Thetownend.com

Andrew Fitton's mood in this article could be best described as thinly veiled exasperation.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/display.var.2359588.0..php

I hope things pick up.  The last thing we need is the man at the top becoming despondent - especially when he & his team look to be turning things around.

3,600 its about 4,600 I thought! I still know of at least 30 lads who are getting them in the next couple of weeks!  Wait till pay day is what we are mostly doing?!

Fuck knows where you got that from ash.  :D

I'm slightly more optimistic about the target than I was at the start, but it's going to be a struggle if we haven't hit 4k by the end of the month. In fact, not so much a struggle, but full on game over.

I'd love it to be 4,600 but I think the official site gave it at 3,500 or so the other day progress, so slow at the moment.

Am I correct in my assumption that we're half way through the offer period? I probably won't get mine until mid-July and I know plenty more like that. Don't forget the cost of living has gone up a lot - many people are probably trying to find the money as they're used to paying per game and not all up front.

It's going to be close - I think we'll get to about 5500 by the last week then it's just a case of waiting to see if people will take up the offer on the assumption it will happen.

Agree we need to get to 4,000 quickly.  Seems to have been stuck on 3,600 for a while now - and the pay day argument only holds water if the numbers start to pick up this week as many people get paid.

The good news, I suppose, is that all of us anecdotally seem to know of people intending to take up the offer in the coming weeks.

Some people who are "on the fence" are waiting to see no doubt how close we are to 6K before committing, sadly I think there are too many of them. Pay day is end of this week, early next. The fixtures are out etc. players will return to training hopefully this will spur a bit more of a ST rush. A lot of people are going on holiday etc around this timne of year as well. OK Perhaps these are excuses for many but thats the reality. I for the record, will get my season ticket on Saturday.

i shall hopefully be getting mine soon, asked for money towards one for my birthday (feel free to add to it :D)

Logically for anyone who doesn't want a particular seat it makes sense to wait until near the end of July.
Most would rather have £140 in their bank account than STFC's account for the intervening period.
BTW, I have bought mine, but a hell of a lot haven't but intend to.

:oops:

I think its ticking along at about 30 STs a day at the moment. But if anyone is liek me, its getting towards the end of the months and you have been sint for two weeks! :soapy tit wank:

Will be getting 2 STs at the start of next week

I have to say I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised that so many people haven't got their's already (on here).  I thought most people (who go regularly) would have bought their's ages ago.

I haven't got mine yet as i'm waiting on 2 people to send me their forms so i can wander on down. They know who they are...  :x

 :wink:

As people have said, that unless they wanted to keep their seat, there is really no rush until the end of next month to get their season ticket, a bit like the 'early bird' used to be at the end of May.

I do expect an upturn at the end of the month/beginning of July, and a big rush in the last two weeks of July.

I still think we'll make it.

i hope we do :)

A big name signing might help.

Or any new signing for that matter (and no, Amankwaah doesn't count).

I don't think 'big name signings' are the new consortium's way of doing business though.  They clearly want to build steadily from the bottom and take things from there - an approach I completely agree with.  But whether this approach excites 6,000 of our fans to buy a season ticket at the beginning of their first year in charge is another matter.  I also remain hopeful though.

absolutely agree.
currently we have little chance of meeting 6000 season ticket sales.
gives me no pleasure in saying that, but it has been obvious all along in my opinion.

How big does it need to be to have an effect?  

Is there a set £ figure?

Money doesn't even come into it. Just someone who is capable of improving the current squad would be a good start.

Thorpe and Cureton?

Equivalents names would do. Lets face it, we were the ones who were shit, not Cureton. Although he is a complete tosser.

And Thorpe was just years past his sell by date.

I understand we can't go out spending big bucks on wages or transfer fees, but some transfer market activity will add numbers to the season ticket sales.

Thats a fact.

the squad and manager is what alot will be looking at.even with the reductions for tickets that wont be enough as it stands.
over £200 for a season of nothing aint great value for a non regular to stump up.i'm not saying thats what it will be,but alot will see it that way currently.

I got my 2 today. We're up to 3750 apparently.

I see it differently. Our team is a lot stronger than at the start of last season, and the club is settled and progressing in general.

The board have already invested big in STFC terms for Cox and Macnamee.

I want us to sign some players as well, but good young players, not just "names" out for a pay day.

Absolutely.  To be honest, if we only hit 5,000 this year, it won't be the end of the world.  With the right set up off the field (which, now that Diamandis is history, we have at last) we'll be moving in the right direction.  We would very possibly get 6,000 season ticket holders for 2009/10, maybe 7,000 for the season after that.

I'd be happy with a steady rise up the ranks.  Confident that after years in the doldrums, things are about to pick up.

I just find it sad that Port Vale can hit 6000 in a matter of weeks and yet we'll struggle to get that in 3 months. I thought we would have done better.

i agree with you.my comments were regarding non regulars

And that's with a Premiersheip team up the road.

Are they not offering them at a much cheaper price though? Although £229 is quite cheap, it's not jaw dropping, headline grabbing cheap is it?

We only stand to save £40 if we reach the target. If they had made it £199, and £299 if we didn't reach the target, it would have encouraged more people who have bought one to persuade those who haven't, and the price is obviously more appealing and newsworthy

if malpas wasn't the boss and we had a name like sturrock or wise they would have sold them by now.
many are totally unconvinced by our manager.
people will look at the dip in form we had after he took over, and his droning interviews etc,etc.

Me too, I wonder *why* they hit their target. The way I see it is that they don't have any more of an exciting team, they are a division lower and their normal fanbase is similar or smaller than ours.

- Proposed cheaper prices broke some psychological barrier -  i.e.< £200?? We are a league higher so that should be taken into account by our fans but maybe it isn't.
- 5000 seemed more achievable than 6k, so the fans bought into it easier?
- Their shorter time limit condensed 'the rush' whereas we have yet to hit our deadline by some way?
- How did  their system work. If it was some sort of 'financial pledge' that meant people only had to pay up IF they hit the target, if not they weren't committed and could 'withdraw'? IF that's the case I'd be surprised, but it would provide a no (financial) risk route for wavering fans who thing sub £200 tickets are worth getting, but don't want to be lumbered with >200????

Other than that,  our push isn't finished yet by a long chalk, though I'll be glad to get to 4k ASAP! I hope it isn't the case Wiltshire as a whole is apathetic towards STFC.

I have faith in Malpas but I think the thing is he has done 3 interviews in 3 weeks all saying the same thing. "fans want players", "we wont just bring in anyone", "we are talking to people"

Well in that case I'm glad the fockers haven't bothered buying tickets.  I don't want numpties who obviously have a severe lack of football knowledge to be sitting near me next season.

Malpas is fine, there is no reason why people shouldn't be buying tickets because of him.  The football we've played since he arrived has been superior to the boring dross that Wise and Sturrock served up week after week.

You could offer free season tickets and there would still be people who wouldn't get one

Imo, the club has done everything it can without putting us seriously in the red.

We all want a club that's gonna be around for a long, long time. You don't get that if you throw money around, or offer season tickets at stupidly low prices.

With regard to getting signings to generate interest, I don't think it would work.
We would either get some clapped out 'name' who would be fucking useless and  drain on the playing budget, or a decent player for this division who would be relatively unknown to those we're trying to attract (Armchair premiership types, or people who have drifted away from going to football)

You can make as many excuses as you like but if a town the size of Swindon can't generate 6000 or more season tickets at less than a tenner a game it's a poor state of affairs.

Without factoring in interest costs, and assuming all tickets are at £229/£269 - which is obviously not the case with family, freebies and concessions.
6000 @ £229    =   £1,374,000 revenue
5107 @ £269    =   £1,374,000 revenue

The board might be frustrated at the apparent lack of progress, but I'd say it's a good bet we'll make the 5107. anywhere in between the two figures and the board actually profits from the deal (and won't have to buy 6000 replica shirts either)

The only problem I'd see if we didn't hit the target,is that such a generous offer would be unlikely to be repeated.

As far as signings go - we've already stated we won't be breaking the bank, and that pretty much rules out a 'name'. If we went for potential, people still wouldn't be happy "who's he ?"

Using the manager argument is a pure excuse in my opinion. As has been said on here before, if we had season tickets free, some would expect travel expenses.

"You can make as many excuses as you like but if a town the size of Swindon can't generate 6000 or more season tickets at less than a tenner a game it's a poor state of affairs."

I think it is worst than that as I would hazard a guess that half of the ST already sold are to people that dont live in Swindon so that would equate to 1,800 sold to a population of nearly 200,000 (and judging by the number of poles in tesco's last week that will be 210,00 by the time the deadline comes around)

I think they're gonna honour it if we hit 5,000, or maybe I'm expecting just a little too much.

Fair enough.

Trouble is the the "name" would have to be of Ronaldo-sized proportions for these people to have heard of him!

A good championship player costing £1m wouldnt do anything for people like that

Big signings is a red herring.  The facts speak for themselves, we have already superceeded all bar 2 seasons in the past 25 for season ticket sales - price not signings go us there and we have 5+ weeks to go still.

There will be a pick-up at the turn of the month for pay day - I've delayed buying mine until pay day as I've now convinced my Dad to get one as well, so that's 3 including my Brother.

Port Vale was £183 I believe, so a bit cheaper but after relagation.

If we sold just 50 a day from now until 1st Aug we'd be very close to acheiving it, so it's not massive sales we are talking about.  We've reached a point now where it might be better to do a countdown rather than a count up.  LESS THAN 2300 TO GO!

I'd like to see the club have concerted push to get this reallin people faces though.  Leaflets through the door, Town Centre presence and a real push for sales all around the ground during the friendlies.

I'd imagine we'd still get the shirt

£40 * 5000 people is quite a lot just to write off being nice.

Isn't the whole point of the offer that it's a financial incentive? If people work out they can still pick and chose 10 games to go to and it will work out cheaper than a season ticket, 6000 or not.

A signing or two isn't going to make these people buy in. However, a person who goes to around 15 games may be more persuaded.

port vales were pledges, not actual sales

Depends if they've really costed it against 5,000 or 6,000.  They make have gone for the higher number to try to ensure they get their minimum target of 5k.

Good idea. Do it just after we hit the 4000 mark.

I'm not getting mine until I get paid at the end of the month and my 3 mates are doing the same.  I want to get it sorted before I go on holiday but when the two come at once I need to budget a little.

Does anyone know what happened to being able to purchase season tickets on-line?  I thought this was going to be available from mid June and might help push up the sales for people who are lazy fuckers like myself!

there are fucking loads of numpties already.the ones who boo and abuse their teams own players for starters.

and i have to completely disagree about the superior football too.he changed the system,it didn't work.then went back to sturrocks set up and results got better.
i hope he does the job as if not his appointment will just set us back to square one.

Can you just give leaflets out in the Town Centre, or do you have to have a council permit signed in doh-doh blood?

Even just standing in tescos/sainsburys/asda and stuffing leaflets in peoples hands would be a benefit. rather than one poxy van and a few hardcore fans giving them out in pubs

We'll have to agree to disagree then Arriba, a MacNamee inspired Swindon has entertained me more in the latter stages of last season than any Sturrock or Wise team did.  In fact Wise's style of football bored me to tears.

Hopefully MM can bring a couple extra lads in and continue to get Swindon to play some decent attractive football.

our two best performances under maplas, oldham and port vale, we played football predominantly on the ground, with very little route on stuff....

agree about macnamee he was a massive plus.infact dug malpas out of an ever growing hole imo.

my hopes are the same as yours too.
new season=new hope

When I posted this on Sunday under Bert, I got accused of being negative.

 

  It's going to take a hell of a lot to refloat the good ship STFC.

  Sounds to me as if AF is having his first doubts as to whether it's worth it. :(

Carlisle was Malpas' best performance we ripped them to pieces that day, shame we only drew but sometimes that happens.

Also Huddersfield was very good, only got close when we were down to 9 men!!

