Thetownend.com

Prices to be revealed tomorrow!!! :) I think the tickets will go up by about 10 or 20 quid in the main stands and keep the prices the same for the Town end of knock off a tenner so you potentially have a £40.00 or £50.00 saving between the Town End and Arkells/DR Stand to tempt people back to the Town End.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a sizeable drop in prices for next season.

I'd expect them to increase, but some form of early payment incentive as we don't know which division we're likely to be in.

At least we get a bit more notice this year

How can they release prices now?

meh, 5 year season tickets are where its at.

eh ralphy?

If they are releasing them now with us still having a chance of going up a division, then the prices will definitely go up.

Normal match day tickets for Reading are £28.

Get us all signed up for next season before all our good players leave...

Whilst speaking to Jeremy Wray the other week he said they were reviewing the ticket prices and admitted they had made mistakes with the townend so I would not be surprised to see hefty reductions for the Townend with slight increases to other stands to pay for it.

They did mention that they were going to announce season ticket prices before the Leeds game, in the programme.

This is not unusual, as Leicester did exactly the same last season, and they had 20,000 sign up before the end of the season.

If the town end is reduced I'll be so chuffed.  :D

I suspect they will be kept the same with a reduction in the TE and there will probably be a bigger discount if you sign up before April so technically IF we went up you would pay L1 prices for Championship football

whatever they do,a reduction on townend prices in comparison to the main stands is a must

Annoucimg prices this early they could do a scheme whereby you pay fpr your season ticket in installments. eg £375 spread over say March April May June & July paying £75 a month. Not sure if they will do something like this but would attract a few no doubt & at no cost to the club over previous seasons

That's what the ice hockey club do with their season tickets, 6 payments monthly of 35 quid iirc.

I've heard they might be launching a 'pledge' scheme - a similar one to the 6,000 they launched last season where if they hit a certain amount of season ticket sales the prices will be cheap.  However the difference this time being that you don't have to buy the season ticket, just put your name down for the time being.  I also heard the cheapest tickets would be £199 (Town End I'd guess!).

However what I've been told could indeed be a complete load of gash!!!  :soapy tit wank:

I never understand why clubs set ticket prices without knowing what division they will be in. I reckon The Championship vs League One is easily worth an extra £50 a season, so why not wait so a fair price can be charged?

I would imagine due to our current position ,there would be a caveat in the offer to cover that.

thats probably the thing, while wew are in with a good shout of the play-offs, get as many people signed up on League 1 prices. Incentive to the fans being they could be getting Championship football for L1 price. Club doesnt really have that much to lose by it.

A few reasons really. For a start they could do a deal which involves promotion e.g. anyone who renews before the end of the season gets an ST at "X" price if we go up. Or some promotional offer like that. If they announce prices now and we keep doing well then more people are going to want to buy. Then if we did go up i'm sure we'd sell even more. I'm sure the board have thought this through. After all they seem to have done a decent enough job with this in the past.

What Paynter and JPM? Get away.  :soapy tit wank:

Always wondered if we see the day when we could get an away match season ticket..of course all the clubs in the lge would have to endorse it...would be good for away match regulars.
Cant see it happening in my life time though.

My season ticket price is frozen for the next 4 seasons :D

Who on here would swap their nice pitchside view in the DRS or Arkells stand for a cheaper ST and possible better atmosphere in the Townend?

They would sell more if they ripped the seats out!

I hope they slash them by 25%

Each season.

I want to know if there, is a chance of a saturday only season ticket, as it stands i cant really make midweek games, and stick to my usual 5 or 6 at home on a saturday, bit of incentive and i would go every saturday homegame (black eyes permitting)

Excellent 1000 tickets at 199 in the town end. 259 in don rogers and arkells until may. Can't argue with that. Nice one board.

Totally agree. I think alot of people will wait to see whether we go up or not though until purchasing

Assume renewals for TE will take priority, if so then chuffed.

The prices go up before the last game so we probably won't know by then.

More fool them at 8.60 a game whether we are in League 1 or the Championship that is exceptionally good value

Very optimistic!  Reading Jeremy Wray's comments and also Nick Watkins I am a little concerned at the outcome if we don't sell a lot of extra tickets.  Incidentally Norwich City also released their prices this morning.  If you buy before March 6th they are from 389-459.  Then they go to 435-496.  Ours look a bargain compared to that!!

Getting the support we get now would mean we belong exactly where we are in the league. If we want a bigger new stadium and the board to support the team then the fans need to show up. I hope they do and the prices and timing of this release will encourage more to do so. I'm renewing again without doubt.

What is the capacity of the Town End?

Superb prices,just shows how lucky we are with the current owners of the club lets hope us fans now support this scheme! How times have changed at the County Ground ;D

think its just over 2000

Great news well done AF and the board,one question tho how long has existing ST holders got before their seat goes on general sale.

I thought it was about 1800 which shows how empty it has been this season as some games I would say it has been less than half full, to get a guaranteed 1000 in there plus walk ups will certainly help the atmosphere

I was guessing, so what he said.

Town End has a capacity of around 1700 I think - I once got hold of the various section capacities when being all happy clappy.

This is a great offer and I think the hard line supporting message is a good one.  It's time for us to support them, if we can't shift 1000 tickets @ £199 for a season when we are 5th and on a run of 8 wins in 10 then we've really hit on bad times.  I know our attendances rarely get above 10,000 in this league even if we are in play off contention, but we've not been given these kind of incentives and visions of what can be before.

I'd like to think a few people see the sense in the value but also spot the incentive of signing up before potential play off final ticket scrambles could begin (touch wood).

I'd have no problem now if we get a poor response to this and the Board cut the budget next season.  Several months to save up knowing what we can get.

Less than I paid for my current ST in the Don Rogers, and a possibilty that we could be playing in the Championship. Can't argue with that.

Which is basically what the board have said. These are the offers on the table, its now up to the fans to show their colours. 6,000 fans went to Fulham, this should be the crux of our support week in week out.

They've still got to be careful judging our long term support on league one football. Look at Reading when at elm park and now. Its success that drives fan base, not prices so much.

When do they go on sale?

Great prices!  8)

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/TicketNews/0,,10341~1941154,00.html

15th Feb

Hmm, anyone know if they're going to release full details before then? Should still be able to get a Young Person Concession, wonder if that will be any cheaper in the TE.

These are exceptional offers!  Very impressed! 

I think we can in part thank leggett for these great prices

They are good offers but no way at even these prices will we sell the hoped for 9,000 next season.

Wonder what happens with my current seat in the Town End. If I have to renew before 15th March to keep it, I might struggle for the cash.

What a fantastic offer.

Sub £200 is a superb price point for live pro football.

Props to Nicholas, Andrew, Andrew and Jeremy on this.

Yep it's a good deal, and time everyone backed the board. I'm going to back that up with getting a ST for the first time in 15 years, even though i'll probably only make 10 games.

I think it's going to take a stadium redevelopment and a few years of us doing well before we get 9000 season ticket holders, unless they sold them for 99 pounds like Huddersfield did.

The season we won this division (1996 maybe) we averaged higher gates than when we were in the higher division the following season.  Success on the pitch is going to get the fans through the turnstiles, cheaper prices is just part of the answer.

We are doing well this season so I was a bit disappointed at the 6.5k crowd against the Gills.

Unless season tickets are really cheap or really expensive the price doesn't have as big an impact as a good team playing good football and winning matches. Last year the season tickets were cheaper and we sold more, yet out average attendances this season are likely to be 5% to 10% higher.

Total income from ticket sales is likely to be over 10% higher than last season, which seems a pretty good increase to me given the state of the economy. Is there really anything for the board to complain about?

Great offer from the board, I dont think anybody can complain about these prices.

Would be great for the atmosphere to get 1,000 ST holders in the Town End but I'm not convinced that people will opt to switch from the DRS when their current seat is also very good value. Fair play to the board for giving it a try though, they have clearly listened to the fans.

my only small gripe is that the townend tickets should be reduced permanantly

I think if we are within the top 6 we'll sell plenty. Not sure it will raise attendances much the season after, unless we go up of course.

We've averaged around 7,500 at home for the past few seasons. However the past is history, I get a feeling the board just want to unleash something a bit more exciting for us, but will only do so if it looks like it can be sustained.

Great news! Hopefully I will have enough cash to be able to get mine renewed before 15th March. Cheap as chips at £199 and if more people come back to the Town End then hopefully the atmopshere will be restored to how it once was.

Si, I don't think you'll lose your seat but you'll obviously have to pay more after March 15th.

Lifted from the other thread...

Yes, the recent attendances have been a little poor to be honest.  We've been doing everything you suggest we need to as a club, playing well, winning, good football etc.  We're looking set for the play off with an outside chance of pushing even higher.  Prices are bloody cheap in comparison to the rest of the footballing world for what we putting on the pitch.  Norwich selling 20000 at their prices just goes to show what can happen when a clubs fans rally round.  If we sell the same as we have done, and keep the same attendances, why should the board invest more than is needed to keep the club afloat?  Why would they keep a high playing budget from their own pockets when no more than 6500 Swindonians can be bothered?

