Season ticket prices up

Quoted from psgmariner

I would also strongly recommend the club talking to an established ticket company. Yes, it will cost but something needs to be done.

TicketCo (part of I-Zettle) do a free trial for two matches:

https://start.ticketco.events/uk/ticketing-for-sports-clubs/

I don't like the idea of a third party being involved in a basic facility that the club offers. Surely it would be better to involve some kind of consultant to analyse the ticketing operation with the view of installing a new in-house system. It would cost initially but that would be a one-off plus the expenses of a new system. Involving an outsourced company will be a permanent cost plus yearly increases.
On a similar note I would rather see the matchday catering facilities returned to in-house and include a local butcher such as Turners to provide the pies, burgers, sausage rolls etc. This would help, albeit in a small way, to involve a local company and such profits returned back to the club and the local community.

Quoted from rancido

I don't like the idea of a third party being involved in a basic facility that the club offers. Surely it would be better to involve some kind of consultant to analyse the ticketing operation with the view of installing a new in-house system. It would cost initially but that would be a one-off plus the expenses of a new system. Involving an outsourced company will be a permanent cost plus yearly increases.
On a similar note I would rather see the matchday catering facilities returned to in-house and include a local butcher such as Turners to provide the pies, burgers, sausage rolls etc. This would help, albeit in a small way, to involve a local company and such profits returned back to the club and the local community.

We already have a ticketing guru connected to the club.....only problem is if we let him get involved all matchday tickets will be snapped up by his company and then resold at inflated prices elsewhere  

Steve Wraith quoted as saying he thinks Spurs and Liverpool getting to the European Cup final will help our season ticket sales. Sums it up really.

Quoted from rancido

I don't like the idea of a third party being involved in a basic facility that the club offers. Surely it would be better to involve some kind of consultant to analyse the ticketing operation with the view of installing a new in-house system. It would cost initially but that would be a one-off plus the expenses of a new system. Involving an outsourced company will be a permanent cost plus yearly increases.
On a similar note I would rather see the matchday catering facilities returned to in-house and include a local butcher such as Turners to provide the pies, burgers, sausage rolls etc. This would help, albeit in a small way, to involve a local company and such profits returned back to the club and the local community.

Stop talking sense!

The attitude of the club was summed up by outsourcing the catering venues because it was an easy buck.

If the club was looked at as an actual business model someone would have cottoned onto the fact that you can make your catering one of the reasons to come to the game.  One of the reasons to come back.  I know a question was asked of the club previously about selling fish and chips in the ground and some rubbish response was given about the fryers.  It's an excuse.  The fish and chips the club serve in McMenemy's are really good, why are they restricted just to people on a corporate day out?  It's a massive mixed opportunity.  If the fryers can't handle the extra demand, put some more in!

The comments of Wraith just show what dinosaurs we have involved in key decisions at the club.  The man who is charged with leading on our ticket sales, the same man who accused his own dwindling customer base of bullying each other less than 2 years ago, actually believes that the success of two sides who are as far removed from Grimsby Town as you could possibly get, will somehow have a positive impact on our ticket sales!  On the contrary, someone on the fence is more likely to think 'well I could pay £360 for 23 games a season, 20 of which will probably be dire and I'll sit in the cold, damp ground with poor facilities, or I could spend the exact same amount on a BT Sport package for the year, get hundreds of games including the genuine edge of the seat stuff I've just watched, all from the comfort of my own armchair!'

It's not only just lazy it's bloody dangerous to have that approach.  The club need to be countering this argument. You can guarantee that Sky will promote their Sports package over the summer on how close and nail-biting the title race was (even though the Premier League has been quite dull when you think about - two sides at the top winning every game, everything else settled with weeks to go).  BT will promote from high heaven the excitement of the Champions League.  These are genuine threats to our ticket sales so rather than coming up with a counter argument, the club are lazily trying to seem relevant by referencing them.  

I'm sick to my back teeth of this club doing everything as a reaction or either half-arsed or not at all.   I and many others have said for the last few months that the emergence of the youth is the biggest pitch the club need to be putting out there this summer.  Yesterday they put a half-arsed Tweet out basically saying a fair few young lads have made their debuts...

[tweet]1126473193097760768[/tweet]

And......

Where's the bit about watching them take the next steps of their journey?  Where's the bit about we're trying to build a future and you can be a part of it, buy a season ticket.

