owner to entirely restructure the pricing when it's PC that's putting his hand in his pocket- she'll only get to play the hand she's dealt and I'm sure merchandising etc will improve.

I hear the argument (and I'm sure this is advanced by the BOD ) that it's all about the playing side and Barrow folk will eventually come and watch a winning team, so the money is better spent on a couple of Cookys than dropping prices for fans. I think that is short sighted. You need to invest in the support as well. If you are reading this Paul, please have a look at some of the different pricings around and compare the increase in crowds and matchday revenue, or get someone else to. Imagine, going well if we got an average of 2000 instead of 1600, losing out on 'walk up' prices but gaining on revenue by 25%? How much would the atmosphere improve? How many kits bought for kids?

[Steeley]

I don't think there is any benefit to having a midweek season ticket for you or the club, just pay on the day.

A season ticket is meant to save you a small % as you are paying for every game up front, why people are obsessed with having a ticket for 'December but only midweek games that Cowps starts on the left wing' is baffling.

[Moribund]

The club is not offering any packages outside of a full 23 game ticket, Moribund. I am unable to attend most fixtures due to a regular weekend engagement. My preferred ticketing arrangement would have been a non-Saturday season ticket and I proposed this idea on the blog last week. The club have ignored my suggestion and unfortunately I and many others have had the option of becoming season ticket holders taken from us. May I again suggest the Barrow AFC board of directors discuss my suggestion at the next board of directors meeting. The season is still 2 months away and there is plenty of time to implement the idea.

Yeah, I know what you mean - the club should definitely be knocking up a load of "midweek" season tickets for the two people who can't attend any Saturdays but are desperate to go to every other game. Who cares that it'll probably cost more to do the print run than it would make them in sales?

So a Tuesday game gets moved to a Saturday? That's that knackered...

[Holkerbird]

Are we willing to help boost the attendances with a fund for season tickets for those who can't afford one by bunging in a few quid ourselves? A few less beers---- or bars of chocolate in my case. We are all in together after all aren't we?

[Ste Story]

Who cares that it'll probably cost more to do the print run than it would make them in sales?

These tickets are produced digitally rather than litho. "Print runs" don't come into it, and it's not as if ordering a massive amount of one type will bring you a discount. You could order say 200 adult tickets @ £1.50 a book, and 10 student tickets @ £1.50 a book and 10 shortened mid-week tickets @ £1.50 a book. There'd be no issue or problem with doing short runs of a particular type. Last time for example, there were 110 adult tickets ordered initially, and just 5 assisted tickets. The cost per book for Adult tickets was the same as for the Assisted, so that whole argument is irrelevant.

Not sure of the need or viability of mid-week season tickets due to the fact that there's not that many of them so it's difficult to see where savings would be able to come into the price structure (you save 5 matches worth with an adult season ticket I believe?) but I do definitely think there should be student season tickets if they're offering student as a tier on the normal pricing. How is it fair to offer every other ticket purchasing demographic a discount but not allow students the same chance, plus as mentioned I think there's absolutely loads of potential there for marketing and boosting attendances by advertising special student deals in the colleges, schools and among BAE apprentices.

[John_Bucks]

Who cares that it'll probably cost more to do the print run than it would make them in sales?

These tickets are produced digitally rather than litho. "Print runs" don't come into it, and it's not as if ordering a massive amount of one type will bring you a discount. You could order say 200 adult tickets @ £1.50 a book, and 10 student tickets @ £1.50 a book and 10 shortened mid-week tickets @ £1.50 a book. There'd be no issue or problem with doing short runs of a particular type. Last time for example, there were 110 adult tickets ordered initially, and just 5 assisted tickets. The cost per book for Adult tickets was the same as for the Assisted, so that whole argument is irrelevant.

Not sure of the need or viability of mid-week season tickets due to the fact that there's not that many of them so it's difficult to see where savings would be able to come into the price structure (you save 5 matches worth with an adult season ticket I believe?) but I do definitely think there should be student season tickets if they're offering student as a tier on the normal pricing. How is it fair to offer every other ticket purchasing demographic a discount but not allow students the same chance, plus as mentioned I think there's absolutely loads of potential there for marketing and boosting attendances by advertising special student deals in the colleges, schools and among BAE apprentices.

What the hell is this? A reasoned argument with facts and experience to back it up?!!

