Will tonight's attendance set alarm bells ringing...........

[Stafford Blade]

in the board room?

tenner and a fiver all over and still only 19000 there. The pre-season could be interesting, anyone that purchases a season ticket must either be loaded or crackers.

 

[Foxy]

tenner and a fiver all over and still only 19000 there. The pre-season could be interesting, anyone that purchases a season ticket must either be loaded or crackers.

I guess I'll have to be filed under crackers Don't think I'll be the only one.

 

[Stafford Blade]

I guess I'll have to be filed under crackers Don't think I'll be the only one.

you need yer head reading

 

[cooperblade]

Think it just proves that all those who say they don't go because of prices are liars. Might as well make it 34 quid every game and rely on season ticket money.

 

[bricktop]

Think it just proves that all those who say they don't go because of prices are liars. Might as well make it 34 quid every game and rely on season ticket money.

Can't agree there. I decided at half 6 i wasn't going to go because i just didn't want to spend another two hours watching that.

I'm a season ticket holder, have been for a number of years, have followed United all over the country and its that bad now i honestly can't summon the effort to travel 4 miles to the match?

 

[Stafford Blade]

Think it just proves that all those who say they don't go because of prices are liars. Might as well make it 34 quid every game and rely on season ticket money.

think they should give it a go on a saturday with those prices. they were up against the champions league tonight so many will have stayed in with a 4 pack and watched that.

 

[Foxy]

think they should give it a go on a saturday with those prices. they were up against the champions league tonight so many will have stayed in with a 4 pack and watched that.

To be fair, we've had plenty of offers all season... Think season ticket holders are close to being break even than if they'd decided to pick and choose but still gone every week.

 

[Stafford Blade]

Can't agree there. I decided at half 6 i wasn't going to go because i just didn't want to spend another two hours watching that.

I'm a season ticket holder, have been for a number of years, have followed United all over the country and its that bad now i honestly can't summon the effort to travel 4 miles to the match?

exactly brownie, right now there's probably plenty of blades that would shut the curtains if the team was playing in their back garden. Can't blame people for staying away, watching constant shite wears away the enthusiasm

 

[lenners]

That was an excellent crowd tonight.
No wins in 9 or 10, in the bottom three, lost about 8 at home, raining, played three days before at home.

 

[SwissBlade]

That was an excellent crowd tonight.
No wins in 9 or 10, in the bottom three, lost about 8 at home, raining, played three days before at home.

And the Brits on Tele Lenners!

Like Coops says, the people that demanded cut price tickets the other week, were they there? My season ticket is on offer for all midweek games for nowt, but people don't bother taking the offer up!

Prices need to drop next season, but the main issue is the product...

 

[lenners]

I think one or two aren't thinking clearly about what the crowd would otherwise have been.
And if anyone thinks prices aren't going to matter and they should charge as much as they like next season, you'll have vast swathes of seats all to yourself.
The effect of the cheap offer was also majorly skewed by the fact it was intended to be a Saturday match.

 

[AlienWoodward]

Can't agree there. I decided at half 6 i wasn't going to go because i just didn't want to spend another two hours watching that.

I'm a season ticket holder, have been for a number of years, have followed United all over the country and its that bad now i honestly can't summon the effort to travel 4 miles to the match?

I felt like that as well Brownie. But then Trev text me at six to say they were all in the tunnel bar. You should have come for the just for the beer you miserable git ;-)

 

[Pinchy]

Put me down as crackers as well. Someone has to lead the fight against mediocrity and non-football. It's difficult to complain with any conviction if you don't experience the full misery.

 

[bricktop]

I felt like that as well Brownie. But then Trev text me at six to say they were all in the tunnel bar. You should have come for the just for the beer you miserable git ;-)

I'd have loved to have gone for a beer, but with a night shift in front of beer, drinking beer was off the menu for me.

 

[cooperblade]

My post was partly tongue in cheek but I think the take up of these ticket offers shows that price isn't the only (or arguably even the main) variable when it comes to people deciding whether or not they want to go to the Lane. I'd say it just nudges out the quality of the football as the one that's mentioned the most often though.

We have a group of fans who have decided they don't want to go any more (or certainly not at the moment anyway) and for some reason, some of these fans (and only some) feel the need to come onto forums, ring RS etc and say 'I'm not going whilst Blackwell's in charge', 'I'm not paying £X to go'. Almost without exception though, the club make a change, put on an offer and we don't see a huge uplift in attendances.

I think there are things the club could do much better in terms of promoting their offers but the offers themselves have been good. I don't know how many non-season ticket holders paid to get in last night but was it twice as many as who would've paid £22? I'm not convinced.

Clearly the club should continue to do everything it can to get people through the door but there are a group of fans (the I'd have gone to the Villa game if it was £15 not £17 mob) who probably won't return 'til we're at the right end of the table (whichever league that may be). Which leads me on to another question...

Would we get more home fans next season if we're, say, 18th in the Championship or if we were 5th in League 1?

