[Football] Giving up my season ticket.

[pure_white]

Not giving up but the pre-match yawn womens football (i absolutely hate it so boring) on the screens and fan zone and other rubbish served up is off putting. Gotta arrive in time these days so need a good pair of ear plugs now.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I still can't get over the question a couple of years back around whether the club was going to buy their own trains...

Come on, for those of us who did go, what was answer? Stop keeping us in suspense.

 

[Invicta]

Don't quite get your comment about price differential. STH get about 4 games free. Take most of that away then it's almost what's the point. There is of course the convenience of knowing where you will be sitting each week and pretty much who will be sitting around you. Fair enough if people can't or don't want to commit, especially due to KO times but you can't have your cake and eat it. You either pay at the match day rate or you get the discounted price of a season ticket but you don't get both.

It's 2022, people certainly want their cake and to be able eat it. They certainly don't want someone telling them they can't. And if they actually have their cake, then nobody has the right to make them eat it.

 

[dazzer6666]

Don't quite get your comment about price differential. STH get about 4 games free. Take most of that away then it's almost what's the point. There is of course the convenience of knowing where you will be sitting each week and pretty much who will be sitting around you. Fair enough if people can't or don't want to commit, especially due to KO times but you can't have your cake and eat it. You either pay at the match day rate or you get the discounted price of a season ticket but you don't get both.

Can see loads of people thinking……….well, I can’t lob my ST to a mate now and again because that’s been made too difficult, and with holidays and other commitments I’ll miss 3-4 games every season (particularly as we keep getting screwed over on ko times), so there’s literally no point in me keeping my ST. I can buy a ticket for any game I want, move around the ground to get different views and still get away tickets for most games.

Question for the fan’s forum perhaps

Paul…..I currently have two STs - one for me and one for me and my son. We both go to most games but miss maybe 3 each per season. All of our F&F are already ST holders so we can’t sensibly use the sharing scheme which means one of us now often attends alone resulting in an empty seat because we literally are not allowed to give it away. As tickets for most games - home and away - now go on general sale, what actually are the benefits of having a ST other than being able to sit in the same seat for home games (don’t even start on priority for away games when you often open blocks with a better view to later tiers) ?

 

[pure_white]

Come on, for those of us who did go, what was answer? Stop keeping us in suspense.

many years ago the players arrived by train on the day and the fans travelled with them in carriages behind the leading coach of players/club officials. Happy days. You knew you never be late travelling by train. Cambridge Utd comes to mind. Huge following. Train and then busses laid on. If only we could get this sorta transport now. Happy days.

 

[drew]

Can see loads of people thinking……….well, I can’t lob my ST to a mate now and again because that’s been made too difficult, and with holidays and other commitments I’ll miss 3-4 games every season (particularly as we keep getting screwed over on ko times), so there’s literally no point in me keeping my ST. I can buy a ticket for any game I want, move around the ground to get different views and still get away tickets for most games.

Question for the fan’s forum perhaps

Paul…..I currently have two STs - one for me and one for me and my son. We both go to most games but miss maybe 3 each per season. All of our F&F are already ST holders so we can’t sensibly use the sharing scheme which means one of us now often attends alone resulting in an empty seat because we literally are not allowed to give it away. As tickets for most games - home and away - now go on general sale, what actually are the benefits of having a ST other than being able to sit in the same seat for home games (don’t even start on priority for away games when you often open blocks with a better view to later tiers) ?

My comment was just aimed at the reference to the price differential. The poster no longer wants his ST but now wants the price of his ad hoc match to be the same! Personally I've go no interest in different views, I've tried them in the cup and none, in my opinion, are as good as the view I get in WSU. As for the away tickets, people just look for an excuse to whinge about a block being 10 metres to the left of where they want to be, or 10 rows too low etc etc.

 

[JBizzle]

Come on, for those of us who did go, what was answer? Stop keeping us in suspense.

I am so sorry, how insensitive of me! Paul Barber gave a remarkably patient and well constructed answer that... no. The answer was no. We're not going to buy our own trains.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I think I'm on the verge of giving up mine and my son's STs. Think we'll just pick and choose our games and go match by match in future. As my rant on the Spurs ticket thread, I'm sick of all these fixture movements and just a relentless stream of 8pm KOs. Had the same seats since the Amex opened so will be a shame, but it's just turning into a piss take.

 

[erkan]

The club / Barber will be fine with their stance on STs. Post-COVID era there will be sufficient demand to fill the stadium again.

The only reason to give up a ST is if you don't actually want to go to 14+ matches at The Amex each season. Buying tickets match by match will be more difficult again in future and especially for the more attractive fixtures that you want to attend...

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

The club / Barber will be fine with their stance on STs. Post-COVID era there will be sufficient demand to fill the stadium again.