(He was in charge v 'Udders wasn't he?!?)

Stop being so negative Bart

 Bert, not Bart, nor Bort, Norbert.

OK Reg.

Yer Bert, No Bart, yer bert, no Bart

Would that be Stiles or Dentressangle Reg ?

Because?

even more and more people hear about it....

  Phillip.

I agree although it is great that we are going into pubs etc i have not really seen a massive push by the club.

In the adver they promote it but reallyt not worth it as i would imagine the people reading already know.

Think they really need a massive promotion in town and even just get some pledges like Port Vale have.

Don't forget Port Vale looked like they wouldn't get to 5k with 2 weeks left on their deadline and they had a massive rush at the end. Most people will buy next month.

I think we are going to make it.

I think we'll get just over 5,000.

I mean more like having an outpost on a temporary basis to sell the tickets.  This would entail either a short term lease on an empty prop or renting one of the stalls in the Brunel, which presumably is a case of asking for one and paying for it.  I can't for the life of me imagine that this is prohbitive if local one man bands seem able to get them around Christmas and they are constantly advertising their availability when you walk through the Plaza and Arcade.  You also always see little car boot sylee outfits open up for a month in the empty shops in Bridge St, so again this must be very easily obtainable.

I suppose the point is, people who see the stuff in the Adver, club site and the Ground are the people who know by now.  Having something in the Town Centre promotes the club to a very wide audience and also provides a much more accesible outlet for people to purchase from.  In the close season I will be in the TC every Saturday probably, but I have to make a decision to go to the CG unless a match is on.

Saying all that, i still think it's going really well.

We need to target, Hungerford, Newbury and Thatcham also to the east, as there used to be more Swindon than Reading, but this has been wiped out in the last 10 years, there are dozens upon dozens that have drifted off in those towns, a little effort i.e. advertising in the Newbury Weekly news for example could pull a few back from the plastic side.

I think we're gonna save it, yeah.

Don't you try and fake it.

feeder are rubbish

you're rubbish.

so

I've decided that I will not be getting a season ticket. Now you can all shoot bullets in my direction, accuse me of not being a real fan all you like. Off you go.......

good choice, we'll be shit anyway.

You're not a real fan!

(Was that ok?)

Tame coming from you  :soapy tit wank:

I think I'll just call you a cunt.

Cunt.

dont blame u, i havent paid for tickets for years

Can I divert that 'cunt' reference to PVC69 or whatever his name is.......

Are you posting from a mobile phone?

No. You?

Not you, the texty cunt above.............

whats business is it of yours?

You sir are a spoon.

yeah i get called a cunt, and then say whats business is it of somebodys what im posting from and im a spoon

I apologise for calling you a cunt, I don't know what came over me, it's totally out of character.

all is forgiven, do u wanna go for a meal with me tomorrow?

Thanks, but I've got a hairdressing appointment.

thursday then?

Scale and polish?

I think you're moving a bit too fast.

Let's take things slowly...................

ok let me know when ur ready

Soooo cruel!

Nope, I'm getting extensions :D

Hope you've got planning permission......

Stab the cunt herthab

just because u cant get over me, Dean its over, ive told u

Being stuck in work with nothing to do, I decided to have a trawl through the Port Vale OS to see what their sales were like.
On the 15th May they had sold 3435, on the 21st this had risen to 4006 but by the Deadline of the 31st they had sold 6066. Huddersfield sold something like 3500 in the last week of their offer and I'm pretty sure that Bradford also had a last minute rush on their sales last year.
Like others on here I know plenty of people who say they are going to get a season ticket but don't seem in any rush to do so at the moment so hopefully we will end up having the same glut of late sales that these other clubs have experienced.

Rasta Steve  :D

Have renewed my season ticket.

To be honest although no excuse, for the floaters the transfer activity and team manager has a big impact on if they purchase ( do not agree with this stance by the way).

No it doesn't, we've easily surpassed last seasons sales and will by the current rate of increase blitz it by a mile.

50 a day from here to the end of the deal and we'd be at around 5500.  This would suggest tha "Big signings" and "Managers" are not the big deceiding factors, but rather value for money is.

Oh Rob i disagree..a couple of big signings would get us over the 6 mark....i know the club have a pay structure now and fair play for that,but if say they got Supa Sam back that would have put a lot more onto the sales.

Oh Rob i disagree..a couple of big signings would get us over the 6 mark....i know the club have a pay structure now and fair play for that,but if say they got Supa Sam back that would have put a lot more onto the sales.

I do agree Leefer, but people need to realise that we made our big signings in the January transfer window...

Disagree, signing Sam Parkin wouldn't have added many to the season ticket list at all.  It's not like we were getting thousands extra on the attendances when he was playing for us.

Most people are fucking stupid anyway.

Most stay away fans wouldnt know what a 'big name signing' would be unless they had heard of them.

Only way they would have heard of them would be if they had played in the Premiership and the arm chair fans had seen them on TV a few times recently.

....and that isnt going to happen.


We signed McNamee and Cox in January who are easily up their with the best in this division in their respective positions but the stay away fans we're trying to reach out to wont know this anyway!!

Exactly DV, completely agree.  Unfortunately there are too many people in this town who have a whole list of excuses why they won't go to Swindon Town.  Fuck 'em.

I agree as well, although I don't think knocking the people of the Town is right.  3700+ season tickets with 5 weeks left to sell them is cracking business.  It's not huge in Championship terms, but it's the best showing for many a year as does not come off the back of promotion to a big league or massive expectation.  I have huge respect for the Vale fans as well, another club with small attendances but the fans and probably locals have got behind an idea.

The one downside to this 6000 thing is if we don't hit it.  People will go "see, told you so" or "goes to show the apathy in the Town", when in fact every extra ticket we sell from this point on is a massive step forward for this club.  If we sold no more, it would still be a success, if we get to 4000 that's a huge vote of confidence in my book, 5000 is unbeleivable if you suggested it 3 years ago lets say, and if we do get the 6000 then we coould really be onto something provided people stick with it.

We were never going to suddenly sell 10,000, if we can get 5-7k this year then it's a base to build on, especially if the 'Swindon Experience' continues to improve.

it would be interesting to see how many people on this site are still to get theirs and why they haven,t so far.My reason is the time frame mr fitton gave us ,the money is doing more for me in my bank account.I will be getting 4 tickets on the end of july payday and i think a lot of people who don,t care which seat they are left with do will also.IT has been a very generous offer sell by date but i think we may well still be on track,i hope there is another2000+ people in the same boat like me.6000 no problem!

theres 4 of us getting ours on friday if that helps

I cant decide whether to get one or not.Works going to prevent me from getting to alot of games so its probably not worth it but I feel slightly guilty about not making the effort. :D

If I could buy one on line Id do it drunk one night though probably.

throw some sickies ,take holidays, skive you know it makes sense!

not really I dont get sick pay and I only get 12 days holiday a year

I thought you had to have 20 or 24 by law???

12+8 Bank Holidays = 20

ah i stand corrected! thanks!

24 by law from Oct 07

27 from Apr 09

I read up on it the other day because I got excited thinking I would have extra holiday. Sadly it won't

haven,t got enough sickies haven,t got enough holidays--excuses -excuses-excuses.

You're right Johnny, I just can't be fucked cos we're shit.

That a better excuse?

thats better a bit of honesty.

It's actually a lie, I'm getting a season ticket.

:oops:

I have to work Bank Holidays and Christmas and that if they fall on my shift,maybe I get more than 12 then. :o

i didn,t realise you were an elf!

Do you work full time Yeovil? Doesn't sound like you're getting your statutory allowance.

or do you work shifts longer than 8 hours? in which case your leave in hours is probably correct?

Yes its 4 on, 4 off, shifts of 12 hours.Averages at 42 hours a week I think.

that'd be why then.

So 12 is right?

12 would be the equivalent of 18 so still seems a little short.

Of course, leaving it right to the last minute makes it quite convenient for the last minute "emergency" excuse......

merely an observation.

Can I have a list of acceptable excuses JR? I can then pick one which is relevant to me.

I'm a bit bemused by all this.  The club must have way over 6000 punters to target personally and directly, which must be considerably more effective than giving out leaflets willy nilly at happy clappy village fetes and the like.  Well intentioned and good awareness but you get my drift.  

AF was quoted in the Adver as saying "we expected that there would be a bit of a big take up of season tickets in the middle of June, but for some reason that hasn't quite happened so that's a bit disappointing".....to me that reads that there are a lot still to renew from last season.....which should actually be good news, numbers wise.  

These are people who shelled out considerably more a year ago to watch a dull team at a club that could fold any day.  It's a bit simple but have the club phoned these fans "thanks for your support....just checking that you are aware of our fantastic offer....etc etc...."?

Likewise, has everyone else on the tickets database been directly targetted by E Mail, phone, letter or camping on their doorsteps until the fuckers relent?  Simple, cheap, direct, personal sales activity will get the quickest results.

Give incentives to staff for selling.  Embrace those holding out by welcoming post-dated cheques, or we'll get hung by our own deadline and convenient excuses as Neville points out above.  Make it even easier to transact - Saturday afternoon, online, whatever.  Lie about the numbers "what a jump from 3726 to 5541 in a single day!"  Anything.  If all this and more is already happening, great, do more of it.  If not, there's enough time to make the difference.  Just.

Above all, be positive.  As several have suggested, however disappointing 3726 might feel today, every sale now is progression from last year, every sale is a step towards a better future.

Yes, you're sneering for the sake of it. The club have targeted a series of events none of which involve "happy clappy village fetes" as you put it, most of them have actually been the likes of the larger six-a-side football tournaments that run in the area over the summer, plus some of the larger "community" events, all of which seems to me at any rate to be well-targeted at expanding awareness to new customers. Clearly any business would be crazy to try to expand its customer base in this way and should instead focus on continually trying to wring ever more out of an existing customer base that has been shrinking for years. Well done.

Agree with this bit. I attended around 15 home games last season, each time booking my ticket over the phone with the box office, whom always found my details with my postcode. Yet despite obviously being on the clubs database i was never automatically sent out a season ticket info packet. (Although i accept maybe others might have done?)

I've been emailed once.

I agree with Paul,

Anyone who is semi-regular will know about the deal, at least I've hear no complaints so far that the message hadn't got through. Therefore I'm not sure that direct marketing is a good use of funds for these people.

There may be some of the older generation not 'wired' to the internet/don't get the Adver, but I'm sure the message will still get to them via family and friends.

Maybe the message that matchday prices will no longer be cheaper in advance could be reinforced to scare some waiverers from the "know about the deal" group.

I guess there are some lapsed fans, used to go ages ago but not any more. Not sure how to reach these. I see that the club are going to the Cotswold Country fair in Ciren, not sure this will reach that type of person, but may do wonders on the "corporate" side.

The difficulty reaching new customers who aren't so up on the club.  Not sure how to do this to wider Wiltshire, but Swindon is the largest population base and the easiest demographic because the club is based on the doorstep. So I guess it is natural to exhibit at the most popular community events?

Of course all efforts to extend the fan base should be applauded.  I'm not sure too many could disagree with that.  

However, given the immediate priority to get as near to 6000 season ticket holders as quickly as possible, which approach would you consider most effective in generating sales - spending a day personally contacting known supporters or manning a stall at a six-a-side?

I can see both sides to this. Marketing the club to the wider community is clearly a good thing. Its the kind of thing the club should have been doing for years.

On the other hand, Im not sure how many "new customers" as in people who havent been to games before, are likely to jump in at the deep end with a season ticket no matter how cheap they are. It may be that the benefit the club gets from these kind of people is more on-the-day sales initially which of course is still a positive.

In terms of season ticket sales, Christy is probably right that you can get a better return from targetting existing fans. Of course there is no reason why you cant do both.

Im not sure its that critical that we reach the 6,000 though. Of course it would be great to do it but its hardly a disaster if we end up with (say) 5,000. Revenue wise the club is about as well off as selling 6,000 at the lower price.

