Thetownend.com

https://twitter.com/official_stfc/status/1634223923901415424?s=46&t=zTEFtfTXjK-SAydvgY6uiw

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2023/march/football-club-releases-match-day-and-season-ticket-pricing-for-202324/

No chance i am paying £27 on the gate.

Up £20 for adult STs in all stands on last season. Not as bad as some others, to be fair. Will reduce the number of games needed for an ST to be "worth it" I imagine.

That's for early bird renewals mind, which is a 6 week window. Another £15 after that.

Was expecting a bit worse than that, but will still be difficult for many folk to bear I'm sure.

Yeah that’s a shocker.

Season ticket increase isn’t that bad but as it’s only £15 more if I wait I’m not renewing until I see what our ambitions are in the summer. I won’t bother if it’s the same transfer strategy as this.

Phew, STs rises not as bad as I feared.  May not bother with early bird either though, we'll see if there's finance and CCs.

27 on the gate  :eek: Everybody adopt a nationwide worker quick.

Like the promise of ‘cup runs in all competitions’!

Suppose Lindsey’s 5 from 5 capitulations will be hard to beat.

£27 on the gate 😧 that’s brutal!

Feared it wound make for alot more grim reading than that.

On the day price is an instant turn off for those that currently buy on day I think.

Which is usually over 50% of the attendance

Bearing in mind that the most I'd paid for a ST until last season had been in the 90's under McMahon then that's fine.

Will just have to cut back on some of the non essential shite like food, heating & electricity.

The family 1 needs clarifying, if it's an adult & an under 11 you will be paying more than two separate tickets, if it's an adult & u18 then it works out okay. Shame they've got rid of the 2 adults & 1 u18 deal.

£27 on the day wouldn't be too bad if the mortgage, broadband, council tax, water gas & electric & food hadn't gone up and fuel prices had come back down and I had a pay rise that matched inflation.

Will be interesting to see how many wait to see what happens over the summer. Club might find they need to earn sales this year.

All told it could have been worse, but I don't like away fans having to pay £27 in L2...

To be fair a 5% increase for season tickets is not as bad as feared, also keeps them below £400 if you buy in the early bird period.

£27 for a single game is a lot, but also only 8% up on last season.

Yeh. It’s not great. And like said above, £27 for an away fan is grim.

Beer?

Glad it’s not in the Walsall and Tranmere category of fucking bizarreness. Could have been a lot worse. Was always gonna go up. Just hope club tie down players so it’s not another complete rebuild, and back Morris to go and get 7 or 8 real top quality bodies. Will hold off and see what the “model” is next season. Bound to get a ST anyway, need my fix of football end of day.

quid's in when we play Wrexham. :)

Only good thing about them being in L2 is it’s a new ground to tick off

And the stains

Yeah as a pick and chooser like yourself, (presumably) £27 is a lot of money for L2. (and L1 even)

I can get a ST for £305 and £405 for Mrs Audrey. That’s a significant sum. Probably wouldn’t make all the evening games so it’ll be tight between STs or POTD.

I work shifts during the week and some week ends so there is no point in me buying a season ticket so have to pick and choose my games. I'm not saying the increase is extortionate but for many everyday living has become so expensive choices and cutbacks will have to be made to make ends meet.

Our two are both £390, and again midweek games are a bit iffy. But it’s only 15 games to cover the cost

Spot of maths...

For adults:
You need to make 15 games for a side stand early bird renewal to be better value than paying on the day
16 games for a standard/non-early bird side stand
17 games for the TE early bird or non-early bird

Over 65/Students
14 games for early bird or normal side stand
15 games for early bird or normal TE (14 is break even for early bird)

U21
12 games for early bird or normal side stand
13 games for early bird or normal TE

Family 1 has always been Adult + U18.

You spelt Notts County wrong

No.

Unfortunately the full price makes up nowhere near that. Kids tickets still being purchased instead of adult ones and also the nationwide and free tickets given outmake a big difference

could share season tickets if you're a shift worker , there must be an app for that!!

ouchy

mate just pointed out they've dropped another family option.

family 2 was in fact 2 adults, 1 u18 at £740 last year.

850 this. 15% (approx)

Rather than per game, I'd prefer to see the cost shown per box entry.

I know the big clubs give you the option to sell back the matches you can't attend.

you're a manager too late I'm afraid.

They've probably risen them about as much as they could have without a catastrophic drop, in my opinion. Pretty calculated. Some would have given them up anyway just down to the cost of living crisis. It'll be less next season no doubt, just depends if the higher prices cover the loss on if its worth it for them.

It begs the question how Bradford can carry on selling season tickets so cheap and no other club can make it work.

£20 for a burger. 😁

Bargain😀

Includes chips I suspect.

No ketchup....Tomato shortage😀

Large stadium to fill with a large area of population to get people to bite at the low price.

I wonder how many they would sell without the cheap deal🤔

the tomato shortage is over. Aldi are lifting restrictions

Asda never had any earlier will update tomorrow!

Is there a renewal window for existing season ticket holders as to me it looks like it’s open to all during the early bird period? Doesn’t look like your guaranteed the seat you were sat in last season 🤔


Sent from my iPhone

"Seats reserved until Wednesday 31 May will then be cleared down."

Not mentioned a finance option?

I think your right batch but the wording is awful. Could have said existing season tickets have until the 31st of May to reserve their seat  if wishing to renew.


Sent from my iPhone

They are doing it through PayPal or Klarna, no idea if that’s going to be interest free though

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/23376500.asda-morrisons-major-rule-change-across-uk-stores/

The £27 a ticket will be a big issue and wouldn't be suprised to see this get changed.

One thing that does make me smile is there are alot of people moaning about it are people who can't commit to going because they enjoy going to watch premier league games when they can , tough shit then that isn't the clubs fault.

Think given the costs of everything in the past year, 10% ST and 7% Matchday increases are reasonable.

Yes, the walk-ups are high for what you’re getting (particularly in the TE) - but I doubt we end up being the most expensive in the league next season. I think those prices will put people off, but I can see attendances dropping everywhere next year

I’ve been out of the loop for years regarding how to pay for STs. Is there likely to be an option to pay monthly over the course of a year or anything similar?

yes but it'll be through a credit broker and likely to incur interest (or a fee which is essentially interest up front).

they've mentioned something through Paypal/Klarna whatever they is

they've nectarines card payments in store this year...

Klarna is usually 3 payments and interest free

I used Klarna recently to pay for a hotel booking. As you say was 3 payments over the period of 3 months. Not sure if you have the flexibility to increase the number of payments or the amount of time, I didn't see anything obvious when I was doing it.

That’s not too bad.

Given the expected price increase and the malaise of the fanbase this season for a number of factors, if Clem had any gumption, he could do worse than announcing a raft of changes behind the scenes starting with Sandro, Zav and Hart, who all have had question marks from fans regarding their roles at the club. The Sandro chants were very audible at Orient and they are only going to get louder.

In my opinion Clem can make a tremendous marketing play before the end of the season, show fans that he listens to them and is willing to make changes to improve things.

Not sure the average fan has the slightest clue who Zav and Hart are, wouldn't be putting them together with Sandro in the public enemy number one stakes!

From what I've read disabled prices have gone up 40% in some instances, that's a huge own goal sadly.

Thats really not good.

Is that because they are charging more for the person, or are they charging more for their plus one.
It used to be almost free if you were the person’s carer

Consider how much everything is going up - that increase doesn’t seem too bad in comparison.

Be interesting to see how our prices and % increase compare to the rest of the league when everyone has released their numbers.

…only had a quick scan but is there absolutely no benefit for renewing a season ticket price wise?
Early bird prices are the same for new and existing customers? Think that’s a bit poor if it’s true.

Although it is a lot of money to find in one hit. I dunno what offers there are to split payments but I guess the club still ideally want as much of the ST revenue upfront in the beginning of the summer to cover costs out of the football season when there is no income.

Think more people would sign up - if the season ticket was like everything else - a monthly subscription but get that probably hinders the club but somehow 35 quid a month for the year sounds a lot easier to pay that 420 up front for arguments sake.


I think now a day with cash practically dead I don’t think going up from 25 to 27 will bother people much. You do it online or tap. It’s not like the olden days where you would have to break into another note (if you were paying with a 20 & a 5) or get change back instead of a note (if you were paying with a 20 & a 10) not sure it has the same psychological impact.

Like 20 years ago when Kingy was in charge and on the day prices broke 20 that seemed like a huge increase in the paying cash days.

