Empty seats

Quoted from Les Brechin

There a seat in the row in front of me. Showing reserved so it should be a ST but it's been empty every league game so far.

Quoted from barralad

I know of at least three people who buy season tickets without ever attending a game "to help the club out".
Difficult to argue with that level of commitment but perhaps the club could ask them the question regarding something even more positive to do with those particular seats.

Quoted from Poojah

That’s a little too draconian for my liking, but surely we should be looking at a more effective, incentive based solution for next season. Even something simple, like a few quid credit to spend at the club would help, wouldn’t it?

Quoted from ska face

Been thinking a bit about this, and the more I think about it the more complicated it becomes. That’s without having balance sheets and budgets to worry about too.

Whatever’s in place, I think it could only work if compo is dished out once tickets are resold rather than released. Otherwise you’re looking at guaranteed ST income potentially fluctuating week to week, you could have every ST release their seats one week and suddenly you’ve got 5500 lots of fivers or credits to dish out.

You couldn’t really do it as a flat single rate, it would have to be based on the value/category of the ST - if you’ve paid £70 for a kids’ ST and it’s resold every week, you could end the season in profit. Morally though, if the seat is sold as a ST and then sold again once released, the club will have made twice the income for the same thing, so a decent whack should go back to the ST holder.

Then if you’ve got an adult ST, and the seat is resold as a concession, how much is that worth? Averaged out, an adult ST is worth £14.78 per game (most stands), that seat could be sold as cheap as £5, total revenue from that seat then is £19.78, less than the standard £20 matchday price.

Like I said, complicated.

Quoted from Poojah

Fewer attendees than season ticket holders at last night’s match. Brentford have taken pretty drastic action with their policy for next season’s season tickets - miss four games without making your ticket available for resale and lose your seat for the following season:

[img]https://www.northstandchat.com/attachments/fpfw70kxsaazmnd-jpeg.157464/[/img]
That’s a little too draconian for my liking, but surely we should be looking at a more effective, incentive based solution for next season. Even something simple, like a few quid credit to spend at the club would help, wouldn’t it?

Quoted from Poojah

Fewer attendees than season ticket holders at last night’s match. Brentford have taken pretty drastic action with their policy for next season’s season tickets - miss four games without making your ticket available for resale and lose your seat for the following season:

[img]https://www.northstandchat.com/attachments/fpfw70kxsaazmnd-jpeg.157464/[/img]
That’s a little too draconian for my liking, but surely we should be looking at a more effective, incentive based solution for next season. Even something simple, like a few quid credit to spend at the club would help, wouldn’t it?

Quoted from Les Brechin

There a seat in the row in front of me. Showing reserved so it should be a ST but it's been empty every league game so far.

Quoted from Phil the cod

Well, I'm going to save them (the illustrious new owners of gtfc) the cost of the stamp warning me to release my seat........I'm not renewing after watching this seasons woeful home games.
I'll go in the osmand end and pick and choose games.
So crack on suits.

Quoted from ska face

Been thinking a bit about this, and the more I think about it the more complicated it becomes. That’s without having balance sheets and budgets to worry about too.

Whatever’s in place, I think it could only work if compo is dished out once tickets are resold rather than released. Otherwise you’re looking at guaranteed ST income potentially fluctuating week to week, you could have every ST release their seats one week and suddenly you’ve got 5500 lots of fivers or credits to dish out.

You couldn’t really do it as a flat single rate, it would have to be based on the value/category of the ST - if you’ve paid £70 for a kids’ ST and it’s resold every week, you could end the season in profit. Morally though, if the seat is sold as a ST and then sold again once released, the club will have made twice the income for the same thing, so a decent whack should go back to the ST holder.

Then if you’ve got an adult ST, and the seat is resold as a concession, how much is that worth? Averaged out, an adult ST is worth £14.78 per game (most stands), that seat could be sold as cheap as £5, total revenue from that seat then is £19.78, less than the standard £20 matchday price.

Like I said, complicated.

Quoted from BlackandWhiteBarmy2

I have a few thoughts on this. Firstly I don't think the club should recompense season ticket holders for releasing their seats, unless that seat is subsequently sold. Secondly I think the club need to be more proactive. The system for releasing your season ticket is a little complicated. Would it not be better for the club to contact the ST holder asking whether they intend to use their ticket for the next match and then immediately releasing the seat if the response is negative. It's only the outline of an idea and I haven't completely thought it through. Maybe the club could employ somebody specifically to do this and their wage could be covered from the extra income generated by re-sales. I also can't see any reason why re-allocated seats should not be sold at the normal ticket price.

Just an idea

Quoted from Garth

When you buy your season ticket you enter a contract with the club that allows you and nobody else to hire that seat for the endurance of the match, it's entirely up to you what you do in that purchased time, and bloody cheeky of any club to rule differently

Quoted from aldi_01

I understand this has been a recurring conversation all season but to be honest, it still begs the question, how many people are being ‘turned away’?

Buying a ST is a commitment and in some respects it’s your choice whether you go or not. The club have already had the cash, as has been pointed out, it becomes very complicated in regard’s recompense for reselling that ticket. How much do you pay? Does the ticket have to be sold first? Is there a limit on how many?