The only danger is that it undermines the current boards willingness to continue investing in the club.

I don't think I made myself very clear - of course, the club should be selling to the existing fanbase, and AFAIK they have been trying to do just that. But it's not either/or and just because you have an existing customer base that doesn't mean you shouldn't try and win new customers, especially when you're trying to dramatically expand your customer base.

On the existing customer things

When I was in the ticket office renewing my season ticket the guys in front said they were getting their first season ticket for 3/4 years and asked if their data would still be on the system.

The reponse the got was no, its a new system and only has last seasons data on it.

So, anyone who has had a season ticket or has been on the system before last season but wasnt actually on the system last season wouldnt have been contacted directly.....

christy has made some valid points imo.and ahounsell as added more words of sence.

ideas like going to bath,thatcham etc are a complete waste of time.nobody will shell out over 200 quid on something they have no interest in.match day selling, yes maybe? season tickets, not a chance.
i've said all along that i dont think the target will be met.
but targetting people on the computer systems for tickets sold over the past couple of seasons will be the best way of getting anyway near to the 6000 mark.

Yes, but then you've always thought the whole thing was a waste of time haven't you arriba?

Im still suprised i haven't seen any billboard advertising anywhere in swindon

depends what you mean by whole thing?

Life?

pass me the rope :wink:

On a side note Oxford have managed to sell 1500 so far.  Last two years they've sold 3,000.  Things not looking rosey at the Kassam Stadion!!

I agree that existing purchasers should be targetted if at all possible and I think the lack of an online offer will make it more difficult to sell to some.  I know I haven't received anything as yet beyond what I know from reading online and the press etc, so it maybe is an oportunity being missed.

Regarding the online bit, that is dissapointing.  I am lazy by nature, so posting it is a no go, I rarely visity a post box these days.  If I lived out of Town a bit it might make seem a hassle for me to get down to the cluba and do it - way better than posting because I can be confident of getting the seats I want.  How nice it would be to click my seat and pay.

As I've said though, it's already a success.  It's just possible a few things can be done to make it more of a success.

That is not correct. I went to get my season tickets and the missus gave over her postcode and the system cam up with her 2 brothers and Dad who haven't been to the footie in well over 10 years.

Think me name was still on the system from 4 or 5 years back when i used to have one. Guess it may have gone now though.

  Must be a bit of a bugger to lose your name to a system, have you asked them for it back?

  http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1071125651823_2003/12/12/goodbadugly.jpg

Nah, that database goes back well into the mid 90's. They havnt deleted anyone.

The figure still stood at less than 3,900 yesterday.  Not good.  Seems to have completely stalled.

That's it man, game over man, game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

Protest?

Fuck yeah!!!.... But against what?

Are you OK?

Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that?

I'll see your aliens and raise you a tricky partial quote.


"...and  there ain't no coming back. This is the really real world, there ain't no coming back.....There ain't no coming back! There ain't no coming back!" "

The Crow? I've got it on DVD but never watched it. I think I bought it in Tesco when I was drunk.

Oooh, he's good. It was The Crow.

But he admits that he's never seen it. Google is good, Mr F. Ben is clearly cheating.
 :-))(

Honestly, have you not got the time to watch it?

I keep forgetting I've got it.

Is there anything I wonder that the club could do more / better to attract more ST holders or ensure the message is getting out correctly about how it works out per game ?

Metaphorically bang the drum around the Friendlies.  If 3k to 4k turn up to some of the games there should be a fair few to target with direct sales.  Have some points set-up around the ground so people don't spend hours in a queue at the Ticket Office.

Sack Malpas and sign Parkin.

Donkey do not think you are too wide of the mark.

As i have said- do not agree with not getting a ST because of the manager personally- but i genuinely think this is the reason why sales have stalled- also the lack of players.

Agree with Fittons stance on living within our means- but do think the 3 year plan for promotion will stall if we cannot compete at least wages wise.

Hurrah, Bart's back. This place was in danger of becoming far too positive.

I'm Ritchie Jones is going to Hearts, then surely you can't expect us to be competing with Hearts on wages? They have, in recent memory, been in European football and indeed looked set to break the Old Firm under Burley before Nutty Romanov decided to get half of Lithuania in.

why anyone would want to sign for Hearts at the moment I have no idea!

Once again Bart, not true.  Bigger season ticket sales since Division 4 have only been acheived twice I believe.  This means that something has actually caused more sales than something causing a stop on sales.  Lower prices = better than bringing in players.

On wages, what do you want us to be competing with?  Parkin on £5k a week?  Holmes being offered a 4 year deal on more money at a Championship team?  We are losing out on sensible reasons, eithe bigger teams or stupid money being asked for.

We'll be through 4k sales in a short while, which on it's own is fantastic.  With a month to go and a deadline that gets the mind thinking, we'll go beyond that number meaning our sales will be bigger than some of our gates for last season.  It's already a huge success, it's just that it may get even better.

Don't forget, with 4k sold, mostly in the main stands which have about 8k home seat available, we're already at a point where the good seats have gone and people will be getting what they perceive as their second choices.  Match day purchases will be consigned to the wings and enclosure at this rate.

I don't think there are many (possibly no) fans who's reason for not getting a season ticket is that Malpas is in charge. A change in management might draw in some fans from the excitement and speculation in the media about a new boss, but that's not the same thing. Sacking a boss to generate the interest when you appoint a new one has never been a valid reason for managerial change, and as Rob points out, the figures don't really indicate it makes much of a difference anyway.

There are a few irritating muppets on the adver comments section that have stated that, but the fact that they can neither spell or operate their caps lock key, indicates they are not the kind of people to take any note of. bar that all the reasons i've seen are genuine, i.e. distance, working patterns etc.

i know of a few people that are put off by malpas.
but i dont see not meeting the 6000 mark as failure.as already pointed out, the savings for the townend aint much, and i expect alot of turn up on the day fans to still do so.if the team is doing well then our gates will be good.
the team and manager should be what we are worried about,not the 6000 season tickets, which for a variety of reasons was never going to be met.

Are they people who would normally get season tickets Arriba?

There does seem to be a few who were disappointed in the Malpas appointment and his dodgy start, wanted him out, and now prefer to try and find things to blame him for (not hitting 6000, lack of player signings) instead of getting behind the team. I get the impression that there are some out there who'd prefer us to start shit next season so that they could say they were right about Malpas.

I'm of the belief that it was the right choice to keep Malpas in the job, and give him at least the start of this season, even if he does go on to fail. He was worth the risk at the time, compared to more chopping and changing.

People not getting season tickets because Malpas is in charge are retards, there I said it.....again!

Indeed, but it's probably been a case of "I'm not going until..." since we were in the prem with these people.

Fact is, they aren't serious about going unless we are winning.

ben. in answer to your question,no they aint mostly,but are regulars. they are not attracted to getting one by the price alone.generally they have said they are delighted with fitton, but are not convinced by malpas.
whether they would have bought one with a different manager,i have no idea?

 they will turn up and pay on the day as they always have.

I really hope Malpas becomes a massive success at the club.

Not just because it means Swindon will also be successful, but also to ram some of the absolute tripe some people have been spouting off right back down their throats.

I hope the bloke never reads the adver comments section, if he does he'll be phoning the Samaritans on a regular basis.

The problem with the "I'm not getting one because I don't like Malpas" is that before him we've had two big name managers in Dennis Wise and Paul Sturrock. You'd be pretty hard pressed to better that at a club of this level. People have got too comfortable and used to the idea of us having these "names" and now we've got Malpas they aren't exactly enthused. Personally I think Malpas is a good (yet unproven) manager for this level and can't see why people are moaning.

I'd second that. The poor bloke hasn't even been given a chance!

I saw it at the time as a disappointing and risky appointment, particularly in light of the "proven/experienced manager" sounds coming from Mr Fitton, as a season of failure is neither of these. And it's obviously an appointment that won't give the same 'buzz' as a Sturrock, or wise. I make no apologies for these views.

However, as said, you can't condemn a man before he's had a fair crack of the whip. He could well turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread, or he could be a dismal failure. At the moment he is neither as he hasn't been here long enough. So how is Malpas relevant in deciding whether to buy a season ticket?

becuase half of our fan base are complete retards and unless we have Marcello lippi appointed manager and we have won the champions league in three seasons then its a failure. People moan about Reading being plastic. We have a huge numebr of fans that seem to think that we are alot bigger than we actually are.

As someone who spends too much time on the Adver site argueing the point with some who post on their I must agree with the above comments !
But then some of those guys thought that Diamandis was our saviour & the sun shone out of SSW backside, whilst we who protested were Orange Orang Utans & Bill Power was the devil incarnate.

I've given up arguing the toss over there Phil, far too many wrong'uns for my liking.

Unfortunately people from the club do indeed read the Adver site, plus the Adver use it to back a story or to guage fans opinion, which in turn leads to Malpas being questioned on it.  It's the downside to it being the most open forum by virtue of having little or no moderation and generally being linked to the local paper so everyone finds it.

Tend to agree when I originally built this place many moons ago the original vision was to take it from a forum to a well modded alternative site to the Adver eventually with front page news and views etc.

The Youth had a good crack at the whip at just that but was let down by his mate if I recall.  

Since then it’s sort of evolved into a closed shop for a few reasons which is no bad thing as there’s quality over quantity.

Once Barry gets up and running I know he’s got a few things up his wizard’s sleeve and it may be something to look at again in the future and raise the profile of the site closer to that of the Adver.

Agree about Malpas though perhaps the club could go on a Malpas PR offensive?

I was fishing as it happens.

However, we are trying to move on players (as evidenced by the names we've seen mentioned), but we're not matching the likes of Hearts and Southampton in wages.  To be honest that's fine.  Over reaching when we cannot afford it will get us in a total mess, so I fully applaud Fitton in his stance on this.

Fitton is also prepared to negotiate and take his time to get he right deal for the club, as witnessed by the purchase of the club and Cox.  Again, this I applaud.

If we do not sign players because the deal is not right for the club, then I'm happy with that.  If that is why there has been little movement on transfers, then fine.

Finally, it could be that with Malpas not being a 'name' he is less likely to be poached by bigger clubs, and may show us greater loyalty given we have given him a break, should he be successful.

In short, Fitton - YAY!

I would say that anyone who uses Malpas as an excuse as a person who was never going to buy a season ticket in the first place - it's an absolutely ludicrous argument.

We may joke but Maurice Malpas has done things in his football career that some would dream of he's got over 600 games, played in a UEFA Cup final, has 55 caps, he's played in 2 World Cups and 1 Euro Championships - he's a SFA Hall of Famer.

Plus as a manager he's got the contacts at big clubs, his Motherwell job wasn't great but had had no luck behind-the-scenes. If he practices what he preaches, we'll do just fine. He's got to iron out something that has dogged Swindon Town for years - inconsistancy.

Some didn't give him a chance from the start simply because they'd never heard of him - which is plain wrong.

The adver forum is an embarressment - too much being negative for the sake of being negative.

Exactly. Goes against the argument hes not a 'name'....

I'd agree with what DV said earlier. Swindon fans, by and large, are retards.

Swindon fans by and large are not retards Dave....but agree with your post,he is highly thaught off north of the border,yes he might not have the charisma of others,but alot of good managers are very dour especially the scots!..I hope he can get a good vibe going with the fans.

Retards may be a tad harsh. I fail to see the logic most of them use though

Everytime I go I seem to have one sat a row or two behind shouting (never talking) utter, utter nonsense - but it's their opinion I guess.

Not if he reads the mongs on the Adver comments section he won't..............

The fact of the matter is that the current board has done what we've all been demanding a board do for years; they've called our bluff by dropping the prices, yet it still seems that for some it's not enough. That doesn't make sense to me, and using Malpas as an excuse seems to be a smokescreen for people's apathy/ignorance.