Yeah, I remember then saying if you're going to charge £17, you may as well charge £20, but then going over £20 had a huge impact as well. It is a different era.

I see in addition to the disabled costs, it seems the family packages aren't as good? That'll have more of an impact than any other increase.

This is where i saw some bits about the disabled prices.


https://twitter.com/LisaJayneKnight/status/1634523057900470272?s=20

They printed in the programme that the family ST was 2+2 but seemingly its wrong and its 1+1 which is less 'family' and more 'single parent'

I'm sure they had family of four tickets last year with a heftier discount than the adult and child packages. If there is a huge increase in a family of four I can see numbers dropping like flies.

I heard a rumour on Saturday what the original prices suggested by the club were, the increase would have been over 20% 😲

I heard Sandro wanted to put them up by 43%

Interesting, I’m pretty sure when my late wife had a disabled ST a few years ago it was a full price adult ticket, however that was a while ago so it may have been discounted in recent years.

That would be standard negotiating, go in with something ridiculously high and go down to something more reasonable and let the Trust and OSC feel like they’ve been listened to and keep them sweet and non-confrontational.

It doesn't say much for the Trust and OSCs 'due diligence' when they've seemingly failed to pick up these pretty obvious issues around family and disabled tickets...

They do plenty of good work but I do think a slightly more hard nosed approach towards the club would be better for all. It leans towards brown nosed at the moment!

To be fair I don’t think they knew a lot about some of the other pricing issues, they just got the general prices and the length of the early bird window

as I said before, the family ticket removal started ages ago.

I've pointed it out in past season to the trust. no way did they not spot it.

They can only do so much of course, in the main the rises are reasonable

the reasoning from the club for removing family 2 makes no sense. Clearly they think they were too cheap. Don't BS it

If costs have gone up 17%, as reported, then I’m not sure the prices can be argued with. The club is a business, and the only result of reducing the real cost of tickets, is to reduce our competitiveness on the pitch.

Or have some decent cup runs in all competitions. Get more sponsorship. Get promoted.

Not sure we can get alot of that in the next 2 months

If by some fluke we got promoted the season ticket prices would be decent.

No one likes a smart arse.

Get yer fax right. It was 56%

Why so salty LL, still sucking on some Droëwors from...now where was it you went again? Remind the TEF  :D

No reasonable business can budget on something as unpredictable as a cup run. We have a 5-10% rise in ticket prices, with a c. 17% rise in costs. Players (the good ones, the ones we want) will also be pushing for wage increases at or near the level of inflation, so those costs will go up. Of course it’s unfortunate that some may be priced out, but it’s not the cost of the ST that has priced them out, but the cost of living generally.

Agree, With possible exception of some of the disabled supporters and family 2 ticket holders

The club need to sort this out very quickly, if the national media get hold of the suggestion that we're putting up disabled tickets by 40% and non-disabled ones by 5% that's going to be (rightly) an enormous shit storm.

I don't for one second think this is intentional, but it's careless and looks horrific - including on the supporters groups that put out a statement saying that they were happy with the prices. Everyone loses.

Disabled tickets gone up by £110 !

Should be free

As I understand it, previously it was priced as the disabled individual being a concession and then a free carer in addition (if required). I think the pricing change is that the individual is now treated as an adult.

I wonder if there is a view at the club that this is being exploited by some to reduce their costs, but if that's the case, punishing those who genuinely have a need is... not good.

Way beyond may area of expertise but what is the position for disabled people in terms of pricing when attending other similar forms of leisure activity like the pictures or theatre?

This is what cinemas do. Disabled get a complimentary if carer pays full price.

To apply, the person requiring assistance must be 5 years of age or older and be in receipt of one of the following:

Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
Attendance Allowance (AA)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
Adult / Child Disability Payment (ADP / CDP in Scotland)
Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP)

Isn't that the same cost as the carer going free if the disabled person pays full price?

Bbbbbbut the trust said all fans best interests had been represented

They wouldn’t just blindly trust the club because they are too embedded in the clubs operations to maintain proper oversight, would they?

The Trust's social guy on Twitter suggested they'd compared the list price last year to this year, and last year's season ticket prices supposedly were that disabled fans were charged as per their age bracket, but then got a free carer ticket if needed alongside that.

From what I've seen, some disabled fans appear to have actually paid concession prices last year (even if they're between 22-65, so nominally adult prices), and some don't. It seems like an admin fuck up more than genuine malice, but obviously it looks horrendous and is a clear example of why you need to actually have people in the room who are from these groups who can point out the difference between the reality and the theory here.

Obviously coming days after the club did a whole bunch of inclusivity PR stuff with individual disabled fans, it's a bit of a shocker.

Be amazed if this isn't explained as a oversight. Another clear example of things needing to be sorted out asap in regards to the day to day stuff at the club and releasing things before everything is sorted.

That is now the Disabled tickets and the family tickets that they have not looked at properly

that would be fucking nuts. even by STFC standards. Mind you, sledgehammer and nut has been demonstrated  before in kidgate


Aberdeen is on the osc later, it will be asked. I can't watch, but it's usually available on playback.

how many disabled tickets do we even sell?

Didnt the trust and supporters club try to defend this on twitter the other day?

Tonights on the sofa will no doubt be a begging message to buy season tickets

Shall we play business bingo?

Im going for

‘clubs legacy’
‘Better budget for Jody’

Blah blah etc etc

They already get a prime car parking space for free!

It will absolutely be excused away as an admin oversight. Just very amateurish

Go back to 2018-19. There are 4 family packages. Now there is 1.

I'm not saying it's the wrong decision, maybe it was too cheap.

But oversight my bottom, this is intentional and intentionality ignored in the 5% increase blurb. And the way it's been done has annoyed me.

The OSC also questioned the disabled ticket prices too. The club clarified 'adult prices'. Also seen on Twitter fans getting same response

Isn’t that just admitting that they should have had a 40% increase applied last season? Not sure that’s a vote winner

This is the thing as well. If you have Rob going on tonight then the club and the Trust need to stop answering and let him answer these questions because there is every chance now that  what he says tonight will go against what the ticket office and the club have said.

Everything at the moment seems to be reactive not pro active. It's like make a decison then see what they think

Can anyone explain why you can buy a match ticket online with a credit or debit card but not a season ticket?

Can only guess, though I do think they explained lack of CC facilities before. I'll see if I can find it

Guesses
   - Cost
   - Cash flow - How the CC company releases the cash - monthly or two lumps -etc

edit: Last year


I can't recall what "the limit" meant.Clearly a difference in online and in person sales though.

https://twitter.com/stfcquestions/status/1635297107094667269?s=20


So on the OSC Monday night super fan panel tonight, we have OSC members/reps asking the CEO questions on the ST prices, with the disabled ticket pricing already question already being confirmed to be asked, by the same OSC and trust who agreed with all these prices and was aware of all things STs for 23/24, and clearly haven't objected to the disabled pricing band. Nothing shocks with me this OSC. Farce.

Lots of U turns coming I think

Appreciate that was the excuse a year ago. Has the situation not improved..?

Genuinely curious that you can use them for regular match tickets online, but not season tickets. Makes no sense to this layman!

Well aware this is small fry compared to the disabled debacle, and I'm genuinely content with the rise in prices for regular tickets, but I do feel the club put barriers in our way at every conceivable opportunity.

Disabled tickets being reverted back to what they were before

It was always going to. It is absolutely nuts.  Imagine being on a flight 24 hours and being called the minute you land to say we have released the prices incorrectly. Buck stops with the owner though it is his staff but i think we will see a overhaul over the summer(coming weeks)

brilliant news

This is more operations though so surely that buck stops with Angus. Surely as CE his priority should have been getting the back of house sorted but it just continues to be a shambles and a bit of a shit show. With the constant miscommunication and backtracking it won’t be too long before his position becomes untenable unless something changes.

Good news. Bit worrying that it takes Clem's intervention (via Zav) though. Will be interesting to see what RA has to say tonight.

it's hard to say without walking in Angus shoes theakston.

We don't know what restrictions he's under financially and indeed authority wise.

you keep saying incorrectly, but at least some of the staff thought they were correct when answering the osc questions

There are a number of reasons it could be but I suspect it's simply down to extra fees charged.
I don't think it's anything to do with credit limits like last year if they are taking card payments in the club shop.

I guess I’m unfairly comparing him to Nick Watkins, but he was always all over this sort of thing.

he was. I liked Watkins. Though arguably he should have been reigning Wray in.

