The club are asking us, the fans for once what we want from the club regarding season tickets next season.

I know there was a good debate on prices etc a couple of weeks ago on this, but what should be suggested to the club/

http://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/page/ ... 07,00.html

Hope we all put our point across.

well thats fantastic news. At last they are going to try and boost the numbers by asking the fans.

They could do a family season ticket where 2 adults and 2 kids for a certain amount. I think they should bring the early bird discount back in. Maybe even just a standard 280 for a season ticket however the longer you have been a season ticket holder the more of a discount you can recieve. How about trying to offer a few more benefits with the purchase of a season ticket eg a couple of quid off every cup game, discount in the club shop. some sort of raffle where if you buy a season ticket you go into a hat where you can win a season ticket for the next season for free or something.

I would like to see a similar offer to the centenery deal

Also kids ticket very cheap with an adult and of course a family ticket as mentioned above.

how about a half a season ticket (or groups of five or ten) this would be very advantageous to exiles and peole who don't work a regular work cycle (its far easier to tell the missus you're going as you've already paid for the ticket when she decides its time to go shopping!)

some good points there like. i like the idea of a similar price plan to this seasons centenary offer. lets face it, those who missed out this season now have the opportunity again. say half of the current season ticket holders (I think its circa 2500 could be wrong like) introduce a pal, that would then increase by half again.

cheap kids tickets (£1) would be a good idea, but got to be bought in line with adults as we would then end up with hundreds of kids just playing tig all game. haha

discounted cup games also a good idea for home games. Possibly even reduced away travel???? get more of us on the road

Pegging the prices and offering the early bird discount would do nicely for me.
Of course it would be better if there were a price reduction, but I'm not holding my breath..

That would be perfect for me. I've got a season ticket at the moment but miss half the games due to work commitments. (Daft really as it's not as if its been sold out a lot lately!)

Early bird reintroduce

1st child free , it was done previously

But also something on the lines of generating cash because your a season ticket holder, discounts /Free gifts etc. Something along the lines of having a voucher added inside the book, giving a free pint, prior to kick off only for each game. It in a way gives the season ticket holder £46 back but has to be used in the ground, if all season ticket holders take advantage of it, and has to be used before kick off then they would have more than one pint extra income from beer sales.

Allow season ticket holders free admission to JPT games if allowed under the sponsorship rules.

Free admission to all home friendlies, if possible more revenue spent in ground.

A free gift from the club shop upto a certain value on purchase of season ticket. And reintroduce the discount in the shop for season ticket holders

A draw every home game of a season ticket holder, and free admission to the centenary lounge for following game regardless of the competiotion, though if cup game they would still have to purchase a normal ticket. with pie and peas prior to game for him and a number of friends, who also have to be season ticket holders, so least he with usual mates at the game.

Sell them lot earlier, longer to pay and interest free, so start in April, allows almost 5 months to pay, sell half season tickets,

When have special evenings, ie Humphreys night etc, discount to season ticket holders, of say 10%

The offer doesnt just have to include cheaper tickets, is what Im saying but the sale of them can generate income from other sources. But if the season ticket holder feels he has been given more than a cheaper admission price, he may well spend cash in other areas of the club.

A new keeper and il buy one.

Sounds good but the club know those who buy them year after year will probabaly continue to buy them so I cant see them targetting existing customers too much. I dont agree with it, but more needs to be done to get new season ticket holders rather than keeping existing ones.

Thats exactly why I'm suggesting the option!! I'm sure a lot of exciles would buy on this basis.. I shudder to think how many un-used tickets are in my book this year!

The early promise of some interesting signings or commitment to retain some of our better players would boost season ticket sales.

Good to see the club actually talking to the fans. Right...

Season ticket holders get priority for any new kit. (maybe they could even take our size so they can order the right quantity of medium & large shirts).

Re-introduce the club-shop discount.

Say a 2009/10 season ticket will cost £350 for Mill House Terrace / Town End - how about if you pay for the 2010/11 season ticket at the same time you get them both for £600 - saving £100?

Then you just get club making grand statements to please fans - and when it doesn't work, you just end up with fans feeling more bitter with the club. Then all you are left with is a very empty stadium, and hescalators going to waste... oh, hang on...

Some interesting points/suggestions raised.

But the most apt, is that of Aptid...........see what I did there?

He has it spot on. Early good signings to bring back the buzz. The buzz that has been completely missing from the last 3 years.

