We all know that Mr.Scally has been waiting to see in which division we will be next season before announcing the prices. It will be interesting to see the scale of charges for August. Our prices are amongst the highest in League One. Many of us complain when we have paid 'well' over £20 for an away ticket --- so many of you demanded your money back at Orient where the adult ticket was £23 (pre match-day) and yet my match day ticket, this season, would cost £24. I'm not sure if Mr.Scally has heard that we have been in a recession and many supporters won't have had a pay rise for over a year. Those that have seen their wages rise will have received no more than the equivalent rise of the inflation figures. In March this was 1.6%. Last season Mr.Scally put up my ticket by 7.5%. Football is a business - NO different to any other. Who doesn't go on price comparison sites when their insurances / energy tariffs etc are coming to an end. Football cannot justify demanding the percentage increases that we wouldn't tolerate from any other supplier. [Not just] Mr.Scally needs to remember this basic monetary principle before whacking another 7.5% onto our prices ( who of us wouldn't bend over backwards for our bosses if we were given a 7.5% increase in our salary ?) Football chairmen/women cannot expect blind allegiance from its' customers to justify disproportionate increases - just because we'll probably not start to support Millwall because their prices are cheaper - this isn't Tesco/Asda/Lidl etc. Having said all of the above I expect nothing less than a 7.5% increase by Mr.S -- with the usual propaganda for his reasons, and - Yes I'll pay it.(x2)
I agree with most of that alwaysright, but not the part about Football being a buisiness no different to any other. In football the customer (fan) has very strong emotional ties to the club they support. No other business has this luxury and football clubs know it. Only 1 in 1000 fans would honestly look at comparison sites and change allegiance. Do you think any Gills fans are going to see our prices, then check Charltons and go there if they are lower priced? They might check and moan about it, but they'd either pay (like you) or go less or not go at all. Pretty much any other business would fold if it treated customers like football clubs treat their fans. Not just Gills, all football clubs. But on the other side of the coin, no other business can give you the extreme highs that following your football club can give. None of us go out and party when the local grocers announces record profits or opens a new shop. There aren't many forums discussing the weekly performance of Smiths Solicitors or NatWest Bank either.
I don't pretend to understand the football league rules, but surely there is an incentive to keep the ST prices down. Is our player budget not dictated by our attendances. Maybe someone can explain this aspect to me.
SirKeefy I should have clarified - football is just 'another' business in terms of making profit or loss. Clubs do have the luxury of knowing that we're not going to change the team we will go to watch - but that is no reason why clubs should be arrogant with their price structure. Unfortunately for us, the clubs know they have a captive audience - there's no way I could go to follow any other club just because they offered free admission - but it doesn't mean that I enjoy the disproportionate rises in the ticket prices - these rises have been well over the inflation rate for several years. I accept your point about football offering highs and lows ( in lieu of a tangable end product that I can package and take home from the Priestfield shop )- but the price of following football is not a cheap day out ( especially going to away matches ) - and it is getting dearer all the time the yearly increases continue to be so disproportionately higher than inflation. (I am happy to give in proportion to inflation figures) - otherwise there may come a time when I will have to go to fewer games - or to put it another way ( given that our home attendance is down 500 this season ) - clubs will kill the golden goose if it continues to bite the hand that feeds it.
Then we agree entirely alwaysright And like I said, football clubs know we all stay fans regardless. So they do as they please (to a certain extent). It's not right, but doubt they will change. And brb, I don't know the full rules either, but clubs playing budget is restricted to a certain percentage of their income. So there is certainly an incentive to raise income from fans through the gate. It just has to be weighed up whether more fans at less price, or less fans at more price gives the best outcome. Not just total fans, but more/less merchandise, more/less catering, more/less police & other expenses etc etc. To me, I think we'd always be more profitable with more fans, but maybe it's not that simple. I think it's been discussed elsewhere that lowering the prices by say, 20 quid per s/t doesn't put the extra on the sales to cover that loss per ticket.
I expect the prices to be the same as last season. Hopefully an incentive to season ticket holders where they get to see either the league cup or the autowindscreens cup ( whaever. it is now called)for free or £5 first round plus 15/20 percent off in the Gills shop.
Season ticket prices have been reveled on official website with a small increase. Mind in the rainham end has gone up by £10 to £355 if i pay before June. There are mostly the same incentives as last season like 2 free tickets 4 tickets for £5 plus some £1 children tickets. Again i feel a bit ripped off as someone else gets the cheaper tickets and not us the season ticket holder. Specially for u brb they are letting you transfer to someone else use your season ticket for FREE 6 times if you cannot attend. Think i might share my season ticket now as i normally miss 4 or 5 games and can now get 2 free tickets , 4 tickets for £5 plus 2 tickets half price plus Mr scally normally does some matches for £10 not worth getting 2 per family.
Mr Scally really needs to sort out his communication department it's absolutely ridiculous. We have been waiting the prices for some weeks now, I constantly receive pointless emails from the club ie £10 games etc...I'm a season ticket holder! Yet guess what, no email to inform me of the new prices. By chance I went to the ticket office today around mid-day and happened to come across a brochure on the counter. Great eh? But now for the good news which gioblues has just highlighted, I can now exchange my ticket stubs for free...well six of them, but to be fair if you missed more than six games then there would be no point in purchasing an ST on a purely personal basis of the sale. The usual vouchers have been applied with the addition of two additional discounted ticket promotions at 50% off face value for any league game. Obviously i don't benefit from these promotions personal but am always willing to help out fellow Gills supporters. My ST has increased by £10 but i'm happy that it is a reasonable increase. Now the big question do i purchase my ST after the fiasco last season and more importantly do i purchase 2 ST's. Well Scally has rectified my biggest complaint the exchange of ticket situation, he has also applied an additional incentive with the 50% off, also i have found over the last two home games gaining additional seating in my current location has been extremely difficult, in fact I couldn't gain any additional tickets in my area today. So the answer is Scally will be making me £720 lighter this month. However, be warned Mr Chairman any more fiasco's and i will be venting my spleen in my usual manner again.
gioblues If I buy my season tickets before the end of May I will 'save' the princely sum of £3 over the whole season - providing I manage to see ALL the games and if Mr.Scally does NOT offer any 'cheap' deals during the season....... how? I buy two adult tickets that one of my son uses. They will cost me £ 375 each ( in May ). My son usually misses 2 or 3 games a season.) If I decide to buy just ONE season ticket for me, I can use the incentives that will be available to me to either get free tickets & half price tickets and friends for a £5 to cover 7 of the games. I can then buy 'pre matchday tickets for my son for the other 16 league games. The cost for my son to see ALL 23 league games will be £378. If my son misses just one game the cost will be £357 ( £21 being the pre matchday price) - therefore getting a season ticket for my son will be MORE expensive than buying a ticket for each game. And if my son misses his 'average' 3 games, my cost for him, at pre matchday prices will be £315 as opposed to the price of his season ticket being £375. edit - I have made many extra purchases of tickets for games this season - EVERY time I have been able to get tickets for seats directly in front or behind me - so sitting together will not be a problem -not until we fill Priestfield ( not any time soon )
alwaysright that is what i said. better to get one season ticket instead of two if your likely to miss a couple of games.
I certainly agree with the principles of what you are saying guys about one season ticket, it might work better for me if it was unallocated seating, especially as i do not really want to move from the MS.