I think that consortium was far more cash rich than Clem mind

Thats kind of my point. I personally these things are not done by the guys higher up the chain. I would imagine they are told what the figures are etc and say yep if it adds up do it. It just seems like they have to over rule a lot of these things

oh I see, I may have misunderstood your point then

Rob Angus seems fairly rattled on the OSC live, if the first few minutes are anything to go by. Some great questioning from Vic.

I think it is great that Rob puts himself up for these. His predecessor was Steve Anderson. Things have improved.

Absolutely, I don’t recall any public interviews from Anderson during his time at the club, even with BBC

I'm fairly sure there were some doubts at some point as to whether Steve Anderson was real!

Family 2 option is back now apparently. It’s U turn central.

Just posted in the other thread, what input have the trust and osc had here because they have not been listened to until it kicks off online again.

did Rob say family 2 would be 830-850?

To be honest it’s not really improving my opinion of the current Trust set up. They sent out a press release basically commending the club on the season ticket prices when there were absolute clangers in the club pricing that have since seen an about turn, one of the Trust board members was even denying the disabled pricing issue. Just reinforces my view that the Trust will just go along with whatever the club does.

I won’t really criticise the OSC as they aren’t meant to be political.

the osc scrutinised the figures and gave feed back too.

I get that but the Trust’s remit is literally to hold the club to account and protect fans interests. They currently pretty much fulfilling the same role as the OSC.

if the osc are giving feedback on ST prices they are holding the club to account on this particular issue too

edit: imo

If the Trust/OSC weren't given the information about the disabled ticket prices, it's pretty hard to comment?

Yeah its on the club and not exactly open and honest.

Me and 3 U18 tickets is £60 per game on the day or £15 each £1380 for the season
Season ticket price is £730, £31 per game £7.90 each.
Can't grumble at that, but if they did family 2 then the deal is even better. Are they doing it? Have heard they are but 2 adults 1 child 🤷

family 2 is 2 adults, 1 child

looking at being around 830-850 if (when) it's added back in

I'm guessing that the lack of family option combos might be mitigated, for those with younger kids, by the return of the Junior Reds season ticket?

Not done the comparison maths but looks a decent option for say one adult ST holder plus 2 to 4 JR's in tow?

Not really. Family packs cover U18's, Jr Reds is U11 (or 12).

What happened was that the previous regime at some point made family value a priority.

But I think this backed the club into a corner in that if you want to increase average price per ticket its very tricky to increase the family pack by a massive amount from the previous year.

So the club simply dropped them, without club comment (or from the Trust or OSC) outside the "look we are only increasing 5%" type comments.

People affected had to buy some tickets outside the dropped family pack.

I'm glad they brought it back, Family 2 is £830 on reinstated price, last year it was £740 (renewal/early bird) - 12% increase but also a saving over the previous situation (£85 over individual, £20 over family pack 1 and adult in side stand) .

Looks like doing the same to disabled supporters was the line not to be crossed.
======
As you can tell from this post I'm still pissed off when it happened to me, which was the season straight after I went to 2 games the season before due to the COVID situation.

I can see why it needs done. But its the complete lack of communication and explanation that annoyed me, especially after not asking for a refund - a mistake I won't repeat if god forbid we ever get denied football again.

Yeah, wonder how many would reconsider not asking for a refund if faced with the same choice in the future.

Also with the benefit of hindsight, how many would now go down the refund route if they had the time over.

It's a given with any other business transaction other than football it would seem.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2023/march/changes-to-our-disabled-season-ticket-pricing-with-addition-of-family-two-option/

Club statement on both disabled & family 2 tickets, confirms the pricing. Doesn't really do much of a mea culpa, but there you go.

Now that all that has been cleared up, a quick observation. This is the club's most important marketing moment of the year, as it is the biggest revenue generator they have. In the past we have had half decent launch videos (eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCy-xDkuW7c) and an effort to engage the fanbase. Ignoring the balls up on prices for a moment, I'm genuinely astonished at how non existent this year's 'campaign' is. A post on social media channels listing the prices, a photo of the ground and a half-baked powerpoint slide with some circles on it. Absolutely zero effort to drum up excitement.

I actually think that the media bloke does a good job with all the interview content pre and post match and the general running of the social media channels, but from a marketing perspective where is the effort to excite and engage with this launch?

It all just adds to the overall sense of being taken for granted. Here are the prices, pay your money. Or am I being overly critical?!

Yes.
It is what it is.
Like it or not, we are a fair to middling L2 club at the moment.

Would much prefer that the investment be into the playing side.
Of course, there is always room for improvement in comms & marketing.

I get that, but I also see 'Mad Mash Media' doing a solid job with videos for kit launches etc and wonder why that effort wasn't expended here.

Have they said when we can renew online through the payment plan yet?

Is everyone else getting an email every day from the club prompting you to renew your Season tickets?

I’m wondering if take up has been poor so far

Yep. Your Stadium, Your Seat.

I renewed in store and was behind about 4 other families renewing. The guy said the club appreciates the early renewal. Unsure what the take up was but didn't sound to be that good. Also I haven't received any email confirmation of my 5 apart from the receipt, and they're not sending them out you have to collect from the store. I don't live anywhere close to be able to pop in to Swindon to collect. Are we that skint and desperate?

Is everything not just on a phone App these days?  Honest question, been a while.

Think this season was a physical season ticket unless you specifically asked for an electronic one. Think the etickets idea was pushed to the side after they in part caused the massive queues at the turnstiles last season

We had cards posted to us for this season, but had them on my phone initially for the season before

We had cards too - like many older people I struggle with having them on phones - especially last season when the turnstiles struggled to work with phones and we had massive queues.

I renewed in the shop before last week’s game and a fair number were doing likewise.

not had one. maybe I opted out of marketing emails.
----
I had cards as it's easier to loan them out, though technically I'm not sure they are transferable these days

Yes I’m getting regular emails. I have cards too and they are. One reason I’m not renewing is down to useage. Lads at Uni and Mrs is not bothered. So why have two? I could have just one but that means going on my own every game until the boy comes home. Plus I lose two hours of my income every Saturday as it is a work day. Makes them very expensive ST. Still next season, just not as often.

makes sense LL, no guilt in that situation

Anyone renewed yet over the phone?

If so, Can you pay by credit card?

not sure anyone has ever got through to find out. 😁

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2023/march/2324-season-ticket-pricing/

"From Tuesday 14 March, we will accept card and cash in store.

Alterntively by phone, you can call 0330 002 1879 (opt 1), and we can take card payment, but please be aware there could long queues"

I’d seen that, but someone mentioned that you could only use a credit card in store.

Really don’t want to have to do it on a matchday if I can avoid it.

weird. specifically says card payment via phone . Wouldn't put it past the club to bury the credit card situation though

I guess suck it and see (if you can get through, seen lots of complaints).

not going to be at the CG until 15th or I'd ask

Any of you buying a season ticket next year deserve every big ticket that comes vs a Prem side or Oxford or whatever needs priority, because fuck me, what would it take for you not to renew?

To answer Posh Red’s question - I renewed in the club shop at the last home game, paying by credit card.
I asked why credit cards weren’t available via the website and the lady in the shop said it was because ticketmaster hadn’t set the facility up yet, but that it would be there at some point (timescale unspecified).
I think on match day they may stop doing them about 45 mins to an hour before kick off - although you may be able to do them after the match.

Er, not trying to be an arse (I can do that without trying), but that specifically doesn't answer Posh's question :) He wants to know if you can phone up and they'll put it through as if in the shop in person. You'd think they would..

With the online question, that's a fob off. Its likely credit status related and the different way online and in person sales are treated by the CC companies. If its a cost thing that's baffling.

Not ST related but I notice that Orient (although they will be in League 1) and Crewe have announced matchday prices of £27 so we won't be the outliers next season. I think Wimbledon might be £27 as well (but not totally sure on that)

Its basic economics isn't it, costs have gone through the roof and someone has to cover it either fans via ticket prices or owners via pumping cash in or reducing player budgets. Difficult choices and I suspect no one will be happy whatever the outcome is.

actually looking on an Orient site they are quite happy given its a £100 increase in STs.

They do of course have almost certain league 1 football to watch and the goodwill that comes with success. So that helps

Although our rent is reduced by 50% with immediate effect, which takes a lot of the sting away, I'm sure.

I am waiting to see what happens in the summer. I personally won't be renewing if the signings are in the same vein, Sandro is still here and the roles of everyone are not clear. I have no issue with people like Austin and Hart and Kiely being here as i trust Clem enough but i want to see the club be clear about it and explain wjat is what because ultimutely this season has been shit both on and off the pitch

I renewed my season ticket 10 days ago and am still being bombarded with 'your stadium, your seat' emails on a daily basis. Dull and irritating.

