Season Tickets 2014/15

[Tim of the Oak]

Who is this Number1bkue you speak of Dim of the oak ?

I've heard he's not very bright either!

 

[squirtyflower]

I don't think that's a fair analogy mate.

Cars are strictly material, football clubs are not. However that is clearly the level that most modern club executives would like to boil it down to, and we allow them to, which is unfortunate, and tragic, IMO.

This goes beyond City, my previous rant was part of a larger disillusionment with the way the modern game is. The thing is, it doesn't even have to be this way, look at Germany.

We get a shit deal over here, and we just accept it. I don't think we should.

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

Stop attending. Stop moaning about it, and just reluctantly accepting it as part of the modern game.

Fuck that. Don't renew.

Widespread communication between fanbases, in order to make sure every top flight club adhered to the stay away mantra. It would have to be a joint venture.

Premier League fixtures played in front of empty stadiums.

That would cause a huge stir. Below the Premier League, there are much more financial issues, so it's more debatable - some might argue it could harm their club. But in the Premier League, it's just plain greed.

The increased revenue from the new TV rights deal means that each Premier League club will earn, on average, and extra £25 million from TV revenue this season. That absolutely dwarfs the revenue from gate receipts, and means that this area of a club's income is now an even smaller proportion of their overall income than it already was.

But they still continue to fuck us for every penny we have, and they know they can because we just accept it. If we want it to change we have to show that we are no longer willing to accept it.

That's all it will take.

Is that all?

Never going to happen. There are plenty of people who can afford it, including those that are changing the fan landscape and leading to different atmospheres, and they are not going to stay away. It's not like you can call a general strike

 

[squirtyflower]

I don't think Value Gold season tickets should be used as much of a defence of the overall club policy of increasing the cost of match tickets. The Value Gold seasoncards represent nothing more than a token gesture IMO, their percentage of the 36,000 total is so small it's an insignificance, but it allows the club to claim at being among the cheapest season tickets.

I read this quite a lot, what evidence are you basing this on, or is it just an assumption.
You say it's a token gesture and an insignificant percentage of total sales.
Exactly how many is it?

 

[Kippaxstreetheadache]

So what do you suggest the fans do about it

Stop attending. Stop moaning about it, and just reluctantly accepting it as part of the modern game.

Fuck that. Don't renew.

Widespread communication between fanbases, in order to make sure every top flight club adhered to the stay away mantra. It would have to be a joint venture.

Premier League fixtures played in front of empty stadiums.

That would cause a huge stir. Below the Premier League, there are much more financial issues, so it's more debatable - some might argue it could harm their club. But in the Premier League, it's just plain greed.

The increased revenue from the new TV rights deal means that each Premier League club will earn, on average, and extra £25 million from TV revenue this season. That absolutely dwarfs the revenue from gate receipts, and means that this area of a club's income is now an even smaller proportion of their overall income than it already was.

But they still continue to fuck us for every penny we have, and they know they can because we just accept it. If we want it to change we have to show that we are no longer willing to accept it.

That's all it will take.

Is that all?

Never going to happen. There are plenty of people who can afford it, including those that are changing the fan landscape and leading to different atmospheres, and they are not going to stay away. It's not like you can call a general strike

I disagree. I don't think there are 725,000 people (the average number of people who attend a Premier League game each weekend) with a large disposable income and a sufficient love of football, just waiting in the wings to snap up tickets left by a boycott.

It would have an effect, an enormous one.

Will it ever happen? No, probably not.

As moomba said previously, people will likely just continue to reluctantly accept it. Those who can't afford it, will be gradually priced out, and replaced.

Stadiums will continue to grow more and more sterile, and who knows, maybe the 'Premier League product' will die as a result.

That's the only way the big wigs will take any notice, is if they're hit where it hurts; their pockets.

We can do that with a boycott. Make no mistake.

 

[squirtyflower]

@kippaxheadache
You said your card is £715, is that including platinum?
Are you in Colin Bell, ex Maine Stander?

 

[LoveCity]

Cup schemes may suffer if the non-stop season ticket hikes continue. I'm just one (who goes to every home game, even the worst attended) who may have to sack off certain cup schemes if the season ticket price rises significantly again and I'm not sure I'd be the only one.

