Season Ticket Pricing

[Guest Thorney811]

Following the release of Season ticket prices for next season, i just wanted to raise my concerns over the pricing policy and the 'fairness' of these prices to the regular fans i.e. the season ticket holders:

The deals in my opinion do not really strike me as the best option for fans? my reason for this are as follows:

- 5 matches for free doesn't seem that fare, i'm sure that when we were playing at a much higher level in previous years we have got at least 6 or 7 matches for free, and we were playing less league games each season due to the number of teams in the league

- The club often have one off deals with discount tickets for certain games and the way of compensating season ticket holders is with points they can spend in the club shop, ultimately the season ticket holder spends more than the free points add upto. . . hardly money saving

- looking at this years fixtures we have 3 tuesday night matches at home and 2 on bank holidays which many fans find it hard to attend

- We are also likely to be shown on Sky once or twice a year

- Holidays abroad often mean tickets go unused for certain games

taking all of the above into account I'm certain a season ticket does not provide us fans the best money for value option and i question why the club have not tried to give the fans at least a quarter of the games for free given the above points? I would have thought that 7 games free would be fairer and if they made it 10 games free then i'm sure we would sell 20,000+

Am i been a little negative or do any of you agree?

[Guest Thorney811]

Note also that the weekend season ticket for the North stand is £346 which is 3 games cheaper than the full one, however there are still holidays, games televised by Sky and one off deals on certain games to consider?

Still not a good deal IMO ?

[Chris C]

Following the release of Season ticket prices for next season, i just wanted to raise my concerns over the pricing policy and the 'fairness' of these prices to the regular fans i.e. the season ticket holders:

The deals in my opinion do not really strike me as the best option for fans? my reason for this are as follows:

- 5 matches for free doesn't seem that fare, i'm sure that when we were playing at a much higher level in previous years we have got at least 6 or 7 matches for free, and we were playing less league games each season due to the number of teams in the league

- The club often have one off deals with discount tickets for certain games and the way of compensating season ticket holders is with points they can spend in the club shop, ultimately the season ticket holder spends more than the free points add upto. . . hardly money saving

- looking at this years fixtures we have 3 tuesday night matches at home and 2 on bank holidays which many fans find it hard to attend

- We are also likely to be shown on Sky once or twice a year

- Holidays abroad often mean tickets go unused for certain games

taking all of the above into account I'm certain a season ticket does not provide us fans the best money for value option and i question why the club have not tried to give the fans at least a quarter of the games for free given the above points? I would have thought that 7 games free would be fairer and if they made it 10 games free then i'm sure we would sell 20,000+

Am i been a little negative or do any of you agree?

I think you're definitely being very negative.

Adult renewals get 6 games free and new adult ST holders get 5 games free. Junior ST holders get between 11 & 16 games free compared to paying match by match. The amount of free games included for 2011/12 is increased on previous seasons for both new STs and renewals. To my knowledge, the value for ST holders hasn't been this high in a long long time (if ever..)

Re: Point 2 above. Apologies for giving essentially free money to Season Ticket holders. We can do a maximum of 4 offer games per season and this is something that we have consciously not done so far this season. Regardless of offer games Season Ticket holders will always get the best deal. What you choose to do with any points added to your account is up to you.

Re: Point 3: Hence the introduction of the Weekend Season Ticket. I don't know of any other clubs off the top of my head that offer such a ticket (I could be wrong, although they are certainly not commonplace.)

The Sky argument is irrelevant as you don't buy a ST to watch games on TV. Your Season Ticket entitles you to a seat for 23 League matches. If you choose not to come and watch TV instead this is up to you - but you can't expect Season Ticket pricing to take into account games you may or may not watch on TV.

I can't legistlate for how many holidays you are going to have or how many games you are going to miss. If you are going to be away regularly, and stay at home and watch TV regularly, then you are probably better off not getting a Season Ticket.

