Tickets For Saturday

[Bristol Boy]

Sexstone went ahead with this ridiculous pricing scheme against the wishes of his fellow board members.

We COULD'VE sold over 10,000 season tickets as well Colin!

Muppet

I'm no fan of CS, as you may have gathered, however nothing, and I mean nothing, of this magnitude gets decided without SL having his say.He is the decision maker and said as much on World.

If SL said No, then it wouldn't have happened.

That's not to say he wasn't poorly advised, mind you!

[Bristol Boy]

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I don't doubt for a minute the SC did their upmost to vent an opinion on this and you're most probably right in them being told where to go.

I just think it's disgraceful if that is the case, as I thought they were meant to have an opinion on the board? I know a lot of people who want to go down but simply won't unless they can get cheaper tickets.

We'll see either of two things on Saturday regarding this. 1) An inflated attendance figure when the open spaces are there for all to see or 2) Panic stations will be deployed when the attendance is less than anticipated and schemes like 'quid-a-kid' will be brought in sooner rather than later further pissing off certain elements of the fanbase.

I'd have thought the board would've learnt from clubs of similar size in the Premiership that overpricing was the wrong option for the club, but obviously not!

Of course Act Three of this insanity is yet to be played!

And that is when the club realises that somethings amiss and reduces POD-THEN, the ST Holders will ask for an equivalent reduction-Fairs, Fair after all and why shouldn't they?

[tin]

I'm no fan of CS, as you may have gathered, however nothing, and I mean nothing, of this magnitude gets decided without SL having his say.He is the decision maker and said as much on World.

If SL said No, then it wouldn't have happened.

That's not to say he wasn't poorly advised, mind you!

Whilst that's undoubtedly true, I firmly believe SL has taken his eye off the ball when it comes to running the club IMO. He's, rightly or wrongly, more interested in HL than BCFC and I should know, I work for him! CS is the man coming up with these brainless scheme's and, SL being an astute businessman, will agree to anything that makes half a bit of business sense whether in the short term or the long term.

As I said, the sooner Sexstone goes and a businessman with an understanding of football is installed, the better IMHO.

Of course Act Three of this insanity is yet to be played!

And that is when the club realises that somethings amiss and reduces POD-THEN, the ST Holders will ask for an equivalent reduction-Fairs, Fair after all and why shouldn't they?

Exactly what I was getting with the 'panic stations' remark!

[PhatWill]

As I said, the sooner Sexstone goes and a businessman with an understanding of football is installed, the better IMHO.

Exactly what I was getting with the 'panic stations' remark!

I'll do it for half the flippin' wage CS gets and all!

The club needs to make money and yes, 'stand on its own two feet' but there are better ways of doing it than bending over your most loyal 'customers' and repeatedly shafting them.

[Bristol Boy]

but there are better ways of doing it than bending over your most loyal 'customers' and repeatedly shafting them.

I dunno-works in Soho :noexpression:

[BB in Backwell]

If I was CS, I'd be just a tad concerned that tickets aren't exactly flying out at present.

Last week 14,000

Latest 14,500-Can't see it becoming all ticket at this rate and that's got to be a massive disappointment for game one of a new season.

If it's 14,500for QPR you're looking at about 11,000 for S****horpe

Perhaps the pricing wasn't right

Well, what a load of Whinge-Bags you lot are, can you ever be happy?

Pricing seems fine to me - Crystal Palce charge £25-26, Ipswich £29 - £34.

I think you'll find City's pricing is about average for the CHAMPIONSHIP.

It's costing me the equivalent price of a Season ticket to watch ONE GAME.

GET REAL YOU SAD LOT,

BORING.

[Red Head]

Well, what a load of Whinge-Bags you lot are, can you ever be happy?

Pricing seems fine to me - Crystal Palce charge £25-26, Ipswich £29 - £34.

I think you'll find City's pricing is about average for the CHAMPIONSHIP.

It's costing me the equivalent price of a Season ticket to watch ONE GAME.

GET REAL YOU SAD LOT,

BORING.

Most of the people on this thread will be at AG on Saturday. All will want to see the ground full and with it a great atmosphere. If for some reason this doesn't happen there is something wrong. Out of curiosity will you be travelling to every home match and on your own? AG would be a lot fuller with slightly reduced prices IMO.

It will be interesting to see when the first concessions kick in, quid a kid, or three for £60. Still, we will all be behind the lads on Saturday.