The only reason to give up a ST is if you don't actually want to go to 14+ matches at The Amex each season. Buying tickets match by match will be more difficult again in future and especially for the more attractive fixtures that you want to attend...

Would you mind telling me the winner of the Grand National this year?

 

[Justice]

The club / Barber will be fine with their stance on STs. Post-COVID era there will be sufficient demand to fill the stadium again.

The only reason to give up a ST is if you don't actually want to go to 14+ matches at The Amex each season. Buying tickets match by match will be more difficult again in future and especially for the more attractive fixtures that you want to attend...

It’s never been difficult to get a match by match ticket since we have been promoted every game I’ve wanted to goto I’ve gone to.

 

[Change at Barnham]

The only reason to give up a ST is if you don't actually want to go to 14+ matches at The Amex each season. Buying tickets match by match will be more difficult again in future and especially for the more attractive fixtures that you want to attend...

I think a Cat A game in my adult seat (Zone D Upper East E3E) is £58, or for a Cat B game £44, or for Cat C it is £42.
I would guess that we have about 6 Cat A games per season?

My season ticket works out £40.52 per game. (+ one-off fee of £20 fee to give it to a friend)

With overseas travel opening up, work commitments starting to increase, challenging kick-off times, and plenty of availability of tickets, it is going to take something special to make me renew.

I reckon the cost break even point is more like missing no more than two games with a season ticket.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The club / Barber will be fine with their stance on STs. Post-COVID era there will be sufficient demand to fill the stadium again.

The only reason to give up a ST is if you don't actually want to go to 14+ matches at The Amex each season. Buying tickets match by match will be more difficult again in future and especially for the more attractive fixtures that you want to attend...

I have an adult and an U18 in the family stand, so I think you're spot on. At £715 for both of us, it's £38 per match for both as ST holders.

Cat A Chelsea next week would be £70. Cat B Tonight £55. Cat C Burnley would be £45 – based on family / cheaper blocks (adult +U18 ticket)

So just breaking down say attending 13 games would equal the value of our ST:
4 x Cat A = £280
3 x Cat B = £165
6 x Cat C = £270
total = £715

That's on the assumption we get tickets in the cheaper areas of the stadium. So need to have a long hard think really whether we'll do say 12 games or more, or happy with say around 10. 10 x Cat C games for us would be £450, a saving of £265 for us over an ST.

Agree with [MENTION=24827]Justice[/MENTION] above, not sure there has been a issue getting match by match tickets if you're organised on sale dates.

 

[BN9 BHA]

The club / Barber will be fine with their stance on STs. Post-COVID era there will be sufficient demand to fill the stadium again.

The only reason to give up a ST is if you don't actually want to go to 14+ matches at The Amex each season. Buying tickets match by match will be more difficult again in future and especially for the more attractive fixtures that you want to attend...

The way things are going I wouldn’t be surprised if every Premier League match is on tv in a few years time, we will see if the Amex is still full then.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I have an adult and an U18 in the family stand, so I think you're spot on. At £715 for both of us, it's £38 per match for both as ST holders.

Cat A Chelsea next week would be £70. Cat B Tonight £55. Cat C Burnley would be £45 – based on family / cheaper blocks (adult +U18 ticket)

So just breaking down say attending 13 games would equal the value of our ST:
4 x Cat A = £280
3 x Cat B = £165
6 x Cat C = £270
total = £715

That's on the assumption we get tickets in the cheaper areas of the stadium. So need to have a long hard think really whether we'll do say 12 games or more, or happy with say around 10. 10 x Cat C games for us would be £450, a saving of £265 for us over an ST.

Agree with [MENTION=24827]Justice[/MENTION] above, not sure there has been a issue getting match by match tickets if you're organised on sale dates.

I find it difficult to process that anyone is prepared to pay 70 quid to watch a football match

 

[chaileyjem]

Would you mind telling me the winner of the Grand National this year?

well ha ! but this thread is full of people predicting this and that about season ticket sales, attendance and so on. And quite gloomy predictions as you'd expect on a thread called "Giving up my season ticket". And i do feel for people who , for whatever reason, can't commit to the Albion anymore. Its expensive and a massive time commitment so fair enough. Things change.