I will be renewing, if only because I have done for 35 years and it feels more habit and misguided loyalty than anything else now.

This is the first year I have come close to not doing it though. I am really not feeling it at the moment and for the first time in my life have fallen out of love with the club. Really hope next year is something to shout about to get that feeling back.

Exact same here, wouldn’t mind seeing a few more of those names mentioned out the door though.

Have had a ST for over 10 seasons (baby sentence compared to most on here, I know) but this is the first year I’ve been this against renewing. Power was the ultimate crook/rogue yet somehow still renewed under him.

Only the loyalty card keeping me going. One lad done with it, the other not so keen anymore.

Absolutely pissed off with this shit right now.

No questions asked about Standing or Austin.
No direction and fans quite rightly making their own minds up on what is going on.

Stood with a Sunderland fan at Hartlepool and he commented when their winner went in most got up shrugged their shoulders and walked out. No anger against the players, nothing.
Just the way most of us loyals are feeling.

Great news mind, the Stratton Bank may get a roof. Just fuck off.
Let’s not mention the P for Promotion word though in case we fail to deliver.

Hartlepool was a cracking away weekend because I drowned my sorrows with the locals.

We’ve gone backwards on the field and lost a massive opportunity this season.
Just lost confidence in the club right now, honeymoon period long gone.

There is some serious shite spouted on here.

Questions about Standing have been asked and answered. Now if fans choose not to believe them, so be it, but the club are not going to keep answering something they already have.

Its been a crap season, no two ways about it. Last seasons unexpected 'success' in the face of all odds raised expectations this season, and the change in leading football personnel have really screwed it up.

Lets not let that anger about on the field results/performance/enjoyment prompt us to not renew season tickets, especially for everyone who had one under Power!

Power basically took suitcases of cash out of the club and fucked us. That is not the case now is it?!?

At some point sadly the Town fans need to realize this club is not going to succeed and progress because of one benefactor. This club only moves forward the support of the fans. We should be encouraging everyone to get season tickets, the more revenue the club has the better.

The footballing staff my fuck it up again, but thats for Clem/Rob to manage and deal with as necessary. Clem is an ambitious man, there is no way he is taking this season laying down, and i think his intervention to sign Austin demonstrates that. Regardless of if Clem should or shouldn't have done that.

So people need to suck it up, put their hand in their pocket and support the club or else we go nowhere. Don't let a bad year of recruitment screw up what otherwise is some of the best 2 years the club has had with debt removal (transfer) and the acquisition of the ground finally allowing this club to step out of the 20th century!

In simplest terms, I think in the short term at least the club need to explain how next season will be different from the current one.

What you seem to be suggesting is that everyone who is a season ticket holder should just keep going forever, and if they don't then they aren't a fan, regardless of how utterly shit and joyless the football is, the queues to get through the turnstiles, how hard it is to even buy a ticket etc etc. Not sure that is going to be the view of the majority.

Bored of it, spunked enough money following these weasels up and down the country this season. Absolute dross of a season. Far too many fuck ups. How the fuck can we have be worse off and have a significantly weaker squad now we're out of an embargo and didn't have a 2 week pre season? Shambles

No idea on the standing stuff, the Austin stuff stinks and the lack of transparency around it, they even managed to avoid answering the full question on him in the tick box advisory board mins. I reckon they're gonna announce his departure very soon anyway, he's magically disappeared from the official site as a listed director/VC.

Zero chat or communication about next season, what's gonna change? what's there to be excited about. Its April for fuck sake. Dan Hunt called it brilliantly in the LSPOD - highly recommend.

Cost of living crisis hurting people bad, a lot of people will pass on renewing buying a ST and good on them, why the fuck should they. Prove us wrong in the summer, be ambitious and ill think about it.

I joked the other day about the regime blaming fans next season for not renewing/lesser budget - but looks like its coming internally from the fans already  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:, as for the ground, fantastic we've got it, means we can see big investment on the pitch with all that rent saved, but just know the late legend that is Nigel Eady is the reason we have the ground, nobody else, and its the fans being asked to contribute direct debit payments to help redevelop the ground (along side anything that's already in the JV funding pot)

I think what most people are saying is they want the club to come out and let us know the plans before they part with their hard earned cash. I have been going over 35 years and you can say what you like about support through thick and thin but i think you are being a bit out of order assuming we should all just suck it up and see. It's no good doing all the good stuff off the pitch if we finish 13th and have no ambition on betterring that is it

Amen!

Completely agree with this. I mentioned on another post there needs to be a 'State of the Town' style address to give the fans some confidence that next season will get better.

Yeah but they sacked the womens manager! Priorities!

I had a joke with someone the other day that it seemed there was a more positive feeling around the fanbase during a Lee Power season (Wellens title winning season) where he was allegedly doing all the wrong things behind the scenes than there is currently with an owner who is allegedly doing all the right things behind the scenes.

Not that it needed pointing out, but it shows how vital the on field performances are to the atmosphere of a club. You can be doing all the right things behind the scenes (clearing debt, buying the ground) but if you’re not performing in the most important area (on the pitch) then you’ll find that those behind the scenes good work are not enough to keep fans around and for a club that regularly relies on fans goodwill, you’ll struggle to build anything if you drive those fans away.

Completely agree, see my other reply. Its really on Clem to come out with some sort of rallying cry. Trust me though, from the people i know, who are in contact with Clem, he is far from happy about this season.

Is Clem ambitious? what is he going to do to rectify things? - I don’t have a clue as you never hear from the bloke.

Perhaps he should start trying to rally the whole fanbase rather than hiding behind his mates and sponsors all the time. They seem to be the only people that know what is happening at the club.

Someone sat behind me at the last game kept referring to him as “phlegm” which was pretty childish. However if he fucks up this summer and keeps hiding I can imagine that sort of thing spreading.

1. Ambition means nothing if the man spouting ''do as I say'' doesn't or can't back it himself. I'm not talking about initial efforts but buying an FC is like buying a boat, a good owner will always have to pay for it - even if it becomes somewhat ''sustainable''. He must be more astute at finding good investment and no, not by announcing the next mini sponsor of the STFC backroom staff hole puncher (it's a poor sponsor though, since there's no backroom staff and the poor old hole puncher hasn't even been used in jest/boredom for months).

2. Fans have and do put their hand in their pocket - most have done everything asked of them and more. Deferring covid refunds and not even getting much more than a thanks for doing so and instead being made to feel guilty if they didn't; as if STFC were the only entity feeling the pinch. Heartstring pulling cunts. It's actually a disgrace the approach to that - clever yet shameless. Gate receipts speak for themselves in terms of ''tickets sold''. STFC are the most backed club in L2 when you remove Bradford's 10yr Season ticket model and Top 10 fan backed club when including both L1 and L2. If you discount the teams with big stadia like Derby, Sheff Wed, Bolton, Pompey, Town probably are about 5th most backed. The club really can't keep saying the fans of STFC aren't backing them enough.

STFC is not a community outreach project though, and nor should it be being run as such. It's a B2C with a willing consumer at almost every step of the way - even when it (regularly) fails or lets the consumer down with really poor service on several fronts; this is incredibly rare in many other business to consumer models and STFC or even football club owners in general need to appreciate the very unique position they sit in when it comes to sales. It's effectively free investment with no real marketing needed - although it obviously helps but taking it for granted or appearing to do so is really not a way to retain that goodwill and consumer loyalty. I think it's time the owners of the club looked more inwardly and instead of continually asking what the fans can do for STFC (they have done more than enough as evidence shows) but what STFC can do for its fans. Maybe then fans will actually feel valued and enjoy coming to the club rather than seeing it as an unconditional chore; like visiting the mother-in-law and pretending you like her  ;)

NB: I'd also say it's about time the Trust stopped being so defensive of the club. Their role is not - last time I checked - to be press liaison officers for the club. Maybe the STFC should invest in one though.

With regards to Austin, lets remember people like Jed McCrory, Steve Murrall and Lee Power all passed the fit and prpper test with no convictions that we were aware of at the time. Murrall is obviously in the cells now for his dealings at Hartlepool. It’s plainly obvious it was failed, and to then say its being dealt with it legally is a cop out. Why arent the trust pushing this instead of having their belly tickled?!

I have no idea if Zav is a reformed Saint or not.  No idea if he is dodgy or not.  What I do know is that there are likely a few types of crimes that should exclude you from being involved (not even running, just involved) in a "cash" (in the modern sense) rich business.  I.e a business that has lots of small transactions occurring every day from a consumer base that is not going to walk away and choose another provider.  Money Laundering is one of them.  

