I would be interested in other WFC supporters views on a topic which is driving me nuts. For the umpteenth time (it seems) this season, our KO time has been rearranged. The WHU match is now a 1730 KO. It doesn't seem like much of a change except.... I am an over 75 mile (actually 140 miles) season ticket holder. I much prefer to travel by train and I buy Advance tickets to make the day more affordable. I also make arrangments to meet people, have meals etc. Changing the match time or day throws all this up into the air. I have to cancel some trips - non-refundable train tickets - try to rearrange others at a minimum cost of £20, assuming Advance tickets on the altered service are available. The ticket allows me to attend 13 matches - out of the 19 - which seems sensible as midweek evening games and some Bank holidays are quite difficult and where scheduled at the beginning of the season, I accept. But the arbitrary TV changes ruin my plans. I cannot afford to stay in hotels overnight and anyway I have other commitments on Sundays. I also seem to find out quite late that the games have been changed. I have written to the club suggesting they offer some sort of compensation for changed games to those, such as me (i.e over 75 mile ST holders) who are greatly inconvenienced. e.g. extending the available game count beyond 13. Should I just be putting up with it, or am I entitled to be cross ?
Taking into account the changes you have to make, I think you have all the right to be cross. I hope the club respond in a positive manner....
I have previously thought about buying one of those over 75 mile season tickets, but living even further away - 580 miles - made me wary of it for much the same reasons. Kick-off times can change at the drop of a hat & there's simply nothing the club or you can do about it - and what is very often a manageable week-end trip becomes a logistical nightmare. Accommodation isn't the problem for me - whenever I get down, I stay with friends - it's just the train and/or plane timetables. The last away match I tried to attend - Hull in 2013 - was stuffed up for me by the match being changed to the next day, for reasons I couldn't really understand. The match was due to be played on a Monday and, having both the Monday & Tuesday off work, I worked out that I could easily get there by train on the Monday & catch an early train back on the Tuesday, getting home around 10:00pm that night. Was spitting chips when they announced the change of date...
Same for me. It takes me 7 hours to drive up to Dieppe and the ferry. To get a decent price I need to book up 2 months ahead. Then when I arrive in Newhaven if there is a jobsworth on immigration I get to my hotel too late to get a meal. The hotel if I book 2 months in advance with no refunds I might pay £40 a night. leave it later and it can cost me £90. The same applies on the return journey. I can stay with my daughter in Aylesbury while I am over, but during the winter months I have had a text to say that due to bad weather my ferry is not running, and I will have to go to Dover a day earlier if I wish to get home. I could fly with Ryanair from Limoges to Stansted if I book and pay weeks ahead, but then there are things like car hire to account for. Although I have a fan ID, my wife has always come with a ticket bought by me on that ID, so now I have to plead for her to have a ticket with me. Costs: Ferry £120, Hotels £80, Meals £100, Fuel and Tolls £80, Tickets £52. Minimum cost approx. £432 plus loads of extras. You only need the game to move day and the whole thing falls apart, and none of this outlay can be reclaimed.
The club don't offer over 75-mile tickets to new applicants anymore. I bought half-season tickets last year and renewed for the full season this year and asked the question (I'm 100 miles away) but they said no. Think I will make 16 of he 19 fixtures this season, so I suppose that's not too bad.
I had a full season ticket for 5 years with an 80-mile each way round trip and also met up with friends in the pub before every game, so I'm with you on this one. Be cross...be very cross!
absolutely every right to be cross..it's flipping annoying even when i live up the road, i can't imagine how annoying it is with all the planning needed!
JTB (I can't shorten you to JT, sounds a bit too Chelski ), I wish you very well in this, but unfortunately we are small cogs in the world of football these days. Lose one ST holder doesn't mean a lot to the club, lose a television deal and they're pissed off. Unless... You're not the Controller for Sky Sports Television perhance?
While this is true, there may be a long term effect. Is a TV audience going to be as loyal as an attending fan base? There are a lot of sports, not to mention games, dramas etc, competing for the attention of the young. Having said that, few owners of football clubs appear to have seriously long term plans.
Just want to add my support for JTB. I remember a film about Arsenal where it raised something like "I've attended every game this season, am I worth more than a fan of 50 years who did 5 games a season?". Someone will know what I have horribly miss quoted . And long distance fans are a very real revenue source for the club. An additional source. And they tend to be long term fans. To ignore them would not I feel be good business sense.
The only thing that the club could do is refund the cost of ticket . The rest is just a fact of life of the 120 m a year the culb get for being in the EPL
