Pay At The The Gate Prices Increase

[The Incredible Adam Spark]

The club is already running at a massive loss and the same people that complain about not having any money to fund signings are now complaining about the ticket increases. You've got to choose one.

Will the increases be fed into the playing budget? If not, then they hav f*ck all to choose between.

[avie-man]

free kids entry costs IIRC are met by club sponsors. absolutely no justification for this, you need to draw the line somewhere for a price for this pish and 16 is the absolute max i'll pay for this. what about the large amount of us who don't take kids to the games? not impressed at all by this, but then again, our board couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery.

[northernsoul]

When is the next meeting between The Trust and the BoD? Will the 'voice of the fans' let the BoD clearly that the increasing admission prices are not welcomed by a fair chunk of the support?

 

Consequently meaning that current fans are thinking twice about attending next season. We can't afford to lose anymore fans than we already have. I know already half a dozen folk who have been put right off by this. Meaning that they will pick specific games next year or even attend junior games instead.

 

Folk who don't see the extra quid as a problem have no right to question anyone else's dedication/support shown to the club over how many a year because they do not welcome/can't afford or are contemplating other alternatives on a saturday next season.

Edited May 14, 2010 by northernsoul

[GrantB]

Another point, off topic a little, but I had a season ticket for 15 years, yet I never recieve any mail from the club asking if I would consider buying one this year, surely ex season ticket holders should be targeted by the club?

 

Time for the present board to exit the building, just a pity their doesn't look like there's anyone to replace them.

 

 

Even an email would represent some sort of progress. I haven't had a season ticket since about 2003 as it's not viable to me in my current job as I work half the weekends but an email telling my and other lapsed season ticket holders about the season ticket packaged in with other info would be most welcome.

[Jaggyman]

It's also worth pointing out, our concession gate allows people U-21 to get a concession ticket, not just OAP & Students. Which is pretty decent, not many clubs do that.

 

I see no reason why an unemployment gate couldn't/shouldn't be introduced, but as long as you had to produce a letter dated within a month saying that you are on said benefit.

 

I agree, and to stop it being abused you should show youre signing on card and another form of identication eg passport / drivers license to get your ticket.To avoid congestion near kick off maybe unemployed punters can only get a ticket up to 20 mins / half an hour before kick off.Obviously being unemployed i have an interest in this and i am sure there are quite a few Jags fans out of work at the moment. As it stands,without a job i wont be at firhill next season. I'm not saying i would be at every game if there was an unemployed gate but when times are hard like now every penny counts

[GrantB]

The club is already running at a massive loss and the same people that complain about not having any money to fund signings are now complaining about the ticket increases. You've got to choose one.

 

So the club choose to risk alienating the supporters they still have left.

 

I'll support any price increase that is tied in with the playing budget, I wont support a price increase in a season that we have announced that the budget will be cut.

[Brian]

The sad thing is all costs associated with running a football club will go up over the next season i.e. rates, VAT, power, water chargers, general ground repairs and so on.

 

Sadly an increases may be necessary but it would be nice if it could stay the same

We just need to find a way to get more fans to turn up at Firhill.

[The Incredible Adam Spark]

We just need to find a way to get more fans to turn up at Firhill.

Win.

[Brian]

Win.

We did well the season before the last one and it never helped

Edited May 14, 2010 by Brian

[twinny]

Very valid points there twinny, in particular the bit I have bolded.

 

Many clear examples here of the board exercising lack of thought and forward-planning and not giving fans the full picture of what various packages and associated prices are to be on "offer" (or "demanded" if we wish to look at these from a slightly different perspective) in the coming season, to allow each individual Jags supporter make clear and well considered decisions relative to value-for-money and what suits their financial circumstances best.

 

 

 

 

In response to myself, spurred on by your reply, perhaps the board see that ST holders may be the main users of a pay-for-highlights package, in which case I see their point in only giving a discount to them rather than free access.

 

The price of the package (which I hope depends on the quality) should determine how much ST holders get discounted. If it was a cheap package overall, then I would expect ST holders to get free-access, however if it was 10-15 per month for say 9 months of the year (worth of good quality highlights) then a discount makes more sense.

