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Post by Coll40 on Feb 6, 2004 14:23:07 GMT
I went to work last night, very happy with the offer being made, looking forward to next season.
My mate at work immediately put the mockers on it.
His argument went something like this.
Stoke's major source of income is from ticket sales. We have almost 6500 season ticket holders, the vast majority of which, would buy season tickets for next year, whatever the price. So straight away, there is a big drop in income.
I don't know how many are adults, but if it's around 5000, then 5000 x £70 reduction = £350,000.
Enough to sign a decent player these days.
He went on to say that this board are trying a quick fix, to get money in as early as possible, with no thought to the long term. We will still be supporting Stoke when this board are long gone.
He talked about West Brom.
They built a successful team, got into the Prem, didn't splash the cash to try to stay there, got relegated, but now have around 20000 season ticket holders.
Historically, they are about the same size as us.
Then what happens if we keep going as we are, and scrape into the Premier league. They could put the prices UP from last season, by 10, 20, even 30 %, and they would still have 20000 crowds. By selling tickets at these prices, they could be selling off their main asset too cheaply.
I had to agree, that I would have had season tickets for me and my 2 kids, as long as they didn't go up in price.
I also said that if they can get the crowds in at this stage, they can put prices up in the future, hoping that people stay in the habit of watching Stoke, which would help us in the long term.
But there is now no doubt in my mind, that the best way to get fans coming back, is to drop cheapest match day prices to around £15 and to sell season tickets based on those prices. If they sell them with 7 free games, the season ticket price would be £240, which would be a saving of £29 on last year. If they put the deadline back to the end of June, i'm sure they would get close to 8500 season tickets.
Also, the fans who can't afford season tickets, or those who can't attend all games, due to work, or those who decide to go on the day, depending on the weather, would be saving money as well.
We had close to 40,000 at Wembley and Cardiff, so we know the interest is there. The only way to get those fans back is to drop match day prices.
Got to admit - I ended my night shift thinking along the same lines as my mate.
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Post by lurcherthelurker on Feb 6, 2004 14:25:57 GMT
Coll, you worry too much. lets just get this pledge over with first, I'm sure the club have thought of the other prices well in advance  |
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Post by steelcitystokie on Feb 6, 2004 14:29:01 GMT
If the club hit their target of 10,000 season ticket holders then they will still make more money than they would have done selling 6500 at this year's price.
That is why the club want us to sign the pledge - so they can make sure it is financially viable. You can be sure Stoke will have looked at all the figures and really done their homework on this.
Plus all their research shows that a higher number of season ticket holders actually encourages more fans to come along on a match day. Also, more season ticket holders will increase expenditure on catering, items from the club shop etc.
I think the club know what they are doing here.
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Post by Coll40 on Feb 6, 2004 14:39:48 GMT
SCS - Hope you're right.
But don't you think that those 10000 would be the ones that go anyway?
As for that about high season tickets encouraging others to go, we only get high season ticket sales when the team are doing well. Then, because they are doing well, the amount of non season ticket holders goes up too. The ONLY factor is performances on the pitch.
I would imagine that the amount of season ticket holders would be around 50 % of the average attendance - unless we have a great season, which would draw more non STH's in.
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Post by tel2u on Feb 6, 2004 14:43:35 GMT
Coll At the moment there are only just over 4,000 adult season tickets in that figure of 6,500. Only 2,800 S/T holders are in the Boothen End, so the emphasis for the Pledge is to increase the number of adult ticket sales overall, but particularly in the Boothen End. Personally I think we would have sold more season tickets anyway for next season, even if prices were just frozen, but the Club has launched this initiative in an attempt to make supporting Stoke as affordable as possible, something they've been regularly criticised for NOT doing in the past. To borrow a catch phrase from the Norwich Union......... STOKE ARE NOW TRYING TO................ 'QUOTE EVERYONE HAPPY'  |
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Post by Coll40 on Feb 6, 2004 14:57:46 GMT
Tel - They quoted me happy, and I'm sending in 3 pledges to prove it  I know it's been mentioned a lot in the main thread, but the match day prices have GOT to come down by as much as they can afford, to allow those who can't have a season ticket to save money as well. I really think that match day prices are much more important than season ticket prices. |
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Post by alio2000 on Feb 6, 2004 15:55:16 GMT
coll, lets put it this way...
jus under 1/2 STs are for boothen end with approx. 2/3 of all tickets being adults,
so thats 3,,000 adult tickets for boothen at £199
which equates to £597,000
plus roughly 750 u17/cs and 250 u11
will make £111,750 and £24,750 respectively.
so for boothen alone we have approx £733,00 for 4,000 STs which is up on last years total of 2,800 at adult prices of £249? (i think) which equals £697,200
obvo=iously these are estimates and the figures maybe differernt, but if im anywhere near the mark, then it is good for the club as we have more fans with same amount of revenue, maybe even more...
