£25 Match Day Tickets Next Season

[Simon Pieman]

whether you think its fair or not to only hit non season ticket holderrs in the pocket,£25 quid to watch div 4 football is excessive.

Firstly I absolutely agree the prices are too high for bottom tier football.

On the other hand, the Town End is £19, which was cheaper than last season's side stand price. If someone really has to catch a game they can still do it within their budget.

[PocketScience]

Its not like the club haven't given a installment option either to be fair to them.  They have actually made it as financially viable as possible as far as investing in a ST is concerned!

The thing that annoys me most is that they hiked it up after publicising the prices of £20 a game. The 10 month installment plan was no longer available when they decided to raise the prices!

I would have renewed my season ticket and happily paid £28 a month in installments if I knew that prices were going to be £25 a game. I missed quite a lot of games last season because of family commitments so thought at £20 a game it'd work out at about the same amount of money if I didn't renew.

[Luci]

Thats a very good point.  Had they publicised the match day prices sooner then the uptake may have been better and allowed people to decide sooner.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

I didn't understand the timing of it either. For me that was the biggest issue. Why announce 1 price then announce another 6 weeks later? It's harsh on people who thought they would give the ST a miss as prices weren't too bad then all of a sudden they've missed the early bird ST deadline and boom. Lost a bit of respect for the board when it was announced.

[singingiiiffy]

anyone at reading match notice the big sign on the townend offering £25 for matchday ticket, lunch and a pint. im guessing that is going to be took down ahead of saturday?

[nochee]

The simple fact is that if you sit in the DRS or Arkells you only need to watch 11 home games to make a season ticket financially viable.

We don't make every home game (we struggle to get down midweek), but still make significant savings with a season ticket.

If you are only planning to attend a handful of games a season, the extra £2 or £3 a ticket works out as less than £20 a year.

The other thing that you can almost guarantee is that during the season there will be offers that give you discounts if you buy tickets for multiple matches.

So effectively we will be penalising fans who only want to go to games like the Pox & Rovers games and away fans. Personally, I can live with that.

Now if we can reduce the cost of fuel it will make the cost of games much cheaper

Exactly this.

People love to moan, don't they 

[reeves4england]

anyone at reading match notice the big sign on the townend offering £25 for matchday ticket, lunch and a pint. im guessing that is going to be took down ahead of saturday?

Unless it's for a ticket in the Town End?

[singingiiiffy]

Unless it's for a ticket in the Town End?

no, it was obviously last seasons prices. it was for the legends lounge i think or one of the hospitality deals.

[jonny72]

The thing that annoys me most is that they hiked it up after publicising the prices of £20 a game. The 10 month installment plan was no longer available when they decided to raise the prices! I would have renewed my season ticket and happily paid £28 a month in installments if I knew that prices were going to be £25 a game.

Same for me. With the number of games I can make it was cheaper for me at £20 a game versus renewing my season ticket. If they'd said £25 a game to begin with I'd have renewed - if I want to renew now I'll have to pay more and most likely change seats. Why should I be penalised by their incompetence?

Makes it worse they don't even acknowledge what they did. As does it being a fixed £25 per game, with no advance discount or grading of games. It's all totally unnecessary and comes across as incompetence. Though to be fair, I'm sure that if I'd have complained they would have sorted something out for me as I believe they have for others.

I don't agree with the loyal fans should be rewarded with cheap ticket prices argument, when loyal fans are defined solely as season ticket holders. Come the end of the season my total spend at the club will be higher than a lot of season ticket holders, yet I get screwed on home ticket prices as I can't make every game.

[Batch]

Same for me. With the number of games I can make it was cheaper for me at £20 a game versus renewing my season ticket. If they'd said £25 a game to begin with I'd have renewed -

People in your position have my sympathy, as have the people who make as many games as humanly possible (I was one once). It clearly stated £20 on the season ticket renewal form, and it has never been explained why they changed it. A complete and utter bugger up.

I also don't agree "it's only £3 or £4 more". There is a point where a price crosses the 'value for money' threshold. In this case £25 probably would for many.

Hope the discounted ticket promotions come thick and fast for you.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

There's also being part of club red which I believe reduces the price of match day tickets...the price of club red is probably equal that of the savings in most peoples cases but its worth looking at if you get the other club red extras thrown in.

The thing they've said in the past about £22/23 ticket prices as well is, once you go over that £20 note people seem consigned to losing and spending that couple of quid change that day anyway and it seemed to have an awkwaedness about it and put people off more than it was worth, which is why they've probably made it £25

The one thing I don't agree with, is the timing, which didn't let fans make the decision of early bird prices vs large amount of match day prices £25

[joteddyred]

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Makes it worse they don't even acknowledge what they did. As does it being a fixed £25 per game, with no advance discount or grading of games. It's all totally unnecessary and comes across as incompetence.

I don't see it so much as incompetence, but the board being greedy and trying to force supporters into a corner.  That's what disappoints me, along with the fact they haven't apologised/explained why they originally published a lower price.

I'm not affected as had already renewed my season ticket, but I feel extreme sympathy for those this will affect.

There's no getting away from the fact that £25 is ridiculously expensive for bottom tier football.  I haven't checked, but am told a significant number of Championship clubs charge less.  Personally I think the board should have been bloody grateful such a high number of people had purchased season tickets after last season's debacle without trying to force the hands of more.  This could really bite them if we don't do well.

[chalkies_shorts]

I don't see it so much as incompetence, but the board being greedy and trying to force supporters into a corner.  That's what disappoints me, along with the fact they haven't apologised/explained why they originally published a lower price.

I'm not affected as had already renewed my season ticket, but I feel extreme sympathy for those this will affect.

There's no getting away from the fact that £25 is ridiculously expensive for bottom tier football.  I haven't checked, but am told a significant number of Championship clubs charge less.  Personally I think the board should have been bloody grateful such a high number of people had purchased season tickets after last season's debacle without trying to force the hands of more.  This could really bite them if we don't do well.

Well said - can't disagree with any of it.

[Ardiles]

This could really bite them if we don't do well.

I think this is the gamble.  If we do do well, you'll not hear a whisper.  Think back to the 1995/96 season...we averaged more than 10,000 at home in Division 3, following 2 successive relegations - and there were no serious price reductions .  But we won the division that year, so nobody cared.  I have friends who stopped watching STFC at that time and who never came back, but they were in a very small minority.

If we don't do well, expect the pricing to change.

[herthab]

I don't see it so much as incompetence, but the board being greedy and trying to force supporters into a corner.  That's what disappoints me, along with the fact they haven't apologised/explained why they originally published a lower price.

I'm not affected as had already renewed my season ticket, but I feel extreme sympathy for those this will affect.

There's no getting away from the fact that £25 is ridiculously expensive for bottom tier football.  I haven't checked, but am told a significant number of Championship clubs charge less.  Personally I think the board should have been bloody grateful such a high number of people had purchased season tickets after last season's debacle without trying to force the hands of more.  This could really bite them if we don't do well.

I disagree. If the board were greedy, they would've increased the ST price. What appears to be forgotten is the fact that season tickets are very competitively priced, as they have been ever since the regime took charge.

I don't see how they can please everyone: if they kept all tickets at the price of last season we'd have people moaning about something else.

I agree that it was poorly managed re advertising, but greed? I think the club is still running at a loss and the board are the ones making up the shortfall (Not forgetting the millions they put it to it initially).