The bloke should be kept several barge poles away from a football club.  I'm all for rehabilitation, but I am also for people having to pay the consequences of their actions to a degree.  I mean, I wouldn't want him running a Pharmacy either.

Exactly mate, this should have been addressed straight away RE Zav. Letting it fester, then swerving questions in the monthly meet up. It’s taken for the whole Zav shit to hit the fan behind the scenes (allegedly) for it to be a question to be asked again, up until now my guess is the trust have been “satisfied” with his position at the club. Still no clearer on the Karachi sham either.

But it isn’t just on the pitch is it, the club is a shambles off it as well. Yes some good things have been done but as I keep saying the club has a feeling of being an amateur volunteer run club, there’s no professionalism and the whole customer experience is appalling with the season tickets and finance packages not being available the latest example of this.

The Eady money was essentially a lottery win. All Clem had to do was not be Lee Power and, given that their friendship group seems to be a perfect circle on a Venn diagram, he's managed that by the skin of his teeth.

The deal with the council was 'oven ready' from when the Trust tried to jump into bed with Lee Power.

If that is the only thing they can point to as success, forgive me if I'm not impressed.

I don’t disagree with you there mate. At the minimum as a football fan, it should feel like your football club is being run competently behind the scenes and for differing reasons it hasn’t 100% felt like that for a while. That will no doubt feed into peoples ST decisions, “why should I put my money into a club that isn’t running as competently as it should be?”.

Again though, how much of that with the current regime is due to naivety and a lack of experienced football people in football roles.

Bit harsh.

The debt has been transferred from some pretty onerous responsible parties (HMRC, secured Debenture) to much softer Directors Loans and some factoring.

The Revenue has increased, considerably.  That is without any real success in Transfer fees as yet.  I'd wager we are one of the top three Revenue earners in this Division, having seen Bradford's accounts, if not the top one.  I am sure the odd club like Salford have equity pumped in and Crawley sold off a shed load of NFT's.

My visit a year ago suggested the Corporate side (hospitality, sponsorships etc.) has been improved - which likely leads to the Revenue.

Love it or loathe it, Clem's tour 18 months ago did bring onboard a significant amount of goodwill, increasing Season Ticket sales to levels only ever seen in 1993 and when Fitton tried the Bradford approach.

I do believe that the club is being run on a shoestring budget, so that any money can be used on the player budget.

The problem is that when there are so many mistakes behind the scenes it starts to ebb away the goodwill from fans.

With regards to next season, the simple message that the manager will be responsible for deciding what players are signed or released would go a long way to easing the fears of many.

If that is indeed the case then this season has been one monumental fuck up.

I don’t think anyone, even the happiest of clappers, could disagree with that

I have often wondered, given the crazy stickiness of the customer base, why clubs don't revert to a Subscription based model instead of individual tickets and season tickets?

You could have different levels of subscription, with the top one including a confirmed seat at each game, with differing lengths of contract.  That way you guarantee, to a degree, the spread of income and you can layer in some other less tangible benefits - to keep the price higher than just buying a season ticket for example.  Like merchandise, where you can layer in the margin to make the sub look better value, or free soft drinks (anything with a low cost but higher perceived value to the customer).

Imagine an entry level one - gets you one ticket a month lets say, you can purchase extra on top.   Then you have the ultimate two year package, with guaranteed seats at every game but you are tied in for the full two years at 40 quid a month, or those types of numbers.  Just becomes a bill you pay like your mobile phone.

Interesting idea. The perceived value of a football shirt being say £50, but actually making the club a profit of probably £40. A pint at the ground and so on, also high perceived value (£5) vs real cost to the club (£1). Could all add up.

I don't buy a shirt most years but if there was a season ticket plus shirt that was only £20-30 more I'd probably get that bundle, making the club at least £20 extra. Similarly they could push initial prices if it was an 'every game including cups guaranteed.' In the incredibly rare instances where we have a cup run maybe the club loses out a bit but most years they would be quids in, and the money is banked early.

You then can't say 'finances are shit because we didn't have a cup run.'

The trouble is you would need a professional marketeer and e-commerce expert to sort this and the club would probably ask Rocking Robin to do it for free.

They do need some help from a professional marketer.

Last year they did that promo for someone to win a trip to Oz to meet Clem. It was so stupidly thought out, as they introduced it after most people had renewed and had a ridiculous target to hit for one lucky winner.

I might be on the open market in 9 months time if they need a VP of Ops - give me a call Rob, I can do better spreadsheets than Sandro.

When people talk about not renewing season tickets I think back to the bad dark days of the Diamandis/Wills Family era 20 years ago when the club was literally on the brink.

If it wasn't for some astute loan signings by Kingy and him having the guts to grind it out when Coppell was brought in, we'd have dropped into the 4th tier and never come back.

I think we were down to 2-3K season ticket holders and home gates of 4-5K. IIRC the cost was similar to what is now. The club were happy to charge whatever they liked as they knew they could count on the loyalty.

It's no way as bad as that now, yes the season has been disappointing and same old Swindon, when they miss out in the play offs, the next season is a shocker. Yes, there are unanswered questions but we'll be back watching next year.

subscription = not guaranteed income for the season unless you make it a season long commitment

then we are almost doing the same with block game deals and half season tickets

Other than monthlies, it is guaranteed if you tie people in for longer. Something like:

One Month         =  50  = Ticket only, Max of 3 games - 10% discount on food/drink.
Available on a rolling month to month basis. No commitment to subscribe for longer.

Three Month       = 120 = Ticket n Prog, Max of 8 games - 10% discount on food/drink.
Tied in for the period. Option to renew or upgrade. No commitment to subscribe longer.

Six Month Period = 220 = Ticket n Prog, Max of 15 games - 20% discount on food/drink. Option to purchase half price replica shirt.
Tied in for period. Opt to renew/upgrade to 2yr plan. No commitment to subscribe longer.

Twelve Month     = 400 = As above but ALL home games, ALL home JPT, 1st Rnd FA Cup, 1st Rnd League Cup if drawn at home or other rounds, Max of 28 games. Priority reservation on other cups and POs.
Tied in for period. Opt to renew/upgrade to 2yr plan. No commitment to subscribe longer.

2yr Town Plan    = 700 = As above but ALL home games over two seasons, Max of 52 games. Option to claim free replica shirt. One free food and drink item per month. In draw for annual POTY Awards and Sponsors Dinner Tickets. Other opportunities and local perks.
Tied in for period. Opt to renew at end of period or exclusive fan upgrade to the VIF Plan (Very Important Fan Plan) - 5yrs for the price of 4yrs.


==========================

Ok, so that's a loose plan I've come up with, whilst having a few pints in a pub and possibly writing it on the back of a beer mat at about midnight.
Note on the VIF Plan, you make this both attractive but also only available to those who purchase the 2yr Plan. An air of exclusivity without the hospitality price tag but also showing the prolonged commitment to the club. This way the Twelve Month Plan folk are more likely to make the step to purchasing a 2yr Plan if they can effectively obtain a free season ticket over an additional 5yrs via the VIF Plan. It's a simple hook and you've then basically got fans signed up/committed/subscribed to the club for an effective 7yrs (Initial 2yr Plan + 5yr VIF Option).

All of this gives the club a better idea for future projected and guaranteed revenue from fans - whether attending or not, they're contracted effectively. It also sign posts Subscription and ST sales teams to certain fans they can individually target to upgrade/renew where necessary. This can then avoid unnecessary blanket emails/contact to those people who are already signed up to a specific tiers. Hooray, no spam = happy fan. It's then helpful when going to the bank or potential investors as the club wows them with their portfolio of extensive data regarding revenue from ST/Subscribed Consumers. In turn this builds trust between prospective lender/investor as a club that they could more willingly hand over finance/safety deposit box codes/open cheque books/Tom Champagne's Prize Draw Money etc.

If I can come up with that, shirley, shirley the club can come up with something just as good and I would also hope much much better... :hmmm:

PS: Sorry Batch  :D

Yeah - I was going for the tied into contract type of sub.  The ones where you have tp pay to get out early.

But how do I win a trip to Australia?

Can you still buy match day tickets on match days at the ground or is it all online? If so, what time and where?

you've put a decent proposal bamboo but don't we currently need to put an estimated annual budget to the EFL that effectively sets our wage cap as a %

if everyone jumps on the 1 month option in case we employ croft juniors u11 as our first 11  neither club nor EFL can plan properly

I believe so.. up to the kick off from the windows to the left of the club shop entrance.

sometimes there are no on day sales, like if we play Oxford or someone popular like man city

Fixed it.

