Tickets and Inflation

[wendyredredrobin]

In 1968 when I started watching City, an adult admission was 25p.  I've just punched that into an inflation calculator which says that it should now cost £4.18.  Has the cost of football really gone that mad.  We moaned when it went up to 30p.

As an aside, does anyone know when the reserved season cards go on general sale as i couldnt find a pair of decent seats when i looked recently?

[Buckeyed]

If you put the average player salary or average transfer fee in the same calculator you will see the issue.

[Monkeh]

40 minutes ago, Buckeyed said:

If you put the average player salary or average transfer fee in the same calculator you will see the issue.

this,

If clubs didn't pay players like Downing 50k a week then ticket prices would cost as much as they do now,

Try running the cost of a car, house through the same calculator I'd be interested to see what that comes out as,

[Nongazeuse]

1 hour ago, wendyredredrobin said:

In 1968 when I started watching City, an adult admission was 25p.  I've just punched that into an inflation calculator which says that it should now cost £4.18.  Has the cost of football really gone that mad.  We moaned when it went up to 30p.

As an aside, does anyone know when the reserved season cards go on general sale as i couldnt find a pair of decent seats when i looked recently?

But then my parents' house was worth about £5,000 then and it's now worth £500,000.  So  the equivalent now of £25 is about right (and I bet the 25p was for a terrace and not a seat).

[forbespm]

Football changed with the Taylor report and more so sky sports and the premiership.today we are consumers rather than supporters

Compare ticket prices with Germany.the cost of a standing ticket for Bayern Munich is £12 for an adult!

Although there was a lot wrong with football in the 80,s there was an atmosphere and comradeship which has been lost. It's a middle class game nowadays,one day it will bust!

[Bar BS3]

When I started going to football in 1989/90 I'm sure I used to pay about £3 for a juvenile ticket. 

I now pay £50 for my son's season ticket. (Less than £2 a game INCLUDING a free shirt) 

Can you tell me how your inflation calculator interprets that for value..? 

[One Team In Keynsham]

Cheapest I can recall paying (me actually paying, not my dad etc) was 50p into the schoolboys' enclosure in the early 1980s. For the same area, albeit now a seat, I get hit with however many hundreds it is for a season ticket.

[One Team In Keynsham]

2 hours ago, Monkeh said:

this,

If clubs didn't pay players like Downing 50k a week then ticket prices would cost as much as they do now,

Try running the cost of a car, house through the same calculator I'd be interested to see what that comes out as,

If the general public refused to pay for match tickets, Sky and BT subscriptions, replica shirts etc then clubs would not have the cash, or arguably even the incentive, to pay players like Downing 50k a week.

[Meh]

I don't mind the price - I think it is fairly reasonable really - S/T route at least - not so much day prices.

Better value than things like the zoo or the theatre - I have not been to either in ages and at the prices they charge won't be anytime soon !

[Bar BS3]

59 minutes ago, One Team In Keynsham said:

If the general public refused to pay for match tickets, Sky and BT subscriptions, replica shirts etc then clubs would not have the cash, or arguably even the incentive, to pay players like Downing 50k a week.

No, they'd need to charge more for match tickets! 

[...]

5 hours ago, wendyredredrobin said:

In 1968 when I started watching City, an adult admission was 25p.  I've just punched that into an inflation calculator which says that it should now cost £4.18.  Has the cost of football really gone that mad.  We moaned when it went up to 30p.

As an aside, does anyone know when the reserved season cards go on general sale as i couldnt find a pair of decent seats when i looked recently?

Has Aizoon changed his forum name??

 

tfj

[East End Old Boy]

7 hours ago, wendyredredrobin said:

In 1968 when I started watching City, an adult admission was 25p.  I've just punched that into an inflation calculator which says that it should now cost £4.18.  Has the cost of football really gone that mad.  We moaned when it went up to 30p.

As an aside, does anyone know when the reserved season cards go on general sale as i couldnt find a pair of decent seats when i looked recently?

I'm sure I paid 7/6 for a ringside seat around that time. Hands up if you know what 7/6 was? 

[Lanterne Rouge]

I think I paid 30p in the EE in the mid seventies.

[The Fat Controller]

12 minutes ago, oldrosie said:

"Better value than things like the zoo or the theatre - I have not been to either in ages and at the prices they charge won't be anytime soon !"

Admission to the zoo pay on the day is £17.

Colston Hall classical music nights do secret seats for £10.

Theatre can offer decent seats for £20.