 

I really hope the board have got this right and the discount is for high quality highlights. (I know there is another thread RE highlights, however this seems appropriate here).

[uberteeb]

Jeezo, it's a bloody quid!

 

Some people have said, "That's 2 years in a row now, which makes it worse."

Well, look at the facts, we hadn't increased gate prices since we got relegated from the SPL, up until last season. Yes £17 is expensive & not value for money, but neither is £16/£15 etc etc. If you're watching football expecting value for money, then you're never gonna get it, not even at Man Utd.

 

It does make the season ticket more attractive to those who can afford them, but I don't see how £1 every 2 weeks (roughly) is going to break the bank. Save up all the 5 & 10p's you have & it'll pay for itself plus a pint or 2.

 

Can’t comment on Man Utd but this season I have been to the Emirates twice.

 

First occasion my ticket cost £45 against Pompey, second time it cost £67 against West Ham (because it was a category A game as a London Derby).

 

Even taking the £67 figure I got far better value for money than I do at Firhill which cost £16 last season. Lets look at the evidence…

 

I saw some of the best players on the planet playing in those games, at Firhill I see absolute nobodies who in the grand scheme of things are very poor players.

 

I got to see free flowing exciting football on a wonderful surface, at Firhill I get to see slow sideways passes on a rubbish bumpy pitch.

 

I got an excellent view from the upper tier in a wonderful stadium and surroundings, at Firhill it’s a dump.

 

I got to sit in a padded seat with loads of leg room and at the Pompey game I even got a free scarf, at Firhill you get nowt for free, half the seats in the Shed are broken (ie they fold down more than 90 degrees) and the stand is actually very cramped for adults sitting side by side.

 

Inside the ground the sound system, telly and on pitch entertainment kept me entertained, there are so many toilets you don’t have to wait even at half time, there are so many bars and food stalls you wait seconds for whatever you buy and there are big screens everywhere showing the scores, at Firhill you wait an age for a pie or a pee and can’t get a beer.

 

Arsenal are offering you a bespoke footballing experience for a fairly substantial sum of money (I should add these tickets were at the lower end of the scale). Thistle offer you rubbish for around a quarter of the price. What’s better value and more enjoyable, a nice big steak in a restaurant for £12 or a whopper for £3? Are you telling me Arsenal aren’t 4 times more exciting to watch than Thistle? Were I paying the Arsenal prices every week I wouldn’t be best pleased but tickets for the Emirates are like gold dust, its sold out at those prices every week, they could increase them and still sell out. We struggle to get folk through the door to watch what is essentially garbage yet we up our prices.

 

All of us on here love Thistle and go because we love the club and are loyal too it but there isn’t many of us around. Take off the red and yellow specs and look at what we are offering say a neutral football fan or someone who is one of the many ‘lapsed Jags fans’, its pants and terrible value.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I agree, and to stop it being abused you should show youre signing on card and another form of identication eg passport / drivers license to get your ticket.To avoid congestion near kick off maybe unemployed punters can only get a ticket up to 20 mins / half an hour before kick off.Obviously being unemployed i have an interest in this and i am sure there are quite a few Jags fans out of work at the moment. As it stands,without a job i wont be at firhill next season. I'm not saying i would be at every game if there was an unemployed gate but when times are hard like now every penny counts

I wouldn't put any restrictions on when an unemployed person can purchase a ticket, shouldn't take more than a few seconds to check ID etc. If anything someone out of work coming to support the Jags

(even at a reduced cost of entry) is showing even more commitment.

Guess it would be worthwhile to see how other clubs (I'm sure there'll be a few) operate unemployed gates and also any other places of entertainment.

[twinny]

An unemployed gate would be great. There are alot of people losing work, and I'm sure many who would come to Thistle games but aren't due to becoming unemployed would take up such an offer. I think it would also be good PR that, when the country has it's highest rate of unemployment for a while, we're offering a cheap way for those out of work to get to watch 'professional' football.

 

Something I haven't seen any praise for (maybe I missed it as I've not been on the forum too much lately) is the ability to pay for STs in installments. Something people on various thistle forums have moaned should be available for years and now the board have finally listened.

