Seasoncard Renewals 2017/18

[IWasHere]

There must be a reason, as you've said the extra money made is surely nothing to the club in reality. But there must be a reason for it, I refuse to believe that the club would raise the prices for the sake of it or for an extra little bit of money. It would be made easier if the club came out with a reason.

Not that I'm too bothered, I understand why others are though. To me paying some of the cheapest prices to watch one of the best teams in England, maybe Europe is fine by me, even if it has gone up by £15-£20. But like I say, I can understand some peoples frustrations.

Are we?

 

[oakiecokie]

Fucking hell its a hard life being a City fan nowadays.
Long gone are the days when we actually loved taking the piss out of ourselves,with some wonderful comical choral verses coming from our fans.Wasn`t it great when we got beat by the Rags twice a fucking year and the euphoria of even getting a point out of `em.
What now ?
Well we`ve had some pearlers over the past few months and I give you a small selection of complaints and whinging :
Refs and when its not the refs its the linesmen and when its not the linesmen,its the opposition and when its not the opposition its the queue and when its not the queues its the shit service on the concourse and when its not the concourse it the new strip and when its not the new strip its Showsec and when its not Showsec its smoking in the bogs and when its not smoking in the bogs its pissing in the sinks and when its not pissing in the sinks its the fucking points system and when its not the points system its the Ticket Office and when its not the Ticket Office its the parking and when its not the parking its the tram s and when its not the trams its Match of the Day and when its not Match of the day its Sky and when its not Sky its BT Sky and when its not BT Sky its Jeff Stelling and his motley crew and when its not Jeff Stelling and his motley crew its the FA and when its not the FA its UEFA and when its not UEFA its ticket price increases and when its not Ticket Price increases its ST arriving late and when its not Season Tickets arriving late its the BBC website and when its not the BBC website its the MEN and its reporters and when its not the MEN reporters its a FUCKING MIRACLE !!
And don`t get me started on running out of chips at half time the useless twats !!
Does any fucker listen at the Club ???
And breathe slowly Oakie.

 

[Why Always Ste]

I have many great memories in recent times and they have been due to the sizeable investment of ADUG, but don't for a second think this was a Gift.
And to put things in context, Sheikh Mansour Made the same amount of money he has spent on this Football Project simply by buying Barclays bank, then selling it on (£2bn)

Our local club was bought as a PR exercise, a vehicle to Promote his connected businesses.
With this has brought happiness on the green grass.

But off the pitch, particularly since the arrival of Soriano... Me myself I've become more disillusioned with Modern Football, and this isn't wholly City's fault.
However at the stadium, I'm treated more and more like something to monetize.
I feel less comfortable in showing any passion for the club. And often I feel like I'm suspected of something ( before I've even done anything wrong)
I notice this much more as I work in Security myself and see the operations inside the stadium, with constant camera surveillance. It's so uncomfortable, I just can't unwind as much.
Whereas at concerts, other sporting events and away matches, it's a far more carefree approach from the authorities (in this country)

So is it worth £620?
Not for me no.
That money has to go on other things anyway but I could've put extra work in and so on... But I don't enjoy home matches due to the sterile atmosphere which has dampened so much in recent years. full of jcls.

I've chosen to watch at home, And attend Academy matches instead.

Someone out there will feel that £620ST is worth it, and they will bite the clubs hand off for that seat.
I hope they can enjoy it, and sing just as much as I have over these years.... Backing the Dolly Blues :)

Cheaper pricing with areas such as Safe Standing for like minded supporters who want to stand and sing and not be frowned upon by Showsec?
I'll be the first in the queue but for now I feel i'll be waiting awhile as the club makes more money from tourists and corporates.

Enjoy next season Blues.
Hope you make some noise and back the team.

 

[alib]

Chelsea have frozen and reduced a few prices despite them being favourites to win the league. Here we are increasing season ticket prices whilst struggling to finish top 4. Liverpool have frozen their prices and they're currently doing better than us in the league. Their neighbours have frozen and reduced prices in certain areas. Burnley have frozen their prices too. That's all I know so far...

...Oh and even the rags have frozen their prices.....

