The Waiting List

[CatMan]

But how many will be actually 'NEW' season ticket holders, are some on this list already season ticket holders who want to relocate? Let's look at the facts...Stoke on a Saturday has not yet sold out...one end is enough at the moment....for now :)

All that number are fresh customers. Yes many may have Blue Memberships, but none are Season Ticket holder. My wife has only a supporter number, was previously a member, and she is 6th on the list!

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

Better close that waiting list, or start returning the deposits. Irrational decision to only expand the one stand when there will shortly be more fans on the waiting list, than new seats

Whilst I personally would have expanded both ends at once I don't think that the club will be closing the waiting list anytime soon.
The first point to consider is that we lose a couple of thousand season ticket holders each Summer through various reasons.
The second point is that I think that the club are keen to do both ends asap. I'm not ITK but if we were to restrict away
supporters and match day sales to current levels we could potentially accommodate 10,250 on the waiting list for
2015-16 bearing in mind we will likely lose 4,000 current season ticket holders in that period. As others have said match day
supporters tickets generate more revenue than season ticket holders but temporarily restricting their supply might in itself
generate more demand for season cards and justify building the second end. The club may take a different view and
aim to increase all 3 sectors at once (season card, match day and away fans). In that case the club may take, for example,
the first 8,000 from the waiting list and offer them season cards (2,000 in 2014-15 and 6,000 in 2015-16) and tell numbers
8,000+ they will be accommodated in later seasons. Obviously if this residual number is very high they will build the second
end. All of this is guesswork but the numbers already signed up suggest the second end will probably be built a year or
two after the first one opens. A lot will depend upon how the team is performing at the time.

 

[Marvin]

I am aware that some of the fans on the waiting list are existing City Card holders but it is a big difference to commit to more or less every home game rather than occasional games. It follows that the crowds will significantly increase when those on the waiting list get their season tickets. They will have gone from attending every 3rd game say to every game.

If there's 6 k waiting now, imagine the numbers when the stand is due to open.

If City are sticking by the plan to extend the one stand, then the waiting list will have to be closed soon otherwise there will be problems when you try and squeeze relocators and those on the waiting list into the new stand. It's probably already impossible

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

I am aware that some of the fans on the waiting list are existing City Card holders but it is a big difference to commit to more or less every home game rather than occasional games. It follows that the crowds will significantly increase when those on the waiting list get their season tickets. They will have gone from attending every 3rd game say to every game.

If there's 6 k waiting now, imagine the numbers when the stand is due to open.

If City are sticking by the plan to extend the one stand, then the waiting list will have to be closed soon otherwise there will be problems when you try and squeeze relocators and those on the waiting list into the new stand. It's probably already impossible

You've raised a couple of good points there mate. I agree that turning people from Blue Card holders into Season Card holders will significantly
increase attendances because some will go from occasional attendees to regular attendees. I certainly attended more games after I got
my first season ticket in 1976. The other point about the second tier re-locators raises a question that you or somebody else may be able to
answer. The question is does the waiting list include people who want to move into these new semi - corporate areas? I believe when people
registered they were asked what price band they preferred? Was one of them £1250+? I don't know. If not does the club have a separate list
of corporate clients that are waiting for these seats? If they do then maybe we need to add another thousand or so (?) to the list. The club stated
that demand for those types of seats was high when they originally announced the expansion.

 

[CatMan]

I am aware that some of the fans on the waiting list are existing City Card holders but it is a big difference to commit to more or less every home game rather than occasional games. It follows that the crowds will significantly increase when those on the waiting list get their season tickets. They will have gone from attending every 3rd game say to every game.

If there's 6 k waiting now, imagine the numbers when the stand is due to open.

If City are sticking by the plan to extend the one stand, then the waiting list will have to be closed soon otherwise there will be problems when you try and squeeze relocators and those on the waiting list into the new stand. It's probably already impossible

You've raised a couple of good points there mate. I agree that turning people from Blue Card holders into Season Card holders will significantly
increase attendances because some will go from occasional attendees to regular attendees. I certainly attended more games after I got
my first season ticket in 1976. The other point about the second tier re-locators raises a question that you or somebody else may be able to
answer. The question is does the waiting list include people who want to move into these new semi - corporate areas? I believe when people
registered they were asked what price band they preferred? Was one of them £1250+? I don't know. If not does the club have a separate list
of corporate clients that are waiting for these seats? If they do then maybe we need to add another thousand or so (?) to the list. The club stated
that demand for those types of seats was high when they originally announced the expansion.

£750-900 was the highest offered. I can only imagine that may be for the reasons of keeping Level 2 as full as possible in the short term. Next years increase alone will see many either attempt to relocate out of Level 2 early or give up for good!

Prices were £299-449, 450-599, 600-749, 750-900.

I am almost tempted myself to move into a vacated seat on Level 2 for next season, so that I can then have 1st shot at the £299 tickets for the 15/16 season. A bit of short term price hike may pay long term dividend for the seasons thereafter.

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

Thanks for the information MaineRoadBlue. Bearing in mind likely price rises in existing areas over the next two years I'm guessing that the £750-£900 category is for second tier seats in the East & West stands towards the North Stand for 2015-16. I think that the new semi-corporate seats towards the South Stand will be more expensive. That implies that there is another list somewhere which makes the decision to only build one end seem very cautious.

On the other hand the one thing we haven't really considered in all this is the issue of Safe Standing at higher density. If and it's a big if, Safe Standing was made legal at PL level and German type densities of up to 1.8 standing v 1 seating were allowed, then a 62,000 capacity stadium would
become a 70,000 capacity stadium with the conversion of 10,000 seats. Maybe the club thinks that there are just too many ifs and buts to commit to both ends at once. We could potentially get to 60,000 with just the one end built if we had Safe Standing. 70,000 would be too much at the moment.

I'm kinda glad that it wasn't my decision on whether to build one or both ends. I'd have gone with both but Sod's Law dictates that if we had done
Safe Standing would have been legalised. Now we are only building one it won't be!

 

[mostonbluemark]

Its encouraging to see a steady take up to the point where we currently have as good as 6000 on the list. It would seem the Club has to make a decision within the next couple of months on whether it expands one end or both. As others have said its not just the supporters committed to the waiting list but also the perceived new corporate members that the Clubs marketing team may be aware of. It would be a strange decision, given the evidence to date in terms of interest, that they would only commit to one end at this moment. Still, the Club must have good reasons if they do indeed go with the one end option, just hope it doesn't have a negative impact on supporters still joining the list.

 

[Balti]

costwise it must be far more 'efficient' to do both ends at once...?

 

[jrb]

Has anyone got an updated waiting list figure?

 

[Marvin]

Signed up this morning - 5979