These people must have forgotten how close we were to oblivion. Maybe they just don't understand how important it is we live to our means? Perhaps the club needs to find a way to communicate that, but what more can they do? There's still a team to support and next season the stadium will be loads nicer, inside and out. £250 seems a small price to pay.

Some people genuinely won;t be able to afford it, which is fairy muff. But I would have thought we could still muster 6,000?

I hope we do it, it would make for a really good atmosphere. That and we'd all get our 1969 shirts!

But will we get another 2k this month?

i,ve watched town with managers such as,beamish,king,iffy,and that f--ker mcmahon ,idon,t think mr malpas will stop me going.He is not inspireing when he,s on the radio but give him a chance he may come good if not we,ll still be town fans whoever is the boss.

Apparently the club are to launch a "recommend a friend" scheme whereby if a season ticket holder signs up another recruit they will get a money off voucher for the club shop. The one who signs up the most will also get their season ticket free.

Sounds great, only issue I can see is that there may not be any seats for the 'recommended friend' available near where the recommender is sitting.

If they do that then its a great Idea. They can get around the "cant sit next to your recommended friend" thing by letting them reselect their seats.

I support STFC mainly because I enjoy and hope for good passing football, which a few times last season was the best for some seasons, IMO. I actually looked forward to going out hoping to see this, rather than using a season ticket plus expecting hoofball. The results will come eventually, but patience is necessary.
It seems that many wish for immediate winning at all costs, ugly if necessary, no win no enjoyment. Hoofing is for horses (or donkeys!)

People in this town are just fickle. Ok we have more season ticket sales than last year but for some reason people just dont seem to care.... it will be a travesty if a team like Port Vale who just got relegated can reach their target wth Premiership football now in the same city and we dont.

If this doesnt get the season tickets flying out the door, nothing will!!

http://www.swindontownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/TicketNews/0,,10341~1338143,00.html

thats a pretty good deal  :shock:

I might get one tonight

A pizza?

Yep already got the season ticket

Already mentioned

http://www.thetownend.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29392

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Great. How far out do they deliver?

This must mean Dominos deal with the club has finished?

Haha ace.
 8)

Saying on BBC that we have gone through 4000 today, which is surprising as it was reported at 3885 this morning ,so must have been busy this afternoon

Must of been the papa jons offer then.

Confirmed on radio Plus Nick watkins feels as I do that there will be late surge, people hanging on their money until the end (logical)

Probably got around to opening some post.

 8) At last, I am a bit more optimistic now we have finally cleared £4k.

The official site says 3905 as of 4:01pm today ?

are season tickets available to pick up yet or are they posting them to us?

I went pass big themometer, measuring the number of season tickets, yesterday, and they had moved it up to 4,000.

You can pick them up now

Maybe it was just short of 4000. I cant imagine that thermometer being amazingly accurate :mrgreen:

Me and Si picked ours up today so 2 more for the total.

we are over 4k now! :beers:

Not according to the OS.  Still five short!

Selling about 3 a day at the moment, I am starting to question whether we will get to 5K

sold 5 when i was picking up my 2 yesterday lunchtime,  we may get 5k, but 6.. maybe next year

I don't think the OS has updated the figures properly since Monday night.

We haven't moved on sales since then, and we were doing 20-30 a day. I reckon the official ticket counter is on holiday in Austria.

May make 5k, looks unlikely though. I would be majorly disappointed if we don't.

we've actually sold 4 less than what they announced monday

colleague at work said there was massive queues yesterday when he went down.

has anyone on here bought one since monday?

Do under 7s count in the total figure?

i got my forms today, gonna film em out and get mine soon.

YOu like 6 year olds, not sure tho! I got mine and ciders on Weds

It was on 3995 for ages and after the Saturday it was still showing as 3995 despite the bloke at the ticket office telling me they'd sold around 60 that day.

Disappointed if they're not updating it in time, or they've messed up the figures somehow. Also, they need to open for longer on Saturday. Closing so early is a bit stupid.

Myself, Bennett and Whits will be purchasing ours (with young Leggett i think) as soon as someone gives me all the forms to go and do it (or we get them to Leggett and he can sort it when he drops the post off...)

Who came up with that idea btw?  Closing early on a day when a lot of out of towners can actually get to the club.  Crazy.

Yeah it's a bit strange isn't it? When me and Si let after getting ours last Saturday there was still a fair few people waiting to get theirs and that was at about half 12ish. I think 3 may be a good time to close especially with the deadline now approaching.

When down the office for the friendlies tickets, and no one about. Hopefully it will pick up next week.  :(

Im still confident we are gonna get the 6k! I know a few people who are waiting till this months pay day...i just hope there are 2000 more. Ill be disapointed not get my replica shirt.

I was confident, still am to an extent but i have only really realised how little time there is left now. It's mid-July already.

FWIW, just been down there to pick mine up (I opted not to have them posted) and get tickets for Pompey game and it was encouragingly busy. Queueing out the door when we got there at quarter to 12 and still four people behind me when we left at half past. And in fairness to the guys in the ticket office, despite the nominal 12 o'clock closure, they weren't trying to shut down - two of those behind me joined the queue at about 12.20 and they didn't object. Been busy all morning as well apparently.

Is the ticket office busy because people are picking up tickets? Or are they not updating the ticket counter?

Just seems busy but weve sold only about 100 in the last 2 weeks according to the ticket counter. Just seems odd.

They didn't update the tichet count from Monday -> Thursday (same number reported both days). I assume this is inaccurate and that our ticket counter is on the trip to Austria?!

Everyone in there apart from me and one other bloke who was there for a Pompey ticket were buying season tickets, usually 3 or 4 from what I could see/hear, and new ones not renewals. So I think it's more that the OS isn't being updated

4047- not looking good

still a thousand more than last year.

Surely we haven't sold just 20 odd in a week and a half.

I'm preaching to the converted, but if we aren't in and around 5K, which looks impossible, as a town and county we should hang our heads in shame. If Port Vale can achieve it (5k) with Premiership Stoke on the doorstep so should we be able to.

I despair. If that is the true support of the club we have found our level in the football pyramid on merit.


800, and my biggest fear is most of those will be fans that came to games ad hoc anyway. So the club will be worse off financial as ST's are cheaper than matchday tickets.

Port Vale have not sold 5k

?????  They have over 6k season ticket holders according to their OS. I'd be suprised if over 1000 were freebies.

Anwho, there is quite a good thread (!) over on thisis about how Vale were flagging with not long to go and suddenly bang, 1200 in a week or so. Maybe all is not lost in at least the race to 5k if not 6?

http://forum.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=3948

They are pledges Batch will be very interesting to see how many of them actually purchase it aswell.

Oh , I see what you mean. I had assumed that 'pledges' entailed a financial commitment if 5k was reached, i.e. you had to leave a credit card number or cheque.

So how did it work. Did they just get people to write down their name and address with no commitment. That would be nuts, you'd probably have 1000 F Flintstones for a start.

Basically yeah and they still have not sent out the season tickets to fans who have paid yet either.

4,047 sold as of 9am this morning, according to the official site.

I was maybe expecting more than that by now I think, not sure really.

sold just over 4,200 according to the box office about 30 mins ago. can add 4 to that total now!

Good work, Jim.

no trouble squire. i got the aisle seat, purely by accident :P

Well, they sold about 15 when I was in on Saturday and the bloke said they'd been busy all morning so I suspect the numbers being published on the website are wrong.

What's the betting they're simply counting them as they file away the paper forms?

When I was in there buying mine they were going on about when they were going to file the paper copies of the application forms and getting round to it. I bet there's not even a proper way of doing it on the computer, or it's not known how to at the moment.

If they simply type in all your details from that anyway, I don't see why they need an application form. Turn up, tell them your details, they fill it out on screen and then print it out for you to sign. Would be 10 times quicker as well. I simply didn't see the point of filling in an application form only for them to tap it in on screen anyway?

Because of the signature on the form authorising the credit card payment.

But a decent system would fill in on screen and then print an agreement for you to sign...

yes but this is Swindon were talking about!

nah I dont know how it all works, I was just assuming the forms were to authorise the second payment in oct.

There is no sinature required on the form...

there is no form

picked mine up today and tickets for the friendlies, only DR and Arkells are open for them. Also got QPR ticket - only a tenner.

There was a few people in there with ST forms just in the 5 mins I was waiting so they are still selling but there wasn't exactly a huge queue.

Nice to see them open two serving windows as well even though there was only 6/7 people in there.

The official site says another 30 sold in the last 5 days. Surely that can't be right can it?

sounds weird, they sold 3/4 while i was in there for less than ten minutes, maybe i hit that days 'busy spell'.

Was in there today and the grey haired guy told me they were up to about 4,250! :secret:

Bugger I was in there today and forgot about the QPR ticket....are they really only £10 ?

they are in the TE p2p, not sure about other stands, might all be the same.

Isn't the Town End closed on Friday?

Apparently Portsmouth are filling up the Stratton Bank.

yes, TE closed for friendlies. But open for QPR.

can you buy pompy tickets on t'day?

and is it a 7.45 k.o?

Silly me, wasn't paying attention.

QPR is £10 in the main stands as well.

Thought it was only arkells and Dr open for the friendlies?

Oh pissing hell, I don't know.

Apparently 2,000 of that 'orrible lot are coming up here, I just assumed they would be put on the bank.

Are they parading the FA cup before the game or did I imagine that?

They should place it on a table by the side of the pitch and our lot can try to knock it over....didn't Rodney Marsh do that once??

Are they? - Only Im taking my godsons to the Pompey game and I think they would like to see the FA cup as young boys do

Do children see the FA cup differently to adults? Different colour, or is it just bigger?

It attracts children with rohypnol disguised as sweeties. Bad Peado Cup!

Some figures from Port Vales 'sales'

1,279 - 16/04/08
2,800 - 02/05/08
3,100 - 10/05/08
3,797 - 20/05/08
6,066 - 30/05/08

no mingers - but boys aged 8 get excited about things like the FA cup

when life is innocent and fun

You seem to know a lot about the psyche of young boys.

4308 season tickets sold now I think.
On a seperate note does anyobdy know when the Cheltenham away ticket will be on sale?

Are you the brother of Batch, by any chance?  (Now expecting the other siblings to sign on...Match, Catch, Thatch and Snatch.)

There maybe a couple more joining, but one of them is locked out, Latch, and the other ones late, Watch.

My one eyed pirate brother brother is joining soon. Say hi to Patch. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I don't really have any brothers. They are my imaginary friends.

my imaginary friend was called Dallas  :-[

I used to have an imaginery friend but he used to ignore me all the time.  I don't think he spoke english and wasn't used to the surroundings he found himself in. He killed himself in the end by jumping in front of a rubbish lorry, well I say rubbish lorry, it just wasn't a very good lorry.

Maybe my imaginary friend is real and I'm the imaginary one?

That's deep Ben, that's as deep as Bowie in Space.

Maybe Ben you were born in 2020, but were knocked down by a hover car and find yourself "back" in 2008. So the question is are you really back in time, or in a coma, or what.

2020 eh. Will I wake up and get to go to the future? 2020 is like 5 years after the future bit in Back to the Future II. That's a bit mental.

My imaginaty friend did not like me.

Dont know why i have a feeling we are going to hit the 6k mark for some reason now.

Is Snatch female ?

No idea.

Bringing this discussion back on topic - Phil, are you still feeling bullish about our prospects of hitting 6,000 tickets?

I was at the CG yesterday around 9:30 and it was like a ghost town. Zero activilty.

thats odd. you normally cant move for people at half nine in the morning

Are they still opening late on Thursdays? I've persuaded a mate to buy a ST and want to get him down there ASAP, before he changes his mind. :)

There were only one or two down at 1pm, including a QPR fan buying a ticket in (home end of) the Arkells. He went back to ask if he could wear his QPR top

Think there may be quite a bit of activity tomorrow. A lot of out of town fans would've waited for the friendlies instead of making a special trip.

