Admission Prices, Season Tickets, Society Membership etc.

Admission Prices, Season Tickets Society Membership etc.
At last nights’ Board Meeting (Thursday 31st May 2012) the following prices were agreed for the coming season 2012-13.
Match Day Admission Prices
Adult Admission £8.00 per person
Seniors (Over 65) £6.00 per person
Juniors (Under 16) £1.00 per person
Car Parking £1.00 per car
Season Tickets
Adults £150.00
Seniors (Over 65) £110.00
Season Reserved Car Parking £50.00
Society Membership £10.00 per person
Season Tickets may be paid either by a one off payment or by Standing Order payable at 5 monthly amounts (August to December).
Season Ticket Holders and Society Members from last year over the next few days will receive either by email or Post, Application Forms to renew their fees for the coming season. Any new supporters wishing to take out Season Tickets or to join the Supporters Society can contact me either by email at meurig.price@btinternet.com or on 07503170937

Unsurprising there has been a marginal increase in the prices. A full-price season ticket works out about £7.15 a game if all 21 are attended - or about £50/game for me based on last season attendance!

This is probably the average - or possibly the lower end - of league clubs. Do students get any concessions? There was a bit of a furore on the Solihull website about this recently - in the end the club conceded and offered half-price tickets (or there abouts). Personally, I think this is an important target group - if they hang around say from 16-19/20 then I'd suggest there is a better chance of catching for life. There are so many competing alternatives for that age group, we need to incentivise & encourage. Plus its a fair hike from £1 to £8 for a group that typically have no earnings or income.

Anyhow, sermon over.

And whats "Society Membership" please? Do I pay that?!!

I've had a quick trawl through the websites of other SL Div 1 South & West clubs to look at their admission prices.

Of the 21 other clubs, no information was readily available for 7 of them.

Of the other 14, there were 8 clubs also charging £8 (But Tiverton charge an extra £1 for seated accomodation)
Only 3 were charging £7 (Yate, Hungerford and Taunton)
There were 3 charging £9 or more - Swindon Supermarine and Didcot at £9 and Poole Town at £10

But several of these were LAST season's prices (including Swindon and Didcot), so there may be some increases for the new season (doubt there'll be any reductions). Poole's £10 is for the new season.

By now all those individuals who have submitted email addresses will have received notification of Season and Society Membership. If for any reason you have not received yours please contact me and I can get them out to you. Supporters with out email addresses will receive their application forms through the post hopefully by the end of this week. It would help if you can return your completed forms to me as soon as possible. Many Thanks

With reference to the variation of ticket prices within the Southern League; I note that admission prices vary between £7 and £10; could this be anything to do with the prosperity of those towns? i.e. Poole is one of the most properous areas of the UK, so it is undestandable that they can charge £10 admission! One should remember that Merthyr is one of the most deprived areas in Britain, with just about the highest level of unemployement, and whilst £8 is of little consequence to a person earning an average wage of say £25k per annum; it is a great deal of money to the unemployed; or even those former Hoover workers who were made redundant a few years ago, and are maybe now in their late fifties or early sixties, and are living on their meagre company pension until they are 65, when they can receive the Government pension to bolster their income! Would it not be possible to find a way of giving a reduced admission price to those people?

Thanks for your comments regarding admission prices and while I sympathise with your views it would be almost impossible to administer, how do we know if a person falls into the categories that you mention, it would mean on Match Days that the person concernned would have to show some sort of evidence that he does in fact qualify for a reduction, I don't think the person concerned would like to do that and secondly there is no official document as far as I know to show a persons employment status. I think as a board we were mindfull of the area we live in and took this into account when fixing admission prices. But again thanks foryour comments.

I agree that it would be difficult to administer; what about those people applying to the club and being invited to provide proof of income; then the club could issue a pass card that could be shown at the gate on match days, and give them an entitlement to a reduced admission price of say £5 or £6 entrance fee? If it encouraged an extra 100 people over the age of say 55 years to every game, then it would be a worth while exercise. (Just a thought!). But I do understand that this would take a lot of organisation, and maybe not worth while if you didnt have sufficient response from the supporters.

I think it would be difficult to provide proof of income, if anyone would want to try and do so, and someone with limited income could have lots of savings. What if one of those people later gained employment? Would they then declare it or carry on getting a discounted admission price? What about a man who is unemployed but has a working wife with a good job and so the family have a decent income? What about people still working at, say, 70, who lose their job? Would they want a concession?
And if such a scheme could be administered and didn't bring in any extra fans, the income would go down from the present level.
I think it is always good to try and attract more fans but I think if someone wants to see a game, they will do so for the sake of a pound or two extra on what they feel they can afford!
Some people say they wouldn't pay the match admission but would spend more than that on a few pints in the pub in about an hour.
Eight pounds is not a minor amount but people with limited income must arrange their priorities.
Merthyr Town has to be run as a business to survive. Special prices have not usually been very productive. Sorry to appear negative but I think such a scheme would be complicated.

Well said Tim, for the past 2 seasons Merthyr Town have been the most expensive side in the Western League @ £6 in 2010-11 and £7 in 2011-12,we have now gained promotion for the 2nd season on the trot and we are now an average priced side and yet some people complain. I say the way to attract more supporters is a good product on the field and not the price of admission.

Mission accomplished, I have tonight sent application forms to everyone for whom I either have a postal or email address. If there is anyone who requires application forms and who does not receive theirs by the weekend please give me a shout and I will get forms out to them. It would assist me greatly if you could return the completed forms to me as soon as you can.

Thanks.

Yes you are probably right about the admiinistration of such a scheme being to difficult to administer, and not really worth while, as the two people I know who are on sickness benefit, and remarked to me that it was to expensive to watch the Town, would probably not go to many games, even if they only had to pay half price; its probably not one of their priorities. They are just local people who ask their acquaintances how the Town got on after a game just out of interest, and are not really football supporters. One of those people I mention claims to be a passionate Man Utd supporter, but has only been to Old Trafford once in sixty years; yet every time they are on sky he is glued to his TV, cheering them on! To me £8 is good value for money, and although I will only get to watch a dozen or so games in a season, because of other commitments, at least I am genuine in my interest in our team.

Interesting posts here to say the least, a student concession would be a good thing to introduce IMO, anything else is a non starter really.

What about Olympic Games programme sellers? It is not their fault they work only every four years!!

There are blokes in Merthyr who havent worked for 24 years, and we all know a few of those; with the lack of employment in the area the way it is, it's easy for those who dont want to work, and very difficult for those that are unemployed and trying to find work! Anyway back to the suggestion of a student disscount, It's true that in University Towns and Cities, the students get a disscounted admission to all sorts of goings on, and I think that a student card disscount would be reasonably easy to administer, but how many full time students are there in Merthyr that want to come along and support the town?

Only way to find out is to introduce a student concession price - worth a try?

Will they be able to get up in time for a 3pm kick-off? Just a joke! Sorry!!

Martyr Weaver wrote: Anyway back to the suggestion of a student disscount, It's true that in University Towns and Cities, the students get a disscounted admission to all sorts of goings on, and I think that a student card disscount would be reasonably easy to administer, but how many full time students are there in Merthyr that want to come along and support the town?

Im a full time Uni student and would be interested if a discount was made, im sure others would be interested to, you never know, it might lead to a new generation of supporters

I think it's worth considering. I'm not sure if there are any present fans who are full-time students. I know there have been some over the years.
There tend to be a lot of older supporters. There is scope to attract more youngsters and also those in the late teens to early 20s. Some in the 30 to 40 age group seem to have disappeared but success in past two seasons has seen a build-up of some new supporters.