last year, mid-June
Why I hope City have not dropped the ball with the 9,000
In February 2008, we were told of the new offer for 2008/2009 season tickets - if 9000 adults or more were to buy a season ticket before 15th June, they’d each receive another, free, season ticket. It’s now less than a week to the deadline and only slightly more than 6000 have been sold - despite selling twice that number last season. Why is this the case?
Are City fans jaded? Perhaps so - last season, for all the signs of recovery and general optimism, was a mid-table finish in the fourth division when all is said and done.
Are City fans lazy? Certainly some are - witness the mad dash for season tickets as the deadline approached last season.
Are City fans fickle? Maybe. It’s fair to say that a good deal of the fans who bought tickets last season were definitely conspicuous by their absence in the years post-Premiership.
Are City fans cheap? Yes.
The fact that we sold more season tickets at a lower level of football just because of the ticket price speaks volumes. I applaud City for lowering the cost, I really do - football has always been too expensive to watch, and to put it in the financial reach of real people is how football should be.
The offer itself is where I think Bradford City have dropped an absolute clanger when it comes to this season’s season ticket sales. It is my belief that the reason that there is a shortfall of 3000 season ticket holders is solely down to the buy one get one free offer - people are waiting to see how many tickets are being sold, before swooping in at the last minute and grabbing two tickets - one for themselves, one for their mate, and paying half each. These will be the same people that then complain that “City have no money again” as they sit there having contributed less than 4p for each minute of league football played that season at home.
I think City’s BOGOF offer is an inspired way of getting more people through the turnstiles, but it has been handled all wrong. The message should have been “Buy One Get One Free - for the first 9000 adult season tickets purchased, if we sell 9000 adult season tickets”. There would then have been a mad scramble at the start of the promotion (although it’s been made unnecessary by allowing renewals to be done online this season) as will inevitably happen at the end of this one, and those that bought after the 9000 mark would still only be paying £150. Even play it a little cloak and dagger, and don’t publicise how many tickets have been sold. Those that were going to split the cost with their mate would still be able to if they get in early enough - and if I’m honest, at least these people might actually attend the games instead of having an extra season ticket to give to someone who more than likely won’t turn up. At this rate, instead of getting 9000+ new supporters (which is the aim), City could be in a position where anywhere between 3000 and 6000 people just don’t bother getting a ticket at all, as they’ll miss the deadline and instead of paying £150 for two tickets, will have to pay £300 for one.
“City Til I Die” is the mantra from the stand - but in reality, it’s more like “City while I can bleed them dry” for most. And that saddens me.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:24
I think the maths might be wrong here. We sold 12,000 season tickets in total last season, not 12,000 adult ones. I’m not sure exactly how many we did actually sell, but it was less than 9,000 - somewhere around 7,500 I think.
June 9th, 2008 at 14:25
The fans have stuck loyaly with City through season after season of tripe, last season being crueller than most given all the hot air that was spouted last Summer.
Last time I looked football was still classed as an entertainment industry and the club fails wholly to create a product that could entertain for many a season. It is fine for the die-hards making it cheap but the floating supporter would want more surely?
The club should address the footballing side to get these ‘floaters’ back and not think that because something is cheap they will get people to VP, it is not Ratners it is football and if the club cannot compete on a level playing field with its League Two rivals questions really should be asked of how well the club has ‘recovered’.
June 9th, 2008 at 14:50
We sold 9,000 adult season tickets - and we’ve sold just over 6,000 this time, with a week to go.
I reckon we will shift another 1,000 before the deadline to make it to 7000, and thus still get 9,500+ gates - so bearing in mind the poor season we had, I don’t think that’s bad for Division 4 (old money) football.
June 9th, 2008 at 16:22
City sold 9,000 adult season tickets last year - the other 3,000 comprised of 2,000 freebies for under 11’s and 1,000 approx concessions.
So you can see why they put out the 9,000 target - can we not just wait until the total is announced on the 16th June before analysing and criticising the clubs strategy?
The board have indicated they want to make football more affordable for the average fan - and for the last two years they have more than achived that.
June 9th, 2008 at 17:53
If City had advertised BOGOF for the first 9,000 fans they might only have sold 5,000 to satisfy the demand of 10,000?
It is a difficult one to call which ever way the club had advertised it. It may have been best to keep the whole thing quiet, sell the tickets and then give everyone a surprise with a free ticket or an offer to bring a friend along with your existing ticket.
June 10th, 2008 at 0:26
Even though last season was disappointing I was actually pretty well entertained.
For my £6.50 I got a day out with my fiancée at a live sporting event surrounded by good company where we actually began to show some promise.
Yeah it wasn’t what we wanted but I can’t help but feel some sections of the VP ‘faithful’ turn up expecting Premiership football rather than League Two football.
This is the season to judge our progress on, and off, the field. Unfortunately it seems plenty of our fellow fans are willing to have written Stuart off over the summer rather than giving him that opportunity to make a fair stab at moulding a team that is completely his own.
At the moment we’ll be £380,000 under budget if we don’t sell another adult ticket. That’s quite a lot, hopefully it doesn’t damage Stuart’s plans…
June 10th, 2008 at 13:48
The counterproductive slating of our players is something I certainly won’t miss hearing from the ‘Floating Fans’.
June 23rd, 2008 at 19:45
“Even though last season was disappointing I was actually pretty well entertained.”
“The counterproductive slating of our players is something I certainly won’t miss hearing from the ‘Floating Fans’.”
I’d agree with those comments (By Jason McKeown - Ed) - I’m looking forward to the season starting because City put in some encouraging performances towards the end of last season, we were entertained… and with a bit of luck it’ll be the moaners* that haven’t renewed.
I’ve got my season ticket and I’m glad I’ve bought it. BOGOF or not!
*I was on the Claret & Banter forum earlier and it’s only a minority of the posters there… but there are a couple of posters who are so negative I wonder why they get out of bed in a morning let alone make themselves miserable reading about City or going
to games.