Can't really work out whats happended with the season ticket count over the last few days / week.  Either the counter hasn't really been up to date at all and sales have just carried on ticking over, or have we had a big surge in the last day or so.  

Hopefully the latter and it will continue to sell a large number a day again.
Got to say I'm suddenly a lot more optimistic about getting the target than this time last week.

Yes I'm sticking with 6,200. I see no reason to change the prediction. In fact looking at the Port Vale sales posted in another thread it could be more.
I'm from out of Town, & can understand fully why a lot would wait for the friendlies, & / or close to the deadline. I got mine by post, but only because I wanted to get the ST so as not to be a hypocrite when gobbing off about what a good deal it is. Saving the seat also came into it, but wasn't the main reason.

I was there around 1.20 today, and saw another two people getting a season ticket.
I was queuing out the door but the others were all buying tickets for tommorow (like me).

there was about 10 people queuing out the door when i drove past about 20 minutes ago, i assume most were getting pompey tickets

Unless they've missed a load of tickets when they've counted them (still) then I don't think we'll get 6000.

Still, it's good to get more than last year.

I reckon if we get to about 5000, personally I always thought 6000 was a little optimistic (not that there is anything wrong with optimism!)

that sentence is confusing me, you reckon if we get to 5000 then what?

Sorry it is meant to read the final number will be around the 5000 mark

So just over 600 to go to get to 5,000, which would be a great achievement imo, anythin over 4,500 would be good though.  As others have said 6,000 always seemed a little bit too many but if we could crack 5,000 I'd be well happy.

Really need a final 10 day push to get the 60 a day average.

Still getting 30 a day on average, which means we should hit 4700. That is a 1500 increase on last seasons 3200 (+ 46%), which is pretty damn sweet really.

But if we do break 5k, that would be FAN-tastic.

You heard anything back about that Adver subeditor's job?

It's a shame that excitement about the deal never really got out of the starting blocks before fizzling into dusty smoke. After the ups and downs and downs and downs of the last decade and a bit, it was always going to be tricky to convince returning/new to commit to a whole season.

Hopefully not hitting 6k won't put the board off trying out some match day ticket offers. Drawing the people in for one or two more games is a much more realistic way of hooking fans, particularly new ones. Going from vaguely interested to investing in a season ticket is a fairly big jump for a new fan to make.

Still working on it,how about

Late sales rush would be just the ticket for Town

I'm quite optimistic that there will be a late surge in sales with people waiting for their July pay day.

Ooh, damn that's good. You should be a shoe-in.

Whilst I still maintain we will do the 6,000, I can't help thinking that the club could have done more. I waqs dissapointted that there was no push at the Pompey game. A lot of newbies seemed to be there with Kids.... The ideal target audience. Ok it was mentioned over the tannoy, but most couldn't hear that anyway. Should have at least been handing out leaflets at the turnstiles.
It would also have been a good idea to have the ticket office open after the match. In fact it should be open after every match (as should the shop). (I had a job to spend anything at the Pompey game)
Finally, how much would it cost to run an advert on GWR ? & what about some volunteers leafleting their local streets.

Why isn't the shop open after the match? Orient open theirs after games (even midweek matches).  Why are we as a club turning away revenue.

Not only home fans may buy things in there after but neutral/away fans (maybe the slightly more geeky football fan) may buy items in the shop after a match.

As far as I'm aware, the ticket office and shop are open after every home match (during the league season).

Ah, right, great. 

I know that not every ST is £229/269, but for the purpose of illustrating a point, if we reach 5108 (which seems within reach) that is the same total wonga @ £269 as 6000 @ £229. So how about a tiered discount scheme for the final week?:-

5300 = £259
5500 = £249
5750 = £239
6000 = £229

All giving nigh on the same total.

Either way, money a side not shifting 6,000 shows us how poorly supported we really are.

Less season tickets than Port Vale and less than a 3rd of what Huddersfield have sold. Pathetic really.

7548 for the Pompey friendly may be an indicator of better things to come. And as far as I'm aware PV and 'udders have never been Greek tragedies. Town still have a lot of affection to win back or attract.

Like this new board, TEF I mean ... how do you get your avatar back?

That assumes we won't shift the 6,000. I still think we will, although I think we have missed some opportunities to move more

I'm not so sure. Yeah they've missed opportunities, especially if what people are saying about there being nothing at the Pompey friendly is true. But when do you get into diminishing returns on something like this? It's not like it hasn't be mentioned or advertised at all, there may well be people who don't know they are cheap, but are they the same sort of people who are likely to invest in a season ticket?

Unfortunately the club never managed to generate an exiting bubble around the offer. Something which other clubs seem to have done. I'd put this down to years of distrust and negativity surrounding the club within the town over the last several years. It's not something you can instantly turn round with a sexy season ticket offer. And new holders are always going to be a bit harder in a town where few people have any ties to the place.

Reeling people back in with Match Day Ticket offers is always going to be a better way of hooking back in support. Much more accessible, without a big 23 Saturday/evening commitment.

lets be honest, £200+ is still a lot for a two part payment

its not a faliure to reach 6000 imo.the town end tickets were not at an attractive enough price for alot of those who go in there to buy one.there are other reasons too which have been argued over and over which come into play.but i am confident that with the already increased sales on previous years,and a decent start to the season, we will get good gates this season.

I agree arriba. But there's no harm in analysing the situation. And anyway, as Phil says (although I think he's more confident of it that anybody else), we could still make it yet. I'm sure they'll be a big deadline approaching story in the adver.

The deadline is July 31st ya? A Thursday? Does that mean people who get paid the last Thursday of the month aren't getting paid until the 31st? That must be a bit of a cunt.

I've got a feeling that the queues will be mental this weekend and at the Cardiff game next week.

i think your all being hopelessly optimistic, and we'll sell 4800

I think that you're being hopelessly optimistic and it'll turn out we've sold 12. They'll have counted some twice.

I hope we can reach 5000 unfortunetly I can;t see us getting to 6000 but either way it is still a fantastic achievment to get to that amount

i don't think it is a fantastic achievement. Failure to match up with Port Vale has left me rather disappointed, and pissed off with the hoardes of stayaway fair weather fans who despite having most of their concerns dealt with (price, no Andy King/McMahon, board with integrity, no League 2) still can't be fucked, knowing full well if we get a big draw in a cup or happen to do well they'll be back claiming to have been Town through and through.

I think 5000 season tickets is a poor show.

Recently we've had a shit team, shit ground (by that I mean atmosphere, food, general "CG experience), & a shit board.

Only the board has definitely changed for the better.  If one of the other two can change in the first few months of the season the "crowds" will come back, if both change then they'll definitely come back.

We need to get a buzz around the club from now on, and that can be generated by enhanced match day experience at the CG, or superb results on the pitch, or both.

Do these hoards of stayaways fair weather fans really exist though? Yeah our attendances will increase if we have a big cup draw, but in my experience these people don't claim to be hardcore fans; at most they might say they look out for our results. I think polarising fans into stay-aways and season ticket holders is oversimplifying things, the extra attendances at big games are mostly just people looking for a good afternoon out. They might come back for another game if it's good (which is great and should be encouraged), or they may not, but they don't have a responsibility to buy a season ticket just because there's an offer on.

I know people are fickle - maybe a few signings may have generated a little more interest??

Whats this obsession with Port Vale? Why not compare with some of the other clubs in league two and league one, and see how we stand in the whole scheme of things.....

Mainly because they ran a similar scheme. As a club we like to think of ourselves as on an equal footing or better than them regarding our average home attendances. Vale should also be limited due to the average Stoke resident being more financially challenged than the average Swindon resident. They should find it harder picking up 'nuterals' given Stoke FC are a premiership club right on their doorstep.

We know Bradford and Huddersfield have sold shed loads but with (I think) far lower prices. I'm not sure of anyone else who has run a scheme like ours (other than Vale).

 Because PV are a similar size club to us, who've opted to run a similar cheap season ticket offer.  In scientific terms it's a fair test.

What I am getting at before you all whip yourselves to death, put aside the offer for the minute, why not just simply look at it as "we have the x th  highest SDT ticket sales in League 0ne"...
you never know, we may be quite high....glass half full and all that...

I personally cant be arsed to dig out the figures for all the other clubs and check...if indeed we have the second lowest in league one or thereabouts, then yes I will agree, we currebtly have shite support...

I just wanted to moan, and picked Port Vale because of the reasons above. We should have outsold them easy.

port vale tickets were £183 with a 3 monthly option (over May,June and July) and their target was 5000 (Lorne St stand £20 more mind you)
14-18 £89
9-13  £45
u 9    free
That's a significantly cheap deal - notably u9s are free anyway on matchday tickets
How many of those would be youngsters - that would be an interesting comparison

I reckon most people are moaning because they're going to miss out on an even cheaper ticket  :P

yeah and a free T shirt

and a decent left back.

Where as Port fucking Vale is the place to be!

They've had a whale of time over the last 10 years and their ground is an Oasis

The fact is we are poorly supported and I dont even know why. I'd claim that so many fans would rather watch football on the telly, but hell Port fucking Vale managed 5,000 season ticket sales and Huddersfield have managed 17 bloody thousands. I know the tickets were cheaper but fuck me.

These other shit, done nothing for the last 10 year clubs can do it, why the hell cant we

because we're know where near as big of a club as we think. In support base terms anyway. Infact it's starting to become apparent that we are quite small.

Some of you seem to think this is a one-off do or die chance - it's not, it's a progression of rebuilding the fanbase year on year. We started with an ambitious target of 6000, which may yet still be achieved, but if we get (say) 5000 that's still the best season ticket sales for 15 years. And it's not then a case of going "Oh well we didn't reach 6000 that's it, we've blown it", you build on that next year. ST sales of 5000 (say) will see our average gate rise this season. So you hopefully then keep that 5000 next season and build on it. And the next and the next. And you look to build the non-ST matchday sales as well so that as your ST base grows, your overall gates grow with it. You don't just throw a moody after the first year of what's a long-term plan and say "Oh we're all a bit shit" and give up.

Especially not on the back of what are actually bloody good sales - it may not be affecting some of the younger posters on here who have a reasonable pay packet and no-one to provide for out of it but themselves, but believe me for those of us with mortgages and familes to support, we are in tough times economically and its hurting. Against that backdrop, keeping your existing ST base is doing well, never mind achieving the best figures in 15 years.

I think the board are happy with waht we have got anyway

Many of us haven't really spoken to 'the management'. There is always the fear that they will just give up on such initiatives. It may be ill informed paranoia, but you can sort of see why people may be a bit downbeat about our ticket promotion when similar clubs have done better with theirs (that's if we don't make it).

But success can't be measured on season ticket sales. We'll have to look at average gates come May to see the true effect of this promotion. With Vale and Uddersfield the effect is more obvious, ST sales > last seasons average gate!


Which is excellent if that's the case

Spot on Paul!

I really wanted that '69 shirt. I wonder if they'll do a run of them anyway?

speaking to board members last night, they said they were delighted with the sales, they said they always thought 6000 was a bit much but why not set your sights high? they said they felt there was a buzz about the town that hadnt beenm there for years, i have to agree. 8000 for a friday night friendly!

anyway im buying mine in a sec, so will ask how many weve done

My comments weren't based on any special inside knowledge, just  what has already been said in the public domain (e.g. incremental improvements etc) and a taking the pledge to build the business and the fanbase year on year.

About the paranoia that they'll just give up, I wonder if part of the problem is we're too used to a board built wholly around short-termism with no business sense whatever and no vision or ambition. So when someone comes along with a long-term vision and some ambition we're perhaps still expecting this to just be the latest in a series of half-arsed fly-by-night initiatives that go nowhere.

The great thing about setting your sights higher than you perhaps should is it gives you an ambitious focus above where you need to be - if you make it, great you're ahead of the game. If you fall a little short, you've actually probably still done better than you'd ordinarily have any right to expect. Either way you overachieve and can then build on that.