As a Season Ticket holders you also get:

* Cheapest pricing available online

* All prices reduced or frozen from 2010/11

* Free Under 8s Season Ticket with any 18+ ticket purchased

* Great savings compared to match day prices

* Interest Free payment options available

* Community Season Ticket extended to all home areas of the ground

* Grandstand Season Tickets now match North Stand prices

* Priority for away games and cup match tickets

* Collect loyalty points with your WednesdayCard to spend on Owls Merchandise

* Discount on Intercity Owl away travel

* Guaranteed seat for all the big games

We might sell 20,000 with 10 games free but we wouldn't make the same revenues as we do now. Even if ST revenue was the same (or higher due to increased sales) we'd lose revenue overall due to a loss of match day revenues. This would result in smaller budgets for the football team and ultimately players on cheaper wages. This isn't the way to build a long term strategy to create a strong fanbase as the team would be under invested and this would have a detrimental effect on crowds.

Re: the weekend Season Ticket - this covers all Weekend and Bank Holiday games and renewals get the eqivalent of 4 games free compared to paying match by match. Full Season Tickets will always give the best savings, followed by the Weekend ST and then match day purchases.

Chris

[coopswfc76]

Got to say i thought season tickets would have come out a lot cheaper this season mainly to try and build on the new feel good factor from MM.

£300 isnt easy money to come by around Xmas which is basically what your asking people to do, I definately wont have any spare cash til close to season by which time a lot of the benefits of renewing will have gone so will make me think about it a lot more.

Regarding cheaper tickets and revenue would it not be better to sell twice as many season tickets at half price then look to cash in on Merchandise, Food, Drink, Programmes etc? Also if a succesfull season we would guarantee to hold on to 30-40% of those fans season after when ticket prices return to normal.

[Belfast Owl 2]

Got to say i thought season tickets would have come out a lot cheaper this season mainly to try and build on the new feel good factor from MM.

£300 isnt easy money to come by around Xmas which is basically what your asking people to do, I definately wont have any spare cash til close to season by which time a lot of the benefits of renewing will have gone so will make me think about it a lot more.

Regarding cheaper tickets and revenue would it not be better to sell twice as many season tickets at half price then look to cash in on Merchandise, Food, Drink, Programmes etc? Also if a succesfull season we would guarantee to hold on to 30-40% of those fans season after when ticket prices return to normal.

How much would you sell them for? The prices are very reasonable and it seems fans think have a selfish view on things.

£298 paid in DD installments is pretty good value for the cheapest seat.

And the comfiest seats in the house have been reduced this year.

Plus the community tickets are offering reasonable prices again.

[DeeJayOne]

Got to say i thought season tickets would have come out a lot cheaper this season mainly to try and build on the new feel good factor from MM.

£300 isnt easy money to come by around Xmas which is basically what your asking people to do, I definately wont have any spare cash til close to season by which time a lot of the benefits of renewing will have gone so will make me think about it a lot more.

Regarding cheaper tickets and revenue would it not be better to sell twice as many season tickets at half price then look to cash in on Merchandise, Food, Drink, Programmes etc? Also if a succesfull season we would guarantee to hold on to 30-40% of those fans season after when ticket prices return to normal.

Firstly, the Season Ticket offering is the result of several months of hard work - from gathering feedback to consulting supporters to balancing up lots of options over pricing, etc. MM hasn't put together the pricing and policies, but has seen them and has agreed to them.

£300 is extremely reasonable and is the cheapest the tickets have been for a few years. We have done lots of research, including finding out the Season Ticket (and matchday!) prices of ALL League One and Championship clubs and our pricing actually comes out extremely reasonable in comparison.

If you can't afford it all in one go right now there are options for you - you can take out the Interest Free Direct Debit option and pay over 10 months, or you can get an Owls Mastercard and get your Season Ticket interest free for 6 months. Additionally, the deadline is now the middle of March, so you don't HAVE to buy right now (although it obviously would be preferred).

There is no precedent or guarantee to say that we would cover the loss in revenue by making them half the price. Certainly if we sold the same amount as the highest number of season tickets we've ever sold on record then we wouldn't. Cashing in on peripheral outlets isn't guaranteed either and we'd end up with everyone resenting the subsequent increases in prices the following year.

Basically, we've made Season Tickets as affordable as we can. The breakdown works out at just £12.95 per game, plus all the other benefits Chris listed above. I would suggest that is more than reasonable and the best offering we've had in years.