You know what, even the old board were best by this problem, trying to fit a budget into a pretty unspectacular average attendance.  They fucke it up with their approach, this board have gone the other way and shown us what can be achieved, plus they've provided us with financial incentive.  It's up to us.

Is this offer going to be advertised around the town?

They haven't been that bad. To date (after 12 home league games) attendances are about 6,000 lower in total compared to the same period last season, after the Leeds game they will be about equal and then higher after Charlton.

Hope so. Tuesday night's game would be a great time to hand out some leaflets etc and get some of the non regulars interested.

I think Si answers your question pretty well...

The board want to give the town more in the shape of a Championship club with a new stadium. If the fans come out and show interest then they'll be happy to go ahead with a 20,000-seater stadium and increased playing budget. If the town responds with total apathy, they know that a 12,000-seater stadium and league one football is the only sustainable future for the club.

Do you think that people generally are expecting everything to go tits up both on the playing front and with the new board?

I don't think so. I just think that the town has an "I'll believe it when I see it" kind of attitude towards the club. Unfortunately that kind of attitude is what's constraining us, as people aren't coming to the County Ground yet.

You'd bloody hope so.

Around the Town and at every large company and school in Swindon.

No excuses now, those prices are good value, spot on and we are doing well.

Lets be seeing the 6,000 that went to Fulham in the stands for the rest of this season and next season to.

Any idea of how much the family tickets are - 2 adults, 3 kids?

Exactly this. Like I said Tuesday night is the perfect time to begin promotion of the offer. 13,000 expected. There's no excuse really.

Thing is there is so much shrugging of the shoulders in the town towards the club. Take for instance last saturday, get the bus to the game, bus driver asks if we are going to the match, laughs and says why you bothering. when i get off i say to him that we are playing the best football in years and got a cracking little team now, he then replies might check it out again soon havent been for years. Now when he finished his shift looked at the result and saw yet another victory for us, my words to him must have lingered a little bit.

 We keep winning and the hardcore spread the word, slowly but surely our attendances will grow again.

I dont think we promote ourselves enough.

Whilst I dont look out for ticket prices/details/offers through out the season because I have a season ticket, I cant say I've ever seen them advertised anywhere.

Infact, any ticket offers/details that we do, do, I only find out via the tef usually.

The usual sources of such info are here, the OS and the Adver. The club needs to do more to reach people in other ways. It would cost next to nothing to get flyers put in staff rooms in every shop in the centre, and in offices and staff rooms right across the town.

Most people who work in shops work weekends

The games and corporate deals are advertised heavily in my office.

Years and years of being a bit shit/very shit with just the very occasional decent season takes a heavy toll and it takes a hell of a lot to get the support back and the only way to do that is winning on the field week in week out, season in season out. As has been alluded to though, the club is now set up for that to happen and the support will gradually come back. Like it or not though, it takes time.

Wow! What a great offer!

Great offer which will hopefully see the Townend more populated and noisier nxt season.

I won't be moving from the DRS though. I like to see both halves of the ame.

I would move back to the Town End, but now the lad has started coming he wouldn't see anything from there. SO its DRS again for me. For £20 less than last year. Stunning.

I just hope the recently apathetic lost Town support will back this deal in numbers.

I doubt many people will move back to the town end from DRS. People complained about the atmosphere but those people don't care enough to move back.

I dont think so either. I dont think it matters tho, as long as the DRS becomes the new singing stand. There was a 10 minute spell between the DRS and the Town end during the pikey game where the singing and atmosphere was brilliant.

I don't mind about that so much :)

Whilst the prices are good I don't think they're low enough to see the levels of increase the board want. Personally I don't think the Board expect it either, which is why the prices are more or less the same.

The good thing is the town end offer. We'll see if it gets a good response from the fans or not.

The board are raising the stakes with this sort of stuff. Spending big and keeping  season ticket prices so low.

Bit worried to be honest. I think the 5,000 they got the other season is about the best were going to get in the current climate. Wonder if they should change tack and try to increase matchday sales?

I can see the board getting pissed off with our support stagnating. All Il say is that they need to think long and hard about the proposed redevelopment. You cant just press on and spend millions if the attendances just wont rise. Have to say, at this time in 2004 our support was much more passionate and much more determined. Maybe Im just at that sort of age where your mates get bored of football, but a lot of them have fallen away. Some of them have even taken to supporting Premiership clubs, which isnt a reflection on the club, just shows a lack of class on their behalf IMO.

It does have a chance of succeeding though. You cant beat seasons like this when you are well in the mix for promotion at the end of the season. It is a genuine rush, and it gets people out. Thinking back to early 2004, when we played QPR, if we had won we could have nicked an automatic spot, if they won it all but guaranteed their promotion. The feeling that morning was unbelievable. Better than any drug for me. Thats the sort of emotion the board could have on their side if the rest of this campaign goes right.

It's actually a £20 reduction all round if you take away the TE offer. It's a great gesture from the board tbh because the STs from the last 2 seasons have been priced quite fairly. Given the fact we seem to be building a decent side for this level I think it would be silly for any non ST regular to not take up the offer. But of course there are loads of factors that come into peoples mind when deciding to buy or not. Money being the first. I think a lo will depend on how the season ends up. Think we'll get the 1k TE ones sold as they'll go to ST holders already in the TE or people who want to move from the main stands.

Quote from the Jeremy Wray article on the Official Site (http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/Interview/0,,10341~1941347,00.html) is very interesting.

Looks like they're hoping for a big, big increase in Season Ticket sales from this, 5500-6000 would be the best season ticket sales for many a year and they'd consider that dissapointing. It's kind of exciting, but also worrying as I don't trust the Town itself to get behind this in force. That said, I'm certainly considering buying a ST despite the fact that I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to make most games, so who knows. I hope we sell out every week, doesn't mean it's going to happen.

I'd be extremely surprised if we even sold more than 5,000. Going by Wray's comments, I think the board may have made a huge fuck up with this.

At a lower level? Their '3 years to championship' plan seems to have taken a number of changes :)

I genuinly believe the leeds game is going to be a massive influence on season tickets for next year.Most who go on tuesday would of gone to Fulham and if they see another good performance i think they will come to more games this season and next.

I think this is a generous offer by the club and that £199 or £259 it is still good value compared with the best part of £350/360 that we used to pay during the Wills/Diamandia era to watch some pretty dire football.

We do need a big take up on this for Fitton, Wray and all to continue to pump in money to this club. I have done some number crunching on this and it's interesting how much season ticket revenue contributes to overall revenue and how much the club is reliant on other income.

Last season 2008/9 we had gate revenue of £2,093,428 across 23 league and 1 cup game or £87,226 a game or roughly £12 per person per game on an average gate of 7433. Yet the wage bill last year was nearly £4M and the total expenditure was £6.5M and we lost £3m last season. That may well have been paying off old debts and tax bills etc.

If we had take up on the offer of say 8000 that would only bring in around £2m based on 1000 TE at £199 and 7000 at £259 is another £1,813,000 (will ignore the concessions for the purpose of the calculation). That is still only half the wage bill and another £4.5M short of total expenditure. We have £6m due to creditors in this year but that includes the St Modwen settlement £1,475,000 and the CVA which has been paid by not formally signed off so can't be cleared from the accounts yet.

Where we do get the money in is on the walk up/away fans and they would probably be worth 2000 a game based on the 5500 STs sold in the 2008/9 promo and the average gate of 7433. At £20 a time to average out the concessions that would give another £920,000. We also pulled in another £1.4m on the FA/FL money, sponsorship and commercial activities. That combined would cover the wage bill as it was in 2008/9 but this has probably risen again this year with the likes of Douglas, Lucas etc coming in.

What this does highlight is that how much a club we will be reliant on the board to keep funding us in the immediate future until we can grow our revenue from other sources. We need to find roughly another £3M a season to break even and that's where the arguement around a new ground to generate commercial activities comes in. Some of this year's expenditure would have come the Cox money.

It's where those who say Fitton and Co should put more money in are really frustrating as they are funding this with £7m already lent to the club and in the short term funding £3m a year. I know they are wealthy but it would be like selling your house for £250,000 and someone asking you to give £25k to the club, would these people do that?.

Based on our average gate we are a top end League 1 club and until we start to get 10,000 a game we shouldn't be thinking about the championship. We would need probably 15,000 a game to be financially competitive with the other clubs in that league. It is a bigger league in terms of profile from our 1990's days in it so the people of Swindon, Wilts and other areas may well start to back the team. Let's hope we get there to have this debate again.