Do we not have an organisation that speaks for the fans? The Spirit of Shankly group went to the press when Liverpool raised non-Kop season ticket prices for this season.

 

[ssouthstand116]

I have just turned 16 this year meaning my ticket will go up for the 14/15 season. The last 3 seasons I have paid for my season ticket, extra cup games, away games and a trip to wembley by myself with very minimum funding from my parents they have paid for a few odd games here and there, but still..

So this year I have had to try to scrape together the money and I have managed to do it, thanks god! So I will be renewing but away games and extra cup games will be cut down next season as I think it will be my last season ticket for a few years until I have a proper job and can afford it, and I'm absolutely gutted.

I know we have the best value for money season tickets in the league but it is still a ridiculous price, all clubs have ridiculous prices for season tickets. It is no longer a working mans game. The club would much rather have 48000 seats filled with business men paying 1000+ a season than have the real fans who will sing and get behind the team! and as I'm sure I'm not the only one, I will very shortly be priced out of the game.

 

[Fame Monster]

Season tickets expensive at the Etihad???? You have got to be shitting me?!

So, I guess booze, fags and takeaway have been off the menu for the last few decades then, too, eh?

Soooooo tired of hearing this argument EVERY FUCKING YEAR!

There are 36,000 season tickets and the ground is being made bigger just so the people WAITING FOR ONE can get one, yet people are whinging as if they are somehow entitled to one because they have been a fan for a while and don't like the club moving up in the world or attracting to "middle class" fans?!

In case you didn't see it, the City Season Ticket is the BEST VALUE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE, and the quality of the football you have been treated to the past few seasons has been some of the best, if not THE BEST, I have seen in the 40 odd years I have been going.

Step back and grab some perspective. The best seat in the stadium is about £700. Over 52 weeks, that is less than £15 a week. Cheapest season ticket is £300, or less than £6 a week!!

So, back to my first sentence!

But, if you don't drink, don't smoke and don't eat out, and that's still too much for you, I understand your dilemma and hope you are able to get to a game or two when able.

Absolute pure and unadulterated nonsense.

You have absolutely no right to condemn long standing blues for complaining about year on year prices increases.

You would though, wouldn't you? As you don't pay for tickets or season tickets.

One of the main reasons our individual ticket prices and season ticket prices are increasing year on year is due to an increase in demand from new fans like yourself. Without that increase in demand, from people like yourself, who couldn't haven't given a shit about us when we were managed by Pearce for example, the club wouldn't be able to increase the prices, even with all the success in the world - as people who couldn't afford the increases in cost were priced out of season tickets, and subsequently be forced to attend less regularly, or altogether, those seats wouldn't be filled. The demand wouldn't be there.

It's the new fans, as well as the success, which has allowed the club to increase ticket prices year on year.

For some strange reason we have no right to complain when we're expected to pay more and more each season due to an increase in demand from people who couldn't have given a shit about us a few years back?

Sound logic.

As for your 'points', they're all redundant, and the majority are incorrect.

Our season tickets are not the best value in the league. They're fairly average in terms of cost among the top clubs. In fact, for comparison, for the past two years a season ticket in the lower tier of the Streford End would cost you less than an equivalent Gold seasoncard in the South Stand lower. This is from a club we've traditionally seen as notorious for ripping off its fans.

My season ticket cost £715 this season. That averages £37.60 per game. I don't consider that value, irrespective of the quality of football we now enjoy.

Your maths is entirely incorrect, and I highly doubt you've been a fan of over 40 years if you think a season ticket includes every single game at home. It doesn't. It includes 19 league games, that's it. Hence I pay an average of £37.60 per league game.

Every other game at home is an extra cost to consider.

And since our individual ticket prices are increasing the most, this cost is considerable.

I don't think Value Gold season tickets should be used as much of a defence of the overall club policy of increasing the cost of match tickets. The Value Gold seasoncards represent nothing more than a token gesture IMO, their percentage of the 36,000 total is so small it's an insignificance, but it allows the club to claim at being among the cheapest season tickets in the league. It's tokenism at it's very purest.