[Guest intercity0wl]

Firstly, the Season Ticket offering is the result of several months of hard work - from gathering feedback to consulting supporters to balancing up lots of options over pricing, etc. MM hasn't put together the pricing and policies, but has seen them and has agreed to them.

£300 is extremely reasonable and is the cheapest the tickets have been for a few years. We have done lots of research, including finding out the Season Ticket (and matchday!) prices of ALL League One and Championship clubs and our pricing actually comes out extremely reasonable in comparison.

If you can't afford it all in one go right now there are options for you - you can take out the Interest Free Direct Debit option and pay over 10 months, or you can get an Owls Mastercard and get your Season Ticket interest free for 6 months. Additionally, the deadline is now the middle of March, so you don't HAVE to buy right now (although it obviously would be preferred).

There is no precedent or guarantee to say that we would cover the loss in revenue by making them half the price. Certainly if we sold the same amount as the highest number of season tickets we've ever sold on record then we wouldn't. Cashing in on peripheral outlets isn't guaranteed either and we'd end up with everyone resenting the subsequent increases in prices the following year.

Basically, we've made Season Tickets as affordable as we can. The breakdown works out at just £12.95 per game, plus all the other benefits Chris listed above. I would suggest that is more than reasonable and the best offering we've had in years.

And that ladies and Gentlemen should ( but wont) be the end of this totally ridiculous thread.

[Tamworthowl]

Have match-day prices been announced? If, so I've not seen them. If not, how can you work out the number of "free" matches.

Either way, I consider these ST prices as good value. Even if only because they are less than last year.

[Chris C]

Have match-day prices been announced? If, so I've not seen them. If not, how can you work out the number of "free" matches.

Either way, I consider these ST prices as good value. Even if only because they are less than last year.

Matchday prices are yet to be annouced but have been confirmed internally. The proposed average pricing has been fed into our Season Ticket calculator to give projected savings.

http://www.ourwednesday.com/tickets/season-ticket-calculator.html

Chris

[mattitheowl]

I do love some peoples thinking. Why don't you offer a season ticket that caters for the fact that I will be on holiday for 4 games, will want to watch 2 games on TV, might fancy watching the champions league one night instead of the Wednesday, can't be bothered to come if it is raining and offer 10 free games from the others on offer. I'd pay £20 for that season ticket and I think you should be grateful!

Next seasons tickets look like really good value especially if you factor in the fact that we could well be in a higher devision. Will you be back on here moaning when we get promoted that you want to pay early bird prices even though you waited to see if we went up.

You just can't please some people.

I would just like to thank everyone at Sheffield Wednesday for putting in such hard work to create such a good and ultimately responsible season ticket policy. It is in fact so good that my better half is seriously considering getting her first ever season ticket. This is a girl from Carlisle who up to 3 years ago didn't know a penalty spot from a Tango man. If more people see it like she has then I would say it is job well done.

[Guest Thorney811]

Gents - this was never meant to be a ridiculous thread and i was merely stating my concerns over why people may not purhcase a season ticket.

A valid point was made that by selling more season tickets at a lower price and getting more bottoms on seats you would assume (rightly or wrongly but reasonable to assume) that other revenue streams are increased i.e programme sales, refreshments, 50/50 tickets etc...

The club has made a lot of effort into making the matchday experience even more enjoyable by improving bar areas, catering facilities, betting facilities etc.. and we sell an award winning matchday programme - surely we are not now saying that this still doesnt mean people will automatically spend more money, are we not contradicting ourselves???

I would be interested to see how Huddersfield have fared this season financially, given the fact they vastly reduced season ticket prices and sold something like three times the usual amount (correct me if i'm factually slightly wrong here). It would be good to see if this business model can be proven to work? yes this can also be based on results on the pitch but as things stand we have similar sucess rates on the field at present.

With regards the comments on holidays and matches on sky i wasn't suggesting that the club should compensate for this - i was merely stating reasons as to why people don't go and that some thought has to be given to that in the 'best value for money' thought process.