Thats a great post. I think the board are really going for it now, they are less patient than I thought they would be and want success. The only disagreement I would have is that if you ever get a chance to get promoted then you should take it. Quite often you get a summer when everything looks right, but on the pitch it just doesnt happen. Its seems like a totally different team every season there are so many changes nowadays, and thats the way football is now. Weve got a sniff of promotion and we should do everything we can to get it this season.

I think its a load of media guff about how much better the Championship is from League 1 anyway. If Charlie Austin can make a mockery of the Southern League - League 1 gap then this team should be able to stay up no problem in the league above (with a bit of determination and hard work).

the board need to realise that not all fans want to commit to season tickets, regardless of how good a deal it is.

Whilst this is true, if you look at the cost of a season ticket vs match day prices you only need to make it to 1/2 of the games to make it cost effective.

We don't usually make it to midweek games, but we still save money over the whole season by having season tickets.

I guess the thing that would put off most people is the initial outlay, but with the number of credit card deals at 0% it would be fairly easy to buy one and spread the cost over the next 6-12 months.

I moved from the Town end to the DRS this season because an ok atmosphere wasn't enough to make up for the shit view. I am going to stay where i am next season because i can't really see it working, we just don't get enough fans willing to vocally back the team. I do in the DRS and get stared at like i'm a freak.

I think you're doing Charlie boy an injustice.  He came from 2 leagues below southern league standard!  Not even the level of Chippenham, Supermarine and Ciren.

And the (some) fans need to realise that the board aren't a charity. £199 is a cracking deal. End of.

I think most of the people who take up the £199.00 will be people who are already in the Town End and will think "result i save £50.00 (or in my case as i bought late) £100.00 on this years price" is that going to make people sing more? No. Most people who have moved now realise they get a better vie and the DRS is getitng better for atmosphere so why move back? In theory we are probably at our base or just above of hardcore fans really. I would say there are about 5000 hard core fans plus 2,000 show up on the day if they can be bothered and 500 away fans to make our gate 7,500. Those 5,000 already have season tickets so not sure if the "show up on the day fans" will get behind the initiative or not? Great gesture by the board but as others have said I cant see us topping 6,000. Would love it if we did, be great to see 8,000+ every game regardless but I would be very suprised if it happened. For those 5,000 hardcore fans though I guess they say "great i'll re-new as getting my ticket cheaper" If we got promoted we would be watching championship football for say less than a tenner a match in the Town End. Even if we got promoted our average gate would probably be about 10,000 (based that many clubs in the CCC would bring big followings). That is the reality sadly of Swindon Town FC as good an offer as it is I think they will only see a marginal increase. With the initiatives over the last few years its just never happened in Swindon. People who are familiar to the ground will see £199.00 and think "hmmm maybe I will get a season ticket for that price" but then will go "oh but its the Town End you can't see fuck all there".

(Not aimed at you Gaz by the way just in general)

But last season, everyone was banging on about how they should reduce the cost of tickets in the town end, get people in and get an atmosphere back etc. so the board listen to the fans, reduce the ticket prices for next season (with the small possibility of Champiosnship football) and now its somehow not going to work or doesn't provide enough of an incentive?   I'm starting to wonder if the board can do anything right by some people!

The Town End has the potential to generate a great atmosphere, fill it and that will happen and I'm confident of that. 

I'd still really like to see fans on the bank personally as I hate having an empty stand. I think that could be a key factor to generating a better match day buzz.

Totally agree, I think though now it's probably a season too late. As most have said here who have moved to the DRS, Arkells etc. It is overall a better match day experience due to the view, facilities etc. These people are settled now. Personally I am still in the Town End so chuffed at the savings for sure and hope it does get people back.

I don't get why the board have suddenly thrown their toys out of the pram. They've always said its a long term plan and attendances seem to have been doing well - they will be over 5% up this season over last. Plus season ticket sales were lower this season than last, so ticket income will have increased by maybe 10% What is wrong with that in the current climate and the poor football we had last season?

The board now seems to be saying that if we don't sell a lot of season tickets for next season, they will drop the ground re-development plans and reduce the squad budget. Neither of which is going to help move the club forward, it could even put some people off from buying one.

Without wanting to sound like i am being negative towards our board i think the real issue is that they are great at marketing to the existent fan base i would just like to see a bit more aimed at new fans.

Why not offer school kids,college students one for £100 for a season or offers like that to other people in the hope that the season after they renew at the higher prices.

Fwiw i think we will get a good number sign up at these prices but that will be the hardcore supporters.

A nice article in the adver about how well the club are doing and how well run we now are would be good aswell instead of some cunt writing bad articles about how we have always been cunts to are loyal supporters like this twat

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/4846653.Small_Town_Club__Big_Town_Economy___Part_Three/

I read it that unless we get the attendances, we won't be seeing year after year of football in the division above. Not sure you can have one before the other unfortunately.

And Luci is right about the town end offer.

Did read the bit about them currently making good a loss of £3 million a year?

No.

They haven't said that at all. They have just said it will have bearing on the plans themselves whic means they'll probably look at things and think "is it worth having a 25,000 seater stadium when we can't fill it". There's nothing to suggest the budget will be lowered. I think what they are trying to imply is that without an increase in crowds this will be our level of football. We need bigger crowds to sustain Championship football. It doesn't take a genius to know that. I think it's quite clever from the board actually. They are trying to make people aware of the above. Because let's face it if they don't then we will still be here in 3 years time talking about the same things.

Would it put you off, Johnny if the board said we were not getting a shiny new ground?

Is that what you always wanted?

Toys out of the pram and all that.  :cry:

The board are 100% right imo. If the fanbase can't support a Championship team, then we're where we belong.

It's a shame that the majority of people in Swindon don't seem to give a toss about the club. Until, or unless, that changes we will struggle to achieve any permanence in the division above.

I'm not a premier league fan, I don't expect a sugar daddy to ride in and bankroll my club, nor do I expect our current board to continually dip into their own pockets to bring us success. The only way a club like ours can sustain a Championship side is to have more supporters on matchdays.

I don't get the mentality in the town at all, they've got a great club on their doorstep, but can't be arsed to spend a few quid once a fortnight to support them. Cunts.

...because before the Town End is too expensive, it was the tickets are too expensive, before that it was Maurice Malpas, before that it Mike Diamandis, before that it was Andy King, before that it was Steve McMahon.

The town end value for money - to me like the other things is just an excuse. The board have listened and changed it and I hope fans come back but for whatever reason they will just find a new excuse and other one after that etc etc etc

Just using the TEF as a small example, how many people have suddenly turned around and gone, now they have reduced the Town End prices I will definitely go back. I stopped going because it was too expensive.

As DRS said - its alright for the existing fanbase but I think we could do to attract new fans.

I mean, how many signed up last season and then didnt renew their season ticket mid season (even thought it wasnt even a renewal it was a second payment that people just didnt pay -- utter cunts)

It's just that "thing" about STFC to the general public of Swindon though isn't it? When you tell an average joe you support Swindon and go to games they look at you like you're a freak because they think we're rubbish and that we should all support a Premier League team and watch games down the pub. I don't know where the attitude stems from but part of it is probably the fact we've been crap for the last 10 years or more.

Dave makes a good point about the old stay aways who used to come making excuse after excuse. And it's a real shame. If we could claw back some of those were here supporting the team back in the 90s then the club may yet move forward again. I fear we need a new stadium and promotion for this to happen or even for us to get some new plastic fans in like Reading did.

I completely take your point but I do actually know a few people who are planning on getting a TE ST if they can get one of the first 1000. 

Within this forum, I know there are only a few who said they'd get one but this forum is made up of a lot of existing ST holders anyway so I'd be interested to get an idea of how many regulars would get one with this deal.

Speaking for myself, I got a ST due to the first lot of offers and didn't have one before so there has to be more people out there who were in the same position as me who may get one this time around. Also, last season we avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth so many may not have wanted to commit to one then thinking this year we would struggle also!

They're saying nothing of the sort, nor are they "throwing their toys out of the pram". They're simply setting it out like it is - they've removed all the possible excuses, now let's see how people respond. The prices are more than reasonable, the club is well-run and stable, the football's getting better (for those of us who don't think every player who doesn't put in a Premiership-class performance every week is "shit"), the results are way better than most of us expected this season, and there's a vision for the future. But you can't sustain a Championship side on gates of 6000-6500. That's just reality. The only one throwing his toys out of the pram is you. Do get a grip. This is a bloody great offer from a board that knows what it's doing, we should be grabbing at it with both hands, not having a pop.

People left the Town End because the price differential between the TE and other stands was so low. I think some will return at £199, though there isn't much time for them to get the cash together.

The 'problem' is that the main stands are still such good value for money so . It's not a complaint by the way, but it may reduce the numbers going back.

The other issue, which has probably been raised, is that we may end up with the same level of support simply flitting between fans.

It is clear to me the board have put their money where their mouth is.

