FAO: Mariners Trust Re: Season Ticket prices

I do not have a season ticket as I am away for half the year at work but I'd pay a lot more for my tickets if it guaranteed success!
I also would pay into to a repeat of last years "Operation Promotion" if someone started it off, as I am sure many more supporters would. I would not envisage that we would make as much money as last years but I reckon we would smash £50,000 !

I've not been arsed to read this in its entirety but the club have stalled prices for several years when if not in the Conference they would have gradually risen.

Due to circumstances a season ticket is not suitable for me but most are fans are realistic and happy to contribute towards a competitive budget for us.

I for one put in a three figure sum to Operation Promotion off my own back when i could ill afford it so a few quid extra for me and the kids at the matches I can attend is nothing really, I'll suck it up and look at it as drip feeding a similar extra contribution.

Give the club a break ffs. Yes I'll agree something a bit more creative could have been done with the kids but perhaps this will be looked at in time as we get a footing in League football?

I don't know second junior with full paying adult vastly reduced or second junior free with two paying adults?

Just cough up and get behind them, it's hardly like we're getting massively mugged off and all our rivals have forever operated with league payments/youth funding etc barring maybe Cheltenham who in any case have only had a one year blip and probably had parachute lovelies which long since gone for us.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Firstly, I'm not hiding behind anonymity on this or any other website. I've been using GollyGTFC as a username for well over a decade and plenty of people on here and elsewhere know exactly who I am. If you aren't one of them try using google and feel free to follow me on Twitter if you like.

Anyway, back to the important issue. How is it right/fair that...

Young Adult ST (19-21) costs £170 which is the equivalent of just under 9 and a half individual match tickets.
Young Adult ST (15-1 costs £130 which is the equivalent of exactly 10 individual match tickets.
Children (14 and under) costs £70 which is the equivalent of 14 individual match tickets.

I really couldn't care less about the cost of Adult STs. Infact if you search through enough posts I suggested a £38 increase was likely (and fair) as I foolishly believed the club would keep to the pricing policy and formula used in the past rather than lazily just add £20 to everybody which results in the most expensive adult ticket going up just 6% and all juniors going up by an extortionate 40%.

Junior STs went up by 150% (£20 to £50) just 3 years ago. Add this years increase and in just 3 years they have gone up 250% (£20 to £70). That is an absolute disgrace when you consider half the clubs in League 2 offer "free" season tickets for accompanied juniors and most of the rest are well below £50.

How can a club like Grimsby Town in an area with high unemployment and where a third of children are living in poverty charge so much for children to see football?

In reality, a young adult aged 16+ will likely be paying for their own season ticket and are likely to have more to pay on match day outgoings as well as funding away trips etc for themselves on a low income so I don't think you can compare the prices of the young adult and the junior. If a young adult buys just 1 pint per game all season that's £69 + out their own pocket.

Over the course of the numerous threads I've read so many posts along the lines of 'Why are so many moaning about the price increase!!! It's only a couple of quid!  Better budget/better standard etc. etc'

Despite this I've not actually seen a single post moaning about the increase in the adult season ticket.  To a man/woman, this has been met with an acceptance that it's not only necessary but also fair.

I'm a season ticket holder for more years than I like to remember and I'm what the club would probably call a sure thing.  I'll buy a season ticket each year because I'm an idiot.  It doesn't matter what league we're in, I'll buy one because that's what I do.  My circumstances also make that possible.  I don't have children, I'm fortunate enough to not work weekends or evenings and bar any holidays I have during the season - I won't miss any games.

For me the pricing structure is spot on.  More than happy to pay a little bit extra after six seasons where it hasn't budged a penny and now in a higher league.  Very easily I could say I'm alright, Jack.  I don't see why kids tickets are my concern or indeed those of people who can't attend every week for whatever reason...  

But I care about the future of this club and I still am disappointed that the club haven't come out with a plan to capture those who can't go but want to go.  This isn't about pricing or adding a quid here and there, it's about the next generation of fans.  

