[Football] Away ticket sales

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

I was at Norwich. It was called the Zenith Data Systems cup (yes. I had to look it up) and we got stuffed, conceding 5. I think there were about 45 of us? Did the conga on the away terrace, mate got nicked for having a piss against a wall just feet from the toilets, last train back to London, walk from Liverpool St to Vic, train to Gatwick, 2 hours kip, first train to Brighton. And that was my 18th birthday present. I've recently told my boy a couple of these stories and he thinks they're glamorous, bless him.

Yeah, in general you were respected for going, although not in Chesterfield where they were happy to wreck a local pub themselves in order to chase us, nor the South Yorkshire miners we accidentally met in a pub in Wombwell.

Happy days mostly though and some great memories.

Chesterfield, 20 odd years ago? It was a bit lively! I have fond memories although it wasn’t always Champagne and Skittles, Preston away c1989 stands out, pissing down, lost 3-0 got chased by some home fans. I remember the four of us deciding to jack it in. At the following weeks home game plans were made as usual for next weeks away day!

 

[portlock seagull]

Are “thousands leaving football”. Not much sign of that at the Albion. A pretty normal season ticket renewal - where every year a similar number cancel their sts and this year no different - and that’s just two weeks ago, match days sell out and away games are hardly different this year so far compared to pre Covid. Some sell out , a few don’t. Perhaps in the autumn when the economy turns it might bite more but there’s also no evidence club want us to “watch TV” (they froze prices again), that older long-standing fans (some will of course) are no longer interested either home or away. Just look around any of the concourses. And I’d question the idea that fans aren’t connected to the club either. Just in different ways to how it was 10 or 20 or 40 years ago.

Mind you it can be a bit boring at times ha ha.

Yes yes yes, but everyone knows you’re Paul Barber so can’t really take your opinion seriously.

 

[CaptainDaveUK]

Chelsea home and away. Arsenal home. Half a game at Leicester, Man U, Liverpool and Palace?

Something like that anyway.

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Everton away both halfs was epic. Burnley second half was also very good.

 

[chaileyjem]

Yes yes yes, but everyone knows you’re Paul Barber so can’t really take your opinion seriously.

I think you’re teasing but in case not a few people on here including the mods know me IRL so this is nonsense (the Barber bit - I’m sure plenty of NSC are not keen on my outrageous extreme opinions - things like I enjoy going to the Albion and I was happy to renew my season ticket but that’s fair enough. )

But to be serious if I really was working for the club I’d have the decency to be transparent about it on here…

 

[South west gull]

Yes yes yes, but everyone knows you’re Paul Barber so can’t really take your opinion seriously.

Thousands are leaving regular season ticket football & are looking to spend what money they have got on better value things .

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[drew]

Thousands are leaving regular season ticket football & are looking to spend what money they have got on better value things .

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That would explain why the renewal rate was 90% which isn't that far off normal years!!

 

[Guinness Boy]

That would explain why the renewal rate was 90% which isn't that far off normal years!!

And (once again) a 90% renewal on top of a previous 90% renewal with no waiting list is losing 10% of your regular punters every season. At its peak the waiting list was around 8k.

The truth, as ever in the binary world of many on NSC, is in between. 21K STHs when you're not playing very good football, inflation is pushing 8% and there's a pandemic on is a pretty good effort (and, I would suspect, more STHs than Palace). On the other hand it's fewer than when we first expanded to 30k capacity in The Championship and, when we've just expanded the ground again, it's a slump that needs arresting.

 

[chaileyjem]

Thousands are leaving regular season ticket football & are looking to spend what money they have got on better value things .

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Maybe there are better value things, but the numbers cancelling their tickets this season were only marginally higher than the average in our 10 years at the Amex. There’s no evidence at the Albion at least so I’m not sure why people either say this is happening or hope it is happening. Also unlike lots of clubs, Albion have frozen their season ticket prices again so they’re arguably value for money for many. Of course they’re not cheap and of course some will struggle to afford it especially at the moment but given all that - Albion are on track have close to 24,000 season ticket holders again. Do you think otherwise ?

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

And (once again) a 90% renewal on top of a previous 90% renewal with no waiting list is losing 10% of your regular punters every season. At its peak the waiting list was around 8k.

