I know this topic is rambling on a bit, but this only goes to show the depth of feeling I know a secratary at the club and she has confirmed that the club has recieved masses of letters complaing about pricing. I accept that the tickets were going to go up, and to be fair they havent gone up much in the last few seasons so this could be 2 - 3 years rises at once. The problem as i see it is simple. Hitting fans this sharply, this quickly is bound to hurt peoples pockets. A 30% rise on any annual product is simply bad PR / business. Yes the club needs to increase revenue, and yes its going to come from the fans (or as CS prefers to think of them ... customers) The point is, piss too many fans off and your product becomes less attractive City will get loyal ST holders again as we always do, but the "floating" fans will be put off by high prices. The EP reported this week that 11 clubs in the CCC (including 2 relegated from the prem), and 5 clubs in the prem will be chaeper than city for ST`s. Again arguments about ground size / TV money are all valid, but it still wont make it any easier for fans to buy tickets. Peoples wages havent gone up because City have Whilst "fans" like CS may be raking in large salaries most of you average city fans are not. My main gripe is not so much the price increase (unfortunatly i guessed about right) but about the lack of any early bird / loyalty bonuses for exsisting ST holders. The same fans who have been buying ST`s for donkeys years and supporting the club whilst in the drabness of the lower divisions. I feel this is the biggest PR disaster for a long time at the gate. These are the fans who sat through early round JPT games etc where the corporate spongers and "glory boys" were noticable by thier absence. My final point is that i can also see a situation where ST holders are paying more for their tickets than POTD punters. If the worst happens and city are struggling next season, or get off to a ropey start , the high prices will put people off. The club would then reduce prices in an effort to get them back. The ST holders wouldnt get any kind of refund if this happened and they are the ones who have paid up front and pledged support in advance for the season. I hope all this is just ranting and we all get proved wrong, City have a blinder of a season, and we get ourselves established in what is undeniably a very good league. Only time will tell i guess.
