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Post by Neshead on Sept 1, 2020 9:15:23 GMT
Something we've discussed at length beforeand something i might go with on our twitter and its the line about affordable football. I have my own views on it which i'll go into later but i want to see what others viws are on the £149 season tickets. Great value for money or a millstone round the neck long term? Can success be achieved and long term sustainability be realistic at these prices. Is it a good strategy for expanding a fan base or a floaters just turning up because its a cheap day out?
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Sept 1, 2020 9:35:01 GMT
Personally it's far too cheap, 250 a season is just over a tenner a match and still affordable and probably still amongst the cheapest. These ridiculously cheap tickets also give fans the mentality that every other ticket for away games or home cup games are overpriced.
I agree football needs to be affordable but we can't just stop the growth of the club because a few people can't afford a certain price. If someone can't afford 10 quid a game especially when the club let's them play monthly then a season ticket shouldn't be top of their agenda.
There has to come a moment where this club moves forward and it's not just Rhodes who is holding us back it's a lot of fans.
As a fan on probably an average income I'd be more than happy to pay...
League 2...£250 League 1...£300 Championship...£400 Premier league...£500
I'm sure as we climb the leagues the club can facilitate family deals and put them in the Bradford End. And we must end this 25 year shite too, if you were thick enough to not see what Richmond was doing then that's your own fault. Richmond created a new core fan base and it's time to reap the gains from that and push this club forward.
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Post by Hobhead on Sept 1, 2020 10:52:51 GMT
It’s definitely a good strategy for growing the fanbase and we’ll feel the benefit of these cheap years for a long time. Dads who’ve been encouraged back or in for the first time have taken their kids as a direct result of the pricing structure. Some of those kids will get the bug and go as young lads and then dads themselves.
Where it becomes damaging though is the price freeze. Taking into account inflation it’s a real terms drop in income every season. Then, if attendances start dwindling because the club’s a pile of mouldy old wank, you’re in trouble because while outgoings are rising, numbers through the turnstiles are falling and the value of the ones that are coming in drops year on year. It’s like seeing a vicious storm and pootling merrily along right into it.
There’s all sorts of barely quantifiable arguments against too like setting such a low value on your product means people aren’t as incentivised to get off their arses and go down during our many fallow periods. Crowds dwindle and seasons peter out. Then there’s the types of crowd you attract. Good atmospheres aren’t created by people congregating together one afternoon a week simply because it gets them out of the house. It’s a cauldron of apathy.
All that said, what I see as negatives are probably positives to a badly run club. No spicy atmospheres and, when each season inevitably turns to shit, there’s no one left in the ground to complain. People pay their money when hopes are high and wander away when the nosedive occurs. No pressure, no expectations. Clock in, clock out. Happy clappers only please.
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Post by Fat Ade on Sept 1, 2020 11:33:28 GMT
When the cheap season tickets were brought in, we went from something like 3,500 season tickets at £300 to 12,000 at £150, so pretty doubled our money...it was a success at the time but for it still to be in place 10 years down the line isn’t great.
They were a success at the time but my view is that they are now a millstone. If lack of cash is having a detrimental affect on the club, whether that is the players or a lack of infrastructure improvement, then I’m uncertain how it can be argued that they are a benefit. This being said do any of us know for certain where the sweet spot is for a price increase vs. attendance numbers, I suspect the club do not know either...that is the worrying part.
The time to increase was on the way up but that has obviously been missed by the great “businessman” Rhodes. I honestly wouldn’t trust him to run a bath.
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Post by Neshead on Sept 1, 2020 11:44:37 GMT
The affordable football moniker is now part of our club forever whether we like it or not, there are various pros and cons to this. Moving forward the pricing structure should be as follows
League 2 £150 League 1 £200 Championship £250 Premiership £300 minimum probably push it to £350 if possible.
With success comes a price to pay to fund the next level. Even at £250 its just over a tenner a game, the price of a couple of pints on North Parade. Just been reading a tweet from Dmac at Peterborough, saying they need to make transfers of 4 million in league 1 to break even. Not sure how that now equates to the new salary cap but it does show the costs involved. Affordable football benefits me in my pocket but does little for the long term finances of the club.
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Post by Hoochy on Sept 1, 2020 11:51:30 GMT
I like the cheap tickets. I seem to recall Mark Lawn said they were JR's idea so fair play to him if they were, that's one excellent thing he's done for us.
Of course they're way cheaper than they should be now but that's because we didn't increase at tactical times. They should be around 175-200 now. I think a fair but still very cheap price would be £199 for an adult ticket.