I will go to as many games as i can make and can afford and have done for the best part of the last 30 years and i give credit to the marketing team who have no doubt worked hard at getting the pricing right . . i just cant help but question whether £18 per game to sit on the North stand and watch 3rd tier football is a fantastic deal?

Up the Owls!

[Owls2k]

Tickets could be £1 and some people would still find excuses

[coopswfc76]

£1 are you sure?

Regarding research to what other clubs charge i only understand this to a certain point but thats the same thing Energy companys do but we dont all say oh right thats ok then do we or when you go for a pint & its £2.50-£3 you dont think thats a bargain.

I will more than likely end up with a season ticket and do most seasons as i'm a fan who for some stupid reason wont stop watching Wednesday. If we hope to attract lapsed/new fans though we have to compete with other entertainment sources - Cinema £7, Swimming £4, Ice Skating £4, Basketball £9, Pleasure Beach £16 FOR THE FULL DAY. Football is expensive and with the poo poo we serve up we need to make prices attractive to everybody.

Football is a addictive sport but to get people hooked again we need to get them there regular for a season or 2 as unfortunately we only have 17-18k fans who will make a fair percentage of games rest will find better things to do with there weekends spare cash.

[Guest intercity0wl]

£1 are you sure?

Regarding research to what other clubs charge i only understand this to a certain point but thats the same thing Energy companys do but we dont all say oh right thats ok then do we or when you go for a pint & its £2.50-£3 you dont think thats a bargain.

I will more than likely end up with a season ticket and do most seasons as i'm a fan who for some stupid reason wont stop watching Wednesday. If we hope to attract lapsed/new fans though we have to compete with other entertainment sources - Cinema £7, Swimming £4, Ice Skating £4, Basketball £9, Pleasure Beach £16 FOR THE FULL DAY. Football is expensive and with the poo poo we serve up we need to make prices attractive to everybody.

Football is a addictive sport but to get people hooked again we need to get them there regular for a season or 2 as unfortunately we only have 17-18k fans who will make a fair percentage of games rest will find better things to do with there weekends spare cash.

Sorry but imo you cannot compare the Cinema, Swimming, Ice Skating or a day at the Pleasure Beach to ninety minutes at the footy. The examples you quote are scripted in as much as you know almost exactly what the end result is.

Football is totally unscripted where the outcome is unknown untill it ends, it passionate and bring to the front raw emotions and competetiveness that have been in men since the dawn of time but in normal every day activities , including the ones you quote is surpressed.

You are of course perfectly entitled to your opinion as to what you feel is the right price YOU are prepared to pay to watch a game but if you consider just over £12 per game to enter an arena, to watch a male physical contact sport is expensive then may I respectfully suggest that the male competitive edge in you along with many others has been surpressed a bit more than me, and more laid back leisure activities are more to suited to you as an individual.

Sorry if this reads like a critisism, i can assure you its not ment to be, its based purely on what i see with male members of my own family who in seem to get more pleasure out of shopping, yes shopping than doing anything competetive, unless they are playing one of them warrior x box game thingys.

[HOOTIE AND THE SHIT TU]

I bought ours on Monday, I am delighted with the price and the interest free credit is an added bonus.

[coopswfc76]

Sorry but imo you cannot compare the Cinema, Swimming, Ice Skating or a day at the Pleasure Beach to ninety minutes at the footy. The examples you quote are scripted in as much as you know almost exactly what the end result is.

Football is totally unscripted where the outcome is unknown untill it ends, it passionate and bring to the front raw emotions and competetiveness that have been in men since the dawn of time but in normal every day activities , including the ones you quote is surpressed.

You are of course perfectly entitled to your opinion as to what you feel is the right price YOU are prepared to pay to watch a game but if you consider just over £12 per game to enter an arena, to watch a male physical contact sport is expensive then may I respectfully suggest that the male competitive edge in you along with many others has been surpressed a bit more than me, and more laid back leisure activities are more to suited to you as an individual.

Sorry if this reads like a critisism, i can assure you its not ment to be, its based purely on what i see with male members of my own family who in seem to get more pleasure out of shopping, yes shopping than doing anything competetive, unless they are playing one of them warrior x box game thingys.