Regardless of how you look at it, the increase for junior tickets is pretty staggering and also poor value compared to other clubs at this level.  It's very short-sighted of the club if they're factoring in junior season ticket sales in their budgeting.  The idea should be to get them through the gates, get them hooked and then later on they become those sad fornicators like me who buy the ticket out of habit.  Then they become part of the forecasting, then we worry about the pricing mark-up.  The best part of six years in the Conference was the new generation of fans that emerged and galvanised the club, especially on away games.  We need to make sure that continues.  We can't just take for granted the fact that new fans will continue to come  through the gates.  It's probably a complete anomaly that we've increased our support during our time in the Conference, obviously challenging for promotions has helped but if you weren't previously interested in GTFC would you have really picked up the bug over recent years?  The club need to acknowledge this and put plans in place to make sure that in five years time we've a new set of young fans who are passionate and loud, who will follow us up and down the country every other weekend.   When we slumped out the league we were noway near as well supported as we are now, it would be a great shame if we failed to build on this over the next couple of seasons.

Equally so the lack of a scheme for families and shift workers worries me.  The ticketing announcement smacks of laziness on the clubs behalf.  I would rather have waited another week for the pricing and them come up with something that didn't take 20 minutes to produce.  

That said - I also have faith in the Mariners Trust to represent the fans and whilst I agree with Golly's sentiments I find his calling for the resignation of the board members quite distasteful.  The Trust board are volunteers, nothing more and nothing less. They do everything in their own free time, despite the fact they've probably got families and other commitments.  Considering we're less than 12 months since the start of Operation Promotion and the sheer level of graft the Trust put into that effort not only to raise funds but to lift the fans for another push, calling for resignations is really, really poor.  

Reading between the lines the Trust look like they're going to announce something very soon, along the lines of Operation Promotion II, hopefully in relation to the ticketing situation.  Until then I'm going to refrain from commenting on the ticketing situation, despite my initial disappointment.  That doesn't mean I find the clubs stance acceptable though, I just have belief the Trust will provide a natural leveller (if they should have to or not is a different matter).  

In the meantime, can we all just remember that the Trust board are human beings and 1) don't deserve any personal abuse and 2) are entitled to a break, yes something like Operation Promotion II would be great but we can't just expect them to kill themselves again because we want them to.

Pretty much my thoughts in a nutshell DHM. I'm a pay on the day fan and am happy to pay the extra £2 but also concerned at the pricing of the tickets for the younger generation. It would be good if someone could explain the thinking behind it, if indeed some thought was given to the matter.

Quoted from aldi_01

Wow...some town fans really do just want to moan.

The price increase is more than acceptable, I assume those moaning would rather the club plunges further in to debt in order to compete or have a limited budget and possibly fight relegation again?

Remember the year Luton had £450 season tickets in the conference?

This is a fine example of using statistics to support and argument, reality is if one just take the early bird price of an adult season ticket ours are not close to being the most expensive.

What would people prefer? No increase but no increase in playing budget? We've done well to keep them the same price for as long as we have, especially given the obsession so many had with promotion. Cheap season tickets were a fad a few years a go that never really had the desired effect, hence why clubs reintroduced more sensibly priced, slightly more expensive ones to recoup some cash lost.[/b] Little evidence exists to support the idea that more people on the ground means more programmes, pies and beer sold[b]. In reality football at every level is over priced but then who is to blame? The clubs for bowing down to player pressures for higher wages? The fans for wanting success? Sponsors for wanting some return for their investments etc?

Who actually knows?

Our season tickets are reasonably priced, simple as that. People would've moaned regardless, will those moaning stand by their decisions though and refuse to buy one? Did the same people attend the playoff final after spending almost £5 on booking/postage which is really unacceptable?

Even if we did sell more pies, tea etc, Town nought from the increase in sales as it run by a third party, just more profit for them.

Putting £20 on a adult ticket is good value seeing as we are now back in the league,

It would have made more sense to add £20 to the child ticket imo,

BUT

£70  for a season ticket is still good value for the youngster.

why go on % ? look at it as money. it's gone from £2 to £3. do you ever go to a bookies pre match?  or go for a pint? what a child pays to watch 90 minutes gtfc we all have and will blow in seconds on needless excrement (alcohol, bets, gags etc)

it's a shame the prices have gone up slightly but I think they're reasonable and to move forward we need everyone behind the team.

utm.