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Post by thorneinyourside on Feb 6, 2004 16:43:55 GMT
They're ripping you off surely they'll have to drop the prices for Div 2 games 8,500 Season Tickets - and there's me thinking you were a big club. ;D |
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Post by Pricey on Feb 6, 2004 17:42:49 GMT
Nice! ;D
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Post by GoBoks on Feb 6, 2004 17:59:39 GMT
By the way TIYS, how much are BlueTurd season Tickets for next year? (Also, does that include the cost of the hard hats you have to wear in case of falling debris from the alleged stand?)
Wonder how long Mad Sam is going to put up with your bunch of non-achieving Stoke rejects?
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Post by thorneinyourside on Feb 6, 2004 18:31:02 GMT
Be about £350 cheap when you compare it to the other Premiership teams |
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Post by GoBoks on Feb 6, 2004 18:37:37 GMT
Dream on Turdman!
350 Pounds to watch your bunch of hopeless cases???? And we were thinking our situation was bad.
Mind you, I guess your tickets also pay for the comedians you employ to keep you entertained "Keep off the pitch so Sam and the boys can do a lap of honour"
ROFL Comic Genius. What are you cooking up for this year? How about buying Chris Greenacre off us for half a million?
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Post by thorneinyourside on Feb 6, 2004 18:43:06 GMT
Hey Reboks
bet it's not half as much as they pay in the comedians who play for you every week
By the way did u enjoy Thorney's hat-trick?
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Post by GoBoks on Feb 6, 2004 19:08:14 GMT
TITS errrrr ... I mean TIYS, Thorney sure did blot his copy book on that one!!  I have one question for you ...... As a Stoke fan I come on here to catch up on latest news/rumours/etc. Sometimes I might look at the board of whoever we're about to play to see what they're thinking about the upcoming game. What reason do you have for being on a STOKE CITY board? It's obviously Red & White .... no hint of blue. It doesn't have "Turds" written all over it. And no one on here apart from you is really interested in Thorne's performances anymore. Could it be that you're actually a closet Stokie?? Envious of our success you lurk on the fringes until one day you gather up the courage to officially convert. And what does that make you my Chameleon like friend?? Is that how you got to supporting Cardiff after years of obscurity at Swansea?? |
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Griff
Spectator
I haven't slept in 24 hours, I've killed 2 people since midnight, so maybe you should be more afraid
Posts: 36
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Post by Griff on Feb 6, 2004 22:25:01 GMT
I'm sure that the board have done their maths and the 8,500 target that they have set is not one pulled out of a hat.
They have probably sat down, worked out how much revenue they need to keep solvency, come up with a price structure, and then worked out how many tickets they require to sell to hit this figure.
Probably the same as in previous seasons when they have worked out how many tickets they are likely to sell, and then calculated how much the ticket price needs to be to hit their financial target.
The difference this time is that they are trying to pass the cost benefit back to the fans, with the confidence of knowing they can abandon this pricing structure if not enough people take up on this offer.
If this happens, the club have the ability to turn around and say it's not their fault.
Time will tell.
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Post by AlliG on Feb 7, 2004 13:10:56 GMT
The club will also have taken into account that there will be a number of people who will take the opportunity to "upgrade" to another area of the ground. Over the last couple of years there seems to have been a move of Season Ticket holders from the Sentinel Stand to the Boothen, probably because of the cost. They may take the opportunity to return. I know my parents moved to the Boothen because of the cost and they may move back. They certainly complain enough, especially about the "Young Man" from Dresden with a penchant for marmalade sandwiches! ;D I am sure they also hope to see some people decide to pay what is now only a small increase to join the prawn sandwich brigade In those cases the club would see an increase in revenue. |
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