Look at the list of incentives the club offer if you buy a ticket, something that should be used to draw you in and maybe change the mind of those teetering.

• Designated seat for the 2019/20 season in the stand and area of your choice - What?  How the hell is that an incentive?  You're paying for the bloody seat in the first place.  I don't buy a train ticket and feel I've gained an incentive because I've got a seat as part of the deal.  Am I spoilt because I sit in a seat every game rather than loiter behind the stand, feeling I shouldn't probably sit in the seat I bought?
  
• 10% club shop discount on production of season ticket in-store - 10% on overpriced goods.  I don't buy the shirts but if I did, I've saved £5.
  
• Exclusive access to double discount weekend in-store - As above
  
• Priority access to away fixture tickets - Realistically, going to benefit me once a season.
  
• Seat reserved for home cup fixtures - When did we last sell out a cup game?
  
• Free access to Reserve team fixtures at Blundell Park - Games are at 2pm in the week, most people can't go to them.  Some games are at Cheapside which is pretty much an open field where you can't charge anything.  How many were at Blundell Park last season, a handful and entrance is cheap enough anyway.
  
• £50 off McMenemy's Function Suite hire (Subject to Terms & Conditions) - Can't see the T&C.  Unlikely I'd use this so not really a benefit.
  

Then you've got the extra incentives.  

Quoted Text

receive a voucher sheet entitling them to a range of discounts, ranging from a free pre-season fixture ticket to a 10% discount at Steels Cornerhouse Restuarant and deals with other local businesses.

So basically the club haven't decided what's going onto the voucher sheet because despite people moaning about the lack of one last year, they've taken until May to decide they want to do one.  Steels is great and I love going.  It's not expensive in the first place and 10% is going to save me 90p on a meal.  

The club shop discount, the free pre-season games, the priority access to cup/away games is bog standard stuff.  For some people it's going to be useful.  But it's not going to draw anyone in.  If anyone is actually going to be swayed on a season ticket by a free reserve game and 90p off fish & chips I'll be amazed.

Quoted Text

Win The Cost Of Your Season Ticket Back!

Using a voucher found on your season ticket purchase sheet, you have the chance to win back the cost of your season ticket before the start of the campaign. The draw for the winner will be made on 31st July 2019.

Each entry costs £2.50, with all funds raised being donated to the Youth Development Association.

Just noticed the above.  So you buy your season ticket, before the end of July, and you can win the cost of it back.....if you make a mandatory donation of £2.50 to the YDA.  I've no issue with donating to the YDA but, much like the £20 'charge' for using the 4-month payment plan, this is insulting.  If the club are promoting a win your ticket back competition they shouldn't stipulate a cost on it.  I've just spent £360 on a ticket, that should be enough!

I'm not sure which part of WE'RE NOT VERY APPEALING the club don't understand.  People don't want to come to Blundell Park.  People don't want to come back to Blundell Park after last season, it was bloody agonising at times.  People are fed up of the same-old-same-old both on and off the field.  Because we're not very appealing we need to do two things

1) pull the wool over peoples eyes with good marketing.  Draw them in, it doesn't matter that we're drawing them into a dud product as long as you jazz it up the right way.  A cynic will say the young lads all getting contracts is doing things on the cheap.  A well marketed campaign uses it as something to connect with the fan base.  
2) Make the product appealing.  Work with what you've got.  Blundell Park is dour place, the atmosphere is non-existent and there's nothing at all to make you want to come back.  Loads of open space in the corners.  Do something with them.  Put fanzones in there, do anything.  Getting some loud speakers isn't enough.

It's quite clear that the club isn't run in anything that resembles anything other than a shambles.  I'm absolutely begging you John Fenty, invest some of the clubs money in getting someone to run this place properly.  You and your mates can't run it.  It's nothing personal, but you're not capable.  You don't have a clue what you're doing.  You do the same old crap every year and it's killing the club.  Killing it painfully and slowly.   I am extremely confident that as long as you appoint someone remotely competent, the club will get a substantial return on the investment.  

Quoted from Vance Warner

Steve Wraith quoted as saying he thinks Spurs and Liverpool getting to the European Cup final will help our season ticket sales. Sums it up really.

What it will do is make all the kids who currently buy Barcelona and Real Madrid kits, want Liverpool and Spurs shirts.