[Mad Cyril]

Firstly, would the gate attendence be really that much higher if the prices were lower. I am not so sure. And of course gate receipts would be less. Asking fans if they would like to pay more or less for a ticket is a rather pointless exercise, as any market research company can tell you.

Secondly, would you rather the likes of Trundle, Elliott, Sproule etc politely declined a move to City, on the basis we run a tight ship to keep match ticket prices down, so won't be paying them the wages they can command elsewhere? Perhaps we might have lost a few of the players who have just renewed contracts for the same reason. Cheerio to any prospect players too - sale fees for the likes of McCoombe etc can be used to fund the wage bill, as per the Crewe model. Would cheaper match day tickets really be worth any or all of that?

Thirdly, fact is before we start delivering the next level of success, we have to face up to the fact we have a smaller fan base than we would all love to imagine we deserve. This makes 'fans of the future' and 'Kid a Quid' more important initiatives than many realise. You could say we have a solid regular base of about 10k, with perhaps a further 4k who will come to the big games. Finally we have the local tourists - those in the category of 'bored, nothing else to do Saturday, perhaps I'll go' (a final in Cardiff often gets them out, regardless of which Bristol team is playing).

Don't underestimate the impact of outside factors in determining how many of these local tourists choose to come to any particular game. Holidays, good weather, bad weather, and other entertainment options are all factors - for a family of four this weekend, the cost of tickets for the opening game might be £65 - even if this were £20 lower, the balloon fiesta offers a considerably cheaper alternative.

Let's just remember how we all yearned Championship football over recent years, and how we demand the big signings now we are here. Reality is though, it costs, and we pay if we want to. For other options, talk to a Leeds fan....

[Tom Fleuriot]

Firstly, would the gate attendence be really that much higher if the prices were lower. I am not so sure. And of course gate receipts would be less. Asking fans if they would like to pay more or less for a ticket is a rather pointless exercise, as any market research company can tell you.

Secondly, would you rather the likes of Trundle, Elliott, Sproule etc politely declined a move to City, on the basis we run a tight ship to keep match ticket prices down, so won't be paying them the wages they can command elsewhere? Perhaps we might have lost a few of the players who have just renewed contracts for the same reason. Cheerio to any prospect players too - sale fees for the likes of McCoombe etc can be used to fund the wage bill, as per the Crewe model. Would cheaper match day tickets really be worth any or all of that?

Thirdly, fact is before we start delivering the next level of success, we have to face up to the fact we have a smaller fan base than we would all love to imagine we deserve. This makes 'fans of the future' and 'Kid a Quid' more important initiatives than many realise. You could say we have a solid regular base of about 10k, with perhaps a further 4k who will come to the big games. Finally we have the local tourists - those in the category of 'bored, nothing else to do Saturday, perhaps I'll go' (a final in Cardiff often gets them out, regardless of which Bristol team is playing).

Don't underestimate the impact of outside factors in determining how many of these local tourists choose to come to any particular game. Holidays, good weather, bad weather, and other entertainment options are all factors - for a family of four this weekend, the cost of tickets for the opening game might be £65 - even if this were £20 lower, the balloon fiesta offers a considerably cheaper alternative.

Let's just remember how we all yearned Championship football over recent years, and how we demand the big signings now we are here. Reality is though, it costs, and we pay if we want to. For other options, talk to a Leeds fan....

Firstly, I believe it would be considering that our starting game a couple of years ago in D3 (L1, whatever) was higher.

Second, I don't believe players came here because of an extra £500 per week that the higher prices would have made available. And for a fiver less a week you'd need an extra 700 fans to pay that salary [for each new signing]. Which I personally believe would have happened.

Thirdly. fact is that quid a kid and fans of the future weren't offered in the price hike. I agree with these schemes but they only seem to turn up when we're getting screwed on attendances.

Don't underestimate the impact of inside factors in determining who turns up. I've said it many times and I'll say it again. An ST price hike of £50 would have brought in vastly more money without smashing atmosphere and attendance.

Let's just remember how we yearned Championship football over the years. reality is though, to get fans watching it and creating an atmosphere that gets players performing, you need intelligent pricing. And we don't have it. For other options, talk to an MK Dons fan...

edit - typos

[CIDER PANTS OF TWERTON]

Firstly, would the gate attendence be really that much higher if the prices were lower. I am not so sure. And of course gate receipts would be less. Asking fans if they would like to pay more or less for a ticket is a rather pointless exercise, as any market research company can tell you.