Crass, uninformed comment ... 

 

Hardly crass or uniformed. I think "value" in this instance is entirely subjective. Really depends how entertained you are by each event. 

[Mad Cyril]

At the risk of misquoting the legend that is @Bristol Rob....

Them were the days.....if you overlook ricketts, class war, asbestos, fiddling radio 1 DJs and Rovers within one league of us.

Anyone else with me and happy to pass, stick with what we have?

[reddoh]

19 minutes ago, Mad Cyril said:

At the risk of misquoting the legend that is @Bristol Rob....

Them were the days.....if you overlook ricketts, class war, asbestos, fiddling radio 1 DJs and Rovers within one league of us.

Anyone else with me and happy to pass, stick with what we have?

what was wrong with radio Luxembourg?

[cidered abroad]

1950, Juvenile pay at the turnstile cost 6d (old pennies = 2.5p now) and a programme 2d. Adult rate 1/- (5 pence now)

[Bristol Rob]

1 hour ago, Mad Cyril said:

At the risk of misquoting the legend that is @Bristol Rob....

Them were the days.....if you overlook ricketts, class war, asbestos, fiddling radio 1 DJs and Rovers within one league of us.

Anyone else with me and happy to pass, stick with what we have?

Don't recall saying any of that!

And as for ledge status... Embarrassed, not worthy in your company.

[...]

1968, eh?

1) How much was a pint of Courage Best?

2) How much was a GALLON (not an ****ing litre) of petrol?

3) How old was Andrea Leadsom? 

 

tfj

[pillred]

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 14:49, Nongazeuse said:

But then my parents' house was worth about £5,000 then and it's now worth £500,000.  So  the equivalent now of £25 is about right (and I bet the 25p was for a terrace and not a seat).

when I first had to pay adult prices at 16 in 1972 it was only 15 pence to stand in the open, now atyeo end, so I can only assume for 25 pence in 1968 you would have been sat in the royal box!

[pillred]

21 hours ago, Chris_Brown said:

Hardly crass or uniformed. I think "value" in this instance is entirely subjective. Really depends how entertained you are by each event. 

then certain city games last season felt like an astronomical price!!

[Bar BS3]

On 24/06/2017 at 00:01, oldrosie said:

"Hardly crass or uniformed. I think "value" in this instance is entirely subjective. Really depends how entertained you are by each event. "

Obviously theatre and zoo delivers everytime .... football? Sometimes .... many times ... it is dire ... and then there is car parking and food etc - revenue drilling it is called ... screwing punters :laugh:.  

 

 

I didn't realise that the theatre provided free parking and refreshments, or the zoo gave out free hot meals to punters!

Delivering every time..?! I can only assume you've never paid £40/50 for a ticket to watch the camp abomination that is the god awful CATS production..?!

And are you really telling me that Bristol Zoo houses a satisfactory array of animals, compared to many other zoological establishments..?

I believe that there is a description relating to arse and talking from said orafice, which relates very aptly to your comments, as usual. 

[Welcome To The Jungle]

When you consider you can get a Season Ticket cheaper at almost all Budesliga, La Liga and Serie A clubs than at Ashton Gate there is no doubt that our prices are way too high. Huddersfield prove that you can have great success with lower prices, to the point some Huddersfield fans will be paying £100 for their Season Tickets next season. 

The people running our club genuinely believe that we should pay more for watching second division football in England than the people of Madrid who get to watch Ronaldo, Bale and Isco every week. 

[Bar BS3]

12 minutes ago, Welcome To The Jungle said:

When you consider you can get a Season Ticket cheaper at almost all Budesliga, La Liga and Serie A clubs than at Ashton Gate there is no doubt that our prices are way too high. Huddersfield prove that you can have great success with lower prices, to the point some Huddersfield fans will be paying £100 for their Season Tickets next season. 

The people running our club genuinely believe that we should pay more for watching second division football in England than the people of Madrid who get to watch Ronaldo, Bale and Isco every week. 

If we got 60-80k supporters turning up to every game, then we could afford to make tickets cheaper. I know that's a bit chicken & egg. 

Huddersfield are the exception, rather than the rule. Our season tickets are competitive compared to other clubs at our level and attendances are at a 40 year high, so they aren't over priced. 

It would be great if England followed prices of some teams/leagues in Europe, but hey ho, that's been the case for many tears now. 

When we had terraces & cheap tickets, in the 90's, we were getting games of 8k regularly, in the second tier. So I think you'd be hard pressed to win an argument with the decision makers, that our pricing is currently way out of line. 