But how do you attract new fans/stayaway fans to the club? The prices are as low as they can go. The product is doing the stuff. The off the field shenanigans has been managed. What more do people need to get to the CG? Sure a promotion will bring in more people, but that is a long long way off and may not happen. I don't know the answer.

FWIW, I don't think dirt cheap ST prices (and these are dirt cheap) will get the casuals in or the stayaways back, at least not at first - you don't go from 0-200 in one step, most people go to a few games, then find they're back in the habit, then realise they're spending more than they'd have spent on an ST so may as well. So it provides a route to encourage non-ST regulars to get STs, so hopefully raising the "guaranteed" attendance, and then you hopefully draw in more casuals along with them who convert to STs the season after. So you get a continual upwards momentum and even the dismissive no-nothing "I never miss a game down the pub" locals start to take notice. Or of course, they talk to a few town regulars and get put off even trying it by the moany cunts saying it'll never work and it's all pointless so why even bother trying.

I think the nail has been hit on the head. The curent fanbase will snap up tickets no problem, its the promotion outside the club. How do we change peoples mentality. People make stupid comments when I say I support Swindon since my dad took me to my first game in 1983 like "well someones got to" "oh thats child abuse" "why go watch that rubbish" "swindon are shit" despite probably never looking at a league table etc. I dont know how you do it, Ok promotion to the championship as Batch said wil raise a few eyebrows... bt sadly a lot of that fanbase form 1990's etc has fucked off for good. They either support Spurs or Chelski as Sky has lead people to believe below the Premiership is shit so they hope on a train get a group saver for 15.00 and watch Premier League football. Sadly those people get in the habit now of watching those clubs.

As for pub gossip trade in pubs isnt what it was before so the whispers and chatting about "oh good result for the town today" are long gone. Most pubs are run by pub co's now instead of local people who are a part of the community etc.

The club had adverts on the bus, on magic roundabout, at Didcot Train station, what more can they really do apart from putting a big board up saying "GET A STFC SEASON TICKET NOW, WE ARE NO LONGER A LAUGHING STOCK ON OR OFF THE FIELD STARTING AT £199.00*"

It is all about changing the perception people have of us. Sadly being on the M4 corridor, whilst good for economy in Swindon made it very easy for a good chunk of our fan base to fuck off and never return.

Come the end of the season our average gate will be over 8k, if we get promoted next season they will be well over 10k. But the chances of us getting 10k in League One next season are zero, unless they gave the tickets away. Sure the prices are good but I don't see it having much of an effect on gates as its not good enough for that, only promotion will give the gates a massive boost.

Its obvious the people are out there, the Fulham and Leeds games show that, and the board needs to figure out how to get them coming every week. The deals on offer are not enough on their own to do that - you need better football and / or promotion.

They might not be throwing their toys out, but the statement about people having to turn up in numbers for next season (even if we are in League One) or there will be consequences just goes against everything the board have been saying since they took over. The club has been moving forward, they've been doing the right things but it is going to take more time which they were happy with before but apparently not now.

What else can the following mean....

In fairness when we did the original leaflet hand out a lot of people who wore the Prem team shirts didn't tell us they didn't want to hear about it and listened to what was on offer, some with genuine interest. I'm sure others were humouring me. As Paul says it's about getting people to a few games and showing them what's on offer - get those people in to the local team.

The way I got into Swindon was due to the buzz in the ground. When I was a kid I did the whole support a Prem team because kids want bragging rights at school. But experiencing the live atmosphere was the main reason I thankfully got into supporting Swindon and deciding watching games on tv was not the same. If you can go to your local club and watch games for £11 a go it's great value.

Hertha is right too - the club needs to be sustainable to avoid the financial disasters of before. I'm just not convinced that we can get the regular attendances before the Championship, which is unfortunate. Even in division 1 we didn't get large attendances.

I do however think we might all be being a little pessimistic as most of us are season ticket holders already. I wasn't a season ticket holder ever until the original offer came along (though I did go to pretty much every home game). I remember the excitement that brought non-season ticket holders. Perhaps this will have the same effect but already being a season ticket, as are most people I know, it's hard to judge.

Well, yes, everyone knows that, including the board. The football has been getting better - sorry, I know it's not good enough for you - and we're having a serious tilt at promotion far earlier than I expected.
They haven't said that. They've simply set out the realities of sustaining Championship football and a stadium suitable for it. You've read an awful lot in between the lines and kicked off about it unnecessarily. I'd be contemplating pulling my head in if I were you, but as you're not, I look forward to more unwarranted "shit"

Now these people, whats their current situation? do they go to games now but pay on the day. Have they not gone for years because of the price. Just curious.



Well they could certainly do.

STFC Season Tickets ONLY £199.00. Even STFC Bart hasnt moaned about the prices!


You state that likes its a fact?

It may not be a fact Dave but if we stay around where we are now, it's a reasonable expectation. I think jonny's right about this and about 9-10k in the division above if we go up and can compete

True.

However, I would have thought that they would have started going up already. The Gillingham game was a really poor attendance and kind of made me think it isnt going to happen.

Of course our average from now untill the end of the season will go up purely because Leeds and Rovers will sell out the away end. I expect Norwich and maybe Charlton will bring enough for the bank to be open. Its only Saints that have used it thus far.

The actual average home attendance would be interesting to know and see how/if it goes up, rather than overall average

I never said the football wasn't getting better or wasn't good enough. My main point is that the club has been going forward (the football getting better, attendances increasing, all the off the pitch improvements) and the board have always made out they accept its a long term project but now they seem to be wanting to speed things up - with there being consequences if they don't.


There was no reference to Championship level football, so I took it that the comments were aimed at League One level football. If I got that wrong and they are only talking about substantial increasing in attendances if we get promoted then my bad, my apologies and all that shit. The statement was a bit unclear about this.

I did actually check my facts before posting the 8K plus average comment. After the Leeds game our average league attendances at home will be higher than after the same number of games last season. Factor in the 3 big games we've still got left and the average will end up higher than last season and over 8K.

Fair enough, you're right it is ambiguous. I think most of us have assumed they were talking about sustaining second tier football because that's always been their stated aim and because of the repeated quoting of figures at AGMs etc that we need gates of 9-10,000 to sustain a second-tier side. Whereas you're assuming they mean that third tier is unsustainable on 6500. So we're all reading something into it, and yeah, you could read it the way you did. Fair do's. (That's the sound of me winding my neck in, btw :) )

I think the former interpretation is more reasonable as it chimes more closely with the overall plan and previous statements - ie what they're saying is "OK guys we've got this far by pumping money in and we'll pump more in but we need to know your ambition matches ours. And that we won't pump in a load of cash to get to a level we can't compete at because the support isn't there". Which is, IMO, pretty much fair enough and a wholly realistic thing to say -what level of football do we as a Town want? And to some extent, the "gauntlet-throwing" nature of the way it's been put in itself is geared towards generating a degree of "call to action" to sustain the undoubted momentum we have right now. As is the timing of the offer - it's perfectly timed to draw people in and generate excitement about next season while we do have some momentum off the back of the Fulham game, league position etc. Rather than, say, wait until end of the season when we may just miss out on the play-offs and everyone ends up feeling a bit deflated when in fact we've massively overachieved. Ride the wave while it's there and all that.

what the fuck are you on about?
it is a good deal,no disputing that.but a fair chunk of fans wont commit to a season ticket.
hence why i said what i did.

posh.your points i agree with, but plenty wont do the maths and commit.that is there choice and many like it that way.they will pay and turn up as they wish.

Im not really that sure why selling loads of season tickets is that important to football clubs? Surely they'll get more money if more people pay more money on the day and they will have a better cash flow?

I agree. Modern boards do seem a bit obsessed with it. But I think its working. I think Its had a big knock on effect for numbers of away fans travelling. This season has been the worst season I can remmember for away support, and last season was pretty bad as well.

Is there a full price list out yet? Do under 10's still get a free Season Ticket? I think this was a brilliant incentive for this season but not sure how many people were aware of it, i take my boy every week and now frends of his who got a bit jealous at school roped theird dads in to taking them. I also think that the newly built areas of Swindon could possible unearth a few more fans, no doubt most of them do not come from Swindon but may be interested in watching live football. If they work out of Swindon they may not see much of the local media, maybe leafleting these areas could grab the attention of these people?

The attraction is the certainty the club have with a larger body of season ticket holders.

They should also be trying to get more fans to pay on the day aswell though if only because you need to get people coming to the ground in some form before you can convert them to season ticket holders.

I will be interested to see the prices for junior tickets - my oldest won't wualify for the under 10's go free next season, so even though my ticket will cost less I will have to find a bit extra.

I was telling some of the other dads at youth football about the £199 tickets for the Town End, and several who currently just come to occasional games were dead keen.

I think what the board are saying is the investment they have made this year for League 1 promotion push is unsustainable as I showed with my number crunching earlier, the club lost £3m again last year and the board are having to cover that. Maybe the losses will reduce as the old debts clean up finishes but basically the gate money is only covered half the wage bill on 7500 average in 2008/9.

