Empty seats.. worsening trend?

[squirtyflower]

There should be a clause for season ticket holders .if they dont attend 80 % of the games .they cant renew the year after .let someone have it who will attend

tough shit if you're ill then?

 

[Eccles Blue]

the away fans are not moving ,that's set in stone,,imo the perfect sernario would be to swap the family stand to the south stand , and have all the singing section together in the lower tier north stand,becouse lets face it guys ,if the singing section is not being outsung by away fans they are out singing each other

From what I understand the people in the SS don't want to be away from the away fans because they like the repartee, in fact at times people on this thread have said that they appear to enjoy that as much as the singing.

 

[nomorethaksintimes]

Just read The Swiss Ramble's excellent summary of our financial affairs (http://swissramble.blogspot.ch) - it's a great read. What's telling however is what a meagre amount of revenue is accounted for by matchday ticket sales. It got me thinking that the commercial benefits of a packed stadium week in/week out would lead to commercial gains which would cover any ticket sale revenue drop.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I pay for my season ticket the club get my money, what has it got to do with you if I go or not

Off the top of my head,

1) It's not just a financial transaction; there's implications for the atmosphere and match-day experience of everyone concerned.

2) Getting a season ticket is imho a privilege not a right. And with the privilege comes - again imho - some responsibilities, one of which is to turn up.

3) You are preventing someone else from going.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a season ticket without too much financial pain, but I don't get one because I know I wouldn't be able to go to that many games and I just don't think it's right for the reasons above.

I don't think anyone has a problem with a season ticket holder missing a few games a season. It's the people who have their ST every year and you never see their seat taken from one game to the next. That's what I have issue with. There's many ST holders who go to perhaps 5 games a season or less I reckon.

Please tell me you're not serious. I've got a season ticket in the North Stand with my two lads. Manchester is 250 miles away. We can't make midweekers due to school and work, and 5:30pm kick offs are also a gigantic pain in the arse travel wise, and I am obliged to occasionally knock them on the head if the train ticket prices are exorbitant. However, I've had the season ticket for donkey's years, I'm not about to give it up, and nor am I disposed to take lectures from people who have the good fortune to live 5 minutes away from the ground. I'm sure there are many others in similar circumstances. There's a great big recession on, people do what they can to attend, and no-one is under any obligation to turn up

I am serious. If you can't go to more than half the games, the club should take the seasoncard off you and give it someone else. (I am not talking about 99% attendance, or 80% as has been suggested. But half would seem reasonable imho. If you can't go to half the games, you should not have a season ticket in my view.)

It might piss you right off, but it would make someone else very happy and the stadium would be more full. Overall a good result.

 

[Gingers Dad]

Off the top of my head,

1) It's not just a financial transaction; there's implications for the atmosphere and match-day experience of everyone concerned.

2) Getting a season ticket is imho a privilege not a right. And with the privilege comes - again imho - some responsibilities, one of which is to turn up.

3) You are preventing someone else from going.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a season ticket without too much financial pain, but I don't get one because I know I wouldn't be able to go to that many games and I just don't think it's right for the reasons above.

I don't think anyone has a problem with a season ticket holder missing a few games a season. It's the people who have their ST every year and you never see their seat taken from one game to the next. That's what I have issue with. There's many ST holders who go to perhaps 5 games a season or less I reckon.

Please tell me you're not serious. I've got a season ticket in the North Stand with my two lads. Manchester is 250 miles away. We can't make midweekers due to school and work, and 5:30pm kick offs are also a gigantic pain in the arse travel wise, and I am obliged to occasionally knock them on the head if the train ticket prices are exorbitant. However, I've had the season ticket for donkey's years, I'm not about to give it up, and nor am I disposed to take lectures from people who have the good fortune to live 5 minutes away from the ground. I'm sure there are many others in similar circumstances. There's a great big recession on, people do what they can to attend, and no-one is under any obligation to turn up

I am serious. If you can't go to more than half the games, the club should take the seasoncard off you and give it someone else. (I am not talking about 99% attendance, or 80% as has been suggested. But half would seem reasonable imho. If you can't go to half the games, you should not have a season ticket in my view.)

It might piss you right off, but it would make someone else very happy and the stadium would be more full. Overall a good result.

Season Tickets should be for supporters. Supporters attend matches on a regular basis and worry more about the result than what time they get home.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Off the top of my head,

1) It's not just a financial transaction; there's implications for the atmosphere and match-day experience of everyone concerned.

2) Getting a season ticket is imho a privilege not a right. And with the privilege comes - again imho - some responsibilities, one of which is to turn up.

3) You are preventing someone else from going.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a season ticket without too much financial pain, but I don't get one because I know I wouldn't be able to go to that many games and I just don't think it's right for the reasons above.

I don't think anyone has a problem with a season ticket holder missing a few games a season. It's the people who have their ST every year and you never see their seat taken from one game to the next. That's what I have issue with. There's many ST holders who go to perhaps 5 games a season or less I reckon.