Secondly, would you rather the likes of Trundle, Elliott, Sproule etc politely declined a move to City, on the basis we run a tight ship to keep match ticket prices down, so won't be paying them the wages they can command elsewhere? Perhaps we might have lost a few of the players who have just renewed contracts for the same reason. Cheerio to any prospect players too - sale fees for the likes of McCoombe etc can be used to fund the wage bill, as per the Crewe model. Would cheaper match day tickets really be worth any or all of that?

Thirdly, fact is before we start delivering the next level of success, we have to face up to the fact we have a smaller fan base than we would all love to imagine we deserve. This makes 'fans of the future' and 'Kid a Quid' more important initiatives than many realise. You could say we have a solid regular base of about 10k, with perhaps a further 4k who will come to the big games. Finally we have the local tourists - those in the category of 'bored, nothing else to do Saturday, perhaps I'll go' (a final in Cardiff often gets them out, regardless of which Bristol team is playing).

Don't underestimate the impact of outside factors in determining how many of these local tourists choose to come to any particular game. Holidays, good weather, bad weather, and other entertainment options are all factors - for a family of four this weekend, the cost of tickets for the opening game might be £65 - even if this were £20 lower, the balloon fiesta offers a considerably cheaper alternative.

Let's just remember how we all yearned Championship football over recent years, and how we demand the big signings now we are here. Reality is though, it costs, and we pay if we want to. For other options, talk to a Leeds fan....

One - yes i would attend more regularly.

Two - will answer with a question. Why are our prices much higher than Cardiff and Plymouth?

Three - the club are discouraging families by strange pricing e.g East End but also pricing seats at adult prices in some areas unlike previous seasons where you could buy under sixteen seats.

Reality is Sexton thought he could reap more profit by charging more and it is going to smack him in the face.

[Mad Cyril]

Firstly, I believe it would be considering that our starting game a couple of years ago in D3 (L1, whatever) was higher.

Second, I don't believe players came here because of an extra £500 per week that the higher prices would have made available. And for a fiver less a week you'd need an extra 700 fans to pay that salary. Which I personally believe would have happened.

Thirdly. fact is that quid a kid and fans of the future weren't offered in the price hike. I agree with these schemes but they only seem to turn up when we're getting screwed on attendances.

Don't underestimate the impact of inside factors in determining who turns up. I've said it many times and I'll say it again. An ST price hike of £50 would have brought in vastly more money without smashing atmosphere and attendance.

Let's just remember how we yearned Championship football over the years. reality is though, o get fans watching it and creating an atmosphere that gets players performing, you need intelligent pricing. And we don't have it. For other options, talk to an MK Dons fan...

1) We don't yet know what the attendance will be on Saturday yet, or at other games this season, given the POTD factor

2) If it is lower, it is not conclusive evidence that pricing is wrong - hence my example of the balloon fiesta this weekend as an extra factor

3) I am lost on the £500 per week. On an average ticket price rise of £3 per game (averaged between ST sales and POTD), and with an average attendance of say 12k this season, there is £36k extra per fortnight generated.

4) I am not convinced the alleged lack of atmosphere at MK Dons is down to pricing - geography, league standing, and again, core fan base are bigger factors here.

Don't get me wrong - I would love lower pricing, and I would love bigger gates. The piece of the jigsaw that this would miss though is better players, linked to better performances, because they cost money. Can't have it all.

Fact is, winning is by far the biggest factor that boosts bums on seats. To turn this on its head, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester City all dropped their prices in the third division, but not one came close to the sell outs they saw in the top flight.

[Guest DanC]

Now whats better, Two people paying 20 quid each or one person paying 23 quid?

Knocking 3 quid off of the prices would make all the difference.

[Tunley Legend]

Now whats better, Two people paying 20 quid each or one person paying 23 quid?

Knocking 3 quid off of the prices would make all the difference.

The problem is that it probably wouldn't. If you take an average crowd of 5,000 non season ticket holders at the higher price you would probably need another 750-1000 people coming through the gate every week to make up the difference if you reduced POTD accross the board. And we all know that with a few dodgy results this simply won't happen but with some good ones it would. Can we get enough good results to, in the eyes of the board, sustain your pricing policy? Then there are the half a dozen full houses we will probably get anyway that would lose the club £100K through the lower pricing and means that the average increase required goes up further.