No place for it on a football forum. Shame on you Ste (Insert little red card man I can't get to work)

[spirit of 1990]

As with most suggestions raised on the forum, they usually carry some very valid points, but if you look back over each question raised (ST's in this case) there are numerous suggestions, block of ten, student, stagger payment, under 16, Tuesday night games, Saturday games.....etc etc. Surely it is totally impractical to solve (or please) everyone!

Ray Johnstone gets his Tuesday night package & is happy but Ste doesn't get his student tickets so is [SwearFilter] off, someone gets the staggered payment and is over the moon but Steve (BA) doesn't get his block of ten and thinks he's being ignored.
And this is just ONE topic of conversation/suggestions. I'm not saying each point isn't valid at all but how many versions can the club be expected to bring in? Add on to that Emma being in the job a couple of weeks while also looking at merchandise, sponsors, corporate.....and on and on.

Thats nothing official (or off Emma) just my opinion.

[Ste Story]

As with most suggestions raised on the forum, they usually carry some very valid points, but if you look back over each question raised (ST's in this case) there are numerous suggestions, block of ten, student, stagger payment, under 16, Tuesday night games, Saturday games.....etc etc. Surely it is totally impractical to solve (or please) everyone!

Ray Johnstone gets his Tuesday night package & is happy but Ste doesn't get his student tickets so is [SwearFilter] off, someone gets the staggered payment and is over the moon but Steve (BA) doesn't get his block of ten and thinks he's being ignored.
And this is just ONE topic of conversation/suggestions. I'm not saying each point isn't valid at all but how many versions can the club be expected to bring in? Add on to that Emma being in the job a couple of weeks while also looking at merchandise, sponsors, corporate.....and on and on.

Thats nothing official (or off Emma) just my opinion.

Staggered payments and Under 16 tickets are already there. A block of tickets and a ticket for mid-week games could be the exact same thing, just a "mini season ticket". Student season tickets makes sense because you're selling student match-day tickets. It really doesn't have to be as complicated or daunting as you've just made out.

That's the problem with the club, they won't think outside the box because either A) they haven't got the capacity to do so without being overwhelmed with all the other things or B) they'd rather not take the risk and stick to what they know. Neither of which helps anyone. You said in your post that it's impractical to please everyone, but the club NEEDS to be looking to please as many people as possible.

More off on a tangent here as it's a wider discussion rather than just a few tiers of season tickets but...

End of the day, we're all core fans who post on here and would turn up whether we had a season ticket, a single match ticket or had to solve a Chinese riddle to get in of a day. The club needs to balance not taking the core support for granted, but also look at what we can do to bring new people in. Stuff like Season Tickets and Match Day tickets in general has always just been viewed as a boring necessity, just price it a quid up from last year and ignore it. These sort of areas are key, but neglected areas, that can bring in new support and with it vital income. Even if it only brings in 1% of additional support, if you can find 10 areas to improve to the tune of 1%, you'd bring in another 150 people a game. At £15 a pop you're talking over £50k a year. Definitely worth the outlay of a bit of thinking outside the box and a few quid on printing.

The club has got so far behind commercially that I bet Emma feels like she's drowning a bit already trying to catch up, shite merchandise deals, no regular or interesting events at the club to get people down on non-match days etc. But there's another hundred little areas like ticketing that will get neglected or given minimal-thought while more pressing things are focused on, that will just leave us further and further behind.

[HenneysKnee]

I'm not really sure what the big fuss is, if you know you are only likely to make 10/15 games a season you don't even think about a season ticket just pay on the gate

[Ste Story]

Just had an email from Emma, they're going to add season tickets for students but she also said "This does mean that the single match ticket price will be increased slightly and will match the concession price".

So they've decided they will offer student tickets but are going to immediately put the prices up of single match day tickets for students that they've literally just advertised, so they can charge more for the season tickets. Yeah cos that'll get them shifted won't it! I give up

[Ste Story]

I'm not really sure what the big fuss is, if you know you are only likely to make 10/15 games a season you don't even think about a season ticket just pay on the gate

I'm more concerned with the general theme of stuff like this whereby the conversation is obviously a case of "Oh yeah what should we do with season tickets?... Just stick a couple of quid onto the price and sell em same as last year".

There's not a single ounce of thought that goes into how ticketing can be used to promote the club, sell more tickets and get more fans in, or connect with the wider commercial aims.