Season ticket prices frozen

Quoted from GollyGTFC

It’s good that the club have frozen prices, but it does raise the question why ST haven’t been on sale for a couple of months. It would have given the club/owners an earlier and more accurate forecast of likely final sales and how that effects budgets and more importantly how much in losses will need to be bridged..

This is something I questioned 2-3 years ago! The long standing ST holder among us (I have 1 Adult & 2 Jnr ST) in todays climate could have enabled me to spread the cost whilst continuing my ongoing support to the club but also gives the club a massive forecast!

Quoted from LocalLadGTFC

No way they could release information about season tickets whilst we had no idea what division we'd be in.

That’s strange. Countless other clubs have done just that. What makes us a special case?

As they have released prices earlier than usual in April, as opposed to the usual May release, and then ending the Early Bird offer in May, it still gives fans two paydays to get the cheaper prices (I seem to recall on each of the last 2 seasons they have extended the early bird offer by a couple of weeks each time, from the original end date).

Its actually quite a shrewd move by the club, because they know that the majority of fans will buy their tickets at the early bird prices, so this year they will know a full month earlier what sort of income they have from sales that can be put towards the transfer budget.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

That’s strange. Countless other clubs have done just that. What makes us a special case?

Such as?

Just done a quick bit of maths, and despite a frustrating season, I think we're actually in quite a good position as things stand. More so than is immediately obvious anyway.

In the past 2 seasons, we have sold more season tickets than our average attendances across every season since 2003, gates which would have been buoyed by large away followings in the second tier. That on the surface sounds like good news, and it is certainly symbolic of the renewed optimism JS and AP have instilled in the club and the town. But if the last two seasons have taught us anything, it's probably a little bit beyond our "sweet spot" for season ticket sales.

We know from our most recent accounts that we sold a total of 5,754 season tickets in the 22/23 season, at an average price of £222.54. I don't know the exact numbers, but for simplicity I'm going to assume that there was a straight 10% increase in average price this season and into next, giving us an average of £244.70. Again, I don't have the exact number, but I believe this season we sold in the region of 5,300 season tickets, and had an average gate of 6,354 - an additional 1,054 paying punters each game. Again, for simplicity, assume with concessions, that's at an average price of £15 per match day ticket.

5,300 season tickets = £1,296,906
1,054 match day tickets x 23 = £363,630
Total = £1,660,536

OK, so I think even with the very generous pricing of next season's season tickets, it's fair to expect a sizeable drop off. Let's assume we lose 1,000 STs, falling by just shy of 20% to 4,300 (still decent by historic standards).

4,300 season tickets = £1,052,207 (-18.9%)

Ok, on the surface a ~19% YoY drop in guaranteed income doesn't sound like a particularly good thing, but let's look at some scenarios. The total average attendance is the first number, with the incremental match day sales in brackets, and the £ figure being the total ST + match-by-match ticket income for the season:

5,000 (700) = £1,293,707 (-22.1%)
5,500 (1,200) = £1,466,207 (-11.7%)
6,000 (1,700) = £1,638,707 (-1.3%)
6,500 (2,200) = £1,811,207 (+9.1%)
7,000 (2,700) = £1,983,707 (+19.5%)

I'll stop there, as with our ground and the state of away followings in this division, it's probably going to be difficult to average above 7,000, but the point is with lower season ticket sales (and a greater availability of decent seats on the day) a small incremental increase in average gate has the potential to translate into a much more significant % of matchday income. In effect, a 10% increase in gates becomes a 20% increase in income.

The key, ultimately, is getting there. Either way, we're better insulated against falling income than might have been anticipated. Realistically, we'd have to drop below gates of 6,000 to be noticeably worse off, and simply having a less shít season than this one should be sufficient to enable that (a pretty low bar), with an additional tail wind in the easing of ST no-shows. We're in an ok position, I think.

Note: there's a slight flaw in this model in which it assumes that all season ticket holders attend every game and the only incremental sales are over and above this number, which we know isn't the case. However, again with a lower baseline number of STs, this is another factor that should work in our favour with a half-decent season.

Quoted from WayneBurnettsJockstrap

As they have released prices earlier than usual in April, as opposed to the usual May release, and then ending the Early Bird offer in May, it still gives fans two paydays to get the cheaper prices (I seem to recall on each of the last 2 seasons they have extended the early bird offer by a couple of weeks each time, from the original end date).

Its actually quite a shrewd move by the club, because they know that the majority of fans will buy their tickets at the early bird prices, so this year they will know a full month earlier what sort of income they have from sales that can be put towards the transfer budget.

if only I didnt work for an employers who pays you on the flipping 8th of the month!!

Price frozen for 6 weeks or so, even then a £20 price increase isn’t as heavy as could have been. It’s a decent gesture by owners/board in the present climate.

Quoted from LocalLadGTFC

Such as?

Google is your friend.

I love a good stat, but on sale dates for season tickets is a bit niche even for me.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Google is your friend.

I love a good stat, but on sale dates for season tickets is a bit niche even for me.

You know when it’s too niche for Golly it’s basically illegal.

Great move from the club . Bet there’s not many clubs ( apart from those in the PL obviously….) that haven’t increased prices 24-25 .