We clearly had to raise prices and anyone who thinks otherwise is living in cloud cuckoo land. However, I think the evidence is currently showing that the club has not found the optimum pricing solution. The people responsible for that are Colin Sextone and the rest of the board who must have sanctioned it. Whichever way you look at it, predicting 11,000 season ticket sales and getting 9,500 must be disappointing to the men who put the real money in. Telling people you have sold nearly 10,000 season tickets and then reporting a figure that was just over 9,000 is another PR disaster by the club which I would imagine Sextone is totally responsible for. Lets just hope we get off to a decent start and play some good football - hopefully enough people will say "sod it" and part with the extra cash. The only downside of that is that a certain member of the board gets to keep his job!!

However, if the board finds itself in the position of having to lower POTD prices I will certainly not, as a season ticket holder, be taking the Bristol Boy suggested course of action and banging down the door and demanding a partial refund. Season ticket holders will still be getting their football cheaper (albeit it would not be such a big difference), will still be guaranteed their seat, will still get priority for big cup games at AG and will still get first option on away tickets like West Brom, Wolves etc. I think all this negative debate starts to affect your outlook on football and I for one am going to concentrate on enjoying Saturday now!!

[Martyn Hocking]

If I was CS, I'd be just a tad concerned that tickets aren't exactly flying out at present.

Last week 14,000

Latest 14,500-Can't see it becoming all ticket at this rate and that's got to be a massive disappointment for game one of a new season.

If it's 14,500for QPR you're looking at about 11,000 for S****horpe

Perhaps the pricing wasn't right

Give it a rest mate - the gate for S****horpe will be smaller regardless of the prices because they are a tedious little club with no star names and no away support. There won't be a sell-out this Saturday because it is the holiday season - again, nothing to do with prices.

Fact is that if there is a big game people will come regardless of prices eg, 35,000 at Cardiff for the play-off final. If it is a run-of-the-mill game (which QPR is for the non-committed fan) price is not the key factor - it comes down to what else they and their family want to do that day.

You are setting yourself up to be 'right' almost regardless of the evidence - in your world, if we fail to sell out virtually every home game you will somehow have been proved correct in your assertion that prices have been raised too high.

We have been losing money for years and the club has taken the decision that if we want to bring in quality like Trundle then we the fans will have to cough up some of the money. Sure SL has more in the bank than I do, but I don't expect him to pay for my entertainment every week.

Well_red

[Guest]

I know that neither the ST or the SC were consulted on prices before they were announced. Milo posted something like "we're working on it" during the uproar following but since we heard nothing after that I suspect they were told to go whistle. I wouldn't attach any blame to either organisation because I'm damn certain that they'd have told the club what a stupid idea the hikes were.

Well if you go back two years ago the consulted the FCF and we recommended one thing and at the board meeting the following week they did another.

So you are quite correct!

[Portishead Red]

I agree. As I posted in an earlier post. After 8 years in league 1, with 4 new signings, a first home game against QPR, anything less than a sell out in my opinion is poor and I think the reason must be the prices, what else could it be - the baloon festival?

No mate, its £30 pay on the day (doman) thats the problem - not the baloon fiesta. The POD prices are nothing short of outrageous. Still, i can always go and watch the downs football if i don't like it according to poster on here...

[Barrs Court Red]

Right or wrong I guess we wont know untill all the figures are in.

All I can say is this, I have about 10 mates who come on and off through a season, none are coming saturday and non can belive the price.

I don't care what other championship clubs charge, the fact is Bristol may be a football town but the interest in its local football clubs is limited at the best of times. Many just wont pay near £30 when they can go down the pub ect.

I think what some people need to realise is that us that actually go to matches are the minority, and the club should worry less about ###### us for every penny and look to draw in greater numbers. Surely this is better in the long run.

[Drew Peacock]

After 8 years in league 1, with 4 new signings, a first home game against QPR, anything less than a sell out in my opinion is poor and I think the reason must be the prices, what else could it be - the baloon festival?

It could be the fact that Bristol is not a footballing town

It could be the fact that QPR are not a very good draw

It could be the fact that there is less hype than last time we got promoted and the first game wasn't a sell out then

It could be the fact that it is the middle of the school holidays

It could be the fact that people on this forum have unrealistic expectations

It could be the balloon fiesta

It could be the prices

It could be a combination of the above.

Oh bugger it, lets just blame the prices.