Or if you're the old board you wave the best sales for 15 years round as evidence that the support just isn't there, announce you're giving up on "subsidising cheap tickets" and that prices will have to go through the roof next season to compensate.

just bought mine Y 185 DRS. Bloke said we had done 4600

Paul, do we have any "inside" knowledge on what sort of effort the club are going to be putting in to sales at the Cardiff game, and any other last minute promo's to push the figure on?  have they sought volunteers to help with anything pre match etc?  Bradford used an open day with a BBQ at the ticket office for example, and I would have though having some stalls around the ground selling the season tickets and almost ramming down the throats of fans would be a good idea given a rather captive audience.

I must admit Rob i was expecting more promotions etc  but still happy with what we have sold

I'd echo everything Paul D's just posted, as you'd expect. But I'd also like to point out to ask people to STOP unfavourably comparing our season ticket sales to those of Port Vale and Huddersfield. Huddersfield have had a larger fan base than us since their stadiium redevelopment anyway, and have built it up to the current levels by cut price season ticket offers over the last couple of years. This year they were £100 FFS. I think we could have made double figures at those prices.

As for PV, by their pledge deadline they had 5300 pledges, which they've managed to turn into over 6,000 sales. Well done them. But it's worth noting that all those sales were at a guaranteed price of about £180, significantly lower than even the best case scenario for our ST purchasers. And from what I remember about 1000 of those pledges came in over the last week before the deadline so there might still be hope for us.

We've already made 4,600 sales with a week to go and another monthly payday to allow for. I think we're on course for c5,800 sales. There's still a hope that we'll top the 6,000 and I think that would see a little flurry of bandwagon jumpers taking advantage of the certainty of the lower price.

Either way I don't think it's something for people to be getting depressed about. 5,000 season ticket sales would be good news. Shit the 4,600 we've got is good news.

You're quite wrong. It's not part of the problem. It's the WHOLE problem. My brain just can't cope that we may genuinely be run by people with the resources and professionalism to see past next Tuesday. We are Swindon. I keep expecting the whole thing to come crashing down some way or another.

If we really have sold 4600 as of today I'll be extremely happy. It means that we have ramped up from 30 a day, to 100 a day in the 2 days since the last reported figures, Game on!

I would expect the Ticket office to be busy over the next week. I am still of the opinion that a large number of supporters have had no reason to buy any earlier. We have quite a few on this forum who are only just now buying, which backs this point of view up.
I would whole heartedly back, support & help any thing for the last push at the Cardiff friendly.

Might see a little jump in sales on Friday. Swindon's largest employer, Honda, has its annual summer shutdown for two weeks and all 5,000 of its employees get paid this Friday.

I don't I'm afraid although in line with suggestions from Phil S and others I have emailed the club to offer to help leaflet the Cardiff game if the problem (with not doing this at Portsmouth game) was simply lack of manpower.

Right, I e-mailed Nick Watkins about the poor catering arrangements in the DR after the Portsmouth game.  Got a reply and subsequently I replied to that, including my surprise that they weren't really pushing season ticket sales on Friday evening's match.  Got a reply from his pa (he is on holiday for a week) to say that they were now planning to do something extra for the Cardiff game in the concourses.  We shall wait and see.

Does this mean his dad is answering his mail? :D

You know I'm really glad I'm not the only one that had to read that twice.

 You wouldn't have thought fatherhood would suit Marie

I'd bet that she is far better looking than his Dad.

i can vouch for that phil :P

I bought my first season ticket for 8 years today.

I had one from the age of 5 right up to when I was 19 but then stopped because of costs.

I have only missed about 10-15 home games since 2000 anyway so thought this was a good time to come back.

didnt you have a season ticket along from me and compo about 3 seasons ago? the season we went down? or did you just buy the same seat every week?

he buys the same every game, but as i havent got one ill be sat sepearte now i think?

You'll get a seat near us mate easy.

I can also get you in for a fiver some games I'm led to believe?

On another note, walking into an empty, silent County Ground is quite eery. We had a walk up to choose our seats.

We prob wont reach 6K now BUT most people get paid on Friday or Monday the 28th so.... one last big push!

...and a baby county ground will be born. aaah.

baggsie being godfather!

4,407 today then. Not 4600 :( That's if the figure is to be believed as wasn't the last release 4396?

I think they are using a vary strange counting system.

I think they are using the new 'BrianHillier' system which misses out a few sales every now and again.
 My guess is come the final week of the offer another 1,000 sales suddenly appear by magic.

Do you think the ticket office guys include free kids but the board do not?

I know we aren't likely to do as many in the week as the weekend, but 11 in 3 days seems low! We have been doing an average of 30 a day (from OS figures), but for a couple of weeks not the OS figures have been static with sudden rises (av 30 day), then static, then rise, etc.

I think whoever gave the explanation of them not counting them until they are filed (which they probably only do in batches) is more likely.

But then why would they only file 11? Unless someone started just before they went home or something.

I see the OWS now states over 4,400 sold, so it looks like they're on a couple of day delay in comparison with what people get told in the ticket office.  Just a thought.

Pay day for a lot of folk today so hopefully the numbers will go up over the weekend.

Just had a look at the Port Vale offer, which people have been comparing to our own tickets and they do offer the option to pay in three installments opposed to our two.  Does anyone believe spreading the cost a little more would encourage a few more punters to sign up?

Lets face it a lot of people live hand to mouth over the course of a week/month so the option to spread the hit over a few installments must make it more of an attractive option.  Although is it attractive in a Charlotte Church way or more of a Cheryl Gascoine?

Just got mine was fairly busy about 15-20 people waiting to get theirs.

Yes - completely agree with this. If they spread it over a few more managable chunks I'd be there, but as it is, I'm not going to be able to afford one when you take into account travelling will add double the cost of the season ticket and then some ...

I get to games as much as I can anyway, but they do need to offer better payment options ...

I suppose two hits means less admin and less exposure from grubby little urchins that are unable to pay the 2nd or 3rd installments but I can see where you're coming from entirely Terry.

Possibly worth mentioning to the club after all setting up a 3rd or 4th installment option would only take a little admin to implement.

Sorry I really can't see this. If you spend £15- £20 per week PLUS travelling on football in the season, why can't you spend £20 a week on it in the close season. If you had done this when the offer was announced you'd have the first installment now. Alternatively put it on a card !
I'm not trying to be unsympathetic, & realise that things is tight, but I don't see how they could have done more.

I hope that we make 5000 as that will certainly be a decent total, like to think we will make 6000 but with 6 days to go it looks unlikely now, but even so the board are still to be applauded forsight for the offer, and hopefully everyone will make their 2nd payment as well by the deadline, and we can look forward to a good atmospere next season.

I do think though if we had bought a couple of more players in then we may have sold a few more - although not another 1000 !
 :harhar:

I may be cluthing at straws here , but I think the OS is a bit behind the ticket office. Therefore we could already have sold a few more. This weekend will be crunch time though. Hoping the last minute rush happens. 200 a day would be good !

Question is, could we deal with 1400 sales in a week if required ? I'd have to doubt it - as the spread wouldn't be even.

Cue complaints from those who have waited until late in the day and are then surprised if there are huge queues.

 Question is how many times can you insert cue/queue or a diminuitive of cucumber into a sentence?

There's no way we'll even come close now. Was hoping we'd be at about 5,000 by now for the late rush. Is the ticket office open on Sunday? It should be to allow more time to sell. Anyway it's obvious the people of Swindon don't care so oh well.

like phil s said if you can,t afford it put it on a card,there are a few cards out there that offer cashback,o% for a year and other gimmicks.if you get a card with 0% for a year just pay what you would spend on footie each month you will be quids in.i did post on here about a month ago about an  american express nectar card wich gives back 5000 points when you spend £200 in the first month thats £25 in real money if you apply now you might just get it in time.Im still waiting for the last minute rush as i,ve still got to get my 4 tickets--heres hoping.

yeah you have no excuses and anyone who hasnt got one is scum

So why are you waiting?

I have just paid 722 Euro on 4 return flights to come over and watch 3 home Swindon matches, Colchester, Leeds and Huddersfield. I was supposed to be going to the Millwall game as well but the bloody Police have moved the game to the day I go on Holiday to Ireland! I was tempted to buy a Season Ticket but with working in Bangalore for 2 months next year I am not going to get to enough matches to make it worth my while I don't think.

Really can't wait for the season to start now!!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: Weve always been good at accepting the fair weather fans.

i,ve been waiting because the deadline is next week and i,m using a card i,ve just got with 13 months 0% and i,m getting the family ticket and am not too fussed where i sit. even at the dearer price i,m saving a bundle and have lots of time to pay the bill off.

no more waiting,got up early and got them thats 4 more to the total.

Thanks Dave after 38 years as a fan I'm scum - please pick me up at Penzance every other Saturday at say 8am and I'll get one - plus will you pay the £140 for the chopper !

Very sad that sales are so low - AF & friends have dug deep - it's a crying shame that they cannot get more support.  People forget so easily we could have been in Luton's position. FFS it's only about 4.5 times filling up your Mondeo (I think) - unleaded 150p + here !

Some people can't afford to do it in a couple of hits. A lot of people can't get credit cards.

If the people who couldn't get a season ticket turn up to the majority of games, does it really matter?

Agreed Sie Pie...alot of fans dont care about savin a few quid....get the team winning and they will spend there dosh,i think the club have done well to sell nearly 5,000 considering the shit they have dished up on and off the pitch the last ten years...people like us will always follow the Town...its the new people to the town theyve got to tap into....get into the championship and we would sell 5,000 in a fortnight.....unfortunatly lge 2 footy just dosnt sell whatever the price.

if they turn up to the majority of games they should get the season ticket,it,s common sense.

I know its lge 1 but to me its the old second div...no one Should do anything Johnny,its choice,i know alot of people who will watch us a few times,but to some its a gamble i,e we lose the first 4 matches they wont come again and theyve spent 200 quid on rubbish,i get a tik because i try to watch every match regardless of results and many away matches to.

And those that do probably have. But those of us that have to take into account travel costs etc, will pick and choose a mix of home and away games depending on finances, meaning a season ticket isn't worthwhile.

Not aimed at you, but some people on here need to take their fucking heads out of their holier (sp) than thou arses.

But what if they can't afford to pay for it all up front? If they still go to the games the team gets the same number of fans cheering them on, the club actually gets more money. The only people who lose out are those who want an extra amount of money off their tickets and a free shirt (which I can see why, I'm sure we'd all like that!).

Sussex makes a very good point regarding those who have to travel distances to get to the games.
Even though I live only 60 miles away (120 round trip), others are double that amount of distance, a match day works out for me £20 fuel, £3 programme, £5 parking, then match ticket (I have brought a season ticket), a drink and something to eat.
Not cheap to see a lower tier side these days, I can understand fully why some supporters would wish to pick their games instead attending every home game.

Agreed

This is true to a point.

But the fact is with the lower costs you only need to go to half of the games for the price to be the same, if not cheaper.

With all that the board has done for the club, I think buying a ST is about showing a bit more commitment to the team.


PS   It's not League 2 football, it's Division 3 to us oldies ;)

i,m not having a go about people who don,t go to enough games at home to make season tickets worthwhile it,s more a case of not wasting money especialy in the current  financial situation.The people who say they haven,t got the money for the first installment probably never intended to buy,i mean there was no big surprize the new board  was going to reduce tickets-why didn,t they put some cash away for the last couple of months.I am saving money even at the higher price and when i,ve had a S/T in the past i found when money is short after christmas i,m still able to go to the match.Anyhow well done to the 4500 and good luck to the team.

 :nod:

It's Div 3 to me as well, that's what i grew up with.

there's plenty of free parking around the ground, dell boy.

I can see your point, but it doesn't work out that much better value for money for some people. Take someone who goes to say 20 games a season, all in the Town End. They're only going to save roughly £30 over the entire season, but have to pay out two lump sums. It's probably more sense to them to pay as they go. DRS and Arkells people it does work out a lot better value for money though.