We need to do 2 things only. Forget all this bolt on rubbish. I dont want freebies, vouchers, cheap JPT tickets,........not if the season ticket is gonna be £350. I cant afford that sort of outlay in June/July. I would rather go on holiday with my family.

So two simple things:

1. Early positive exciting signings.

Too many times we have done nothing till a couple of weeks before the season starts. All summer we get depressed at the lack of new faces.......and like last summer................we got a couple of kids. It wasnt good enough. Aand certainly wasnt going to attract new fans.

2. An attractive affordable season ticket price.

We dont need any more of the complicated nonsense of last year.

Just make an offer for a season ticket of say £220-£250. Added to number one above, I reckon we would have 3000 sales by the start of the friendlies.

The buzz would be back, the pubs full, and they would be selling shirts, burgers, pies, Beer, hot dogs by the boat load.

Its so foookin simple.................I just dont understand why they needed to ask.

Also they need to accomdate for ALL season ticket holders, last year i was part of a small percentage i would imagine that didnt get discount nor benefit from the club.

The discounts for the current season ticket holders was only valid for people who had held the ticket for two years or more and as my old man had kept his ticket along with the lads i go with to the game i had no one to 'refer' as a friend and spilt the cost.

I had only had my ticket for last season after a few years without one since promotion under Newell as work commitments became involved.

Wdont need discounts for this, early offers for that.

We just needaffordable prices, and and some exciting signings.

Job done.

Anything else just complicates the issue.

Wdont need discounts for this, early offers for that.

We just needaffordable prices, and and some exciting signings.

Job done.

Anything else just complicates the issue.

I think season ticket holders should be able to get quicker service when buying drinks/pints hot dogs etc at half time. Maybe seperate queues for season ticket and non-season ticket holders with the a season ticket holders kiosks being manned with more staff etc??

do that and we will end up like darlo. Your wanting us to cut prices which means less income and then you want us to pay higher wages to get exciting players in. Would be downhill all the way with what you propose

If you want to be really elite join the Corner Flag.

How about seaon ticket holders forming a queue for priority wanks off the half-time draw ticket sellers.

Eh?

Why would it? I am not suggesting the club break its pay structure. We have the basis of a good squad, but we need to add abit of quality to the first 11.

The season ticket price makes perfect sense. A sense of anticipation would see a massive hike in sales, the fan base is there.

Or would you rather increase ticket sales, and only sell a thousand. Thats what happened this season.

In case you hadnt noticed we are in the grip of financial hardship. Players will play for less than they would a year ago.

Pools need to be accessible to more people, spending more inside the ground, and in the club shop. You cant do this if you charge £350 for a season ticket and £20 to get in without one.

3000 SALES AT £220, make a lot more sense than 1200 at £350. Thats £660,000 against £420,000.

Because if its 1200 season ticekt sales, the other 2000 are paying throught the door, and cant afford the add ons.

I dont know why I am explaining this to you........its a no brainer for me like.

remind me someone, how many season ticket holders did we have in the scotty season? Anticipation was at an all time high and im pretty sure we got nowhere near the 3000 that your quoting we will get if we reduce reason tickets by a third. I paid less than 200 for my season ticket this season and so did a couple of thousand others. That still hasnt made the crowd swell any more.

there arent 2000 season ticket holders and that includes the many many kids that got one for £75.

Last seasons offer didnt work, overall. Even if it did for you.

Instead of knocking my idea why not come up with your own radical suggestion?

We need fans throught the gates, and charging any more than I said willnot do it. Get your head out of the sand and realise this.

People are prioritising their spend, and football is coming a long way down most peoples lists. Charge more than people can afford and they just wont come.

Charge less, make it more attractive and they will, and they will spend more in the ground, as they will have more disposable income.

Think about what other people want rather than just what suits you. I know, and I know the club do, that fans cant afford it at the moment.

Some really good points coming out here. Lets face it the three premiersh*t clubs around us are doing all they can to pull in their crowds ie kids for a quid etc. Pools really need to act on this as parent will look at it and think i can go and watch premier tripe for 30 quid with the kids or go to pools. i know people will say well let them etc but i think we need to look after our fans now.

I know people who have stayed in the pubs 15 minutes from kick off as their attitudes are "I can get another 8 pints for £20"

How about max gate price £15. Season tickets priced at £287.50. Thats £12.50 a game. A similar offer to this season buy two for say £414. thats 207 quid each a steal at £9 per game. People will say but we need maximum income. i believe this would increase season ticket sales up to 3750ish close to 4000. it would then also increase the gate receipts on match days, so long as we get rid of friday night football!!!!!