[MWM]

Lets be honest, Scottish Football is shite. Rank Rotten. Fans are paying over the odds money to watch football in soul less grounds marshalled by nazi stewards and funding the over-inflated wages of some incredibly mediocre 'athletes'.

[Barney Rubble]

I can't believe all the brouhaha and hyperbole over a single quid!

 

Let's say and average non-ST punter like me rolls up for ten home matches per season. All we're talking about in that scenario is an extra friggin tenner over the whole season on this year's prices - I mean that's only three packs of bog roll or 2 fish suppers ffs!

 

I do appreciate that for those who work their pay (like mine) may be standing still or receding in real terms over the next few years but surely the fans have got to appreciate that PTFC have to run the club as a proper viable business and have bills to pay too

 

Sounds like an appraisal of your performance in the Italian Cup Final, and the state of your hairline.............

[kevin energy]

Jags have to run as a Business, and morally for me knowing iam not paying the wages of player getting £100.000 a week, there's no one getting a fortune at Firhill, i can relate to Jonny Tuffeys John Robertsons, if i was a Chelsea fan i could not relate to John Terrys of this world i have nothing in common with, its totally different supporting the Jags and a team like Chelsea, theres a far more closeness with the whole of Thistle its a local community thing, if i had the chance to go to Chelsea for free or jags for £16/£17 easy choice the jags

[gianlucatoni]

Sounds like an appraisal of your performance in the Italian Cup Final, and the state of your hairline.............

 

 

 

hey barney boy - ita donta matter whata crappi game ai play on the finale becows the eh-uro hitta the banko all the same!

Ata leasta Ai did notta kicka balotelli like my man totti did - notta nice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1JpoD2ZWVg

And ita wasa howa you say in escocia - pishing it doon - so my haira wasa wet anda notta good oki

[Munkey]

Yes, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather watch the Jags. Football is dying on it's arse because of tv, not just us, every smaller team.

 

It was a simple example to show that we are on a par with our rivals, rivals being teams in the same division as us.

 

What if the price of Glorious Sky HD goes up? Which it no doubt will.

 

1. Which is what is trying to happen, by not going, it's hardly going to help. Say we reduce the cost of an adult to £10, we would lose more money than with the price set at £16/£17. It would require 800 more adults to come to the game, to even start to break even (based on 2000 adults paying).

 

 

 

2. To solve your problem, if you can afford it, a season ticket works out at £14.44 a game. + it will allow you into a warriors game for free, money off vouchers for greaves etc. Which eaily amounts to at least £20, bargain.

1. There is no evidence to suggest lowering prices wont have an very positive effect on the attendences at thistle.

Its something I studied as part of my honours, and every example from Europe, England, all over suggest that the underlying thing that keeps people away from the game is cost. And I think the club is missing a huge chance to find the level of price where revenue is maximised. We're in a competitive industry, and we are relying on an outdated and traditional customer base and pricing strategy.

 

2. I'm saving to afford a flat to watch my Sky, So can't stretch to a ST this year, plus with work and other comitments I know I wouldn't make a couple of games so the ST is a waste.

[uberteeb]

Jags have to run as a Business, and morally for me knowing iam not paying the wages of player getting £100.000 a week, there's no one getting a fortune at Firhill, i can relate to Jonny Tuffeys John Robertsons, if i was a Chelsea fan i could not relate to John Terrys of this world i have nothing in common with, its totally different supporting the Jags and a team like Chelsea, theres a far more closeness with the whole of Thistle its a local community thing, if i had the chance to go to Chelsea for free or jags for £16/£17 easy choice the jags

 

You’re right, but no doubt you, like me, would still go this season if it was £20 a game. But for those who don’t go to all or even many of the games then this kind of thing is only going to put them off more. You’ll always have certain number of blindly loyal fans who will go regardless but they are going already, to get people through the door you can’t be raising prices for a rubbish product (and to the non Jags fan it is a rubbish product).

[Woodstock Jag]

Let's work off a typical attendance of 2,600. Say 300 kids going free and 1,000 season ticket holders. That leaves 1,300 or so pay at the gate customers. Let's say that 3/4 of those are adults and 1/4 concessions.