[Barrs Court Red]

I thinkt he Baloon fiesta is a red herring. We had 15,000 against Notts County in league 1 last time it clashed with City.

[Bristol Boy]

We clearly had to raise prices and anyone who thinks otherwise is living in cloud cuckoo land.

I don't think I've read a post that says we didn't.It's the amount and some of the caveats-U16's/East End etc.30% on ST's is to much and 40% POD farcical

However, I think the evidence is currently showing that the club has not found the optimum pricing solution.

Looks that way

The people responsible for that are Colin Sextone and the rest of the board who must have sanctioned it. Whichever way you look at it, predicting 11,000 season ticket sales and getting 9,500 must be disappointing to the men who put the real money in.

Yes not forgetting that 800 ST Holders walked away.That would have taken us over 10,000.

Telling people you have sold nearly 10,000 season tickets and then reporting a figure that was just over 9,000 is another PR disaster by the club which I would imagine Sextone is totally responsible for.

Now there's a surprise

Lets just hope we get off to a decent start and play some good football - hopefully enough people will say "sod it" and part with the extra cash. The only downside of that is that a certain member of the board gets to keep his job!!

Good point.I still hope the club does brilliantly but if we don't, he's toast

However, if the board finds itself in the position of having to lower POTD prices I will certainly not, as a season ticket holder, be taking the Bristol Boy suggested course of action and banging down the door and demanding a partial refund. Season ticket holders will still be getting their football cheaper (albeit it would not be such a big difference), will still be guaranteed their seat, will still get priority for big cup games at AG and will still get first option on away tickets like West Brom, Wolves etc. I think all this negative debate starts to affect your outlook on football and I for one am going to concentrate on enjoying Saturday now!!

Firstly I didn't say I would bang the door down-but I will if the differential isn't there at all, and that's what the club may need to do if things go pearshaped, that won't take much.At a time when we should all be overjoyed with promotion 800 ST Holder have walked away and, as sure as eggs are eggs POD, excluding away fans, will fall as it's the POD fans that have purchased the additional ST's.

Anything less than 16,500/17.500 Sat will be poor and doesn't bode well if we have even an average season.Clubs in the Prem had to drop their prices last season by 50% to get people to come and we could find ourselves doing the same.

[giles_23_bcfc]

It could be the balloon fiesta

Bingo. Despite it being the first game in a higher league, alot of people who go go to hardly any games that wouldve gone on saturday have been put off by the prices so are going to the Balloon fiesta. IMO anyway.

Stupid FA!!!

[Barrs Court Red]

It's all about the prices!

http://www.otib.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=76114&hl=

Unless it's the prem floating fans don't want to shell out 30 notes

[Nibor]

Bingo. Despite it being the first game in a higher league, alot of people who go go to hardly any games that wouldve gone on saturday have been put off by the prices so are going to the Balloon fiesta. IMO anyway.

Stupid FA!!!

Nothing to do with the FA. It was down to Avon and Somerset. They said they can cope with both events (having said the opposite in previous years) so we couldn't request an away game.

I doubt very much that the balloon fiesta is having any affect on ticket sales. Balloon launches are at 6am and 6pm. Nothing worth watching happens during the day. There's no reason anyone who wants to come to City can't do both.

What the club should be doing is paying some people to walk round Ashton Court all morning flogging tickets to people who will be bored by lunchtime.

[zippycar]

[Bristol Boy]

[Ian M]

[CiderHider]

I don't see many people making a stand against the ticket pricing, no one really has come out and said "No i wont attend games because of cost"

This makes me think CS might have the ticket prices absolutely spot on.

[Bristol Boy]

I don't see many people making a stand against the ticket pricing, no one really has come out and said "No i wont attend games because of cost"

How about the 800 that didn't renew @ £300 net that's £240,000-Plus loads of posts on here from fans that had ST or were POD, that won't be coming?

This makes me think CS might have the ticket prices absolutely spot on.

So why haven't we sold out or even close-It's not even all ticket?

[North Lincs Red]

Can't get through on ticket line so going to buy tickets when i get down saturday what time does ticket office open?

and will i be able to buy blackpool tickets while i'm there? Cheers.

[Bristol Boy]

Can't get through on ticket line so going to buy tickets when i get down saturday what time does ticket office open?

and will i be able to buy blackpool tickets while i'm there? Cheers.

Looks like tickets will be available POD and plenty of them.

Blackpool will be ST's only, I imagine although that may be lifted Saturday.