For the record, I'm perfectly happy with the price of my Dolman seat at £17 a game. 

[Welcome To The Jungle]

11 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

If we got 60-80k supporters turning up to every game, then we could afford to make tickets cheaper. I know that's a bit chicken & egg. 

Huddersfield are the exception, rather than the rule. Our season tickets are competitive compared to other clubs at our level and attendances are at a 40 year high, so they aren't over priced. 

It would be great if England followed prices of some teams/leagues in Europe, but hey ho, that's been the case for many tears now. 

When we had terraces & cheap tickets, in the 90's, we were getting games of 8k regularly, in the second tier. So I think you'd be hard pressed to win an argument with the decision makers, that our pricing is currently way out of line. 

For the record, I'm perfectly happy with the price of my Dolman seat at £17 a game. 

My point is though, why can we not be the exception too. Although are they the exception? The other notoriously low Season Ticket prices are at Bradford (£149 this season). Both they and Huddersfield were play off finalists this season. 

And you may be happy, I was very happy. But what about the many people who cannot afford to watch City any more, or are restricted to one or two games a year instead of being able to come more often or commit to a Season Ticket. I'm very happy to see gates go up, but I bet the newer fans are not mostly from Knowle, Hartcliffe or Hengrove. The club has targeted the middle classes with excellent facilities, family offers and by making a trip to the football a 'day out' with the fan park etc. For the club to further increase its support, it must re-engage the poorer areas of South Bristol.

The first step in re-engaging is to make at least some tickets cheaper to allow for greater inclusiveness. If step two was a matchday bus service that ran from these areas to and from AG each game as parking is terrible and First Bus requires changes or a hefty walk then we could see AG full(er) every week.    

[Bar BS3]

8 minutes ago, Welcome To The Jungle said:

My point is though, why can we not be the exception too. Although are they the exception? The other notoriously low Season Ticket prices are at Bradford (£149 this season). Both they and Huddersfield were play off finalists this season. 

And you may be happy, I was very happy. But what about the many people who cannot afford to watch City any more, or are restricted to one or two games a year instead of being able to come more often or commit to a Season Ticket. I'm very happy to see gates go up, but I bet the newer fans are not mostly from Knowle, Hartcliffe or Hengrove. The club has targeted the middle classes with excellent facilities, family offers and by making a trip to the football a 'day out' with the fan park etc. For the club to further increase its support, it must re-engage the poorer areas of South Bristol.

The first step in re-engaging is to make at least some tickets cheaper to allow for greater inclusiveness. If step two was a matchday bus service that ran from these areas to and from AG each game as parking is terrible and First Bus requires changes or a hefty walk then we could see AG full(er) every week.    

Fair and interesting points, however the club would simply point at the highest attendances in 40 years and say that there is no need for radical alterations. 

There is a match day bus service from Whitchurch, I'm not sure how well used it is. 

I'm not sure that traditional heartlands of support are as clear cut as they used to be. I'm not sure quite how it's possible to offer a cheaper section of tickets to certain sections of society. It's a different world nowadays. Arguably those living in fixed rent council accommodation in Hartcliffe have more expendable cash than some who are mortgaged to the hilt in Henleaze. 

If there was an obvious answer then it would be interesting to hear it, but I've always been very sceptical of whether drastically reduced season tickets would really be of benefit, either in terms of numbers sold, or overall revenue able to be made throughout the season. 

If people can't make every other week, then they can't make it. 

If they can only afford a couple of games a season, then that still won't stretch to a season ticket and associated matchday costs. 

Record numbers are taking up what's on offer. We can't be complacent and settle for that but I think the overriding factor on pushing average attendances into the mid 20k's will be success on the pitch. 

Once any company devalues their own product through price cutting, there is no going back, if it doesn't work. It's a huge gamble, especially for a club that are sitting in a pretty healthy position off the pitch at the moment, with more fans & turnover than in most supporters living memory. 

 

[Nongazeuse]

On ‎24‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 18:32, pillred said:

when I first had to pay adult prices at 16 in 1972 it was only 15 pence to stand in the open, now atyeo end, so I can only assume for 25 pence in 1968 you would have been sat in the royal box!

Not sure about that,  I seem to remember that it was 45p to stand in the Open End in 1973 as it was about half my pocket money of £1.  Mind you beer was only about 20p a pint and cider even cheaper.  However my memory may not be that good as I have consumed quite a lot of each over the last 44 years.