But we do know this...
- we actually have more season ticket holders than ever before
- every single year there will be a lot of fans who decide to give up their season tickets for all sorts of reasons , cost, family, inconvenience, alternatives, health (all reflected in this thread) so its not unusual. Hard to tell from this thread though if its just normal annual turnover or a more worrying (for the club) a series of new trends exacerbated by Covid etc.
- we've just sold another 5 year block of 1901 tickets.
- there's clearly a ongoing issue about attendance (not tickets sold) for some season ticket holders due to Covid, sharing schemes (almost likely to be revised for next season), tv schedules and other factors . So some temporary factors that you'd hope will no longer be there next season but also some long term ones (TV stuff isn't likely to get better)
- we're going to have a cost of living issue for the next 12 months at least which will impact on affordability for some.
- Yet - despite all this - Albion still seem to sell out most , but not all of their football matches home and away, and sold a healthy number of half season tickets only a few weeks ago. And Barber insists that there is a waiting list again. But its obviously a long way from the 8000 he reported a few seasons back.
- Premier League football is all but guaranteed for 22/23

Does this point to a successful season ticket renewal phase in a few weeks time ? I don't know and i don't bet or do the lottery but its probably not wrong to argue that, despite everything, the club has a lot of reasons to feel confident - assuming they fix the sharing scheme, keep a freeze on prices etc - which you'd imagine they will, and its not that much of a punt to suggest as OP argued, that getting a ticket at the Albion is going to become harder not easier from next season.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Does anyone know how the Cat A, B & C games break down, or is it dependent on league position at the time of tickets going on sale?

I'd assume:
CAT A
ManCity
Liverpool
ManUtd
Chelsea
Spurs
Arsenal

CAT B
Palace
Everton
West Ham
Leicester

CAT C
The rest x 9.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

well ha ! but this thread is full of people predicting this and that about season ticket sales, attendance and so on. And quite gloomy predictions as you'd expect on a thread called "Giving up my season ticket". And i do feel for people who , for whatever reason, can't commit to the Albion anymore. Its expensive and a massive time commitment so fair enough. Things change.

But we do know this...
- we actually have more season ticket holders than ever before
- every single year there will be a lot of fans who decide to give up their season tickets for all sorts of reasons , cost, family, inconvenience, alternatives, health (all reflected in this thread) so its not unusual. Hard to tell from this thread though if its just normal annual turnover or a more worrying (for the club) a series of new trends exacerbated by Covid etc.
- we've just sold another 5 year block of 1901 tickets.
- there's clearly a ongoing issue about attendance (not tickets sold) for some season ticket holders due to Covid, sharing schemes (almost likely to be revised for next season), tv schedules and other factors . So some temporary factors that you'd hope will no longer be there next season but also some long term ones (TV stuff isn't likely to get better)
- we're going to have a cost of living issue for the next 12 months at least which will impact on affordability for some.
- Yet - despite all this - Albion still seem to sell out most , but not all of their football matches home and away, and sold a healthy number of half season tickets only a few weeks ago. And Barber insists that there is a waiting list again. But its obviously a long way from the 8000 he reported a few seasons back.
- Premier League football is all but guaranteed for 22/23

Does this point to a successful season ticket renewal phase in a few weeks time ? I don't know and i don't bet or do the lottery but its probably not wrong to argue that, despite everything, the club has a lot of reasons to feel confident - assuming they fix the sharing scheme, keep a freeze on prices etc - which you'd imagine they will, and its not that much of a punt to suggest as OP argued, that getting a ticket at the Albion is going to become harder not easier from next season.

All of that may be true (Paul Barber, if he reads NSC must truly love your contributions), however at least with regard to NSC posters, there is a concerningly large number this year, who in spite of all this, are considering their renewal more carefully.

Perhaps it's indicative of NSC's demographic, and this may indeed be the case, but surely it's not easy reading if for whatever reason, or a multitude of perceived small ills, many of the most staunch Brighton fans from the 60's, 70's onwards, are now in this position.

Personally I am going to renew, but it is mostly due to the family contact I have with my brother and sons. Were it not for that, I would pick and choose matches on a game by game basis due to the many small and larger inconveniences vested upon us by the TV companies, Amex location and lastly, sadly, by the club.

I will reiterate that I am not damning the club with that judgement, I base my own feelings on small petty rules, but I still believe the club is pretty fantastic and very well run.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The way things are going I wouldn’t be surprised if every Premier League match is on tv in a few years time, we will see if the Amex is still full then.

Linked to that, I wouldn't be at all surprised if 3pm kick-offs in the EPL were phased out completely in the next couple of years in favour of whatever time offers the most attractive TV marketing opportunity

 

[herecomesaregular]

My comment was just aimed at the reference to the price differential. The poster no longer wants his ST but now wants the price of his ad hoc match to be the same! Personally I've go no interest in different views, I've tried them in the cup and none, in my opinion, are as good as the view I get in WSU. As for the away tickets, people just look for an excuse to whinge about a block being 10 metres to the left of where they want to be, or 10 rows too low etc etc.

Actually I didn't say that....

What I feel is that the price differential (yes, I suppose looking at the Cat A games) is high enough to make me go ouch and reconsider, which is a shame. Before season tickets at the Amex I paid the same walk up price for every game iirc and I don't really agree with this category A,B, C thing. Tbh, I just haven't moved with the times perhaps and prefer the old days too much, maybe the Premier League razzle dazzle is no longer worth it for me