Every year we're expected to pay more. Some might justify that and point to the football, and our phenomenal increase in fortunes on the pitch.

However, my response is simple. I didn't demand a successful City, a City paying the best salaries in the sporting world. I would still be attending games regularly if we were managed by Pearce. Managers come and go, players come and go, chairmen come and go, but our support remains constant. That's what has made this club different, that's what made this club so special and attractive to kids like me where the alternative was the soulless corporate glory of United.

That is all changing. As the ticket prices increase year on year, our match going support will change. It already has, and is continuing to do so. It's gentrification. And this sport is the only place where it's accepted and even readily justified.

Even if you're in a privileged enough position to afford every increase in cost, with no repercussions for the amount of games you attended; if the whole demographics of our match going crowd changed, and all the season ticket holders you meet and greet around you on a match day are priced out, and replaced by floating new fans, who have no real affinity with this club, what makes that attractive to a real blue?

We essentially become the like-for-like soulless corporate rip-off which we used to deride United for.

That is not something I ever expected City to become a part of, and it's something I wouldn't want to be a part of, irrespective of success or 'glory'.

I make no apologies for saying this, and I expect a lot of flak for saying it, but shortly after the takeover we were assured that we, the fans, we central to everything ADUG had planned for the club - we weren't going to be forgotten. Khaldoon emphasised this over and over again, the truth is, these words have proven to be hollow.

We have a right to be disheartened and disgruntled by this.

Brilliant post mate.

And in response to your question (seen as though most people have tried to avoid it): no, I don't think the on-field success we have had is worth replacing the fanbase with the kind of post-takeover, day-tripper fan you see more and more at Eastlands these days.

On the other hand, I don't think a long-term solution is gonna be found by simply reducing the prices for next year's tickets. I think the only solution is by imposing wage-caps, taking into account the amount of minutes the players play and the attendance of the game (but I can't be arsed fleshing out the idea in detail).

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Season tickets expensive at the Etihad???? You have got to be shitting me?!

So, I guess booze, fags and takeaway have been off the menu for the last few decades then, too, eh?

Soooooo tired of hearing this argument EVERY FUCKING YEAR!

There are 36,000 season tickets and the ground is being made bigger just so the people WAITING FOR ONE can get one, yet people are whinging as if they are somehow entitled to one because they have been a fan for a while and don't like the club moving up in the world or attracting to "middle class" fans?!

In case you didn't see it, the City Season Ticket is the BEST VALUE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE, and the quality of the football you have been treated to the past few seasons has been some of the best, if not THE BEST, I have seen in the 40 odd years I have been going.

Step back and grab some perspective. The best seat in the stadium is about £700. Over 52 weeks, that is less than £15 a week. Cheapest season ticket is £300, or less than £6 a week!!

So, back to my first sentence!

But, if you don't drink, don't smoke and don't eat out, and that's still too much for you, I understand your dilemma and hope you are able to get to a game or two when able.

Absolute pure and unadulterated nonsense.

You have absolutely no right to condemn long standing blues for complaining about year on year prices increases.

You would though, wouldn't you? As you don't pay for tickets or season tickets.

One of the main reasons our individual ticket prices and season ticket prices are increasing year on year is due to an increase in demand from new fans like yourself. Without that increase in demand, from people like yourself, who couldn't haven't given a shit about us when we were managed by Pearce for example, the club wouldn't be able to increase the prices, even with all the success in the world - as people who couldn't afford the increases in cost were priced out of season tickets, and subsequently be forced to attend less regularly, or altogether, those seats wouldn't be filled. The demand wouldn't be there.

It's the new fans, as well as the success, which has allowed the club to increase ticket prices year on year.

For some strange reason we have no right to complain when we're expected to pay more and more each season due to an increase in demand from people who couldn't have given a shit about us a few years back?

Sound logic.

As for your 'points', they're all redundant, and the majority are incorrect.

Our season tickets are not the best value in the league. They're fairly average in terms of cost among the top clubs. In fact, for comparison, for the past two years a season ticket in the lower tier of the Streford End would cost you less than an equivalent Gold seasoncard in the South Stand lower. This is from a club we've traditionally seen as notorious for ripping off its fans.

