Season ticket debate
Quite a debate on
Charlton Life and
the Addick blogs about today's announcement of next year's
season ticket prices. Some take the view that the headline reduction of £50 is a good offer and represents value for money, others meanwhile think that the club has not done enough to encourage fans to pay upfront for 3rd Division football, particularly under the current management.
Charlton for differing reasons lost my families guaranteed season ticket income a couple of seasons ago, although I did keep one for a couple years after I moved to Chicago because I wanted to sit in 'my' seat and be with my mates.
Taking the economy issues to one side, without brushing the seriousness of it away, fans are left with the predicament of paying up front giving the club they love much needed advance liquid capital, but still having the ability to pick their games - it is still less than £20 a pop even if you only get to 15 of the 23 home games sat in the Covered End and
you get your 'own' seat.
Or do supporters keep their disposable income in their pockets and pay on the day, pick your stand, your block and your row, and let's face it have a bloody good chance of still sitting next to or near your mate.
It will take a very committed and loyal sole to write a cheque now of anything up to £425, but that is what the board is relying on. Murray said
"We need to retain as many season-ticket holders as possible to enable the club to regroup and rebuild, and we are doing our bit to make renewing more affordable."Initially the numbers look expensive, but we come of an already cheap base remember. a cursory look at
Colchester United's website shows that to sit behind the goal there next season will cost £342, £52 more than at The Valley. Stories of next season's prices falling at Premiership clubs fail to tell us how bloody expensive it was in the first place, compared to what we paid. Portsmouth charged their fans £620 to sit in a ground that has hardly changed in 100 years.
A lot, and that includes all of my family, will pick their games. The average of £25 per game for a East Stand seat I assume is just that. Higher for *cough, cough* the better quality opponents and lower for the less attractive.
I would have thought that chucking a few meaningless cup games into the deal may have helped sway it but some fans will opt to renew of course and good for them, with the junior tickets incredible value at just £49 or £2.13 a game, I would expect my heart would have ruled my head and I would be doing the same, others however will be taking a little more care on how they blow their 'enjoyment' (sic) money.
With no discounted option for buying early no one I feel will be rushing out to the post office to send in their applications, some may wait until the autumn to see how we start, but what is certain is that most, if not all of us would be far more enticed by a complete clearout at managerial and backroom level to give us all a better reason to convince ourselves that the heart wins over our heads.