They have used the Coxy money to invest in the team to bring in Cuthbert, Douglas, Greer etc and it may require us to sell players if the price is right in the future to plug the gap as I'm not sure the board will keep writing cheques for £2-3m to cover this. They need to see that is worth it in terms of the response from the fans and if you looked at all the demographics of Swindon compared with Reading then that is the model you would follow. Reading is nearer to London and the draw of the train to watch Premier teams must be stronger.

In terms of getting people back then only success on the field will draw people in and we haven't had much in the last 10 years apart from 2003/4 and 2006/7. I looked at some of our historic gates and in 2003/4 we only got over 10k for 4 or 5 games that year. In 1995/6 the gates were regularly over 10K for the bigger games and the typical non big game about 8500, but this was 2 years after Prem so there were people who had been to games in the recent past.

What is maybe needed is a huge trigger to get people to come back so something like a good cup run, big club at home in FA Cup or if we got a Wembley play off final then we would probably see the 30,000 come out again. The Gills gate wasn't unexpected and if you look at gates for the early Jan games then they are always low and with the poor weather a few may have been put off or been snowed in for days so the Saturday was the 1st opportunity to get other things done.

I would also expect that with Charlton and Rovers coming up at and we approach the business end of the season, the casual supporters will come more regularly. A lot of clubs have tried the buy at this years prices or tried to sell early, look what our friends at Bristol City have done and the gates they are getting regularly (14K average). I do think we need the 25,000 capacity and may be do what Franchise have done, build the new stands but leave a tier with out seats until the time you need them.

Anyway, let's hope that Leeds on Tuesday is the trigger to get a few more back on a regular basis and that the atmosphere convinces the board that there is the potential we all know is there for this club to become a lot bigger.

Going back to my earlier point about the growth of Reading's support - & sorry to keep banging on about this, by the way, but it's the best example/template I can think of - can anyone remember how it happened for them?  I remember their gates rising fairly quickly from approx 5,000 to approx 15,000, but can anyone remember whether that happened before or after their promotions and the move away from Elm Park?

The reason I'm asking is I'm trying to put my finger on whether promotion and/or a ground redevelopment is a prerequisite for a steep increase in gates.  Is it realistic to expect this simply by dropping prices, or should the board reserve judgement until we're a Championship side (which, for the first time in a long time, I'm beginning at least to recognise as a possibility.)

(Edit: Yes, I know Elm Park did not hold 15,000!)

Reading averaged 12.5k in 2000/1 when there were still in the 3rd tier. So I guess the new stadium was responsible for most of the increase. There are stats on average attendances for all clubs from 2000/1 onwards here:

http://www.emfootball.co.uk/attend.html

9676 when finishing bottom of 2nd tier and then 11262 in 3rd tier finishing 10th. Had averaged around 9500 in old 2nd tier in previous seasons. Did drop to 8985 in 1999/2000 and then 12647

I will be buying my first season ticket for the TE next month.

This is an interesting debate. I have been to most home games for the last few seasons and have been happy to pay match day prices. So the club have made more profit out of me, but they haven't been getting the cash up front. So in effect they will be losing margin for 'my type' of supporter. Which cannot be good business.

Which leaves me to think that the season ticket deal must be aimed at the occasional fan...

Their attendances dropped for 3 seasons after they moved to the new ground. They were averaging about 11,000 at Elm Park and dropped to 9,000 in the new ground. After about 5 years of League 1 football Madjeski got bored and opened the chequebook for Pardew. The season they got promoted they needed a 19,000 average to break even and fell well short of that.

One of the great delusions of Diamandis and co was that if the Council gave them land, then the football club attendances would increase and make them money, because of what had happened at Reading. In fact, Madjeski bank rolled Reading. He is reducing his role and it is a very painful transition for them.

(although I have to admit they were impressive at Liverpool).

Buy a programme tomorrow - relevant info for the season to date is there

I've been thinking about the comparisons that have been made to Reading and have wondered why we may can't replicate this. I've decided the problem with the club is down to the council and even the way Swindon is as a whole.

There's little pride in Swindon of Swindon. The residents often join in with the attitude of our town being a bit shit and the council have done nothing if anything to help this. Afterall, our town centre is unfortunately nothing to be proud of.

Towns like Reading were in a similar situation except over the years the town has had a lot of work done upon it. Things like this restore pride in a town. If you're proud of where you live it's easier to support something that symbolises where you live and what your town is about.

With the state of Swindon and the on-going debacle that is "regeneration" it can only further damage morale and good feeling about the town from it's residents. Therefore, with little for the population of Swindon (in general) to be proud of in the town (excusing the football club) it's harder for everyday residents to show pride in their club.

Reading's regeneration was/is a success. Therefore there's more pride in their town and a willingness to get on board any bus which champions that love.

Look at Brighton, they're a very proud town, they're getting a new Stadium. They'll sing about it from the roof tops and the stadium provides and apt venue.

In other words Swindon needs regeneration and pride restored within the town for any big following to occur. The residents need to feel pride about the place they live and they will then use the club to help them show that pride. I think.

Having looked in to this a little further, it's clear that Reading's new stadium (which they moved to in 1998) was a significantly more decisive factor than I thought when it came to the increased gates.  As Jonny says, they averaged 12,000+ as a 3rd tier club in 2000/01 as a 3rd tier club, and then 14,000+ the following year during their promotion season.

So it's interesting that the board are waiting to assess the uptake of their latest (excellent) offer before deciding on the nature/size of the ground redevelopment.  Maybe they should throw a little caution to the wind, build a 20,000 and watch it fill up.  There does appear to be a precedent.

Why did the likes of Reading and Swansea attendances go up after a new stadium was built, but the likes of Darlington become a total disaster.

Did the initial expectation and eventual success on the pitch do it, tapping into the latent support in their regions? Was it simply Darlo and Oxford* over stretched and knackered there team/have crap business models?

Just curious, we don't want a big new shiny white elephant.

*yes OK Kassam shafted them.

I think there may be something in what Barry Scott says regarding Reading's case.  The completion of the Madejski coincided more or less with the completion of the Oracle and the new road out to the motorway...so there probably was a feeling in the town at that time that it was going places.

There's less of that in Swindon, but I do sense a feel-good feeling at the club itself, so hopefully people can just buy in to that instead.

Regarding people's concerns over the attraction of these tickets to new fans, here's a couple of quotes from the Adver comments section:

"I haven't had a season ticket since 94, but next season I will be buying one and for my son as well. Exiting times ahead, so get on board and be part of it."

"Just signed up so that I can say thanks to the Board. Occasional visitor this season; Season ticket next."

Hopefully plenty more will jump on board! If I'm back in Swindon next year I'll get one, but I won't know that for a while yet.

I'm not sure that Reading's new stadium is relevant as we're not getting a new stadium - the plan is to re-build the current stadium stand by stand. Its difficult to say what effect doing it that way will have. On the one hand it will mean kicking off 3 seasons with a new stand and on the other its just the same old stadium.

I guess a lot depends on the actual re-development plans, which maybe we'll see before the end of the season.

Talk Talk, on your point around the margins.

It's quite correct to say that per game on ticket revenue they get less from you if you attend more than 50% of the games.  It's not as clear cut as that though.  I converted to a season ticket last season for the first time, what I have found is that I much more willing to buy food and drink on site now, such as at half time.  The effect is to make it feel like I am not using up any money to attend to attend so I am much freer in my general spending on matchdays now - more pub money, more beers in the ground etc.

On top of that, the risk of me not attending is lower, I'm much less likely to drift away in a bad run and we all know it's tough to get fans back.

Finally, cash in advance can be worth more than regular payments even if the sum total of the regular payments is more.  I can invest that cash and earn interest on it or pay off debt and reduce an interest burden many times more.

Overall, most people who convert will not have attended every game, so the overall risk is low and is probably outweighed by the benefits.

Season Tickets are better for the business because income is much more predictable. This is better in terms of raising finance and repairing the balance sheet.

Also, from a marketing point of view, you have the name and address of a season ticket holder which allows for much clearer marketing. You don't know anything about people buying matchday tickets.

Bar out of towners who buy over the phone. Can honestly say i've never had a call, and only around 2 or 3 emails in total since they've had a database.

Sorry Barry, I don't buy any of that. I know what you are saying but I think the motivation to attend football matches at your local club is not related to the status or 'feel good factor' of the town/city/village/hamlet that it is based in.

I think it is down to:

- Whether you are interested in football (which excludes probably 50% of Swindon and surrounds, including most women and girls)
- Whether you want to watch live football and/or spend your Saturdays doing this instead of something else (that's probably another 30%)
- Whether you feel any allegience to STFC by virtue of birth or location (that should exclude another 25% and includes the Prem supporters and commuters)
- If you can be arsed or not - as in are Swindon doing well? And this is where I think the difference is. If you take the population of Swindon as 200k and another 100k from surrounding areas, that's a potential gate of 300k x 5% = 15k.