My season ticket cost £715 this season. That averages £37.60 per game. I don't consider that value, irrespective of the quality of football we now enjoy.

Your maths is entirely incorrect, and I highly doubt you've been a fan of over 40 years if you think a season ticket includes every single game at home. It doesn't. It includes 19 league games, that's it. Hence I pay an average of £37.60 per league game.

Every other game at home is an extra cost to consider.

And since our individual ticket prices are increasing the most, this cost is considerable.

I don't think Value Gold season tickets should be used as much of a defence of the overall club policy of increasing the cost of match tickets. The Value Gold seasoncards represent nothing more than a token gesture IMO, their percentage of the 36,000 total is so small it's an insignificance, but it allows the club to claim at being among the cheapest season tickets in the league. It's tokenism at it's very purest.

Every year we're expected to pay more. Some might justify that and point to the football, and our phenomenal increase in fortunes on the pitch.

However, my response is simple. I didn't demand a successful City, a City paying the best salaries in the sporting world. I would still be attending games regularly if we were managed by Pearce. Managers come and go, players come and go, chairmen come and go, but our support remains constant. That's what has made this club different, that's what made this club so special and attractive to kids like me where the alternative was the soulless corporate glory of United.

That is all changing. As the ticket prices increase year on year, our match going support will change. It already has, and is continuing to do so. It's gentrification. And this sport is the only place where it's accepted and even readily justified.

Even if you're in a privileged enough position to afford every increase in cost, with no repercussions for the amount of games you attended; if the whole demographics of our match going crowd changed, and all the season ticket holders you meet and greet around you on a match day are priced out, and replaced by floating new fans, who have no real affinity with this club, what makes that attractive to a real blue?

We essentially become the like-for-like soulless corporate rip-off which we used to deride United for.

That is not something I ever expected City to become a part of, and it's something I wouldn't want to be a part of, irrespective of success or 'glory'.

I make no apologies for saying this, and I expect a lot of flak for saying it, but shortly after the takeover we were assured that we, the fans, we central to everything ADUG had planned for the club - we weren't going to be forgotten. Khaldoon emphasised this over and over again, the truth is, these words have proven to be hollow.

We have a right to be disheartened and disgruntled by this.

Great post


Btw why is there not some kind of fan representation for us, like lverpool with spirit of shankly , we don't seem to have anything to stick up for our fans.

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

I have just turned 16 this year meaning my ticket will go up for the 14/15 season. The last 3 seasons I have paid for my season ticket, extra cup games, away games and a trip to wembley by myself with very minimum funding from my parents they have paid for a few odd games here and there, but still..

So this year I have had to try to scrape together the money and I have managed to do it, thanks god! So I will be renewing but away games and extra cup games will be cut down next season as I think it will be my last season ticket for a few years until I have a proper job and can afford it, and I'm absolutely gutted.

I know we have the best value for money season tickets in the league but it is still a ridiculous price, all clubs have ridiculous prices for season tickets. It is no longer a working mans game. The club would much rather have 48000 seats filled with business men paying 1000+ a season than have the real fans who will sing and get behind the team! and as I'm sure I'm not the only one, I will very shortly be priced out of the game.

You are exactly the type of supporter that the club should be falling over itself to retain if it has any sense.
We have the second oldest match going fan base (after Everton) in the PL with many fans. like myself, starting to support the
club in the Mercer/Allison days when we were children. Very few of us will still be going in 20 years time whereas you
might still be attending matches for the next 50-60. Currently the club is looking at both expanding the stadium (slowly)
and increasing match day & season ticket prices. The whole strategy is to maximise profit from match day income and it's
short sighted bollocks. We need to increase our match going support by attracting more younger fans through lower
pricing and a much larger stadium (do the North Stand extension as well ffs) or we risk disappearing up our own
backside in a few years time. There is no point in having a Family Stand if people can't continue watching the club when they
become young adults. I've no idea how many Value Gold tickets we sell but it comes across more as a marketing gimmick than
anything else. Football is cyclical and the "day tripper" support won't be there long term whereas the likes of yourself will,
or bloody well should be, if the club is adopting a "holistic" approach to fan welfare.