 

[SwissBlade]

Clearly the club should continue to do everything it can to get people through the door but there are a group of fans (the I'd have gone to the Villa game if it was £15 not £17 mob) who probably won't return 'til we're at the right end of the table (whichever league that may be). Which leads me on to another question...

Would we get more home fans next season if we're, say, 18th in the Championship or if we were 5th in League 1?

Now theres a question...

But one we will never know the answer to as we'll be 5th in the Championship next season

 

[alcoblade]

We get almost 20,000 to watch year after year of complete shite. Alarm bells should be ringing in the office of some billionaire.

UTB

 

[Kenilworth]

The purpose of the cheap tickets is to get people back into the habit of going. Problem is that serving up such a below par performance will not encourage people to repeat the experience. 19,000 for a game against Reading midweek on the back of a Saturday home fixture, relative to our league position, is pretty actually good. Matches against Reading are not one of the highest attended fixtures in any season.

Many people are out of the habit. As I live over 100 miles away from Sheffield I have very much got out of the habit of going since the rewards of the trek and the expense of travel plus ticket for me and Kenny Jnr do not add up. Would be very different for me if I still lived in Sheffield but I haven't done for almost 30 years. Still cannot do anything else while the game is on. Have to watch for the few reports on Sky or look at mobile txt commentary 'cos I wont pay for Blades(rip-off)World on principle. I pay the same license fee as those in Sheffield but can only get local radio commentary on teams I have no interest in and I think that sucks - if they want to control what is on the internet then the BBC should create an account that I can log into to access radio over internet to listen to a statin of my choice. I know it;s the FL that controls the rights and they should have a better way of charging for those people that do not pay a license fee. Part of my license fee pays for RS commentary and I should have access to it even though I don't live in Sheffield.

Last point while I am off on one, better than the one off matches with cheap tickets would be the provision of safe standing behind the goal. Then it would be more cost effective for a whole load more people to attend regularly and the atmosphere (that has gone from most grounds) would have a chance to return. Seats are not necessarily safer -they just give the opportunity to charge more.

BTW anyone notice that Wendy arre now 16th in Div 3 and 5 points above relegation? Shame for the biggest club ever to be in the 3rd tier of english football. Massive. Bwahahahahahaha.

 

[Coily]

To be fair, we've had plenty of offers all season... Think season ticket holders are close to being break even than if they'd decided to pick and choose but still gone every week.

Should that be the case then from the perspective of ST retention there should be a good offer made to existing ST holders to try to entice everyone to renew. You would hope that this is already on the commercial departments agenda, but perhaps this is a matter to take up with Mr Batho?

 

[oaklandrdblade]

Think the reason the commentary is not available online is due to the fact that Blades World have sole rights to internet commentary.

 

[raul]

Should that be the case then from the perspective of ST retention there should be a good offer made to existing ST holders to try to entice everyone to renew. You would hope that this is already on the commercial departments agenda, but perhaps this is a matter to take up with Mr Batho?

We've had plenty of threads asking why people didn't renew/won't be renewing, the above sort of begs the question of what is it that makes people do so?

Is it merely about saving money? Is it a "statement of loyalty" of some kind? Is it a convenience thing? Your mates all do? Or is it, pretty much like not renewing, a fairly complex blend of all the above and more.

On last night and the pricing, I decided halfway home from Grimy that I'd make the effort. Partly because , well, it's getting serious now isn't it, but also because of the £10 ticket. I doubt very much I'd have gone if it had been normal prices, particularly after going last Sat too.

Finally, I love these threads, lots of good ideas are borne from them but conversly it does highlight how impossible it is to please everyone.

 

[broomhillblade]

A bit of perspective:

Last night Cardiff got 21,000+
Blades got 19,000+
Watford got 10,600
Doncaster got 8,400

 

[lenners]

My post was partly tongue in cheek but I think the take up of these ticket offers shows that price isn't the only (or arguably even the main) variable when it comes to people deciding whether or not they want to go to the Lane. I'd say it just nudges out the quality of the football as the one that's mentioned the most often though.

We have a group of fans who have decided they don't want to go any more (or certainly not at the moment anyway) and for some reason, some of these fans (and only some) feel the need to come onto forums, ring RS etc and say 'I'm not going whilst Blackwell's in charge', 'I'm not paying £X to go'. Almost without exception though, the club make a change, put on an offer and we don't see a huge uplift in attendances.

I think there are things the club could do much better in terms of promoting their offers but the offers themselves have been good. I don't know how many non-season ticket holders paid to get in last night but was it twice as many as who would've paid £22? I'm not convinced.

Clearly the club should continue to do everything it can to get people through the door but there are a group of fans (the I'd have gone to the Villa game if it was £15 not £17 mob) who probably won't return 'til we're at the right end of the table (whichever league that may be). Which leads me on to another question...

Would we get more home fans next season if we're, say, 18th in the Championship or if we were 5th in League 1?

