I'm not sure if I'm reading this bit right. Is it saying that the one off season fee of '£10-30' will replace the match by match booking fee? If it does* anyone buying 15 tickets a year will be better off.
*IF it does.
.
Please don't patronise me. I go to 80% of away games and know most of the people that you are talking about. If you think more than a handful of them make literally every game a season you are deluded.
The difference with an away season ticket is the tickets will be real tickets instead of being downloaded onto the smartcard. In theory if you cannot get to a specific away game you can pass the ticket onto a friend. We do have a number of diehard fans who are addicted to 50+ Albion games a season.
The scheme seems perfectly reasonable so far. STH pay nothing, the maximum joining fee is £30 which will include a smart card on which I assume can load e-cash and get matchday discounts (not currently available to paper ticket holders), an away ST for those who wish to have one. Plus other unspecified 'benefits', which in all probability will be underwhelming but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Most importantly tickets will still be available to non-members on general sale should any remain (not a problem this year I would imagine). Honestly you would think we were all being held at gun-point and robbed of our life savings they way some people are carrying on. This scheme is all about the club preparing for life at the highest level, getting systems up and running now so that should we get to the PL then the transition should be smoother. What's wrong with that? Membership schemes such as this are common practice in football now, we are not being singled out for harsh treatment by the club.
I get that some people are disillusioned with the way that modern football is these days, ironically if we get to the PL I may become more jaded myself. However that is the world that the Albion inhabits now and it has to get with the programme. I think the scheme is perfectly reasonable and it offers benefits to those who cannot make every game but would like ensure they can get to matches when they wish.
Bloom has invested over £100m in saving this football club and he is going to do everything he can to make sure we can compete at the highest possible level, this is just one small part of that.
I for one do not feel remotely ripped off by this scheme. I am a FAN but customers always get better looked after than fans who always get taken for granted, so I do not get het up about that distinction.
Yes we do. I am one of them, so are several of my friends, plus lots of faces I recognise from away days. Why would anyone commit to every away game before the season starts though? If they waived the booking fee for the season, you would save £46, maybe add a few cup games in to make it up to £50, that is at best 2 match tickets. That is pure speculation and the best they could offer, as they cannot discount away tickets. So get an away membership and commit to missing two or less games to save a bit of money, or don't and still get all the tickets you want. We always buy our tickets in bulk anyway so the £2 fee is not the true cost anyway. So away season tickets are completely pointless.
In a word I think it's bollocks
As someone said earlier in thread why the club can't consult with it's fans (customers) on a regular basis about its commercial, logistics, catering, merch and a whole range of things is mystifying. It's not difficult at all. In any other business customers views are regularly sought before a product/service launch, during the development and after.
Seems to me the club is becoming increasingly arrogant
I often speak to a customer at work who is a Leeds fan who has a home ST and an away ST and he paid roughly £700 for his last away season ticket. If he cannot get to the odd away game he passes on the ticket to other Leeds fans in the Grimsby/Cleethorpes area so the ticket isn't wasted. If Paul Barber has identified a demand for something he won't let it pass by.
The overall changes seem relatively reasonable, but just bloody pointless.
The market is very simple, people go to games and pay their money. The club have clearly found a method of price discrimination and they're proceeding to extract the maximum they can from every consumer. Will the membership fee paid by those who get the first pick of the seats subsidise the ticket prices of those who pick last? Not a chance. The club is making more money out of exactly the same product by selling the it-at a higher price-to those willing to pay more for it.In a word I think it's bollocks
As someone said earlier in thread why the club can't consult with it's fans (customers) on a regular basis about its commercial, logistics, catering, merch and a whole range of things is mystifying. It's not difficult at all. In any other business customers views are regularly sought before a product/service launch, during the development and after.
Seems to me the club is becoming increasingly arrogant