1.5/10 at best that.

Which is why I was suggesting it was all contracted - you still leave a proportion to buy match by match, but change Season Tickets and bundles to a monthly subscription with e a determined contract length.  Revert the spend to continual and make it habitual and tricky to stop.  You can even add in renewal periods (can't remember, but I think an auto renew is possible with a get out period).

People have a tough enough time getting out of Sky TV deals.

By the way, I realise I am suggesting something that some fans would be wary of - just wondering why a business with such a sticky customer base hasn't gone down that road.

I see where you are going with this and I know it is rough. But the club would bleed money under that format.

You would effectively be giving away all the things the club make money on for less than people currently pay for season tickets.

Plus cup ticket revenue has to be shared between clubs, so you wouldn’t be able to include those tickets.

The reality is the way to get bums on seats is through winning games and climbing leagues. If you have a good product people will pay for all of the things the club want them to.

The full subscription model may be a bridge too far, but if we had a decent online ticketing platform then I'd like to see things like merch bundles being offered at the checkout. It is such an easy way to drive revenue and commonplace in the live music industry etc.

If at the point of buying your season ticket you could order a shirt for next season at say £15 off, I think a lot of people would just say "in for a penny, in for a pound!"

The club can barely take credit card payments, let alone a complex system of subscription.

it's powered by ticketmaster.

so probably easily feasible.

and also expensive because they are blood sucking 'scamming' bastards

Yes you can but you have to go via a ''Training Course'' in Karachi  :soapy tit wank:

It's a possibility of course but I don't think everyone would jump on a rolling monthly. It's a higher premium than all other tiers and would cost the fan 600 for twelve months. It's designed in part to be a taster or for the occasional fan. Where they might commit to a few random months;

Consumer buys, Sept, Nov, Jan, March aka 4 x monthly packages and gets 12 matches but the club has made 200 gross income.

Each month they'd get a reminder that their current plan will auto renew unless cancelled or they will be offered the chance to upgrade


In effect this is a similar approach to what I was loosely suggesting, leaving traditional purchase routes open for walk ups.

For me it's all about the marketing hook that makes the purchase habitual, much like Amazon Prime/Disney+/Sky/Zoom/Beer52/Laithwaites/Pasta Evangelists and so on. For many, they don't ever make full use of the benefits and bundled extras included. For lots it's just a disposable amount that goes out each month. Without exposing fans, there would be several who would purchase say a 6month contract and only be able to go/make it maybe a few months


1. I see your point but I don't think it would bleed money. It's only at the Six Month Plan where any significant type of benefit kicks in. The fan is effectively buying a half season ticket for about the going rate (if we say a full ST is c400) plus 20 quid. They take up the half price shirt option, in a clever marketeer sense the consumer has already paid for half nearly with the 20 quid, so you're actively encouraging them to spend another 25/30 to get a shirt. Ergo, they effectively end up buying the shirt for full price. It's just packaged to look like they have got a bargain. If they don't then the club has effectively made an additional 20 per Six Month Plan. I think the pricing in my rough proposal comes in line with a Twelve Month Plan costing about the same as a current ST

2. I understand the difficulties of including an offer like Cup Tix but the club gives away several matchday and cup tickets via several initiatives. Maybe these could be balloted then upto a maximum number of tickets per tournament for Six Month Plans and upwards? Say 100 tix and if you previously won, you can't win on the next occasion. I mean we're talking STFC here so the current risk analysis on losing money for a few hundred or even a thousand cup tickets is probably less risk than not obtaining the revenue from elusive cup runs  ;) Plus, if it's only the First Rnd then getting a freebie/priority is more likely to encourage them to purchase for the Second Rnd; if Town do the incredible and get through. Revenue in an exciting First Rnd FA Cup clash vs a team like Hayes and Yeading probably isn't going to be that significant anyway. Whilst I get what you're saying, I don't think it would be as negatively impacting or bleeding as you initially suggest

3. I totally agree that the best strategy to sell any form of match ticket/sub etc is via positive results on the pitch. But, the product doesn't always have to be that good in order for people to pay; whilst it bloody helps, it's still more about the hook/draw/illusion that a consumer is getting something for nothing or at least VFM. After all, lots of people like something if it's free or seemingly costs less. Eg, Co-op send out regular marketing campaigns to get you through the door via money off vouchers. A chunk of people will use those vouchers and never shop there again until more vouchers turn up but Co-op has still hit their target in obtaining a consumer, even if temporary. The reality is, I might still go and do my weekly shop at Lidl too but knowing I have 4quid off a 12 quid spend on Co-op means I'll end up going there. That's 8 quid the Co-op gain and that I probably wasn't going to spend anyway. Some will be more careful about that but many more will be quite carefree with this.

I guess what I'm saying in the final point is that sometimes the product/service doesn't even have to be on your initial radar for you to still end up purchasing, if STFC were to package/market and sell in the right way, it too would have people purchasing as part of a B2C who wouldn't normally be doing so - obviously positive results help drive these sales and there's no better marketing than word of mouth/direct recommendation.


Yeah much like RobT, I also wasn't proposing a fully subscriber only system but have enough hooks in there to get people interested in buying and commiting for the longer term with the habitual element of just paying out each month. Especially when you're in a FTC much like a phone contract. Yeah you can exchange tariff, but you're still tied in somewhat or you can get out early but it's a buyout. Most people avoid this and continue to pay as they lose more/can't afford purchasing the buyout than if they just stay put for the term.

But yes, you'd still have some traditional streams open in terms of walk ups and casuals. The hardest sell is converting the walk ups to commit longer term, those who would purchase Six Months or more are your more sticky revenue. Because they are likely to be repeat customers each year, this can also be easier to convince them to upgrade too. Offer a Six Monther the Twelve Month Plan at the current seasons price before the next seasons Twelve Month Plan goes up and people will likely take that kind of deal

In the main though, it's only a loose proposal that I thought and wrote about in around 30mins. I suppose my main thought was, if one person can come up with something relatively plausible then a professional marketing team employed by the club could certainly come up with something even better  :)

I don’t think I am the right customer for a subscriber model, but I am sure there would be people out there.

I don’t buy shirts, programmes or spend money on food at the ground.

I just want to pay for a season ticket once a year and go and watch football.

If someone told me I would have to pay monthly and give notice to stop, I would probably pack it in completely. For a business that makes millions and can easily replace a subscriber with a new show or product it makes sense. But for a football club making £6m a year, it is very easy to have a bad run of form and have a huge amount of subscribers jack it in. I also think you would have to launch a long term deal off the back of a good season. How many people would tie into a 2 year deal based on this year?

The sticky fans aren’t the problem, they will always buy season tickets, shirts etc regardless. The people the club need on board are the floating fans. Those that I know would probably not buy a subscription if it meant cancellations or work, as they are also supporting other clubs etc. They need it as easy as possible to come and go as they please without feeling they are stuck, which is what match day tickets are for.

At the back end of last year the club had many of those floating fans and I saw people at the County Ground I hadn’t seen for years, but the club did what it did in summer and lost them. Had they made more of an effort on them when season tickets went on sale and didn’t just use a silly trip to Oz competition, a model you are proposing could possibly have worked.

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1645837191564648448?t=WWRIoWhQHIXsWGXmMIjhxg&s=19

You can now purchase your season tickets using the V12 online financing option 👍🏼

#STFC 🔴⚪️

I can't seem to buy my own ST, a few people have mentioned it on twitter, so hopefully the club is working on it

yeah, now acknowledged and being  worked on

The club seem to be stubbing it's toe on every step of releasing the ST's this year - not a great look for your most lucrative excercise, especially after the season that everyone has witnessed with their ST's this year.

Can’t renew online, can’t use the now available finance option.

Every time they release anything, it doesn’t appear to work and then takes some time to sort it out.

Was able to renew online this morning, which wasn't an option yesterday.

Last year was seamless to renew, with finance, from the very beginning. No idea how they’ve got it so wrong this year.

Can't help but think the loss of Danny Lee is being felt here.  My dealings with him always suggested a person who was core to most of the good stuff happening off the field.

Another good person in the club who left...

To be fair, they got a promotion externally, which anyone would do.

I've heard the issue is on the Ticketmaster side, but the seeming lack of testing of the software before releasing to the general public appears to have not been done.