I'd hazard a guess that crowd was between and 2,000 and 3,000 higher than it would otherwise have been last night.
If United don't wake up to what's happening and think very, very hard about ticket prices, season tickets may well be below 10,000 next season.
That would represent losing half in two years, a pretty staggering piece of mismanagement by any yardstick.
It isn't just about prices, but just about every club has lost fans due to the economy - including those with rather better players on display than at Bramall Lane.
Money definitely matters at the moment.

 

[Tuns]

My post was partly tongue in cheek but I think the take up of these ticket offers shows that price isn't the only (or arguably even the main) variable when it comes to people deciding whether or not they want to go to the Lane. I'd say it just nudges out the quality of the football as the one that's mentioned the most often though.

We have a group of fans who have decided they don't want to go any more (or certainly not at the moment anyway) and for some reason, some of these fans (and only some) feel the need to come onto forums, ring RS etc and say 'I'm not going whilst Blackwell's in charge', 'I'm not paying £X to go'. Almost without exception though, the club make a change, put on an offer and we don't see a huge uplift in attendances.

I think there are things the club could do much better in terms of promoting their offers but the offers themselves have been good. I don't know how many non-season ticket holders paid to get in last night but was it twice as many as who would've paid £22? I'm not convinced.

Clearly the club should continue to do everything it can to get people through the door but there are a group of fans (the I'd have gone to the Villa game if it was £15 not £17 mob) who probably won't return 'til we're at the right end of the table (whichever league that may be). Which leads me on to another question...

Would we get more home fans next season if we're, say, 18th in the Championship or if we were 5th in League 1?

Wake up everyone. It's not about how much you charge on the day it's about how much you charge and how you sell your season tickets.

Last night proved yet again that crowds are in the main dependent on ST sales that were made months ago.

Yes a good team playing attractive football will edge gates up a bit but don't kid yourselves that thousands more Blades are suddenly going to start paying on the day every week.

It's about habit and it's almost about 'forcing' people to the Lane. I had a ST for over 30 years and countless times especially in recent seasons I went to games only cos I had a ST not cos I positively wanted to or expected to really enjoy the match.

When you are faced with paying for the game and the hassle - yes it can be a hassle - getting a ticket first - then you have to make a decision about whether to go to each game before eevry single home game - the ST doesn't make the decision for you anymore.

The £10 offers are good but not the solution the only solution to saving the club from another big drop in gates next season is some radical ST ideas. Rip up the ST selling rule book and start again Batho, shock us with the fantastic offer and put people like me in a position where we just have to take up the offer again cos it is that enticing.

And if we are going to do £10 offers why not follow our neighbours and do some offers for games people might actually want to go to as well as the crap ones so we actually fill the ground.

Boxing Day was a great missed opportunity to make it £10 and free for kids and really go for it on the marketing of that game.

It's not actually that hard and we even have the names and addresses of thousands of potential ST holders who we can target once we get the ST offer right.

 

[lenners]

The thing is we have no idea if the club is interested in season ticket ideas, no idea if Batho is raising any ideas, no idea if he'll deign to tell us either way.
A club pretty short on ideas at the moment.

 

[cooperblade]

Kenilworth and Tuns are spot on that it's all about habit. Difficult to get out of and difficult to get back into once you are out of it.

Don't think it's down to Batho to direct ticketing strategy, as I see it he's more of a conduit between the fans and the board to pass on concerns, ideas, problems etc.

 

[lenners]

Kenilworth and Tuns are spot on that it's all about habit. Difficult to get out of and difficult to get back into once you are out of it.

Don't think it's down to Batho to direct ticketing strategy, as I see it he's more of a conduit between the fans and the board to pass on concerns, ideas, problems etc.

It's not down to Batho but it would help if he provided some clarity as to whether the club is interested, whether he's suggested anything, how he decided what to suggest, whether it's a dead end anyway etc.
The club's greatest resource is its supporters but we've no idea if they're interested in ideas from fans and we can't even get the fans rep to let us know.

 

[Yossarian]

The fact that they've hired a fan's rep would lead one to assume they are interested to hear fan's opinions.

 

[MunXy]

i agree current ST holders should get a great deal, but as has been pointed out alot will buy them because they always have and will no matter what, that loyalty should be rewarded in a big way considering the shite they have had to put up with.
Saying that they also need to open up ST pricing to entice new, potential loyal holders to buy into it too. remember theres a LOT of revenue raked in on match days from programmes, food n drink and in the blades shop so the more in attendance the more revenue the club get on a weekly basis, the ST sales are a one off windfall, gate tickets and sales on match days are a regular income.
if the blades really want to compete with the big boys they need to seriously consider slashing not only renewal prices, but new ST prices and match day prices for home AND away fans, bigger crowds = better atmosphere+higher income.
just my 2 cents.

MunXy

 

[bottletree]

To all of you that are carrying on going and getting season tickets next season, I salute you all. You are true Blades in my book. Wish i had patience and determination like you lot.