I hate to say this, but there are elements of what Scholes said where he has a point
We are oversubscribed with a waiting list for STs as the previously linked article points out very clearly, but despite the majority of PL games selling out, we often don't look that full for home PL games. That means we have a substantial number of ST holders (a small percentage but still I think a reasonable number) who don't go to all the games they are entitled to. One reason I'm sure is that particularly midweek games can be a real nightmare to travel to & from
For CL games, I'm sure it's mainly down to money, but the fact remains they should be significantly better attended than they are. Put to one side the fact it's Scholes that started this thread, put to one side whether it's money or something else and surely most on here will agree we should be getting higher attendances for CL games ?
I think one of the issues is loyalty points & direct debit scheme. It's very clever of the club to take the opposite stance that United did - United at one stage (I think possibly still) made it compulsory for ST holders to buy tickets to the home cup games. We said it's entirely up to the ST holders what cup games you buy for and conveniently offered the DD scheme as a great option. But the way loyalty points work, particularly in conjunction with platinum, I now feel railroaded into being platinum and a member of all 3 schemes for fear that if I don't, I'll slip too far behind with my points (I have 2 STs each with c. 10k points)
But I'm still falling down the points pecking order (I only go to circa 4-5 away games per season) and I've paid £100 across 2 tickets for platinum, had rising ST costs and currently, getting debited every week in relation to CL and Carling Cup games. I think next season, I'll most likely drop down to gold and drop all the cup schemes. I'll just pick & choose the odd game to go to until the later stages of the competition. It will be cheaper to pay a premium for a final ticket if I have to pay over the odds because I have insufficient points than all the cumulative costs during the season of going to all the earlier games
I'm sure there are plenty of others in not totally unsimilar positions to me and that would explain why on CL nights, I barely recognise any of the people around me compared to the ST holders for the PL games
I don't know what the answer is because by football standards, we are very reasonable as a club in what we charge for early rounds of the cup competitions. But I'm sure money/costs is one of the principle reasons for the low attendances for CL games. I can imagine the difficulties getting to the ground for what are always (for CL) midweek games doesn't help. How the club address this, short of including the group CL games in the ST price, I'm not sure
We are oversubscribed with a waiting list for STs as the previously linked article points out very clearly, but despite the majority of PL games selling out, we often don't look that full for home PL games. That means we have a substantial number of ST holders (a small percentage but still I think a reasonable number) who don't go to all the games they are entitled to. One reason I'm sure is that particularly midweek games can be a real nightmare to travel to & from
For CL games, I'm sure it's mainly down to money, but the fact remains they should be significantly better attended than they are. Put to one side the fact it's Scholes that started this thread, put to one side whether it's money or something else and surely most on here will agree we should be getting higher attendances for CL games ?
I think one of the issues is loyalty points & direct debit scheme. It's very clever of the club to take the opposite stance that United did - United at one stage (I think possibly still) made it compulsory for ST holders to buy tickets to the home cup games. We said it's entirely up to the ST holders what cup games you buy for and conveniently offered the DD scheme as a great option. But the way loyalty points work, particularly in conjunction with platinum, I now feel railroaded into being platinum and a member of all 3 schemes for fear that if I don't, I'll slip too far behind with my points (I have 2 STs each with c. 10k points)
But I'm still falling down the points pecking order (I only go to circa 4-5 away games per season) and I've paid £100 across 2 tickets for platinum, had rising ST costs and currently, getting debited every week in relation to CL and Carling Cup games. I think next season, I'll most likely drop down to gold and drop all the cup schemes. I'll just pick & choose the odd game to go to until the later stages of the competition. It will be cheaper to pay a premium for a final ticket if I have to pay over the odds because I have insufficient points than all the cumulative costs during the season of going to all the earlier games
I'm sure there are plenty of others in not totally unsimilar positions to me and that would explain why on CL nights, I barely recognise any of the people around me compared to the ST holders for the PL games
I don't know what the answer is because by football standards, we are very reasonable as a club in what we charge for early rounds of the cup competitions. But I'm sure money/costs is one of the principle reasons for the low attendances for CL games. I can imagine the difficulties getting to the ground for what are always (for CL) midweek games doesn't help. How the club address this, short of including the group CL games in the ST price, I'm not sure