 

What the Club have done (re Official Site) is increase the Adult ticket price by £1. All others are static.

 

Approximately 975 pay at the gate adults at a home game. At £16 that works out at £15,600 per match-day gross income. (£280,800 per season ignoring cups)

 

Increase the price by £1. If numbers are unchanged, the gross income would be £16,575 per game (£298,350 per season ignoring cups). For gross income to be unchanged, they could lose 57 pay at the gate fans per game.

 

Alternatively, decrease the price by £1. If numbers are unchanged, the gross income would be £14,625 per game (£263,250 per season ignoring cups). For gross income to be unchanged, they would have to attract 65 more customers from the price-drop to every game.

 

Or you could be more radical. Let's say Adult prices at £20. At current numbers that would bring in £19,500 per game (£351,000 per season ignoring cups). For gross income to be unchanged, they would have to lose 115 pay at the gate fans.

 

The ultimate question you've got to ask yourself is would a £1 difference really radically affect the number of Adult punters coming along. To be honest, my answer is that I just don't know.

[Barney Rubble]

hey barney boy - ita donta matter whata crappi game ai play on the finale becows the eh-uro hitta the banko all the same!

Ata leasta Ai did notta kicka balotelli like my man totti did - notta nice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1JpoD2ZWVg

And ita wasa howa you say in escocia - pishing it doon - so my haira wasa wet anda notta good oki

 

 

Justa likea Franka Zappaa - Eura onlee init fora da Money.

 

Anda de carza.

 

Anda de belle donne italiane.

 

Eura dizgraziato, Toni!!

[Pie Of The Month]

Still £11 for students and OAPs so I'm all for the price increase.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

1. There is no evidence to suggest lowering prices wont have an very positive effect on the attendences at thistle.

Its something I studied as part of my honours, and every example from Europe, England, all over suggest that the underlying thing that keeps people away from the game is cost. And I think the club is missing a huge chance to find the level of price where revenue is maximised. We're in a competitive industry, and we are relying on an outdated and traditional customer base and pricing strategy.

 

2. I'm saving to afford a flat to watch my Sky, So can't stretch to a ST this year, plus with work and other comitments I know I wouldn't make a couple of games so the ST is a waste.

I find that interesting. Did your case study involve Motherwell? I've always be led to believe that the numerous Boyle initiatives involving reduced pricing have lowered revenue and thus been an expensive failure.

Another thing that you probably looked into would be the amount of travel/expense the average fan incurs for home matches. For example clubs like say Falkirk, Stirling, Arbroath, Raith etc probably draw the lion's share of their support from the home town and travel costs will be on average very low. Thus when you bracket expense of travel and entrance costs together a reduction in gate money will be a large percentage to fans of those example clubs.

 

Whereas clubs like Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, St Johnstone, Ross Co plus maybe Killie, Ayr etc will have a much higher percentage of fans travelling extra distance. Any reduction in gate money will be of a much lower percentage of overall matchday cost. I would suggest that Jags fans might tend more to the latter camp. In short the incentive of attending a game at Firhill by reducing the gate price may not have the desired effect if the cost of travel remains static or, as has happened from the turn of the year, considerably increased.

[potty trained]

irrespective of the effect this is having on those who attended last season.

 

what effect will the £17 admission have on stay away fans and non thistle fans who the club must surely be trying to win over?

 

who in their right mind, who does't go regularly to Firhill, is going to sit on a saturday morning, reading the weekend times and think.... i fancy going to a game today, Mmmm Firhill seems a good shout, who they playing, Brechin City? How much is it £17?

 

£17? na.... yer awright!

[gianlucatoni]

irrespective of the effect this is having on those who attended last season.

 

what effect will the £17 admission have on stay away fans and non thistle fans who the club must surely be trying to win over?

 

who in their right mind, who does't go regularly to Firhill, is going to sit on a saturday morning, reading the weekend times and think.... i fancy going to a game today, Mmmm Firhill seems a good shout, who they playing, Brechin City? How much is it £17?

 

£17? na.... yer awright!

 

 

 

utter bollox! half a pint o lager extra!