If you look at the who's who on the club website, they've added the assistant coach onto it but used a font about 10 times too big. Minor thing but just looks really amateurish.

I have no doubt it's an issue on the tickemaster side - who know fuck all about our preferences and set-up needs.  It's just another symptom of a lack of competency around the business (STFC).  Not knocking those trying to do a good job, but when you try and get infills, unpaid interns, volunteers, to do everything then you get what you pay for.

At least there is a finance option now I suppose.

I know it's a cumulative mess ups that get people's goat.

https://www.fulhamsupporterstrust.com/news/2023/04/season-ticket-prices/

Oof, Fulham's STs up by 18% minimum across the board, with junior prices up a minimum of 58% and a top tier ticket price of THREE THOUSAND FUCKING POUNDS.

Christ on a eBike.

Apparently finance option is working now

It is working for me but I'm not 100% sure what the terms & conditions are, anyone seen them?

Don’t know the full T&C’s, but there’s no fee for doing it & you can repay in either 3 or 9 monthly payments

3500 sold so far.

Can't see shifting many more. How much was it last season over 5k?

Product of getting it badly wrong. Get it right this year and people will come regardless.

That was the number announced in the Advisory Board last week wasn't it?

My account doesn’t show my son’s ticket, only mine. Sent a tweet, no response. Just called up. Shop shut. Ticket office shut. Reception couldn’t help. Neither is open until tomorrow…. during the season ticket push?! I was surprised.

I hope that is sarcasm!

In their defence they tweeted out this weeks opening times and also on facebook. This is also on the club website

Fair enough. It must simply be that daily (in person/phone) sales revenue wouldn’t outweigh a person’s wages.

Ah, brings back memories of half day closing on Wednesdays.

Open till 4 today i thought...

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1660586318907293696

Jesus, what is going on then.

They are all working on the pitch at the moment. #multitasking.

If they're serving someone in the shop the phone can ring and ring. Who said it was shut?


Groundsman by day....Ticket agent by night.

That is what happens when the CFO resigns taking the head of ticketing and retail with him, being that all three are the same person.

Would have made departmental performance reviews easier though.

"How are you doing Greg?"
"Doing great Greg!"
"Keep it up Greg!"

I had the same problem with my sons not showing. You need to email enquires at Swindon Town and they will add your sons to your account. After this let them know you have renewed because they need to split them again.

Can I just turn up at the shop and buy a couple of STs? The online option of V12 finance only is no use to me.

Yep.
Over the phone was surprisingly painless as well.

Sounds favourite. One thought, how do the club know your age if you buy an over 65 ST?

Funny you should ask.
Set an account up for a friend and bought an over 65 ST for them over the phone.
Paid by card, no questions ask re proof of age etc.

I think there is that trust element, sure there are not many if any abusing the over 65 route, think most people are honest

Bloody club shop shut today!

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Club shop have tweeted they are closed due to technical issues and hope to reopen as soon as possible.

In case anyone is popping out to get their STs.

Forgot to pay the electric bill?  :)

I think Finance Director/Head of Retail/Head of Ticketing and part time general dogsbody Greg Norman didn't turn up to his shift due to 'burnout'

Shop was shut Monday, too.

That’s the way to shift STs!

Last week the shop was only open on Tuesday and Wednesday 9-4. To be fair they were doing a stock take so perhaps that's kicked into this week maybe?

I think he has has left the business.

Handed his resignation in quite a while ago, and yep was doing 3 or so jobs on his own.
 

he's in charge of the golf merger thingy now.

In all seriousness, yeah I heard that he had left also. Given the amount of jobs he had according to the 'who's who' it appears the club have quite a bit of recruiting to do.

I assume he is very tied up with the PGA Tour, LIV Golf & DP World Tour merger after the news yesterday.  ;)

In the last advisory board it was stated 'We always aim to improve our back of staff operations and aim to run our business as efficiently as possible'. Perhaps Greg Norman doing the 3 roles he did was the most efficient way of running the business, and I'm well aware that during the close season we aren't making any income and so staff changes are perhaps penciled in for August, but on the face of it we really need to make some good recruitment behind the scenes.

I would imagine there would be a degree of internal review regarding what is actually needed, for instance do we need a DoF or just someone who knows how finance works (a financial controller or accountant), the retail is hardly something that needs a head (just basically a shop manager) and likewise with it mainly being automated and outsourced, ticketing.

I think the club has tied itself in knots with its internal structure which plus parts of the fan base jumping on literally anything and spinning in a bad light has become something of a potent blend of toxicity.

Completely agree with you. Much needed improvement RE recruitment needed behind the scenes. Bored of saying it but football people are needed. As you've mentioned AB answers, this answer I found a little odd as it didn't really answer the Q/answer with conviction -  We always aim to improve our back of staff operations and aim to run our business as efficiently as possible. (when asked if we have sufficient staff to run club professionally). This AB also mentions You will see announcements soon in relation to the vacant Football roles so hopefully we get that soon.

Head of ticketing, retail, finance and media are all currently vacant. Also, club secretary, player care manager and first team sports scientist are also all vacant. 4 vacancies in the academy also (3 positions advertised on club site)

Changeover in staff is pretty normal at swindon/lower league clubs but as mentioned above, people with a football background have to be priority. No head of ticketing, retail, finance and media is making it harder for people at the club, can cause unrest if it means poor coms etc  and obviously all 4 of those areas are crucial to a club like ours in pre season. Just my take on it.

It's sort of interesting that they don't seem to publicly advertise vacancies on the administrative side of the business. I assume one of our many partners must be a recruitment firm!

If we're addressing this and not offering peanuts for these roles, then it should do away with a lot of the worry and bad feeling that is starting to filter through to the fanbase. When Stevie Wonder can see things are falling through the cracks, it just breeds discontent.

I showed up on the 30th to get my ST and it was closed...bit miffed as i checked the opening times.

Have to suck up the extra cost now i suppose. My own fault for avoiding Online at all costs i suppose but i wanted to sort the correct seat out after switching stands.

I checked the comms last week and it was advertised as being open 30th and 31st from 9-4.

Don't really think it's your fault to be fair but fair play for you for not making a big deal out of it.

I'd imagine they will close out the DoF role, or just recruit a more football admin type role.

On the other side though, it does need someone in charge - even under Danny Lee the shop side was a mess (based on a personal visit) and he had the ticketing side much improved, plus matchday Hospitality etc.  Even with an outsourced ticketing operation, you need someone able to manage that vendor relationship, the matchday turnstile crew, determine pricing and packages, matchday hospitality operations, the Legends Lounge etc.  I think you can have less Senior Managers of each of those areas reporting to a Head, but that should be separate from Finance.

it's not too much to ask that they are open when they say they will be.

it's not too much to ask a club to reply to various queries

I don't blame the staff that are employed.

I don't blame the club for minimising costs, but it seems we are currently under critical mass.

I think that's fair - I hate to beat up on the club relentlessly but during Early Bird Season Ticket time surely you get the shop open as much as possible, those loyal fans that want their regular seat may even leave the club shop with some 'merch' bringing in additional revenue. Not having the place open when advertised during the Early Bird window isn't good at all.

I'm not one of the 'club don't deserve the fans' type people, but for us to amass the Season Ticket sales we have, the club really has to do better.

100%

I don't remember the club ever being this shambolic or seemingly run by a skeleton staff before. Even during Power's reign of terror (barring the denouement) it was functioning fairly normally, as it did under the Wills/Diamandis period. This has to be an active decision from Clem/Aberdeen. The ticketing side is unforgivably shambolic. I've never had less confidence in my purchase as a consumer than when buying tickets at STFC. I assume my season ticket has been successfully actioned but have no proof it has.

Absolutely. I think we've gone too shoe string.

Mooneyraker's post is one I've seen a fair bit recently - e.g. if you are paying for something via bank transfer then yes you should get a timely acknowledgement.

I get its down to one person doing them in batches, but is that good enough?

Getting hold of people seems to be a bit hit and miss too.

But I'm alright Jack, I live in Swindon, though I do live in Swindon so am I alright?

It's not really rose tinted spectacles to suggest that *Jed* ran a tighter and steadier ship and that is a really depressing thought.

Edit: Honourable exception for the commercial fella, who appears to be absolutely stellar at his job to the untrained eye.

Can't comment on the other bits, but will observe that people have been moaning that its difficult to get hold of anyone at the club for bloody years on here, way before the present regimes involvement.

As for the final bit, I found myself in Purton and going across north Swindon the other week from Highworth and the travel was bloody horrible, so no you are not alright, I couldn't be doing with that nonsense!

