n1 gull
Well-known member
Well the club had to do something given Covid safety measures and digital tickets. So keeping things the same wasn't an option.
And I'm sure a cheaper scheme - might encourage some take up/reduce friction - although i guess there are all sorts of economic reasons , aside from the membership fee, for encouraging Albion + membership. The ability to being able to market tickets/merch/etc to someone who has already attended a game is valuable for the club.
but we already know that several ST holders and non ST holders on here have already expressed objection to the idea of any fee/extra cost in principle. .
And of course several ST holders on here - and i guess a fair few more - presumably not engaged with threads like this or NSC or social media - are also quite happy with the scheme and are using it given -* for them * its marginal cost / ease of use.
Also there will be a percentage - perhaps the highest percentage given the pandemic - who can't attend for holiday, Covid, weddings, general health reasons - who aren't that bothered about ensuring their ticket is taken - regardless of a scheme being in place (free or fee), or whatever the club do (tweaking the exchange service ) for example. Their reasons for non attendance are largely beyond the clubs control .
And its pretty remarkable given everything that so many season ticket holders and 1901 club members have renewed this season. - I guess the ability to change the name on a season ticket, move your season tickets with ease, having a ticket sharing scheme (even one that costs) , continue to pay by direct debit with no fees, subsidised travel., the flexibility with refunds/ last season's credit policy, and keeping prices frozen might have helped there.
I think next season will be a different story.
I don't think a lot of people, myself included understood how the ticket system worked.
I do now and I very much doubt I'll be renewing but will buy the odd ticket on adhoc basis