In response to your recent message: http://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/news/article/message-to-st-holders-943094.aspx Now for sake of clarity let's look at this... Before the deadline of purchasing season tickets at discounted prices, I bought two tickets for the Medway Stand at a cost of £700 then paid a further online administration fee, which I believe may have been £5 for the two purchases. Also for the first time this season it required the further draconian measure of an ID photo. The latter being some thing that I am against in my beliefs and raised suspicions in regards to this requirement. However, to obtain my ST, I had no option but to comply with the rules and made a further personal cost of £5 to obtain passport style photographs. Total cost of £710. I was then handed a leaflet on collection of my season ticket yesterday Thursday 25th July, 2013. The leaflet was handed to me AFTER being passed receipt of the ST's. The one page document reminded/advised me of the subsequent implementation of the T&C's for the season ahead. Generally during a home season I will miss 1 - 4 games, due to holiday and work commitments beyond my control. The worse case scenario applies during the course of a bad winter, when Saturday games have to be rearranged to Mid-Week games. Current cost of purchasing a match day ticket in advance is £20. Let us say for example I attend 19 games of the 23 home games. This equates to £380, £30 dearer than I paid for one ST. However, if I take four £5 friends for a fiver tickets from my sons book and I can reduce the cost by £60, making the overall cost £320, this is without any further season marketing discounts for pay on the day supporters that maybe introduced during 2013/14. So currently on that basis I could have saved £30, £5 admin and £5 photo along with not being subject to the requirement for ID. A total saving £40 excluding any further discounts highlighted earlier. Let alone I had to find the cost of £350 in advance and it is now sitting in Gillingham FC's bank account and not mine. I don't require the kit offers and the other offers are of benefit to people introduced to the club and therefore more of benefit to the club finances not mine! I request you rethink your idea for one season due to untimely, non transparent communications at POS. Therefore we are now better informed for 2014/15. In the meantime to regather my costs, I will in protest not purchase my normal match day magazine at home games saving me a total cost of £57 (19 x £3). thanks brb
brb I'm 'with' you. I usually take up all the offers both for STH & non STH - bringing quite a few 'extra' attendees to matches. These people spend money in various parts of the ground. I am quite prepared to 'waste' any unused ticket than to pay any more for the 'privilege' of using a ticket for which I have already paid up front a long time ago. As I said in my earlier post - I accept that the club need to ensure that adults do not use a childs' ticket - but there needs to be some compromise related to common sense - not the discrimination against only season ticket holders. On a slightly different angle to this matter - I note that the Club will not permit anyone to purchase more than ONE season ticket in their name - but, in my circumstances, the Club were quite happy for me to pay for BOTH my ticket & that of my son. Further to my suggestion of discrimination against STH ( & by way of some elaboration ) - the Club would be quite happy for me to buy out ALL matchday tickets( no ID needed ) for the ground as long as they were getting the money.... I could then give these tickets to all sorts of psychopaths. ( I'd like to think that I have not qualified for this description - despite the best efforts of my neighbour or Tesco )
Now I am probably the wrong person to be talking about Season tickets as I am unable to justify owning one due to attending university so far away from Priestfield but I feel this may be the way that football is going. I honestly do understand the average fans complaints and I too feel that it is victimising the normal man but from the clubs point of view this way of selling season tickets is the way a lot of clubs will be going in the future and we are simply getting in ahead of the crowd. BRB's situation does show what is wrong with this system but hopefully it will be improved in the future.
A supporter has posted on Gills Connect that he asked to speak to Paulo in person when he went to the ground this morning and had a polite and engaging conversation with him! Maybe BRB you could do this if you have 5 minutes spare in your busy schedule?
Here is a link to somewhere,that has emailed him,i hope you all read it,and all you s/t holders get what is just. http://www.fansonline.net/gillingham/mb/view.php?id=196965
Thanks passit69. Just to clarify for all. I will be putting in a complaint to the club and it has been my attention since this first came to light. It will be much along the lines of the example in the OP. However, I intend to do it once I have calmed down, which may take a while, also any email address I will verify directly with the club before sending. If there are any Season Ticket holders who wish me mention them in my email, please either highlight it on here or in private message. All I ask is you must be specific and polite in your reasoning and objection. I will need to be able to confirm your full name OR account number in the process if you choose to be included. This aspect should be done via PM but as with all data you have my assurances it will remain private, with the exception of it being sent to Gillingham Football Club. Sorry but this response is only open to existing members of the site. thanks
I had already done the maths and decided with the games I miss I was better off without the season ticket and just buying tickets to the games I can go to. No brainier really.