The truth, as ever in the binary world of many on NSC, is in between. 21K STHs when you're not playing very good football, inflation is pushing 8% and there's a pandemic on is a pretty good effort (and, I would suspect, more STHs than Palace). On the other hand it's fewer than when we first expanded to 30k capacity in The Championship and, when we've just expanded the ground again, it's a slump that needs arresting.

Especially when the amount of season ticket holders has increased this season so it's a slightly bigger percentage of a slightly bigger amount of season ticket holders that have discontinued.

Personally, i think the messaging from the club should be "we think the renewal rate is phenomenonal given the challenges everyone is facing at the moment, but we do still want to do whatever in our means to push that retention rate even higher in future seasons. There are some common themes in the feedback we are getting from those choosing not to renew, and while a lot of these are outside of control, the board want to work with supporters to address any of these that we can do so".

Unfortunately the corporate club culture at the moment tends to be to play the "everything is awesome" card and ignore or attempt to silence criticism in the CEOs regular updates.

Hopefully the fan advisory board will be the first small shift to changing this, we shall see.

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[chaileyjem]

And (once again) a 90% renewal on top of a previous 90% renewal with no waiting list is losing 10% of your regular punters every season. At its peak the waiting list was around 8k.

The truth, as ever in the binary world of many on NSC, is in between. 21K STHs when you're not playing very good football, inflation is pushing 8% and there's a pandemic on is a pretty good effort (and, I would suspect, more STHs than Palace). On the other hand it's fewer than when we first expanded to 30k capacity in The Championship and, when we've just expanded the ground again, it's a slump that needs arresting.

Except We always lose between 5-10 per cent every season. The peak at the Amex was 96 around promotion time and 89 post Sami .
Last year was 92 but in the end they sold more STs than ever before leading up to August (24K) and if you believe the club they’re on track to doing that again. - which would be higher than any season.
Clubs always lose a few thousand every year due to things mostly beyond their control. (In my family cos my Dad is ill, and my son is going to Uni) - but yes some will have a list of issues that might well worry the various Albion teams (price, form, sharing , match day experience)
Nearly every game sells out - even games like Norwich are only a handful of tickets away from sell out - so match day tickets aren’t seemingly suffering either . I guess club are worried about match day attendance (sharing ? , Covid) and obviously there’s no longer a massive waiting list (it was reported at 7K - once) but now we have thousands of Albion + members and a higher capacity (31,800)
But framing it as a slump that needs arresting ? - what slump ?

 

[jordanseagull]

Hasn’t been a waiting list for ages. The days of struggling to get a ticket for the Amex are long gone.

As for aways, seriously pissed off I can’t buy a ticket for Spurs away because they haven’t opened it up to those with previous purchase history. More complete bollocks from the club to be honest, trying to enforce a pointless late season purchase of a + membership. Oh well.

 

[jordanseagull]

Deleted multiple

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I think you’re teasing but in case not a few people on here including the mods know me IRL so this is nonsense (the Barber bit - I’m sure plenty of NSC are not keen on my outrageous extreme opinions - things like I enjoy going to the Albion and I was happy to renew my season ticket but that’s fair enough. )

But to be serious if I really was working for the club I’d have the decency to be transparent about it on here…

You are transparent though !!!!!










jester

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Hasn’t been a waiting list for ages. The days of struggling to get a ticket for the Amex are long gone.

Which, given we're now established in the Premier League, until recently were absolute dead certs for a record ever finish, possibly on the cusp of the European places, and now have a whole generation of youngsters from when the Amex opened who likely have converted into adult supporters, is all a bit bizarre isn't it?

It's almost like there's various genuine things that aren't perfect that could and should be addressed, rather than just adopting "oh it's fine, it's always like this" levels of complacency.

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[chaileyjem]

Hasn’t been a waiting list for ages. The days of struggling to get a ticket for the Amex are long gone.

Over the ten years at the Amex , and the 5 years in the PL - there have never really been moments where it’s been impossible to get match day tickets and / or season tickets . They both generally sell out though and it depends game by game and the 1901s have sold out throughout - but the idea that currently with a higher capacity this season - it’s vastly different to 19/20 or 17/18 or 13/14 - is it ?

 

[chaileyjem]

Which, given we're now established in the Premier League, until recently were absolute dead certs for a record ever finish, possibly on the cusp of the European places, and now have a whole generation of youngsters from when the Amex opened who likely have converted into adult supporters, is all a bit bizarre isn't it?