Maybe get the Sponsorship lad to take a wider remit?  that or he could get the hold queue music sponsored.  "Thank you for calling, all our staff are currently busy serving other customers, please hold while we wait to connect you, in the meantime, enjoy 30 seconds of Greensleeves brought to you by Wyevale Garden Centre, currently offering buy one get one free on Chrysanthemum's".

"Official Chrysanthemum partner of Swindon Town FC"

I can onyl really comment about the change I have seen from 2016, when I moved away.  Even back to the 90's the shop always felt a bit ramshackle and the ticketing chaps reeked of coming from a shift at a local Post Office.  However, my return trip at the end of 2021 was very odd - the place was completely dysfunctional.  It's like they tried to upgrade with technology but kept the same sort of staff around - well meaning but ultimately utterly lost.  It took 20 mins to run up the price of one item because nobody knew how to work the system properly.

The stories on here suggest similar with ticketing in more recent times, an area I thought Danny Lee had improved for a while.  He certainly turned the Commercial/Hospitality side around.  I think the more recent grumbles likely translate to his loss.  He was replaced by the chap now focusing purely on Commercial, and seemingly doing a stellar job as it happens.  But they shifted ticketing and retail under the Finance chap.

No one can explain to me a business that is investing in a pitch in the way that we clearly are, yet is leaving its two main sources of revenue (ticketing and retail) completely rudderless.

I went back to Twitter to see if the issues had been resolved, but the tweet from earlier has been deleted. I guess if it was resolved quickly then no harm was done. My only (albeit minor) gripe from the actual tweet which I forgot to mention earlier was that it didn't actually end with 'we apologise for any inconvenience caused and are working hard to rectify the issue' or something along those lines.

Anyway - it seems to not be a problem so get shopping people!

Maybe I only really took notice recently. I had replies when I had queries/issues in the past but to be fair that was Danny Lee.

Rob - 2021 was pretty early into the Clem era, so I can sort of see why that may have been a factory.
Less so this years season ticket launch, maybe GN's departure blindsided them.

Maybe it's a simple case that because of the pitch maintenance and other behind the scenes bills that need to be paid (and will be expensive) we're having to make sacrifices?

I know a few people who were caught out on the last day of the early bird period due to the website only accepting renewals on a finance basis and not an upfront payment - perils of leaving things last minute I guess!

The social media bloke was serving on the tills in the shop when I went in recently, they do love a bit of multi tasking..

In a small business you need to be able to multitask and where several different 'hats' sometimes but usually in the key positions there is a main person, at the moment we don't seem to have that, hopefully things will get rectified.

Be nice to see an org chart once they fill relevant positions

Not sure with our turnover we fall under any definition of a “small business”.

Turning over £6m is small fry in business terms, for comparison the government defines an SME as having a turnover of <£50m

My point is we shouldn't be rolling the club into the same category as your local tea room.

People seem desperate to give them a free pass on being relentlessly chaotic, understaffed and half arsed.

Indeed and I'd class STFC as a medium sized biz. As MooneyRaker states, it's no Daisy's Tea Room but nor is it AWS.

I know you're not giving them a free pass as such but there are many that seem to throw that kind of charitable/community card around when it comes to inefficiencies at the Club. Quite clearly for a ''larger'' small or ''smaller'' medium sized business for these things they can and should be doing things a bit better and more professionally.

Mind you, there are larger businesses that still operate completely via paper and when several football clubs still use a fax {I really want to hope the ''fax'' is just satire at transfer deadlines but I've a nagging hunch that they very much are still in operation as a primary comms feature - as if they've never realised that things like AdobeSign and DocuSign aexist} then should antiquated/minimal operations at STFC really be as shocking? Maybe not, but I think many are basing it on how it seems to have declined/minimised under the current ownership.

School Report: Can and should do better with good recruitment in the right places.

I don't think the club deserve any sort of free pass, just it seems that for ever fan giving them an apparent free pass there is an equal and opposite number desperate to jump on just about anything for a bloody good moan. Ultimately there is only a finite amount of money there and I suspect the club work on the basis that anything they can get for free leaves cash for investment elsewhere.

I haven't worked a proper legal case for a year or more, but even then faxes were used a lot as they meant that legal documents couldn't be altered, its also why often when you see judgement documents in PDF form they have obviously been printed in hard copy and then scanned rather than converted into a PDF electronically! 

Well, got 2 STs today - £710.

Ffs, we better not be shit again.

I saw an ad saying that fans only have until x date to change their ST seats otherwise there is a cost of £15 - I always thought they did this type of thing for free as long as where people wanted to move to was available.

Which stand you in? A lot of us are moving from the TE into the Arkells, near the away end  :)

D6 in the DRS

Ha, I was in D6 for about 5 years.

Better not be any stains on me seat!

Back row, last 2 seats towards TE

Anyone know how many ST we have sold to date?

I know of 3.

I know of 2 more

Oh...know all.

Be running the Foxer next!

this year's comp:

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1689347059584012288?t=rqS3lQHpYOk4uiJfAGIJXQ&s=19

could it be our projected revenue is stopping us doing more business as a consequence of the % turnover rule?

seems an odd tone for a final push. but that it makes any odds to me

Judging by that we must be nudging 5,000 which is astonishing after last year.

Be handy to know how many more need to be sold to get to the first cut off point - surely it can be a marketing ploy by the club - only xxx need to reach 5000 for e.g. lets do this town fans etc etc

Just got our peasants match day tickets and just thought that you may be interested in the fact I have gotten a £5 discount on the normal match day price if £27 for him being a Uni Student. They did ask for some verification so I pointed out his expired season ticket to justify his age and said he’d bring his student union card tomorrow if challenged. Which highlights a point if I wanted to buy tickets for him in advance and they insist on validation of his student stays and he’s still at Uni the it will cause an issue. Not today thankfully but I might not get an understanding club shop assistant next time.

I’m 99% certain you could buy a kids ticket and still get in

I might be wrong but if you purchase them online, it would ask for your SU number {or other relevant learning ID} but see the practical issue in person at la boutique du club

That’s what the boy said. I’m an honest Tory cunt don’t you know.

Aberdeen said a while back that the average 'through the gates' ticket price was well below £20 for presumably this exact reason.

The season before last the average match day price was something like £12 for that reason alone. They are really clamping down on it

Same as people at Nationwide sorting their mates out TBH. Can't complain that we have no money to sign players if you are chipping away at the club's revenue.

It didn't when I was at uni in 2019, nor did they check when I collected or when I entered the stadium.

 :girlgiggle:

That’s an interesting comment and has some merit. However, when we have a stadium of let’s say 14,500 (I’m sure it’s not that but give or take a few seats close enough) which we average I dunno, say for arguments 10,000 on league home games. Having a sponsor who contribute £xxxx, which they don’t have to do but also give their employees match day tickets for £10, it makes perfect sense. Under the current sponsorship deal with Nationwide we get a capital income and bums on seats admittedly for less than the average punter but there is also merchandise and concession spending along with capturing future supporters. Balance that against not having Nationwide as a sponsor would we be better off in terms of full paying Nationwide employees coming to make up that ‘loss’?

A full stadium every home game with a waiting list for season tickets and limited walk up ticket availability it wouldn’t. But we’re not in that position.

The way I would do it is keep the prices for the side stands but charge a max of £18/£20 for the Town End. Get that stand full every game and get some proper atmosphere back on matchday. Nothing better than a sold out town end in full voice.

No issue with actual Nationwide employees taking part in this scheme. It’s them sorting their mates out that is wrong. You should have to show a staff ID in the same way as you should have to show a student ID on entry etc.

It isn’t an employee only deal - pretty sure they can get up to two tickets per category for the benefit of friends and family etc

The thing is do they really need to do it? Let's looka t say a 10k attendance today for example, theres not actually that many more seats you can sell in the home ends

Yeah I take your point, just generally the Town End is the last stand to fill up these days and tends to lack in atmosphere on normal league games. Think i'm just nostalgic for how it used to be in there haha.

Sippo has already said he's not going at full price, and we aren't going to sell out so it's either £0 or £17 in the coffers.

Also I'm not going, I'm watching at home on iFollow... I don't have a dodgy firestick, I have a genuine iFollow season ticket which cost me £145. Guessing some of that went to the club.

Also, I was a season ticket holder for 15 consecutive years so FUCK OFF CUNT

Morning John :D

loyalty points say no

😁😁😁😁

Sorry for upsetting you. This was just in relation to the discussion about why we are only averaging £12 per ticket. Enjoy the game.