We should have been running all the in house catering to make the most of the extra bums on seats but that sort of joined up thinking is beyond the realms of our glorious leaders. Think I heard they might be bringing it back in house this season. Great timing, lads. 👍
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Post by Neshead on Sept 1, 2020 12:02:26 GMT
I like the cheap tickets. I seem to recall Mark Lawn said they were JR's idea so fair play to him if they were, that's one excellent thing he's done for us. Of course they're way cheaper than they should be now but that's because we didn't increase at tactical times. They should be around 175-200 now. I think a fair but still very cheap price would be £199 for an adult ticket. We should have been running all the in house catering to make the most of the extra bums on seats but that sort of joined up thinking is beyond the realms of our glorious leaders. Think I heard they might be bringing it back in house this season. Great timing, lads. 👍 Not sure how many clubs at our level do the catering in house. Especially for 23 days a season, is it really worth it? When I went to Headingley a while back for the rugby there was a great choice of food vans around the concourses, not just your usual crap of pie and bovril but stuff like roast sandwiches, I'm sure there was a Mexican stall if I remember.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Sept 1, 2020 12:07:48 GMT
The affordable football moniker is now part of our club forever whether we like it or not, there are various pros and cons to this. Moving forward the pricing structure should be as follows League 2 £150 League 1 £200 Championship £250 Premiership £300 minimum probably push it to £350 if possible. With success comes a price to pay to fund the next level. Even at £250 its just over a tenner a game, the price of a couple of pints on North Parade. Just been reading a tweet from Dmac at Peterborough, saying they need to make transfers of 4 million in league 1 to break even. Not sure how that now equates to the new salary cap but it does show the costs involved. Affordable football benefits me in my pocket but does little for the long term finances of the club. A club like Peterborough have to overstretch in wages to compete, they're not a massive club and he has to make it more of an appeal to get the players in to be able to sell them on. There's a lot of competition for sponsorship in that part of the world and being unfashionable they struggle so again the supporters have to pay more than the going rate. They also don't have the catchment to increase crowds with lower prices. We have so much potential with what they can't do and we missed our window with Leeds being in the mire and the success before Augustus and his pet retard came in. That was our opportunity to grow
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Post by Hoochy on Sept 1, 2020 12:08:10 GMT
I like the cheap tickets. I seem to recall Mark Lawn said they were JR's idea so fair play to him if they were, that's one excellent thing he's done for us. Of course they're way cheaper than they should be now but that's because we didn't increase at tactical times. They should be around 175-200 now. I think a fair but still very cheap price would be £199 for an adult ticket. We should have been running all the in house catering to make the most of the extra bums on seats but that sort of joined up thinking is beyond the realms of our glorious leaders. Think I heard they might be bringing it back in house this season. Great timing, lads. 👍 Not sure how many clubs at our level do the catering in house. Especially for 23 days a season, is it really worth it? When I went to Headingley a while back for the rugby there was a great choice of food vans around the concourses, not just your usual crap of pie and bovril but stuff like roast sandwiches, I'm sure there was a Mexican stall if I remember. You say 23 games a season but it just needs to be part of the wider hospitality branch of the business. They do weddings, conferences etc. No reason why they couldn't invite local places in to sell decent food too.
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Post by Neshead on Sept 1, 2020 12:15:20 GMT
Not sure how many clubs at our level do the catering in house. Especially for 23 days a season, is it really worth it? When I went to Headingley a while back for the rugby there was a great choice of food vans around the concourses, not just your usual crap of pie and bovril but stuff like roast sandwiches, I'm sure there was a Mexican stall if I remember. You say 23 games a season but it just needs to be part of the wider hospitality branch of the business. They do weddings, conferences etc. No reason why they couldn't invite local places in to sell decent food too. In a city where the inner city is predominantly a mix of Asian, African and Eastern European, maybe a radical outlook needs to be implemented? Out fan base can ignore this catchment of the community for various 'reasons' but this is the next generation of Bradford City fans. I for one would much rather have the food stalls selling food from that part of society rather than the bland pies and sausage rolls favoured by the traditional dyed in the wool fans. Need to think outside the box
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Post by hobbes on Sept 1, 2020 12:19:55 GMT
Theres no finance option this season, so I need to find £250 by next week for me and the lad, because he still wants to go the annoying sod.
As luck would have it I may have that spare if I dont spend on owt else, but it's a not inconsiderable amount to have to find in one go, even for a high roller like me. Ill have to hope the car sails through its MOT though cos it will skint me. But as we all know, its embarrassingly cheap in comparison to everyone else.
I'd have no problem paying more provided the club offered a proper finance option with a professional (ha!) finance company, not like last year where you paid by standing order and had to go collect fucking match tickets each month till it was paid for.
Why they dont have a finance partner for ST sales I'll never fucking know, what the fuck do Yorkshire Payments do?
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Sept 1, 2020 12:31:53 GMT
Theres no finance option this season, so I need to find £250 by next week for me and the lad, because he still wants to go the annoying sod. As luck would have it I may have that spare if I dont spend on owt else, but it's a not inconsiderable amount to have to find in one go, even for a high roller like me. Ill have to hope the car sails through its MOT though cos it will skint me. But as we all know, its embarrassingly cheap in comparison to everyone else. I'd have no problem paying more provided the club offered a proper finance option with a professional (ha!) finance company, not like last year where you paid by standing order and had to go collect fucking match tickets each month till it was paid for. Why they dont have a finance partner for ST sales I'll never fucking know, what the fuck do Yorkshire Payments do? The thing there is it's a bit different this year because of covid and a few people have lost income. But everyone knows apart from this 1 time in 70 years that the season will take place and season tickets will be on sale. You know right now that in 6/7 months the 21/22 season ticket prices will be on sale so you can save money each week that will go a long way to paying for it.