In a way you have hit the nail on the head Lenny. I had also done my maths, however, my final decision was based on an assumption that as has always been common practice contrary to the T&C's of my ticket, I passed on MY SEAT to another person (friend or family member) if I could not make a game. The club are not losing any money over this practice on my part, that person would not have gone to the game otherwise. At least you could still selll them a match day magazine, lottery ticket, food, drink, club shop and most importantly support, I'm bloody well trying to persuade them to become a supporter! This is where I believe I have been misled by the club. A leaflet/announcement by Paulo was handed to me AFTER my season ticket book was passed to me. Unless we are in the Championship next season (unlikely) or unless the Club do something to appease this situation, then I will sadly relent my ST next season, that's how unhappy I am about it. The club extended the discounted price of ST's for a further week, why was this announcement not made then or did I miss it? The club have my email address, they could have pinged every ST holder early notification, in the same format as the letter received at the ticket office, again did I miss this email. There really is no excuse for this if none of the above happened, whatever way you look at it. The one big question I want to ask of the club is what has happened to that word TRUST?... Colour coded books to tell your age range, ID cards for ST holders that are not currently required by day trippers. Absolute draconian measures. Maybe something we need to get our local MP's to look at. This country does not require us to carry ID cards, this is not about safety otherwise day trippers would have had it enforced first. This is about marketing and financial implications to the club, imo..but as I say where's the trust in their supporter base. I know this is becoming a common face of football and not just football but 2013 but that does not make it right, in the same way Non ST holders will say us breaking T&C's is not right. In my personal opinion and from views expressed to me from other supporters. The club have got this seriously wrong. This club has already cost me £710 this season. I'm planning on going to Wolves and Swindon away at the start of the season at additional cost, what do you reckon, I'll probably kill a 100 quid for those two games alone. I already have the club shirts. Now they want to penny pinch from me. Sorry but there is no other word for it. Come on Gillingham Football Club show some respect, we are supporters not customers.
Yet again brb we agree on something. Unless the ticket holder intends on going to every game it doesn't make sense to have a season ticket. Sad but true.
I really don't get why people are getting so wound up about this. If you've been handing out freebies to mates or relatives, you're ripping off the club. Think about this: if only 25 STHs give their tickets to others each game, that's lost revenue to the club of c £500 a match, or well over £10k across the season. On top of that, the club HAS to be seen to be tougher in controlling admissions after the idiot who ran on the pitch last season. Final point - I don't have a ST because I live so far away that I get to two games a season at Priestfield if I'm lucky. If I lived closer, I would have a ST. However, the primary motive would not be to save money - but to show my support for the football club I love (just as when I bought shares, knowing they'd soon be worthless). No STH is going to be out of pocket anyway...
But the ID card is ONLY required by ST holders - anyone else can walk up and buy a ticket with no form of ID required. So how does this control the idiot running on the pitch?
Sorry but with respect you are wrong on two points EagerExile: 1. It is not lost revenue, the seat is already paid for non refundable, unlike match day tickets. Non exchangeable, unlike match day tickets. People who use my ticket to go to the Gills would not have paid to go anyway, so how can it be lost revenue, it is now lost potential to the club because I will no longer have the incentive to encourage them to go. 2. No STH is going to be out of pocket you suggest, again incorrect, I have already demonstrated minimum savings of £40. My only loss is my seat number...Wow. It is very interesting to note that the majority of opposite views through the social media domain comes from Non ST holders. Fine we will all be joining you next season. How will that affect the club finances I ask.
What's the point in handing out STs to people who never intend to pay for a ticket? If you're right about that, what's the benefit to the club? Absolutely none. And my point about STHs not being out of pocket is that (unless you're selling some of your tickets to others on the side), stopping you giving out your tickets for free will not cost you anything. Enforcement of the existing non-transferable policy allows the club to BE SEEN to be taking action following last season's incident. but I completely take the point that any idiot can buy a matchday ticket. If I was a STH (and I'd love to be close enough so I could be) I'd still feel the same about this - and I'd still get a ST the following season. I just don't understand how people would be prepared undermine their club's finances on this issue. But if you feel that strongly about it, fair enough.
EagerExile is that not much the same as the club handing out tickets for £0 (school concessions), £1 and £5, the point is to persuade custom. I have clearly stated I have NEVER made gain from Gillingham Football Club. If I have something for free it is given for free, provided free by the club. If it is an ST slip then that is given for free already PAID for by me, the club have had their money, it is my seat, non resalable. Those paid for seats will now remain empty...what's the point in that! An ST holder is not going to risk getting banned, hence an ST holder is less likely to be a security risk. Basically what this boils down to is TRUST! The days of scaling walls and climbing floodlights to watch a game are well and truly gone, we now have moved into one hell of a PC world.
lol. I hold no political allegiances, hard to believe I know, but true. Although I have formed a UK football supporters happy clappy members club for the future...book your seat today, ID, DNA, Retina Scan, Finger print scan...all digits required...A red replica kit will be compulsory... please log in to view this image