[Welcome To The Jungle]

5 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

Fair and interesting points, however the club would simply point at the highest attendances in 40 years and say that there is no need for radical alterations. 

There is a match day bus service from Whitchurch, I'm not sure how well used it is. 

I'm not sure that traditional heartlands of support are as clear cut as they used to be. I'm not sure quite how it's possible to offer a cheaper section of tickets to certain sections of society. It's a different world nowadays. Arguably those living in fixed rent council accommodation in Hartcliffe have more expendable cash than some who are mortgaged to the hilt in Henleaze. 

If there was an obvious answer then it would be interesting to hear it, but I've always been very sceptical of whether drastically reduced season tickets would really be of benefit, either in terms of numbers sold, or overall revenue able to be made throughout the season. 

If people can't make every other week, then they can't make it. 

If they can only afford a couple of games a season, then that still won't stretch to a season ticket and associated matchday costs. 

Record numbers are taking up what's on offer. We can't be complacent and settle for that but I think the overriding factor on pushing average attendances into the mid 20k's will be success on the pitch. 

Once any company devalues their own product through price cutting, there is no going back, if it doesn't work. It's a huge gamble, especially for a club that are sitting in a pretty healthy position off the pitch at the moment, with more fans & turnover than in most supporters living memory. 

 

I agree with your last point that if you reduce the price and it does not have the desired effect then you cannot simply put them back up. However if you look at the case studies like Bradford, like Huddersfield then gates have gone up and the clubs are really pushing for full gates each week. A full ground really adds to the football experience too.

The other case study I'd like to examine is that of Cardiff City. Their last season at Ninian they averaged just over 18k at home. The following season saw their gates increase at the new ground. However upon their relegation back to the Championship, their gates have slumped back to averaging around 16k. If you allow for the bigger away end due to the further expansion of their stadium, then the home gates have fallen by about 2.5k since their last season at Ninian despite being in the same division. 

You could argue that the Vincent Tan red kit fiasco contributed towards this but those two season were huge gates. What happens when you rely on nice facilities and the on the pitch performance, you may see gains, but any kind of slump can leave you with a half full ground. AG needs to be somewhere special to bring people to the ground, even if we're not doing so well. Part of that is creating a real sense of community and family, rather than that of customer and supplier. A big part of that is showing all supporters that their support is valued more than their cash. And if that means we have to be a bit more careful with our money and can't buy 5.3 million strikers as rumoured then I'd say that is nothing but a good thing.  

[Bristol Rob]

43 minutes ago, Welcome To The Jungle said:

My point is though, why can we not be the exception too. Although are they the exception? The other notoriously low Season Ticket prices are at Bradford (£149 this season). Both they and Huddersfield were play off finalists this season. 

And you may be happy, I was very happy. But what about the many people who cannot afford to watch City any more, or are restricted to one or two games a year instead of being able to come more often or commit to a Season Ticket. I'm very happy to see gates go up, but I bet the newer fans are not mostly from Knowle, Hartcliffe or Hengrove. The club has targeted the middle classes with excellent facilities, family offers and by making a trip to the football a 'day out' with the fan park etc. For the club to further increase its support, it must re-engage the poorer areas of South Bristol.

The first step in re-engaging is to make at least some tickets cheaper to allow for greater inclusiveness. If step two was a matchday bus service that ran from these areas to and from AG each game as parking is terrible and First Bus requires changes or a hefty walk then we could see AG full(er) every week.    

It's an interesting one, people who have been priced out of going. I wonder if there is any data on fans lost for financial reasons.

Reality is though, football - like loads of other social activities - aren't a necessity, they are a form of entertainment. 

Some people spend their cash of Sky subscriptions and get their football that way.

[pillred]

16 minutes ago, Nongazeuse said:

Not sure about that,  I seem to remember that it was 45p to stand in the Open End in 1973 as it was about half my pocket money of £1.  Mind you beer was only about 20p a pint and cider even cheaper.  However my memory may not be that good as I have consumed quite a lot of each over the last 44 years.

I particularly remember because before decimal currency it was half a crown to stand in the open end as an adult, and one shilling and sixpence for a juvenile, and as soon as it changed to decimal in February 1971 along with everyone else used it to increase prices. it should have became seven and a half pence juvenile twelve and a half pence adults but they craftily put it up to 10 pence and fifteen pence, every body moaned they said it was to speed up the turnstiles yeah right!!