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Post by Lofty on Sept 1, 2020 13:34:28 GMT
The original initiative was brilliant. More than doubled the income in season ticket sales alone nevermind the increase in sponsorship deals that came with it. Also (to the gullible) there were the players who wanted to sign for us because of the big crowds 🙄
What was incompetent and unforgivable is the prize freezes. A small increase every season would've gone unnoticed. We're now left with cheap as chips tickets and a dwindling customer base. We're at a point now where realistically we should be increasing by at least 25% but the product is absolutely shite. The hardcore (idiots) who still want to renew need to be asked to pay more due to the dwindling popularity of the product.
We've seriously mishandled what was a huge success and could've continued to be.
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yungnath
Sparks is a cunt Bantam
Posts: 197
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Post by yungnath on Sept 1, 2020 13:34:44 GMT
I like the cheap tickets. I seem to recall Mark Lawn said they were JR's idea so fair play to him if they were, that's one excellent thing he's done for us. Of course they're way cheaper than they should be now but that's because we didn't increase at tactical times. They should be around 175-200 now. I think a fair but still very cheap price would be £199 for an adult ticket. We should have been running all the in house catering to make the most of the extra bums on seats but that sort of joined up thinking is beyond the realms of our glorious leaders. Think I heard they might be bringing it back in house this season. Great timing, lads. 👍 I always thought it was Dave Baldwins idea but i also might be wrong. it is worth pointing out to me that the only time jr has been in charge and we were successful he had mark lawn with him
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Post by Dick on Sept 1, 2020 14:36:39 GMT
Its pretty much the same product from 2007 but with barely no inflation taken into account.
It was widely praised at the time, but it wasn't copied other than to coincide with an event such a club centenary.
They could put the price up, but with what guarantee would that little bit extra be wisely spent? Our record of paying for signings and general investment has been awful over the years, and with such chronic under-investment in all parts of the club, not just the playing side, where do you start?
It needs more financial commitment for the owner also - he spends £xxx on sorting out the scouting and training, and the fans support it through spending more on ST sales. The leadership in that sense is fucking piss - an annonymous owner based abroad who puts nothing in. I've got no faith in him - he's not interested and we're probably one of many businesses he has a stake in to reap the rewards if they come.
If he won't commit, fans wont.
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Post by hobbes on Sept 1, 2020 14:39:12 GMT
Theres no finance option this season, so I need to find £250 by next week for me and the lad, because he still wants to go the annoying sod. As luck would have it I may have that spare if I dont spend on owt else, but it's a not inconsiderable amount to have to find in one go, even for a high roller like me. Ill have to hope the car sails through its MOT though cos it will skint me. But as we all know, its embarrassingly cheap in comparison to everyone else. I'd have no problem paying more provided the club offered a proper finance option with a professional (ha!) finance company, not like last year where you paid by standing order and had to go collect fucking match tickets each month till it was paid for. Why they dont have a finance partner for ST sales I'll never fucking know, what the fuck do Yorkshire Payments do? The thing there is it's a bit different this year because of covid and a few people have lost income. But everyone knows apart from this 1 time in 70 years that the season will take place and season tickets will be on sale. You know right now that in 6/7 months the 21/22 season ticket prices will be on sale so you can save money each week that will go a long way to paying for it. That's a fair point and I dont want to come across as one of those entitled fuckers moaning that the club doesnt provide EXACTLY what they and their family want. Still think its poor tho and will be a reason for some not to renew on top of all the other reasons.
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Post by bantam147 on Sept 1, 2020 18:46:59 GMT
Price, or Value?
I'm adamant, 90% of our fans can and will pay more, for a quality product.
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Post by tetchyarse on Sept 1, 2020 21:01:37 GMT
I've always been in favour of "cheap" season tickets. Our ground holds 25,000, we need to fill it. The tickets are cheap, even for league two, but so what? We have 13,000 season ticket holders. Our average gate last year was 14,000- and yes, season tickets count even if they don't show up. The average gate in league two is, what, 4000? The only other team to average over 10,000 is Plymouth who, like us, are a big city club who should be two divisions higher (and who, unlike us, were winning games).
The issue is they didn't bung the odd tenner on here and there and get them to the £199 mark. £199 would have been a good price to get to.
But what would charging more actually achieve? You wouldn't get hobby fans but you also wouldn't get their money. Even at £149 the season tickets bring in £2m or so a year, and thanks to the fucking wage cap we definitely absolutely definitely didn't want we can't spend more than that anyway.
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Post by Fat Ade on Sept 1, 2020 21:32:39 GMT
Price, or Value? I'm adamant, 90% of our fans can and will pay more, for a quality product. 100% this and I’d “invest” in some sort of progressive plan forward but no, let’s all keep throwing £150 at something and expect different results 🤷🏼♂️
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Post by hobbes on Sept 2, 2020 19:30:42 GMT
Spoke to my lad tonight. I didnt even have to go into the grim reality of what this season will be like covid wise, he just said we're gonna be shit this year, lets not bother with season tickets.
Good lad. Am off to spend £250 on something decent.
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