West Ham are reducing their season ticket prices

 

[KnaresboroughBlue]

So is it worth £620?

That's ultimately what it comes down to for each individual. Is it worth it? Only each individual can decide that for himself. For me it still is. I must admit that I still enjoy going to games. I am aware that there are issues but I find that they don't really affect my enjoyment of the game/day except for poor officiating and City can't really control that.

Some of the main issues that have been raised are:

Season ticket prices - I still find it reasonably good value in comparison to other top clubs. I understand that this price increase will bring in minimal significant extra income but that would be the case whenever prices go up, so do we expect them never to go up? We had a freeze last year and minimal increase this time, which I would prefer to 5 years of price freeze then a big increase. I look at what it costs me per game and to me it is reasonable. I do feel sorry for those that are priced out but I suppose supporters have been priced out at various stages over the last 20+ years. Unfortunately, not everyone could afford a season ticket even when prices were lower. I think pricing of match day tickets is a far more important area of concern.

Other prices - I don't usually buy drink or food in the stadium otherwise I'd miss half the game in the toilets, so this doesn't really affect me again. I prefer to have my drinks before and after and I do that outside the stadium. Stuff in the club shop is over priced in a lot of cases but that isn't something unique to City and again I rarely shop there except for Christmas. We don't have to spend our money on things we deem to be poor value.

Atmosphere - It doesn't seem much worse than a few years ago to me. It has been generally poor for some time now. We still see that the atmosphere can be good for certain games so it's not as if the potential isn't there and we shouldn't forget that the atmosphere for a lot of games on the terraces of Maine Road wasn't very good either. I doubt prices affect the atmosphere that much. At various times there have been cheap tickets for certain cup games and I haven't detected any real difference in. atmosphere. Maybe safe standing will help with this should it ever be introduced but I'm not sure if this will have much affect. We have an area now where standing is allowed and it isn't exactly a cauldron of noise. Moving into a new stadium is always going to have a bit of a negative impact as people that used to sit/stand together ended up dotted all around the stadium. An ageing fan base also isn't going to help. Would cheaper tickets bring in younger fans? Quite possibly but I'm not totally convinced that it would make much difference.

Queueing - I don't think I have ever queued more than 5 mins for a game yet. Maybe I have just been lucky but I don't see it as much of a problem personally. I guess the club have to cover their backs and at least be seen to be trying to do something to increase security even though I doubt that it is particularly effective.

Match day experience - I tend to get into the stadium shortly before lick off and spend half-time on the spirals so I don't really experience this too much and while it isn't to my taste it does appeal to some people.

I remember my days as a kid at Maine Road and if I'm honest probably enjoyed it more despite the crap football on offer and poor facilities but that was probably because I was a lot younger then and we do tend to remember things was being better than they really were. I'm not sure I'd feel the same now. As we grow older we change. Football has changed as well and so has society. In many ways for the better but in some ways for the worse. Those days are gone and aren't coming back regardless of what we do with prices, standing, food and drink etc and to be honest I wouldn't even want to return to what is used to be. We either have to embrace or accept what it has become or give it up and find something else to do. I am fortunate enough that I am able to overlook some of these problems and still gain a great deal of enjoyment in going to matches.

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

I think deep down we have always known as supporters where we stand, or sit in the pecking order. When times weren't so bad the club pushed the prices up a bit and people were waiting to step in if others didn't pay it. Did the club give a fuck about the fans? No. When the shit hit the fan and we dropped to the old third division they were on bended knees begging us not to desert them.Did the club give a fuck about the fans? No, but they wanted our support to keep the club alive, so there was almost a power transference to the supporters, for a short while.

Fast forward to the takeover and the club held all the power. After years of paying to watch shit football and footballers on the whole, with no prospect of ever winning another trophy we now had hope and in spite of some minor concerns we swallowed the increases because we wanted to be part of this new era after decades in the wilderness. There still seemed to be a connection though with the fans, that bond, the right noises were made, they seemed to fight our corner, understand the needle with the rags, that detestable banner, how much it meant to us to now be able to compete. I can't pinpoint exactly when, where or how but this changed, almost without us seeing it. The season ticket increase isn't the major issue for the annoyance, it is just a catalogue of small insidious issues that has alienated a large proportion of our fan base and if I was the club I would be very concerned indeed.

