Thetownend.com

fair play i say.now they will be at a realistic price for league 1(touch wood)
i would have scrapped the pay extra on the day prices though.

Considering that probably makes the club an extra £3000 or so per game (with an average attendace) I see no problem. Nobody forces you to pay on the day

I'm sure there is a compelling argument for it, but with a fanbase including so many outside the borough, and a population living in Swindon who are often informal in their attendance - ie late decisions depending on the weather etc, it doesn't take a business analyst to figure out that it's not necessarily the best idea.  They would be clever to perhaps look at offering ticket bundles - ie by 4 matches and save £2 -they get some guaranteed income - and it makes it easy for the out of towners to get a few tickets in a go - a bit like the half season ticket but not such good value.

it discriminates against those that for whatever reason cant get tickets in advance.
but overall ticket prices are without doubt better value for money than they have been for years.its well overdue mind

So this is a person without a phone (or access to a phone!!) and no internet. There is no such thing as people who cannot get tickets in advance surely?

IIRC phone booking incur booking fees - correct me if I made that up.

Well not everyone has credit cards with which to buy tickets over the phone/internet.

Yeah I did think of that. Never done it, so don't know, but do they not take switch etc?

plus you pay extra for that service too rudeboy

But most people CAN get tickets in advance if they are organised. Phone and reserve them.

I dont have a gret deal of sympathy for those who complian about it to be honest.

I'm fairly happy. £11.40 a game in the town end (ST renewal) is decent value, as is £14.?? for the main stands.  Getting the £10 voucher and 10% discount also means I can get the new shirt for under £20, which aint too bad either.

But the point is it puts off the casual fans - the hardcore - ie those who post on here in the main will go whatever, the chelsea 'fan' who fancies watching the match but doesn't decide until late mightn't bother. For me come the autumn when I live in Birmingham I will either need to pay to book my tickets or get people to buy them for me or pay on the day, unless I buy them at the previous game which can be 3 weeks in advance.  Our fanbase demography is well known, yet constantly ignored.

To be honest i think if the teams winning people will go. If they are losing less will go. Yes prices effect it, but attendances reflect results.

Its £2. I find it hard to believe that some Chelsea glory hunter is going to decide not to come and watch STFC over £2.  Its not even a pint!

£2 is neither here nor there, £20 is though.  That's 2 unlimited monthly movie passes for the cinema for example.  This is where the issue is, and it's not just this club that is to blame.  Football in general is overpriced.

Just look at the way people have lapped up the £5 tickets this weekend, shows that pricing can influence decisions whether we like it or not.  I think the ticket pricing is generally unimaginative anyway, as a business they should be working out how much people spend on a matchday as opposed to how much a ticket should be to break even.  Figure out if schemes like this Saturday on the Bank actually fund themselves (wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realise they could stick a market stall style thing at the entrance to the Bank and flog some club shop stuff for example - people will be much more willing to spend money knowing they only spent £5 getting in).

For £40ish you can get into Port Aventura for 2 days I think.  Spend a load while you are in there though.  For the price of Reading ticket you can get into one of the parks at Disney World.  Bet I know which one think is better value for money, but that same place probably also rakes in to 10 times the spend in total per person.  Just needs a bit of thought rather than relying on good old fashioned fan loyalty which is fast drying up around the Country.

Very True - premiership football is overpriced TV money is so much that gate recepits are neglible to the biggest clubs.  At our level it is the bread and butter -hence clubs pushing fan loyalty to its extremes -therefore the massive overpricing.

That's the point though.  If you look at the turnover of STFC (when we can find accounts) it's pretty much the same now as it was 10 years ago but prices are well-up.  Says to me that they;ve focussed on the "easy" option and have little idea how to plug the gap any other way.

Thats my point.  Its not the £2 increase for pay on the day thats the problem its the fact its £18 to start with. I would agree that it is a football wide problem though but in many ways the lower league clubs are doing more about it. Even our numpties on the board let u7's in free and charge £69 for a kids season ticket now.  

An arsenal supporting mate has got a ticket for the game v chelsea in a few weeks. Cheapest price he could get? £65.  60% of which will find its way into the pocket of a player who is already a millionaire. what a fucking pisstake.

yep, although it does seem that some have had a wake-up moment this season in the game (how long it lasts is another question).

I just think it shouldn't be that hard to see how the offer this week sparks something in the local area.  It gets the club noticed, sparks interest in casual fans, lets the regulars think they are getting a bit of a reward etc.  It builds a positive feeling, it may also lead to people still spending money on the matchday, probably more than they would normally.

I'm not saying all games should be £5, but it just looks so bloody obvious that pricing at football is so lacking in imagination, they've just gone "put the fucking things up, that'll make more money"

it's the basic principle of supply and demand. If people pay the prices then the business will keep charging them.

[quote="Piemonte"An arsenal supporting mate has got a ticket for the game v chelsea in a few weeks. Cheapest price he could get? £65.  60% of which will find its way into the pocket of a player who is already a millionaire. what a fucking pisstake.[/quote]

I got a ticket for £35 the other month at Arsenal

I got a ticket for £35 the other month at Arsenal[/quote]

Was that in the cheap seats against an not very glamourous side by any chance?

Anyone else notice on the leaflet thing, that the Nationwide Stand is now called the South Stand on it? Are Nationwide not sponsoring that stand next season?

I guess not seeing as they pulled the plug on the shirt sponsorship.

Fatbury, do you support Swindon or Arsenal?

It's still a little expensive for League One, particularly if you pay on the day, but freezing prices was the correct decision but equally perhaps the only decision.

I'm not convinced by the cheap ticket = big crowd theory as there are so many mitigating circumstances. Would we be on course for a big crowd this weekend if it wasn't for the lovely weather and potential of promotion? I sincerely doubt it. IIRC, we tried a couple of price reductions last season which had no noticeable effect.

Our crowds fluctuate because whilst we rely on a hardcore fanbase of 3,000 or so, there are a large number who can't make it every week due to distance or cost or simply because they don't want to watch football every weekend.

I'd be interested to know how many games a season ticket holder misses on average, I know a bloke who has a season ticket but misses half the games as he travels in the winter and then umpires cricket in the summer, if this sort of variance in attendance is fairly common then you can attribute the fluctuation in attendance to that as well.

I'll probably buy a season ticket regardless of who is in charge simply because it'll be cheaper.

Two, because my missus booked a fucking holiday in October  :x

Rotherham last season stands out as a game with a decent attendance given the actual performance of the team and position at the time, close to 8000 when the average was around 5000 at the time.