A lot of people will have been saving for holidays as well, saving for another thing might just be a little too much. There are also a fair number of people who are pensioners/students/go with their parents. Paying out lump sums may not be feasible for these people.

I think Sussex has probably hit the nail on the head though, a lot of our fans pick and choose their games and that's just an unfortunate fact.

For those that have bought tickets for the DRS and Arkells I can't see why they're moaning we haven't done 6000. They're saving nearly £200 the year. I think it's fair to assume that out of what we have sold, most of those won't be new fans.

p.s. If our attendances are shit next year then I would agree there is cause to moan, unless we're relegation fodder.

agreed si-pie ,i think the town end will be the place to go for the occasional fan.

Only if you get there very early!!! I normally arrive about 45 mins before game.

Its a 310 mile round trip for me gutted  :doh:

I have yet to pay to park for football in Swindon, there are always walkable parking options available, even on the very busy days.  Plenty in Walcott and Old Walcott, some around Broad St if you are persistent and if push comes to shove Gorse Hill.  You can park 100 yards from the Town Centre on a Saturday if you know the right places to look.

'if you know the right places to look' - that sums it up RT, I'm not a local and apart from the footie ground I do not know Swindon at all, so I park at the Cricket Ground, haven't a clue how to find the places you mention.

Never had any problem parking at Tescos and nipping through by the cricket ground.  Dont have to pay either.

I never pay to park for football either but if I didn't know the area then I prob would to make life easier.

Financially, Im lucky as live locally and am yet to buy a house etc. however if I did decide to even within Swindon, I'd definitely struggle to make home games (if I didn't have a ST) let alone away games.  Living nowadays is flippin expensive so those who have families/mortgages etc. who make home and some away games deserve a bit of credit thats for sure.

My concern is will people who bought a season ticket for the lower price who wouldn't normally buy one still keep it if we don't sell 6000 as it will be an extras bit to pay otherwise?  Personally I think its still a great saving however what with the payment in October and Xmas on the horizon I hope we don't lose any ST holders.

As my old man always drives, we go to the Grove (or whatever it is called - the pub up from the Merlin) at about 1 ish and leave the car there. We normally have a couple of pre-match bruskies and then a swift one afterwards. Never any problems with parking.

Not sure if it's been mentioned before, but why not spread the payments of the season ticket over say 23 easy payments.  You could pay an amount each time you go to the match, obviously if you take this option you'd have to pay a little more (for administrative purposes) say £20 a payment.

Actually thinking about it, it'll never take off.

Jeremy Wray was on the radio this morning, saying he is still optimistic we will get to the 6000 figure...so here's hoping

He also said that they are keen to do the 1969 shirts....so I wonder if they don't get to 6000 if they will give ST holders a chance to pay towards the shirt oif they still want one perhaps at cost price or something like that ?

Wray did say that they wouldn't be dissapointed if they don't get to 6k as whatever figure they get now is a vast improvement on last season's total and they knew 6k was a tall order but obviously had to have something to aim for that may be achievable.

Either there are loads that haven't been counted, or there's going to be an extension, as he wasn't as confident as that at the hampton game.

I think even 5k is all over given the 4597 figure this morning (save for an extension/miss count).

The 'rush' that everyone has been hoping for must surely be underway now - if it's going to happen at all.

Unless they are sitting on forms, we have gone up from about 30 a day to 45 a day. But our last weekend is behind us, and given the lack of  (ticket offic) queue at the Pompey game I have doubt whether tomorrow will be much busier.

4600-4800 is still good mind, but we'll have to wait and see if it improves our average gate.

Me and a mate are getting one each tomorrow. I've never bought one and i quite like the idea of turning up late and not having to worry about getting a ticket.

Paying for the second installment should just be a case of putting aside £15 or so a game. The same money would have been spent without an ST.
I wouldn't be surprised to see an extention.

But hes not going to go on local radio and say hes not optimistic is he!

I think our mad rush happened at the start of the offer when we were doing 150 a day. Can't see it happening now to be honest.

Ticket office was pretty vibrant at lunchtime.  Think Batch may have been in there but I wasn't sure if it was 100% him so didn't say hello!  Nothing worse than looking like a knob getting the wrong person!

Wooooo 1969 shirts! 8) That's all i'm interested in, i don't care about the inflated price for failing to reach 6000

Yes, I was getting Cardiff/QpR tickets. Likewise wasn't sure it was you until too late.

 But a 69 replica shirt is basically a long sleeved white tee shirt with a number on  the back....I reckon the club bought a job lot from a stall at Blunsdon market.

Was there not even a badge?

 Nope nothing.

Hmmmm... methinks it won't be a replica in the true sense of the word then.

I reckon they will give us them anyway - They have probably had to pre-order a job lot from somewhere

 Probably be like one of those Toffs retro shirts....not strictly accurate.

Effectively costs £40 if you still get one !

think Id rather have the £40 cash if you put it that way!!

no because then phil-s will moan

4624

Where did you get that figure?

He's been working out.

Its on the adver site. Apparently they are thinking of extending the deadline to 4th August.

 :D

Oh cheers, well thats a steep increase in sales then or just slow updating I wonder, to reach 5000 would be pretty good!

Makes sense to have an extra weekend. Even if we don't get 6k, we may was well get as many as possible.

Might be worthwhile extending to the Tranmere game, there are still people out of town not going to friendlies, who may purchase at the game, as there is no point spending 30-40 quid on petrol, negating any savings. I'm one myself, and as i said to JW at hampton i probably wont because i will only make 9-10 games due to other commitments. But if its extended, knowing me I'll probably get pissed and buy one anyway if the offers still on.

I thought you could get a ST over the phone now?

or by downloading the form and posting it.

Really? I honestly didn't know that, there are others that dont know either.

it says it on the OS and all the leaflets i think, maybe it could have been publiscised more.

It's says you can do it over the phone, but when I tried they told me to fill in the form and post it.

I suppose that makes sense, they wouldn't be able to handle all the calls.

When was that Sam? AFAIK, they had an issue with the CC clearance people not accepting phone sales for the first few weeks but then they banged some heads together and I thought they had been doing phone sales since then.

i bought mine on the phone last week and it arrived in the post the following day.

while i was buying mine saturday somebody rang for 3 kids S/Ts,they was told they would need proof of age when picking up the tickets so they would still need to go to the ground at some stage.Still it would save about 15 mins processing time.

I think they should have done an article in the adver saying "the deadline's been brought forward, and you have ten minutes once you have read this sentence to buy your season ticket" time to play hard ball with the good folk of Swindon.  Extensions are for nonces!!

If anything we should extend it till October when the second payment is due.

Start off the season with a good couple of wins and that might tempt some people and because of the prices missing 2 or 3 games at the start of the season is still a massive saving in the long term.

Plus the transfer deadline doesnt kick in until a little while into the season.

To be honest though, I think the club should move on, could all start to look a bit desperate. Start concentrating on the people who make up their mind on matchday morning.

i just dont understand why they dont let the people who have already got a ST and up to 1st August not have to pay any extra! If you miss it though you pay the full 300 odd quid! that would surely see a rush in sales!

I've just been down the CG to get my 'Nam tickets and it was absolutely empty. They've only got behind the goal tickets for 'Nam so far. They don't expect the side tickets for another day or so.

Most people will go in the lunch hour like me!  I'll report back when I return :D

Was quiet at lunch when I got my 'Nam ticket but apparently was pretty busy yesterday and last night on the season ticket front.

Got my ST this morning.  I blame Bushey for really rekindling my interest - and yes, I was one of those who said I wouldn't go again whilst the big fat smelly greek had anything to do with it!!  No excuses not to get one now, so I duly paid up[!! :hiya:

Good on you Ronnie! There's too many out there who went away because of McMoan/King/Diamandis/<insert other object of hatred here> and now aren't coming back.

I'm being a numpty and don't understand what you are saying.

So then...the club site is showing 4,770 sold as of 9am yesterday.  Looks as if the final tally will have been around 4,800.  Not bad - but not great either.

Have they extended the deadline to Monday yet? as I think that may tip it over 5000 mark.

Really dont understand when we had 2k at cardif they pushed it but when we had 8k at pompey there was hardly nothing.

What happened to the stalls in town etc

  Extended to saturday pm.

Seems fair enough. It would be nice to get to 5k. For some reason my head tells me 4999 is crap, but 5000 is good.

Well 5000 with no free shirts and the higher price will certainly be fine by the board. Someone posted the break-even figure on here but it must be a decent result either way.

Still think they probably need to extend till after the Plymouth game on Monday to maximise potential sales this weekend, hopefully they will do that.

5000@ £269 = £1345000   6000@ £229= 1374000. More or less the same with no costs for shirts, so the club is better off with 5000. although is till think they'll do the shirts.

I guess an extra 1000 on the gate may generate higher matchday sales of merchandise, food, programs and the like.

That's if you could guarantee that selling 6000 season tickets instead of 5000 = 1000 more people on the gate. Which it may not!

Final figure is 4,896. I can't see any mention of the deadline being extended on the OS.?
I think they pushed it at the Cardiff game as ar esult of comments made. I certainly think it might have had a small effect & would think that a similar effort on Monday would help break the 5,000 barrier. They may not have done at the Pompey game becasue they may have not had enough staff. I know supporters have volunteered to help, but in reality the numbers are few & far between. I also get the (unsubstantiated) impression that the club are a bit reluctant to call on help from us.
I don't think the club are so concerned about the numbers in terms of revenue, more like they are concerned about attrating & retaining long term support. In reality 5,000 ST's sold is a wonderful acheivement. And yes, my prediction of 6,200 was too optomistic.

The brochure actually says the price after today will be £339. Up to (and including today?) the price is £229 payable in 2 instalments of £149 at time of purchase then £80 or £120 on 1st Oct depending on reaching 6k by today. So if anybody wants to save £70 minimum or £110 maximum they need to buy today!
Actually by the 11th August ... Desktop News Alert just popped up

The 11th make sense. Those who intended to buy will have done so, whereas the 11th gives a bit of time for attracting more to the deal.

Again though Phil where else will the advertise this. its pointless doing it on the os

They said this morning in the ticket office they sold 129 yesterday alone......

Published figures show the last 4 days sales as : 63, 71, 57, 126 . Yes I am sad enough to count.

But this 'ramp up' was surely due to the deadline. We may eek out a few more sales (which is good), but I'm not sure it will be that many.

I'm still convinced that some who go to matches don't realise how the deal works. Even some who post on this site don't know all the details.
I would recommend that the club get some volunteers to help the club out with promoting the deal on match days we have between now & the deadline. They could either appeal direct, or through the TRUST/ supporters club.
They could also get some bods to drop leaflets through letter boxes. en masse.
I know I would help.

If we get 6k we should get the buzz around the place for the first game.

If we don't get 6k we'll just look a bit desperate like this whole promotion was the be all and end all imo.

Either way I think those that purchased should be very pleased and appreciative of the board and should forget about those who didn't buy.

I disagree a bit. I think that leafleting random houses is on a loser for cost vs. possible season ticket sales.

At some point we just have to accept that even with the good deal on the table, there just aren't 6000 people willing to buy season tickets. With the adver, radio Swindon, the advertisements around (especially the ones in the non-Swindon area, I've spied one at Bath train station), the web and word of mouth, there are only going to be few interested people who don't know about the offer. It's not worth the leafleting/advertising cost to let them know, not without an easy way and cost effective way of getting to them. It would be great if you could just print off a list of people who don't know, but you can't. So err.. yeah.

I agree.

If we don't make 6,000 all it does is bring up some home truths about this clubs fanbase. Whether it be how well followed we are or how despite years of moaning many are still unwilling to commit despite a great deal being offered.

We shall see.

a workmate of mine who is a brighton fan got his Town season ticket yesterday, i was quite pleasantly surprised to find out!

Why didnt the club offer everyone a free shirt regardless of how many sold.....i think it could of made a fair difference,many people who are dithering could be swayed into getting a ticket if guaranteed a shirt.