Meh. Do shite, 7k attendances, do well/be exciting/Championship, 15k tops.

Nothing to do with the resemblance of the town cente to something Bomber Harris promoted in Nazi Germany or whether the Outlet Village gets a new retailer in.

And to his Robness - yep, I agree with you about "the fringe".

------------------------
*** DISCLAIMER I made these percentages up, but my guts tell me that they are about right. Mind you, my guts are full of hot chilli at the moment ***

For once I agree with TT. Plus no matter what shit hole place you come from, a team can make you proud of that geographical association. People used to comment on our football records, now its all about the magic roundabout or lack of speed cameras. No wonder it's labelled a boring town   

But ermm we're twinned with Disney World. That's got to count for something right?

You've only got to look at the Fulham and Leeds games to see that the fans are there if everything is right - quality of football, opposition, success, price etc. Going back further pretty much the entire town was behind the club at the Leicester play off final - a sell out crowd and most of the town celebrating when we won.

Its going to take some time to repair all the damage that was done prior to Fitton's arrival but we're going in the right direction. According to my quick internet research the attendances this season will be the highest in over 10 years and the signs are that they will increase next season.

Some truth Sie...but as someone who travels the country Swindon is seen in a better light than what we may think,especially the older Generation who remember the railways...oh and fukin Diana Dors..if i has a pound for everytime someone has mentioned her.
Swindon has a better reputation than we may think outside of Wiltshire.

Absolutely right Leefer

Except in Oxfordshire  ;)

Good point.!..and maybe Berkshire,Gloucester,Avon and Dorset too....oh well.

I went to my first match at the County Ground, aged 8, at the 1992/93 play-off semi-final against Tranmere. The following year my old man, brother and I had a season ticket which was renewed year-on-year until the end of 2002/03 as I gradually lost interest and stopped going that season. Then went away to university 2004-07 and followed the off-pitch debacle through the internet. Started attending the odd match after the Fitton takeover as there finally seemed to be a mini re-birth of the club. Enjoyed watching Coxy play and gradually got back into it again. This season have been to the majority of home matches post-cricket season and will be at Southend this Saturday.

Anyway, after that life story, the upshot is I will definitely be buying a season ticket again (in the Town End) for 2010/11. The price is very cheap, the team are winning and we are recruiting good footballers. But regardless, the board are well organised and they have a vision for a sustainable football club. Being able to trust in this is the main reason I am back supporting the club, there is a belief they have the best interests of the club in mind and want to push it forward.

I might buy a season ticket even though i only go to around 10 games a season due to work.

It would be for the TE though as its cheaper.

Im a superfan

Fair play mate,good post

Interesting reading the thread through.
My view is that their are enough people around with a fondness for the club to support championship football. The other point I would make is that a lot of fans aren't from Swindon. I have friends who support other clubs, & who I would class as armchair premiersh!t supporters. Quite a few do however, go to the occasional higher profile town game & would certainly want to go to Wembley if we grace the payoff final. I think that some would certainly go if we were in the championship playing the likes of Newcastle, Leicester, Westbrom, etc etc.
Even my son has said he'd start going again if we went up.
So I am pretty confident that if we were to go up, & were playing well we'd be pulling in over 10,000 for most games.
As for season tickets this season ? Well if we can keep the form we have at present yes they'll sell.  If we don't then it'll just be the hard core.

If I was Andrew Fitton, I would walk out on to the pitch at half time this evening with a microphone - explain his plans for the club to the masses and encourage the stay-aways to be a part of what he's planning.

Just a thought.

I don't think half time chairmen speeches go that well.

Do they Deliah

Obviously he should stay off the sauce before heading out.

"Whhheeeeeeerrrreeee aaarrrreee yoouuuuuu"

I reckon that rallying cry could work

We need a 9000th man

I think what WOULD make people take note would be if Fitton DID get on the sauce, go out, and start a chant of "Red Army". I for one would applaud such a move.

But probably too quickly, like most town fans.

When I lived in Coventry, I watched them stay up on the last day of the season (I can't remember which season), but John Sillet was wheeled out and lead a chant of 'Shit on the Villa'.

Considering getting a season ticket next year. £259 for the DRS isnt bad at all.

Wheres the best place to sit?

just in front of Fred Eliot so you can take note of the sage advice he offers the players and linesmen.

 :-[

Aye, he knows his onions that Fred, I say he knows his onions.

Don't sit in front of fred unless you want to be covered in food/dribble  :D

Depends if you want to join in the singing etc,some of the TEF are above me towards the townend at the top of the DR stand,Im pretty sure it's them that starts off Danny Wilsons red and white army each time  :D

I am really pleased to see the season prices announced so early. Now please can the club give us details very soon of any pre-season tour so that we propoer fans can plan for it and not make excuses that 'we have to go away to Benidorm wiv are faaaaaamilies so we can't watch the Town on tour'.

Or next to him if you don't want to be covered in bruises.......

Maybe Mr Elliot should have his own netted off safety zone like they do between home and away fans

I love you all too !!!!

No you don't, else you'd keep your knees, elbows and used ketchup/mayo/mustard to yourself.......

I haven't been in the Town End since about 1992. Have had my season ticket for the last couple of years at the back of the DRS. should I change and go for a TE one? I can't remember what the view was like, and it was probably terracing the last time I was in there  ??? I want to have a bit more of a sing song, but I do like the view from the DRS.....the Leeds game was a decent atmosphere and I was able to sing along through a lot of that game. I think the TE side of the DRS is getting a healthier atmosphere, but will it keep going?

Ta.

yes it will keep going its us lot and we are all renewing, come and join us.

I see the South Oxon Reds flag, I must be about 30 seats to the right of that (if you are looking towards the pitch of course).

Just below you guys in row u,but joins in everytime,shame some of the others around me dont tho,so may move up a bit higher,trouble his these legs are not that good at climbing them bloody steps.  

it's not my fault my teeth dont fit anymore

Get back in the TE you old cunt

Actually I am allowed as from next season

 :wotjump:

Get involved then Fredder. I've missed your random ranting.

:D  I caused myself an injury against Leeds whilst jumping up when Austin scored!

You aint the only one Luci, split the front on my shin open!

I did the front of my shin too!

Haha! How stupid do you have to be to injure yourself celebrating a goal?!





Oh wait...  :-[

Looks like we have a hat trick I also cut me shin open on the back of the seat in front when Austin scored did not even feel it I was buzzing so much until I got home and saw the blood on the front of me jeans

Lost count of the times i've done that, those who doubt we need a new ground, only need read this litany of woe.

come body join us, come and join us 

You what now?

Dunno what happened there

Spack attack.

Probably predictive text

You say that, but the problem seems to be in the DRS, the stand most akin to modern satdia

Does anyone know off-hand if the club are doing any instalment payment plans?

They are...but not on the earlybird discount ones on sale....usually works out around 30 quid a month for ten months or so.

Ah-ha, that's what I wanted to know. Cheers.

So does that mean, if I want to renew my DRS ticket, I have to pay full whack to get it on a payment plan as opposed to the 259 price or am I totally interpreting this wrong?

Looking at the leaflet, you would have to pay 10 installments of £28.33 in you renew before 1st May.

According to the leaflet, you can pay installments on all tickets, even in 'window 1'.

Good news then.

Just got mine. Woot! :D

I see the club have an advert for the £199 TE tickets on the back of the 'local buddy' free mag which appeared through my door over the weekend. You know, this board are doing everything right with this fill the CG campaign.
They would be rightly pissed off if there wasnt a large uptake...

will get mine Friday!!!!

would like to applaud Mr Fitton and Mr Watkins for a superb offer for next season - really seems like the club are building massive bridges to their supporters and future supporters - well done all concerned!

guy in the ticket office said they'd sold 500 in total by saturday...

Is that 500 season tickets or 500 of the £199 ones?

Hopefully the latter. Which would mean they'd sold half of the 1000 cheap town end tickets in under a week.  :)

I'd like to see a bit more coverage in North Wiltshire though. The place is awash with lapsed supporters who might be tempted back.

The same with the £25 for two games offer of late. At present the ones who get to hear about it are already going to games in the main. Maybe it tempts people to go to more games & works in part but what we really need to be doing is getting the message out to those who don't go at present. The type I am talking about are the ones who will go to wembley when we reach the play off final. (if we don't get the auto spot)

And West Berks, pull some back from the plastics.

Hopefully not the latter as I still need to get mine.

Does anyone know if the 500 STs sold so far include the 100 3 Year STs that some fans opted to invest in last summer?

I'm to lazy to find out, but when do I have to reserve my current seat by?

May 1st.

Ta  :)

I thought only a handful of people (5 or something) had 3 year season tickets. Where did you get that 100 figure from? I was pretty sure it wasn't that many.