It's almost like there's various genuine things that aren't perfect that could and should be addressed, rather than just adopting "oh it's fine, it's always like this" levels of complacency.

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Do you really get the sense the club are complacent. ? (They’ve added in extra seats, frozen ticket prices, tried all sorts of things with sharing and changing names on season tickets , ramped up membership schemes, do all manner of outreach stuff to kids , behind scenes do loads of surveys, talking to fans, engagement etc , a fan advisory board, are building a big new external fan zone). I’ve no idea if its enough but I think it’s ok for them to be bullish about how things are going with ticket sales numbers (look better than most predicted certainly on here) without the idea that because they’re pleased about that they are all sitting there in their various meetings going “it’s fine” - nothing needs doing here.
Do you think they’ve not noticed there are swathes of empty season ticket seats at matches ?

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Do you really get the sense the club are complacent. ? (They’ve added in extra seats, frozen ticket prices, tried all sorts of things with sharing and changing names on season tickets , ramped up membership schemes, do all manner of outreach stuff to kids , behind scenes do loads of surveys, talking to fans, engagement etc , a fan advisory board, are building a big new external fan zone). I’ve no idea if its enough but I think it’s ok for them to be bullish about how things are going with ticket sales numbers (look better than most predicted certainly on here) without the idea that because they’re pleased about that they are all sitting there in their various meetings going “it’s fine” - nothing needs doing here.
Do you think they’ve not noticed there are swathes of empty season ticket seats at matches ?

I think they are complacent yes - hard not to come to that conclusion when you regularly read PB's programme notes.

How they come up with these ideas (some of which have had an adverse impact on existing supporters) I don't know. But I think the empties at a time when there's a lot of reasons we should be growing the fanbase suggest there's still work to be done.

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[chaileyjem]

I think they are complacent yes - hard not to come to that conclusion when you regularly read PB's programme notes.

How they come up with these ideas (some of which have had an adverse impact on existing supporters) I don't know. But I think the empties at a time when there's a lot of reasons we should be growing the fanbase suggest there's still work to be done.

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Sure there’s more the club could do - but hard to suggest they haven’t changed or introduced multiple things to adapt to Covid and the last difficult couple of years (not all fans agree with them , some have cited them on here as reasons to cancel their tickets, but Barber being bullish in his programme notes or coming up with ideas that some fans don’t like is not evidence of complacency. )

 

[Guinness Boy]

Except We always lose between 5-10 per cent every season. The peak at the Amex was 96 around promotion time and 89 post Sami .
Last year was 92 but in the end they sold more STs than ever before leading up to August (24K) and if you believe the club they’re on track to doing that again. - which would be higher than any season.
Clubs always lose a few thousand every year due to things mostly beyond their control. (In my family cos my Dad is ill, and my son is going to Uni) - but yes some will have a list of issues that might well worry the various Albion teams (price, form, sharing , match day experience)
Nearly every game sells out - even games like Norwich are only a handful of tickets away from sell out - so match day tickets aren’t seemingly suffering either . I guess club are worried about match day attendance (sharing ? , Covid) and obviously there’s no longer a massive waiting list (it was reported at 7K - once) but now we have thousands of Albion + members and a higher capacity (31,800)
But framing it as a slump that needs arresting ? - what slump ?

Every game "sells out" but there are banks of empty seats at every single one. Club seem quite reluctant to release the figures though.

Some clubs lose a few thousand. Liverpool still have many dead "Season Ticket Holders" because they have a waiting list and we don't. That's entirely my point.

What slump? 6 defeats in a row, 1 goal, boring football and one of the worst home records in the division.

 

[chaileyjem]

Every game "sells out" but there are banks of empty seats at every single one. Club seem quite reluctant to release the figures though.

Some clubs lose a few thousand. Liverpool still have many dead "Season Ticket Holders" because they have a waiting list and we don't. That's entirely my point.

What slump? 6 defeats in a row, 1 goal, boring football and one of the worst home records in the division.

The games do sell out.
They don’t “sell out”
Yes. Fans are not turning up for matches they’ve paid for / didn’t start this season though and as you say hard to tell if it’s getting worse or similar to other clubs due to numbers not being made public.
Yes of course there’s a slump in form which Potter or ultimately Barber / Bloom has to address - but this is a thread about ticket sales which haven’t slumped perhaps surprisingly and show few signs - yet - of doing so.