I dont disagree with you at all and as i said more than likely i'll end up with a season ticket again however its not me they need to convince to come back to Hillsborough as i already go and apart from when really skint late 90's have gone since the age of 3. However thats because i'm hooked so we need to find a way to hook others as at the minute like you agree others prefer to spend there money elsewhere £40 for a xbox game(you mentioned) or £30 for FM10 got me a full years worth of entertainment(sad i no as i'm in my thirtys).

My point is we dont need to ask other clubs/present fans what to do its the fans who come once a year when its a tenner that we need to talk to and find out how we can tempt them back.

That said if we were in top 4 of prem and season tickets were £500 we would sell 25k so other option is investment and success on playing field takes away all these discussions.

[mike84]

Season Tickets for next year are very reasonably priced in my opinion and the club should be applauded for taking all the feedback on board from last year. I'll be renewing in the next couple of weeks.

[daveyboy66]

Gents - this was never meant to be a ridiculous thread and i was merely stating my concerns over why people may not purhcase a season ticket.

A valid point was made that by selling more season tickets at a lower price and getting more bottoms on seats you would assume (rightly or wrongly but reasonable to assume) that other revenue streams are increased i.e programme sales, refreshments, 50/50 tickets etc...

The club has made a lot of effort into making the matchday experience even more enjoyable by improving bar areas, catering facilities, betting facilities etc.. and we sell an award winning matchday programme - surely we are not now saying that this still doesnt mean people will automatically spend more money, are we not contradicting ourselves???

I would be interested to see how Huddersfield have fared this season financially, given the fact they vastly reduced season ticket prices and sold something like three times the usual amount (correct me if i'm factually slightly wrong here). It would be good to see if this business model can be proven to work? yes this can also be based on results on the pitch but as things stand we have similar sucess rates on the field at present.

With regards the comments on holidays and matches on sky i wasn't suggesting that the club should compensate for this - i was merely stating reasons as to why people don't go and that some thought has to be given to that in the 'best value for money' thought process.

I will go to as many games as i can make and can afford and have done for the best part of the last 30 years and i give credit to the marketing team who have no doubt worked hard at getting the pricing right . . i just cant help but question whether £18 per game to sit on the North stand and watch 3rd tier football is a fantastic deal?

Up the Owls!

Never mind you can always try next season to get to hillsborough cheaper than your fellow owls....cheapskate

[nevthelodgemoorowl]

For those of you who don't know me I qualify for a community ticket on both disability and retirement age, my wife qualifies also on disability as she has had multiple joint replacements. I need a helper for standby reasons as I have diabetic and mobility problems so my daughter carries out this duty. As my daughter is at the game anyway and we get such a good deal, i feel duty bound to bring them up in the Wednesday way also generating a little more income for Wednesday too.

So today we bought our season tickets for next year the 5 of us for £490 ...Now that is what I call courting your fan base.

Thanks Wednesday, Well Done !

[HOOTIE AND THE SHIT TU]

For those of you who don't know me I qualify for a community ticket on both disability and retirement age, my wife qualifies also on disability as she has had multiple joint replacements. I need a helper for standby reasons as I have diabetic and mobility problems so my daughter carries out this duty. As my daughter is at the game anyway and we get such a good deal, i feel duty bound to bring them up in the Wednesday way also generating a little more income for Wednesday too.

So today we bought our season tickets for next year the 5 of us for £490 ...Now that is what I call courting your fan base.

Thanks Wednesday, Well Done !

I'd like to say well done Wednesday too.

My season ticket in the North is £392 and the one for my 14 year old son is around the £140 mark. I am happy with these prices, it's only a couple of years ago I was paying £200 for my son alone, but the price of his ticket has come down two years in a row.

I don't begrudge anyone the price of their season ticket, I wish more could be done to get the prices down for the unemployed, OAP's, serving armed forces, disabled etc.

I would also like to see a welcome back offer, where anyone who has held a season ticket in the past, but hasn't renewed for whatever reason, are given the opportunity to buy a season ticket for the same price as current season ticket holders. We need to reach out and try to get the missing Wednesdayites back.