Because perhaps its not financially viable unless they sell the full 6000?

I still think they should give all ST holders the £229 price just to piss everyone who didn't get one because they didn't think we'd reach 6k off.

Isn't it as financially viable (in fact, more so, as there'd be less shirts) if they sell the 5100 or so that would equate to the same £s as if they sold 6k?

I suppose so, I was only assuming, Ive no idea whether they'd still make the shirts if we reach 6k or not!

I think all those people who would benefit from the the season ticket offer have bought one. We averaged approx 6000 home fans last season. I'd say 5000 of these went 15 or more games and the other 1000 being people who maybe go to half a dozen games a season.

Not a bad idea actually. They could maybe say a free shirt for all when we get to 5,250 or 5,500. Discount when we hit 6,000.
If the cost is the saem at 5,100 the extra 150-400 would  pay for the free shirt.

Are people really that bothered about the skanky free shirt?

Yes

Yes

Just buy one then.

Where?

 Blunsdon market....

Going a bit off topic, on the classicfootballshirts website they have a selection of old STFC shirts, including one with Ruddock on the back. I wonder how long they have had it for sale!

Toffs sell them

http://www.toffs.com/icat/swindontown

quite expensive if you ask me..

Exactly - thats why I want a free one!

 Only the 70's shirt there is a replica shirt, the rest are rip offs.

  We've done this before but what the hell, the 69 shirt is a long sleeve white T shirt with anumber sown on the back.  PS the number must be 2-12

If the 5000 people who have already got season tickets clubbed together and bought 1000 junior season tickets it would cost you all an extra £13.80 each.You'd get a shirt and  the cheaper second payment.Job done!

 I can only see one flaw in the brilliance of your plan...think you need birth certificates, so you'd need to find a thousand of these....not sure even the illegal immmigrant community could stretch that far.

Hmmmm we need someone to hang around outside a few schools asking kiddies if they want a free season ticket.Theres a few on here that are experts at that sort of thing.

 Genius....

sign a polish player,we should sell another 1000 easy.

If the attendance figures were true for our game againgst the Turks whilst in Austria sign up a player from Turkey and double the ST figure!!

4951 as of this morning.

Said over the tannoy last night we have broke the 5000 mark

Could you hear it last night then?

yeah very easily

Personally I no longer place much credence in the OS figures, they always seem to be several days behind the actual figure when you hear from Nick Watkins or other club spokeschaps. But what the hell, we're over 5000, that's bloody great!

Was there anybody trying to push the ST deal last night ? Was the ticket office open after the game ?

No and no

when i went down there about half 2 yesterday there was a grand total of zero people buying season tickets.

5000 :) I'm happy now.

Don't think there was that much point promoting ST sales last night to be honest. Smallish crowd, and there is this weekend and next available to the stragglers.

no one has answered my question yet.do the under7s season tickets count in the total?

I expect so - why would they not?? I mean they are selling a seat right?

This was asked before, and the answer was yes if i remember correctly.

Ticket office was open after the game, AF said on BBC Points West last night that we was over 5000 now but said it would be a struggle to get to 6000 now

weymouth,s S/T,s are now £260+ so maybe a reality check is needed

He nearly gave away some info as well. He said "We have extended the deadline in until after the Tranmere game in the hope that we can get close to the target and come to some sort of..." and then he kind of stopped there realising what he was about to say. So maybe they'll still give us the shirts or give us the £229 price if we get to say 5,800 or something.

i personally think that we've kinda reached as many as we're going to get, maybe a couple of hundred more, but certainly not 5800!

Yes.

Quite,

are 800 people realy going to be thinking "well I wasn't going to bother, but now you have extended the deadline by 2 weeks I think I will". No.

Also the OS says we have not sold 5000 yet. Booooooooo

I think we're all aware that the OWS is a day or two behind.  We have sold over 5,000 season tickets, great news.

the only way we will attract any more season ticket holders now is to start the season well and hope they jump on the bandwagon.

We'll have to start with an 11-0 then as it ends after the Tranny game or do you mean full pricers after 5-6 games?

Well, if I were Mr. Fitton I would extend it right untill the second payment is due in October.

That means if we do start the season well we can allow for band wagon jumpers and even if they dont decide till 5 games in. Over the season they will still make a saving and effectivly not lose out if they have already missed 5 home games. As they will still be paying for 12 when they can still attend 18.

Yep that would work.

I think Fitton's done enough.  He's already given the fans the best ticket deal the club has seen in a generation, and people are still discussing what ELSE he might do.  All seems a bit one way to me.

Fitton has already made his move.  Now it's time for the fans to show the colour of their money.  Continually moving the goal posts (to use a well worn footballing cliché) isn't going to make a lot of difference.  Either the passion is there, or it isn't.

5000 says it is

I agree.  For all  of those who are suggesting the 5000 get the cheap price after all you're asking Mr Fitton to casually write off £200k.  Don't see why he should do that.

Quite, the offer was there and and 'we' didn't make it. Fairs fair, it's still quite a bit cheaper than last year.

Gets ready to get shot down

Yes it’s a great deal if you are moving but for those in the town end its about 50p a game on last year

he speaketh the truth

i wont shoot you down as you are bang on.
if the savings were the same for the townend as the rest then 6000 probably would have been met.
5000 is a good return imo and crowds will be up on last season if the team is playing well.i think those who bought tickets should get their retro shirts as a gesture of goodwill.the season ticket income aint gonna be much out with 5000. and the pay on the day fans will still do so

Quite agree and it was a PITA deciding to move or stay in the TE. In the end I moved, which is a shame as half the people I have sat near the last few years also moved, half stayed. You get to know and like the people around you. I say like, I mean tolerate.

I just know I'm gong to be sat next to sad strange loaner man who only claps, and drinks from a thermos.

Fair point.

Nope. Lady's moved next to me.

Cheeky git!

However I forgot where my seat was v Plymouth and it was only axs that noticed Herthab was along and down about 10 seats!

They put those things called numbers on the seats and letters on the stairs for a reason  ;D

Yes and embarassingly I followed them and still ended up in the wrong place :(

Unless the bald one was in the wrong seat. Then that would really mess you up :D

I will be relying on the light beaming off his head to find my seat :D

They don't turn the lights on until mid second half

Well, at least we've gone past 5,000 ST's now (5,015).

Yeah, it's official, over 5000. That's good. Shame we aren't closer to 6k, but hey ho.

I'm happy enough with 5k tbh.  Can't wait for tomorrow!!!  It's like the day before Christmas, apart from I'm not going on an all dayer, I haven't bought any presents, and I'm not going back to my parents, I'm just sat here at work.

the weathers Christmas like though!

i get to get up stupidly early to help move my girlfriend out of the flat and back into her parents. YAY!

anybody want a really nice proper leather sofa? (i.e not a waxy leather sofa, a proper comfy old school leather sofa) free to a good home, 3 seater, lots of scratch marks (fucking cats) and a few stains, but its so fucking comfy, i'm proper upset to see it go, but we've got no space for it! its heading to the scrappy tommoro morning, so be quick if you want it!

do you have any pics mate?

Of the girlfriend or the sofa?

soapy tit wank, both really ;)

The sofa's better looking.

*joke*

i am in need of a sofa, got a spare couple of rooms.. however i have an annoyingly narrow hallway so I am not 100% i would get a sofa of any size in the place.. so pics or dimensions would be good!

5015  is pretty respectable for this level I would say (and there's bound to be a few more added to that before Monday or whenever teh new deadline is)

Obviously Leeds and Lester will have sold loads more and Huddersfield have sold shed loads but I wonder about the rest? Can some one with nothing better to do look it up please??

I'm happy we made 5000+

As far as attracting old or new fans to the County Ground - it'll take time, and I believe that as soon as we are properly competing in this division people will come back.

5000 is a great start.

There are no excuses this season.

caveman, its big. very big.

Ditto Rich....lets hope we can jump out of this division,feel we could sell 8000 easy in the championship.

No

off the top of my head im fairly sure peterbrough and Franchise have sold more, and there'll be a few more in the same ballpark

MkDonadls don't count....for anything, tis the law

new deadline 12pm thursday

Erm, OK then. I guess we have sold nearly 200 ticket since the original deadline so it is not a complete waste of time.

I was looking at the weekend results in the paper this morning, and the average opening day attendances were approx 20,000 in the Championship, 8,500 in League 1 and just short of 5,000 in League 2.  It seems that attendances in the lower leagues are creeping up - possibly because of some disillusionment with the greed league and also, I guess, because there have been quite a few high profile relegations in recent years.

So I know that the average in our division is skewed by the likes of Leicester, but it's still slightly disappointing that we didn't even pull in an average sized crowd on Saturday.  And as for the Championship - I really hope we find a lot of extra fans if we do go up!

Big ol' queue for the ticket office at about 12.15pm today - anyone here in it? Just wondering if it was all QPR tickets or any season ticket sales in there...

Also, has the shop opened now?

Disappointing in terms of the season ticket drive not swelling the crowed, but our second biggest first home game of the season this decade. Our biggest (10k) was due the the 'massive' Wendies bringing their normal 3 billion.

99-00 6437  Ipswich
00-01 7296  Colchester
01-02 7934  Peterborough
02-03 5702  Barnsley
03-04 10573 Sheff Weds (next game 5758 v Notts C)
04-05 6286  Luton
05-06 5294  OldHam
06-07 7475  Barnet
07-08 7520  Luton
08-09 7975  Tranmere

good stats batch.

If we can give QPR a decent game, then beat Cheltenham I'd hope we'd beat the Tranmere crowd v Colchester

They sold 3 ST's in the 10 minutes or so that I was queing this morning at around half ten. The lad in the ticket office said they'd sold a lot more than they were expecting this morning.

4 then

Yep i was in it! Twas purchasing my season ticket at long last! As well as my ticket for tomorrow :)

I believe that the shop was dueto open at 10.00 today

Anyone know the 01793 number to get through, the 0870 one is useless. Tried the old 333777 one but to no avail...

i got through fine on 0871 223 2300 on thursday.

I might get one,shame you cant do it online I would have drunkenly got one Saturday night for sure

My problem is today though...

have you tried it today?

Yes, hence my desire to find out the direct line.

you should get the direct line number,have you tried today? :D

no longer exists it seems.i tried it the other day too.maybe ring the switchboard on 080714236433 and see if they can put you through?or just be patient on the other number.
 

This is a key thing to put in place for the start of next season if you ask me. The number of sales that can be generated from drunken fans in the aftermath of a decent win on the opening day is probably quite significant.

I was a bit miffed that Wovers got a bigger crowd Vs Carlisle than we did against the cross dressers

I phoned up for my QPR ticket about half two, was on hold for over ten minutes. Apparently queues were out the door and across the car park from 8am. Bloked reckoned they'd sold about 40 season tickets by then.

The direct number is 01793 333700 now.

Its only good news for the club that supporters are coming back.

Why? Carlisle take a fair few to the big games to be fair. They probably took at least 500. So Rovers had an extra 300. That's not really a great deal anyway tbh. Considering Bristol's population that's actually quite poor.

Carlisle took 591 to Rovers.

Cant find anything on Tranmeres fans...

looked about 400-500 tranmere fans

5162 final total ... great effort. Taking into account the past, and the current economic situation, to reach 86% of the target is no mean feat.

It's a very good but not outstanding total given the population of Swindon, let alone wider Wiltshire/Glos. WE have work to do to build it.

But an increase of 62% is definitely a success and I'm happy!

no free 69 shirt.

I always worked on the premise that we wouldn't do the 6,000, so wasn't banking on the extra discount or shirt, although I have to say I was incorrect in my prediction of 6,200.
I actually think we will do very well this season, & am now wondering how many will buy a half season ticket in December !?

I'm sure they will let people know in the next few days how people can pay the rest of what is owed so as to not have that mad rush come Oct....although I'm sure they won't get such big queues for that !!