Like I said, people haven’t been banging the doors down to get in so it’s probably not as big an issue as being made out and I’d suspect it won’t be an issue next season.

Being a STH in the premier league is a different kettle of fish, aside from clubs knowing they can definitely resell those tickets, it’s also a way of controlling fans. We’ve seen over the last few years, Chelsea and Arsenal ‘suspend’ season tickets because someone has moaned about a supporter swearing or being over zealous in a celebration.

What Brentford are intending to do is quite draconian and controlling, and verging on arrogant (I used to like Brentford but they have a B team and now this…my opinion is changing) and I know other clubs have used similar measures, Utd and Liverpool being one, hence the increased use of sites such as Stubhub…STH realise they can just sell the ticket themselves.

Quoted from golfer

I think you will find that the majority of  S.T. holders who miss will miss on the Tuesday for whatever reason . A lot of these will pay £10 to watch on Mariners TV meaning the club will receive extra funds from this source

Quoted from diehardmariner

We're never going to get anyone either banging on the door or putting the SOLD OUT sign up on closed gates at 2:45pm, not in 2023.  The modern version of that is people looking at the online ticketing system, seeing there are no seats they want available (be it the right stand, the lack of posts in the way or even a bunch of seats together).  Most home games this season we've seen a thread on this very forum that has shown up the lack of available seats to buy, yet come match day there's always plenty of empty seats come kick off time.  That to me suggests there is sufficient interest that exceeds the capacity of the ground in terms of tickets we can sell (not seats we can fill).

Unfortunately there's absolutely no way we can quantify how much extra demand there is and that we're missing out on.  I know of a few occasions where friends have looked at the availability of seats and thought better of it, opting to not go instead.  That's not enough to warrant a root and branch approach to what's going on.


It may be a complicated system to implement, but we'll never know until we try and as said earlier this should surely be part of the clubs plan to be sustainable moving forward, i.e. getting more people in and interested and therefore creating proof of concept for a bigger capacity.  

Even a simple system where if you release your seat and it gets re-sold gives you a token for a free programme.  Anything is better than the non-incentive that we currently offer, that clearly isn't working.  

As you, I and many others have said, come next season this is highly unlikely to be a problem.  A combination of poor form/displays at home and potentially keeping a self-imposed ceiling of 8,000ish people able to buy a ticket feels disappointing.  

Improvement isn't a straight line, but to achieve any improvements you've got to try something different.
                                                                              ...................

Croxton reply

As a lone exile STH spending £30 quid on fuel for home games I have tended to think that locals have a more options in making choices of which games to watch. I give up a whole day but have the luxury of a paid for seat, so no queueing or scrambling to get seats near my pals etc.

I had a little insight on Tues. night of waiting in the queue to collect my preordered Carlisle ticket. We were only playing Halifax but the queue stretched half way across the car park 30 mins before kick off. None of the extra windows were operating so some away fans were in the same line as home fans buying Carlisle, Southampton and Halifax tickets. There was very little signage to guide people where to go for what.

On the Upper turnstiles there was at least one senior ticket office personnel scanning tickets. We appear to be winging it somewhat and this can only put more pressure on staff. Some of these pressure points can be relieved by sharper communications and hiring 2/3 extra part time help.

Selling spare STH seats sounds great in theory but our systems need upgrading first. Hopefully the digital review will offer some answers. We have to be just as patient with the non playing staff as with the team on the pitch.

Quoted from Yarborough Vaults

Fans willing to pay £20 a game on the day can't get in together as £15 a game STH have hoovered up the usual seats.

Quoted from aldi_01

Buying a ST is a commitment and in some respects it’s your choice whether you go or not.

Quoted from White_shorts

Some of the posts here make my blood boil.

You should buy a season ticket if you intend to go to most if not all home games.  As a token of appreciation, the club gives you a discount that equates to a few free matches.

It appears this year that a lot of people bought season tickets because the team was on the up and there was a chance we'd get a big club in a cup competition.  You should think about the local youngsters who have yet to fall in love with the Mariners because they can't get seats with their parents.

Selfish, inconsiderate ****s.

Quoted from White_shorts

Some of the posts here make my blood boil.

You should buy a season ticket if you intend to go to most if not all home games.  As a token of appreciation, the club gives you a discount that equates to a few free matches.

It appears this year that a lot of people bought season tickets because the team was on the up and there was a chance we'd get a big club in a cup competition.  You should think about the local youngsters who have yet to fall in love with the Mariners because they can't get seats with their parents.

Selfish, inconsiderate ****s.

Quoted from Les Brechin

There a seat in the row in front of me. Showing reserved so it should be a ST but it's been empty every league game so far.

Quoted from White_shorts

Some of the posts here make my blood boil.

You should buy a season ticket if you intend to go to most if not all home games.  As a token of appreciation, the club gives you a discount that equates to a few free matches.

It appears this year that a lot of people bought season tickets because the team was on the up and there was a chance we'd get a big club in a cup competition.  You should think about the local youngsters who have yet to fall in love with the Mariners because they can't get seats with their parents.

Selfish, inconsiderate ****s.