Please tell me you're not serious. I've got a season ticket in the North Stand with my two lads. Manchester is 250 miles away. We can't make midweekers due to school and work, and 5:30pm kick offs are also a gigantic pain in the arse travel wise, and I am obliged to occasionally knock them on the head if the train ticket prices are exorbitant. However, I've had the season ticket for donkey's years, I'm not about to give it up, and nor am I disposed to take lectures from people who have the good fortune to live 5 minutes away from the ground. I'm sure there are many others in similar circumstances. There's a great big recession on, people do what they can to attend, and no-one is under any obligation to turn up

I fucking am serious. If you can't go to more than half the games, the club should take the seasoncard off you and give it someone else. (I am not talking about 99% attendance, or 80% as has been suggested. But half would seem reasonable imho. If you can't go to half the games, you should not have a season ticket in my view.)

It might piss you right off, but it would make someone else very happy and the stadium would be more full. Overall a good result.

The fact that blocks of seats, sometimes as many as ten wide and 3 deep in the North Stand, are empty, should tell you the problem is not season ticket holders not attending (if it were you'd be looking at odd 1's, 2's and 3's), but something else. I sit ten rows back in the lower tier. When we played Kiev at home 4 years ago, the rows in front of me were virtually empty. When we played Madrid they were entirely filled with overseas tourists and student groups in matching track suits, sometimes 20 strong. By inference those blocks of seats are not normally occupied by season ticket holders, and coincidentally they are ones most often seen empty on TV, together with smaller pockets in the East Stand. I would also contend that the stadium was always full when Keggy was manager, and indeed pretty much under Sven and even Hughesless. The sky rocketing prices of the last 3 to 4 years are the main reason seats are empty, not absentee season ticket holders.

 

[LoveCity]

A call to arms to those people who had their banners removed from level 2... work your way around to the Family Stand before games and cover the seats with these flags. :)

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Please tell me you're not serious. I've got a season ticket in the North Stand with my two lads. Manchester is 250 miles away. We can't make midweekers due to school and work, and 5:30pm kick offs are also a gigantic pain in the arse travel wise, and I am obliged to occasionally knock them on the head if the train ticket prices are exorbitant. However, I've had the season ticket for donkey's years, I'm not about to give it up, and nor am I disposed to take lectures from people who have the good fortune to live 5 minutes away from the ground. I'm sure there are many others in similar circumstances. There's a great big recession on, people do what they can to attend, and no-one is under any obligation to turn up

I am serious. If you can't go to more than half the games, the club should take the seasoncard off you and give it someone else. (I am not talking about 99% attendance, or 80% as has been suggested. But half would seem reasonable imho. If you can't go to half the games, you should not have a season ticket in my view.)

It might piss you right off, but it would make someone else very happy and the stadium would be more full. Overall a good result.

Season Tickets should be for supporters. Supporters attend matches on a regular basis and worry more about the result than what time they get home.

Full marks for arrogance. If you want to set the parameters for the definition of a "supporter", perhaps time and money invested, and inconvenience endured, should be included as well as games attended. Either way, unless you've been going fairly religiously, home and away, since the late 70's/early 80's, you're unlikely to worst me in this argument......not that it matters anyway. A supporter is someone who loves his club (preferably since childhood), and attends as often as he can, as his or her financial, domestic, or employment circumstances dictate

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I am serious. If you can't go to more than half the games, the club should take the seasoncard off you and give it someone else. (I am not talking about 99% attendance, or 80% as has been suggested. But half would seem reasonable imho. If you can't go to half the games, you should not have a season ticket in my view.)

It might piss you right off, but it would make someone else very happy and the stadium would be more full. Overall a good result.

Season Tickets should be for supporters. Supporters attend matches on a regular basis and worry more about the result than what time they get home.

Full marks for arrogance. If you want to set the parameters for the definition of a "supporter", perhaps time and money invested, and inconvenience endured, should be included as well as games attended. Either way, unless you've been going fairly religiously, home and away, since the late 70's/early 80's, you're unlikely to worst me in this argument......not that it matters anyway. A supporter is someone who loves his club (preferably since childhood), and attends as often as he can, as his or her financial, domestic, or employment circumstances dictate

Surely the bigger display of arrogance is people who buy season tickets only to turn up for a few games a season. They deny other Blues the chance to go!

A lot of good points have been made on both sides of the debate and the strength of feeling has changed from one of apathy to the majority feeling that this is a genuine problem that needs addressing!

 

[PaleBlue]

I am serious. If you can't go to more than half the games, the club should take the seasoncard off you and give it someone else. (I am not talking about 99% attendance, or 80% as has been suggested. But half would seem reasonable imho. If you can't go to half the games, you should not have a season ticket in my view.)

It might piss you right off, but it would make someone else very happy and the stadium would be more full. Overall a good result.

Season Tickets should be for supporters. Supporters attend matches on a regular basis and worry more about the result than what time they get home.

Full marks for arrogance. If you want to set the parameters for the definition of a "supporter", perhaps time and money invested, and inconvenience endured, should be included as well as games attended. Either way, unless you've been going fairly religiously, home and away, since the late 70's/early 80's, you're unlikely to worst me in this argument......not that it matters anyway. A supporter is someone who loves his club (preferably since childhood), and attends as often as he can, as his or her financial, domestic, or employment circumstances dictate

Can't really argue with that!