I go with the kids theory.

Single blokes can generally afford to pull out £20 every other week but a bloke with a couple of lads is into 60 odd quid to watch a game of footy. Use the available budget to encourage people to bring kids along.

I did, my dad took me to my first game against bournmouth in the late 80's, i'll have been 7 or 8 years old. i remember it like it was yesterday, freezing pi$$in down with rain on a tuesday night.

since then i was hooked. balls to the big 3 in this region, well two cause hopefully boro will be relegated, and if newcastle are well think of the fans we must then try and attract.

You should be ashamed of yourself

I absolutely agree with ADG on this one, lets just keep it simple.

Terrace season ticket £200-£250, Seats £225-£250.

Kids with an adult season ticket holder £50-£75.

Who could not understand that? It benefits every season ticket holder as we are paying a similar amount to last year (and £150 less than a couple of seasons ago) and offers a good deal of encouragement for families to buy season tickets.

I'd also introduce a direct debit system that is monthly throughout the season so season tickets are affordable to just about everyone.

Matchday prices need to be considered as well, £20 is just too much for third tier football.

i dont understand why you and ADG cannot grasp the simple finances on this one.......IF and yes its an IF, you reduced the tickets by over 30% like stated and it does not increase the crowd enough then Pools will lose more than the 1.7 MILLION quid or so they are losing currently. this in turn will mean less money for wages and an overall lesser wage budget than before.

Yours and ADG's way would be awesome, but there is NO guarantee that it will work and from a businesses point of view would surely be a huge financial risk, and we know IOR don't even know the meaning of the work risk.

I am personally in favour of a reduction however i think that season tickets for £220 is way too cheap and would invariably mean that we have a weaker wage budget, a weaker squad and a probable return to League 2.

I think a realistic amount would be 260-280 for a season ticket at the very least with a few extra thrown in to make it more value for money.

So you are arguing the toss over £10-£30 over 23 games? About £60000 (over the season) less revenue if 2000 people bought season tickets.... All important revenue I know but our crowds are failing, people need an incentive to return. The club needs a spark.

My prices are just rough ideas, my point is simplicity in whatever the offer is. Last years offer didn't, this years needs to before we lose the stay aways for the foreseeable future.

At the moment I can't guarantee that I'll get to every game and am fine with that as I didn't get a season ticket last summer.

If the prices are attractive enough to mean it doesn't matter if you miss more than 2 or 3 games during the season I may get one for next season, if it's the same old crap as before where the saving is next to nowt then I'll pay on the gate. Free draws to win daft hospitality in an area of the ground that I don't want to go in or a bobble hat will have no bearing on my decision to buy a season ticket. Nor will reduced entry into JPT games cos they're generally only a few quid to get in anyway.

Keep it simple, keep the prices realistic and make the incentive for paying in advance sufficient to make it worthwhile.

PS. Bollox to any of this credit rubbish and paying by installments after the season has started, it's people buying things that they can't really afford that's got the country in it's current mess so Pools don't need to be encouraging idiots to take on more credit.

if your argument was simplicity then yes i agree. however i can't see Pools reducing prices that much. so they will need to beef it up by adding disounts on other stuff etc

to be asking for 200-250 quid for season tickets isnt really realistic, its not far off halving their revenue for season tickets not taking into account last years figures. £300 would be more do able that works out at about 14 quid a game i think?
or even have the starting one at £350 then it gets reduced down to £300 over 2-3 year if u get one every year.
i think sunderland do some sort of offer where u can renew ur ticket for same prices as the previous year if u do it before april or summat that seems like a good idea.
i done a report on sumthing similar to this on pools when i as at college a few year ago i got a B i think i put summat in about having sales packs of 5 and 10 tickets an u get a game or 2 free depending which pack u take. ud have to say in advance tho which ones u wanted.
for me like they need to make it really cheap for the kids, i dunno if they still do but u used to be able to get kids season ticket for £75 1st kid £50 2nd kid and free for the third kid whcih i thought was good offer.
kinda away from season tickets but i think pools would benefit from letting kids in to matches free with an adult at the end of the season to get attendances up etc they done it about 10 year ago when ior first come i think.
categorising matches would probly help alot, if u got a choice between paying £20 to watch leeds or £20 to watch yeovil or cheltenham most people would pick leeds. do the categorys at something like £20,£18,£16 and the club are probly gonna benefit financially rather than lose out.

but 20 quid is far too expensive for 3rd tier football!!! thats why attendances are down this year

We need to reduce our gate prices. if its to do with player wages, then our players are getting paid too much!!!! like i say its 3rd tier football and 460 quid is too much to expect.

if we were to reduce the admission prices we would get an extra thousand or so through the gate so revenue would be roughly the same, and if boro come down (fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed) then we could possibly attract a few of them fans from the billingham areas to come too. if they like what they see become fans of our club. but if the boro's and sunderlands admission prices are roughly the same as ours...