I thought it was as they then closed the offer

Nearly 600 ST sold with a quarter of them going to new season ticket holders is pretty encouraging considering monthly payday is not until end of this week for most. Surely we should top the 6000 mark next season with the way the team are playing.

I remeber the figure of a hundred. A "handful" of people negotiated a 5 yr ST

Oh OK I must be thinking of the 5 year season ticket then.

Ok, heres a possibly stupid question but I've completed the payment plan application and am completing the standard application to accompany it, however do I need to fill out my debit card details or will I get a separate application where I put where my direct debits need to come from?

I'm concerned that if I enter my debit card details where they aren't needed, the club may take the full amount in error.

Zebra finance will send you the direct debit mandate. You shouldn't fill those details out on the ST application

Thanks Si....I can't remember what I did last year!

If I order online, how do you decide what seat or do they just allocate you one?

What block is the 'O' in the DRS?

They contact you to confirm which seat you'd like.

Thankyou sir...

Not long left to renew ST's at £259.....

Renewed mine last week.

I've ordered mine and started installments... When can we pick them up?

Julyish is the official line!

There's no paperwork involved is there? I can just go in and tell the scottish man i want my seat again and he'll do some computer wizadry?

just renewed mine and got my wycombe ticket, happy days.

Think so Dave yes although you will need to give the nice Scottish man some money as well?

Darn.

Cheers

Unless you want to pay by installments, then you have to fill out both forms.

As of Friday they had sold somewhere in the region of 2500 not sure if this is dissapointing or not

Renewing me and my sons on wednesday,still a good few days left yet so im guessing people are waiting until the last minute.I tried persuading some old friends that used to go to every match with us home and away,but these days they would rather go and watch liverpool every few weeks.

Do anybody know how many took that £199 town end offer up ?

240-ish.

I thought someone said it was closer to 500?
240 is bloody awful...club must be v dissapointed...

Two ordered today.

Just checked again...416. Sorry, typo. Numeric slydexia.

even so, in my opinion thats not great...club had 1000 on offer and I bet they were expecting/hoping for a figure there or thereabouts.
Apologies if this has been gone over elsewhere.

That is bad. I'd have expected all 1000 to go like hotcakes.

£8.65 a game to watch what is likley to be upper league 1 or championship level football is a bargain.

No apology required.

Thread from here:

http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,38054.msg799148.html#msg799148 (http://thetownend.com/index.php/topic,38054.msg799148.html#msg799148)

Thats bloody crap considering the price,the worry is if gates dont really improve how long will this board stick around funding a club that will be losing money hand over fist due to our crap attendances,surely ambition would have to be lowered on everything including ground redevelopment.
 

My opinion is that a lot of fans won't come back or won't start coming until we are in the Championship.

I now feel a right twat for racing up there and waiting for an age to get mine!!

The board must wonder what they have to do! ::)

Don't we have until the end of the month?

Thats only 18 days though?!?!?!?!?!?

lets just hope the low number of season tickets in the TE is because people are happy enough to pay the extra £60 for a mainstand season ticket?

i got mine the first day the offer started and look forward to another season of standing as im at the back  :)

there's a lot of 15/16 year olds in the town end who probably couldnt afford £199 and are happy to pay £16 per game with their paper round money next season.

as for stadium redevelopments i just hope we dont get a ground like Colchester United even though that would be big enough for us roughly going by the last few years of support.

They'd go up for sure. But there's been a different excuse every season for the crowds being down for as long as I can remember. I'm sick of it, but what can you do? I know its preaching to the converted on here.

The season ticket price if we go into the Championship is £379 !!

Yeah, £16.50 a game - what a fucking rip off.

But it's nearly 50% higher than if you buy now.

What you want to do is buy it now. HTH.

DRS Row Y 175 and 176. Done.

I hope the board do not base our future ground requirements just on season ticket sales.

Experience has shown time and again that a new ground significantly can increase attendances- so they need to take this into consideration.

Is there any indication that they will? I think the last bit in the press was that they wanted a capacity of circa 20k? My memory is a bit sketchy but if that wasn't the figure it was certainly greater than our current capacity.

3 of us getting our ST's this saturday for the DRS 

I would imagine they might use the well trodden path of setting a capacity of x,000 with an option to expand to y,000 by filling in corners etc. at a later date.

On a similar subject, Reading seem to have gone quiet recently on their plans to expand the Madejski to 38,000.

Got mine for the Town End...think it worked out about 9 quid a match.

Well to be fair they're not going to rebuild the ground stand by stand at the current location and end up having the same or slightly higher capacity as before but be a many millions worse off are they???

I expect they will increase capacity by around 4000 or 5000.

You'd expect a new Town End to hold around another 1000, a new Arkells at least another 1500 and a much bigger, covered away end increasing our away capacity by at least 1000.

Do you think they will exploit the second concourse during the re-build?

I think some - if not all - of the exit issues from the back of the Don Rogers Stand could be resolved by finally getting this project off the ground.

On that note how the hell did the DRS get a safety certificate? I know its not like its going to burn down, but surely there are evacuation time guidelines!

I can get out pretty quickly from my seat in row I :)

DRS T 113 & 114 done

Just for you?

You'll be not too far from me then.

just renewed my dad's season ticket online.

hadn't thought about the prices much beyond the initial announcement but i could get a season ticket for that DRS that would work out at £8.21 per game.

Even with the finance option, it works out a lot cheaper. It's aaaall good

Renewed mine today as well.

Just behind me then DRS V174 - V179 - and yes I am a fat cunt - 3 seats per cheek

Renewed mine on Saturday.

Not saying where though, last time I did I ended up stuck with Fred Elliot all fucking season.

Renewed mine today - every year I say Ill save up for it - every year I don't!! Bread and water for the rest of the month for me!! :)

Renewed mine online last night.

Seem to be selling well, if this site is to be judged by. I saw somewhere we had sold 3700 by last week, is that up or down on this season?

We sold somewhere around 4200-4400 this season if memory serves

4000 already sold according to some stfc thing on facebook

I reckon we will sell 5,315.

Just renewed mine and my boys and bought an extra one for the Andy Nicholas lookalike that comes with me!  Those that sit near me will know who I am on about.

I love old man Nicho!!

We are up on this time last year. But the prices and the our league position this year are better.

I'm dissapointed we didn't sell more of the 1000 £199 Town End season tickets. Think they sold 600 of those.

Didnt realise you were so close!

Just had an email marketing the ST offer again, with Melinda Messenger ,Jamie Cullum, and someone called Quentin Letts( no idea who he is) urging everyone to buy one, question is have they?

Quentin Letts is a Daily Mail political columnist with a rather plummy voice who lives in Cirencester.

Not your archetypal Town supporter!

Haven't renewed mine yet, getting it on Friday. I'm also getting one for a mate who hasn't had one since 1996. I also gonna be a plastic and return my Millwall ticket for a refund - need to start saving for the play-offs!

How often are those three have been mentioned in the same sentence?

been selling 200 a day this week

Renewed our 5 this afternoon in the back row of the Arkells, I have also got 7 others from Lambourn to sign up who have never had a ST before.

Quentin Letts. That's surreal.

I'll ring up and get one tomorrow I think, more down to personal circumstances than it being nice and cheap this year, but that's a bonus of course.

Quentin Letts is real.  He subscribed to the The 69er when I did it before.  I could never quite believe it was him asking for copies though.

Did you not see the News of the World "Goat and yoghurt scandal" tape last year?

I renewed my season ticket last night and my brother picked up a new season ticket.
Was chatting to guy in ticket office, we have had 800 new season ticket holders for next season, we have passed this years number of season ticket holders but no exact figure. Good work!
Kieran

To be fair, as lovable as the scottish ticket office man is he does tend to pull figures out of his arse

you mean last years' right?

4,600 sold as of about an hour ago

That is very poor, I would have thought 6,000 would have been the target that the board had in mind lets hope that human instinct is at play and many will wait until the last day.

I would imagine Fitton and Co are re-thinking the new stadium size as we speak, there is little more that they can do to entice the people of Swindon to come and support THEIR team. On field we are better than we have been for years, off field arguably the best shape we have ever been in with season ticket prices lower than nearly every other team in league 1 and definately the Championship.

I reckon there will 2 or 3 thousand extra on that if promotion was gained ... it is a bit low but well done to all those that have got one

 :clap:

4600 is a few more than we sold in total for this season, is it not?

4,600 is a great total considering we're still in april.

Very poor???
The current season hasnt even finished yet! If we go up many people will get involved, even loosing at wembley would attract a good few more.

I was actually in 2 minds whether to get one early or wait until the prices went up, to put more money into the club, now we have a good board. Skintness prevailed, but i'm sure there are others who probably think the same, who are a bit better off than me. Melinda Messenger for one i would imagine.

Yeah it's quite good isn't it when you think we've sold more now than we had sold by August last year and it's April. We've got 4 more months to add to that number. Doing well in the playoffs will help sell more and getting promotion would sell loads more (altho the prices would go up).