Think it changed when gary cooke left and we set out to be barca lite ?

 

[Gordyola]

I'm fully against any increase in ticket costs. I believe we're already at the limit of what is acceptable, reasonable and affordable to the average person.

I've got a reasonably well paid job and I can afford my ticket no problem, but I care about those that can't. I've always been brought up with the thinking that we have to look out for our own and I'll stand by any City fan who vents their frustrations at increased ticket prices.

Some fans seem to only care about themselves and have laughed off increases as 'Well, it's only £15 a year!', but it's not about that. It's about the direction the ship is heading. We're on a staircase at the moment and at the top of that staircase are super expensive season tickets, each step we take is another step closer to the top and before you know it, time flies, and you're at the top of the stairs paying through the roof. That's why people are upset, not because of the 'low' amount of the increase, but because of the journey and direction the ticket prices are heading towards.

As a supporter it makes you feel like you're not important, that you're just a customer. When you see these mega TV deals there is absolutely no reason to increase ticket prices further. When you go to the match having paid so much money to be there, you EXPECT to be entertained, you EXPECT to win and the EXPECT to play well on each occasion, and that's hammered home by knowing that the players are on hundreds of thousands of pounds a week. That's what is killing the atmosphere in England. The expectation based on ticket prices and player wages, along with long time, local and die hard fans being slowly driven away by the cost.

The best atmosphere we've ever had at the Etihad was against Hamburg in the Europa League and it's no coincidence that the tickets for that game were a fiver each. It brought in loads of locals, people who can't usually afford it and it made people feel like they weren't just customers. Fans didn't sit on their hands demanding to be entertained because they'd paid through the roof, they came as fans having paid a nominal entrance fee and wanted to cheer the team on loudly because of that.

Well said , this is my view entirely. Just because I can afford it now, it doesn't mean that I don't care for fellow fans who are having to give up. There's a tipping point for everyone and those who are below it at the moment need to think hard and not just be so selfish, it might be them next

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

Fucking hell its a hard life being a City fan nowadays.
Long gone are the days when we actually loved taking the piss out of ourselves,with some wonderful comical choral verses coming from our fans.Wasn`t it great when we got beat by the Rags twice a fucking year and the euphoria of even getting a point out of `em.
What now ?
Well we`ve had some pearlers over the past few months and I give you a small selection of complaints and whinging :
Refs and when its not the refs its the linesmen and when its not the linesmen,its the opposition and when its not the opposition its the queue and when its not the queues its the shit service on the concourse and when its not the concourse it the new strip and when its not the new strip its Showsec and when its not Showsec its smoking in the bogs and when its not smoking in the bogs its pissing in the sinks and when its not pissing in the sinks its the fucking points system and when its not the points system its the Ticket Office and when its not the Ticket Office its the parking and when its not the parking its the tram s and when its not the trams its Match of the Day and when its not Match of the day its Sky and when its not Sky its BT Sky and when its not BT Sky its Jeff Stelling and his motley crew and when its not Jeff Stelling and his motley crew its the FA and when its not the FA its UEFA and when its not UEFA its ticket price increases and when its not Ticket Price increases its ST arriving late and when its not Season Tickets arriving late its the BBC website and when its not the BBC website its the MEN and its reporters and when its not the MEN reporters its a FUCKING MIRACLE !!
And don`t get me started on running out of chips at half time the useless twats !!
Does any fucker listen at the Club ???
And breathe slowly Oakie.

All valid points oakie but has any of them changed for the better ?

 

[waspish]

For me the club should of froze season tickets but fans saying my season ticket has gone up this much over the last say 5 years are missing the point under different owners the season tickets would of still went up! With probably less signings and poorer players.

 

[pissedagain]

ooh, wonder why city were banging the drum last week telling us how the loyalty point system worked.. a lot of us are angry but will still renew, we should pick a live tv game and boycott it the empty swathes of seats will surely get mentioned and the reason why