I wonder where they will go!!!

Sorry for bringing this one up again but I missed it the first time.

I'm in the position where I'll probably miss a handful of home games next season because of work, the season ticket offer was too good to miss this season so I still got one this however I probably won't be getting one next season as it won't make financial sense.

However,, it would be good to receive some kind of discount paying on the gate because shelling out 20 quid on a matchday is a lot of money when you add your beer on and it soon adds up if you have a couple of games in a few games. How about a 'Membership' system where you pay a lump some to become a member at the start of the season (say 30-50 quid) and then you get in for say £10/£12. Clearly I haven't done the maths but it would benefit the club as they would get a lump sum at the start of the season to invest from those who normally wouldn't get a ST, it would then attract fans later in the season because they wouldn't feel like they're shelling out a load of money everytime there is a home game. any thoughts?

I doubt you'll find anyone that disagrees with your sentiments,but the harsh reality is that it costs around £20 for a footy match these days wherever you go.
As for players getting paid too much,again most people would agree with your sentiment,but if we dont pay a similar rate to other clubs we wont get any decent players.
I expect the club may devise a plan to give fans more for our money,but I cant see them reducing the cost.

Think they better drop the prices..

http://www.safc.com/news/sunderland-cut ... rices.html

Adult n two kids for less than £400

(not that anyone other than Ripper would want to go to watch the mackems in the first place!)

I've been to the Stadium of Light three times since it opened, and one of those was to watch Pools!

i sent my email to the club telling them what i would expect.

The club seem to like to use the current climate as excuses for certain things as and when the feel in warranted. so i suggested they do it again.

I have had a meeting at work this week and was told that i shouldnt expect a bonus or a pay rise this year and possibly next. other friends of mine have had to take 20% pay cuts and work only 3 and 4 day weeks just to keep their jobs.

if companies are doing it across the country perhaps football clubs should be. At teh end of the day, what bonus' and rises do that current crop of sh@t deserve?

If they get a payrise it is shocking.

Should we get relegated, i would hope the ones in contract get a reduction in wages. and if we were to go down then the prices would have to be sub-10 quid or the attendances would be below 2500 every week without fail!!!

Something for Uncle Ken to think about like!!!

Right.

Get your heads out of your Ilovepoolsandhavebeentheremanandboyandwillgonomatterhowbadweareandwhatheychargetogetin arses, and think about things more sensibly.

I had a long chat with a number of people last night, all of whom go to pools now and again.

They all said they same thing. Its too expensive. Its too expensive for a season ticket and its too expensive on a match day. If they go with their younguns they cant justify spending harly owt else on the day.

Why is it some of you seem to think that prices have to go up all the time at pools?

Prices, generally, are coming down for most commodities these days, things are getting cheaper by the day. They have to, or we will continue to see firms going bust.....and believe me there are many that are.

If pools needed £1million in gate receipts to break even 3 years ago, they should need less today. Players wages should be cut. So any new deals will be, or should geared accordingly. These players, although generally thick as pigshit, will evetually realise its better to be employed than be on the dole.

Pools needs to get real here......and so do the players.

If prices are NOT slashed then expect the fan base to drop. When it drops, a lot of the missing kids will start going, on cheap tickets, to Newcastle, Sunderland, and Middlesbrough.......if they go a few times they will be hooked......and lost to pools forever.

And if the fan base drops, then you cant say you havent asked for it.

Pools need to act....and act now.

They could slash prices, and entice people to buy more in the ground. It only takes a little feel good factor to appear and people will spend more.

Get fooookin real.

here here

we were told this week, you will get no rise, and no bonus.

one fella chirped up and said it wrong.

the gaffer said it that or you go through the door in the ever long list on the rock and roll. he soon shut up.

same applies here!!!!

at the end of the day we (the fans) pay a high pecentage of the wages, if were not tehir, they dont get paid!!!!!

Can you say that again in English?

I do agree that season tickets should be frozen or reduced in the current times, and although people are reducing wadges etc saying that we should do the same to footballers (which I agree with) it will never happen. Also if pools do this we will end up with no players and an even more poor threadbare squad than we have now.