I can easily see us having over 6000 season ticket holders. Hopefully over 7000.

Today was the last day to get the cheapo ST's was it?

No think you can buy them tomorrow as well.

Well I reckon 4,600 at this stage isn't bad at all. Guess there will be a whack of people going to renew tomrrow before the Brentford game.

Just read the facebook group, Ticket Office open before and after tomorrows game so should get a good bit of businss tomorrow as well.  Hopefully get close to the £5000 mark.

just asked at ticket office, 4800 sold and tomorrow to go with 700 new season ticket holders, last season we sold 4600 in total so surpassed last seasons in april!

Got mine sorted last week - up near you chaps

Renewed mine today, twas quite busy in there.  If we get to Wembley surely we should tell any waverers that they would be guaranteed two tickets if they buy a ST before the final.  Think all season ticket holders should be guaranteed two tickets, that would only take up 10,000 or so on the figures quoted, leaving at least 20,000 for the plastics to fight over.

So because I don't have a season ticket I'm a plastic? Cunt.

The club have already said that if we are in the play-offs, NO season tickets will be sold from 10th-31st May.

Twat, I referred to those 20,000 who will claim to be regular supporters when they make the journey to Wembley, probably the last time they saw the Town was when we beat Leicester!!

That was the last time I saw town, what you saying?

Your plastic.

*you're

So have we established that Cookie is a plastic?

Good.

Plastic cookies? Yuck

This business of planning future stadium capacity based on this years season ticket sales is a bit of a false indicator, as crowds always increase when a new stadium is built.

Except when they don't.

And we aren't building a new stadium anyway.

Season tickets over 5000 after yesterday, a cracking amount before end of season.  I think if we get promotion we should be looking at 7000+.

It would be nice if the club reinstated their offer of a free season 69 shirt if we sell over 6000 like they did last season.

Just read on OS that Season ticket sales have excedded 5000, im guessin around 6500 will sign up before next season...

8000 if we get to the Championship maybe.

I'm not so sure we'll get over 6,000 if we don't up. Most people will have already got theirs due to the early bird prices.

These should be ready to collect soon I guess?

July 31st at home to Forest and onwards.

Ah! Maybe I will attend the Forest game then.

A cunning marketing ploy for the Forest game if true!

Anybody any idiea of how many season tickets have been sold? The club are spending money that should make afew minds up.

Just over 5000.

More than that leefer, they said 5600 a couple of months back.

ha, this thread just reminded me - i havent collected mine yet!

so....how many have been sold?

Be interesting to see how many they've sold in the Town End.

Last figure I heard for the TE was just over 600, but that was back in April. On the total, I doubt if it has much relevance but mine is numbered just over 6000.

I guess they have sold more TE season tickets than last year?

The official figure is now 5,638. We sold 50 this week alone.

Our ST prices are the cheapest in League one at £299.

I should probably sort mine out... if I do mine online tonight, will I be able to collect it Friday?

No idea, but you'll need ID when you go and collect it...

...or so I was told yesterday.

If anybody goes in to collect ask nice Mr Jockonory, he's the man for the numbers!!

I ordered mine today & was told that the club has sold over 900 more than they did last season. I reckon that we must be close to the magic 6K if not exceeded it

There'd have been a press release if we'd got more than 6,000

5,638 (http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/TicketNews/0,,10341~2031117,00.html)

Anyone know if you lose your season ticket whether you can get a replacement? I've tried phoning but nobody is picking up.

I'm pretty sure the terms are if you lose it they don't replace it.

Finally got through, they'll replace it once a year for a charge of £15.

I was just about to say that it's the same if you want to move seats there is a £15 surcharge for each ticket.

So if you lose it again you can't go to another game unelss you pay for a ticket...blimey that is harsh you had better put your ST under lock and key

If you lose a season ticket twice you probably shouldn't be allowed out anyway..... ;)

Is there?  I'm thinking of seeing if we can move seats.  I don't think I can bear a season with some of the people that were around us on Saturday - it was horrific!

Where exactly do you sit?

Arkells.  Row R.  We have seats 119-122.

The old bloke behind me decided at around 10 minutes that we were useless, weren't going to win, it was a waste of time coming and we won't get anything at Hartlepool either!  Apparently he doesn't like any of the players either - they're all crap!  It became slightly tedious, especially as his cronies were no better!

Then there was the young lad who kept prancing around flapping his arms at nothing, laughing hysterically and commentating loudly on his mobile phone.

To top it off someone stank of BO, as my 6 year old kept loudly announcing!  A season of this is not a pleasant thought!  Bloody good view though!

You'll have to hope they are just one match wonders  :) If not, take some ear defenders and a roll on deoderant for the offending body

New Season Ticket Seat Review

Good Points:
Nearer Mex's lot that actually try and sing
Spare seat either side so I have something approaching legroom

Bad Points:
Takes fucking ages to get out again
I seem to have a collection of Vuvutoddlers behind me. It's like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Sadly not  :(  Twatty lad was waving his season ticket around for most of the game and old moaning bloke said this was his 40th season as a season ticket holder.  I have to wonder what some of his comments were like during the Malpas reign and some of the other dire periods over the years?!

How much is it to move seats?  :D

Where do you sit? I spent the second half with the South Oxon reds, much better than sitting on my own somewhere in the DRS between an old man and a young child...

V175, so just on the other side of the stairs and down a row or two.

You were only just behind me (and to the left a bit).

yes Sonic, I tried giving you a cooooeeeeee but you ignored me you miserable cunt

Sorry, I was feeling like a billy no mates until Bennett showed me the love

well it was the Brighton game I suppose

I thought I saw you at HT with Spacey and yeo

I sat with them and Mex for the second half  :)

Hmm, my seat is ever so slightly shit. Which is why I thought Phil Smith made a save, when in fact, I missed an amazing block by Cuthbert.

I'm gonna sit in your seat at the Brentford game  :)

You niciked my seat then as I've got season tickets for seats V174-V179 in the DRS althuogh we only used 4 of them on Staurday. You can pay me next game. Say hello next time, you can't miss me I'm the fat bastard.

Ah, can't read my own ST, I have U175. So you must be behind me. I'll make sure not to wash this week to give you the full joteddyred experience.

Are you the guy that very loudly disagreed with everyone when they called for Ankergren to be sent off for the challenge on Austin

No., I didn't. I was stood up ranting and fucking raving for the cunt to be sent off much to the amusement of my daugjhter sat next to me.

Well now im confused, i thought id sussed out who you were.

Well I'll be in between V174 - V179 tomorrow - most likely V178 with my daughter in V179. They're the 2 on the end. Come and say hello. Unfourtunately I think you're getting me confused with Chubby who sits with Rick Wakemwan nearby - in which case you have insulted me greatly.

I shall make sure to say Hello Mr. Shorts.

I will stalk you

Im gonna wander over at the next home game and have a nosey. I'm in the block to your right.

Well, as you don't go to many games I won't feel too stalked

I'm going tomorrow night, that'll be two in a week.

Hmmm, i just checked my ST number and im only just along from you in row V. You sit on the aisle, right?

I wish we'd moved to the DRS this season, as was discussed at one point.  It seems like the clientel is more interesting and far less annoying than the Arkells and the singing is better as well.  Will give it a few more games, I might become accustomed to the smells and conversations around me   :hmmm:

On dear, does that mean we won't win again?

Hardly!!!

Just asked for my season ticket discount at Swindon station as advertised in yesterday's program, the Adver and thisis to be told they haven't been issued with any instructions on how to issue them so they are not available!

Why move places if you are happy where you are?

What's this? Discount on train tickets?

Yes, but only on FGW lines :

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/TicketNews/0,,10341~2124124,00.html

I've seen the briefing for it so it is out there and its on the ticket system too. Seems Swindon station are not quite up to speed with it.

That is true..they still store coal there for the trains..or was it coke.

Does anyone know what constitutes "some other form of ID"? A note from your Mum? Full passport? Bank statement? Or will they just take anything with your name on it?

Paul, it is usually a utlility bill or Council Tax stament not older than 6 months.

Thank god for that as my mum has been dead for three years.

Well, yeah, I know what "usually" does it. I usually use a Gas bill or my driver's license. But I just thought the phrase "some form of ID" was quite maddeningly vague and almost certain to result in a confrontation with some jobsworth when you rock up with something you think quite adequately fits the remit of "some form of ID". I might take that dodgy skinhead pic of me from the Adver, see whether that counts :)

Worked for me on Saturday going from Gloucester to Swindon, they just do the 10% discount and job done......only had to show the season ticket, they didn't ask to see anything else.

In fairness, they're probably only trying to stop people using their mate's season ticket, so I should think DL/credit card should be enough. (or some form of photo ID for tax-dodgers)

I'm guessing not, but can this offer be applied to other discounts i.e. a railcard