Tickets

[GRUMPY BLADE]

This is a good idea, but there are a couple of flaws in there.

Which seat will it be for? If it's a "pay as you go" or "pick and choose" kind of season ticket, where you only pay for the matches you want where do you stand if the club sells your seat before you decide that you'd like to go for that match? Or would the cards be for a non-specific seat, so when you buy your match ticket the club say "that's £20 sir, and your seat will be row A number 222, right at the front of the Kop on the far right." You'll want to sit in the same seat you always use. Well, not always - you only go to the big matches, or when you can make it to Sheffield, or the cheap ones, or Tuesday night ones,

I can see that it would be a good idea in principle, but will the club reserve seats that have not been paid for? If you go to the ticket office without one of these cards and ask to buy seats 100 and 101 you are going to be pretty miffed when they tell you that you can't have those because Mr. Smith, with his membership card, sometimes has those seats even though they've not been bought for the visit of Lickey End Wanderers he might want to pay for them on Saturday, so you'll have to pick two others, sorry. No, not those two either - they're reserved too.

It is a good idea, but it needs working on properly. Given the effort there's no reason why a scheme like this shouldn't run smoothly. Another one for Mr. Batho methinks.

Go try and buy tickets for an American football team. Usually you see a seating plan of the stadium with seats in blocks like the arena and it will offer you tickets with seat numbers. You usually have something like 30 secs or 1 min to confirm you want the tickets or they go back into the pool and you are offered alternatives.

How difficult can that be once your plastic members card is issued?

 

[shorehamview]

Go try and buy tickets for an American football team. Usually you see a seating plan of the stadium with seats in blocks like the arena and it will offer you tickets with seat numbers. You usually have something like 30 secs or 1 min to confirm you want the tickets or they go back into the pool and you are offered alternatives.

How difficult can that be once your plastic members card is issued?

To be honest I wasn't familiar with this method of selling tickets. Mind you, living in Woodseats does tend to limit the amount of American football matches I am able to attend. Total so far = None.

If United can drag their ticketing system kicking and screaming into the modern age this is an ideal way to sell them, although given their track record of implementing new technology I'll not hold my breath.

 

[sitwell]

Boo ,I don't know if this would be help to you or even if I'm allowed to do it ,but my son has just joined the RAF Regiment and will not be getting back as much as he thought he would so his ticket is free for most home games. Its on the JSS you could pick it up in the boozer and give it me back in the ground.

 

[lenners]

Shoreham, the card would just be a member's card with an ID/customer number of which the club is already fond I understand.
No specific seat number and the tickets would be sold as available - which wouldn't be hard at the moment.
I don't know where our system is at at the moment but if you're buying online, I can't see how difficult it would be to key in your ID number, pick your seats (season ticket seats and those already sold are already blocked out) and then buy like you were buying anything else online.
If you wanted to buy over the phone and wanted a bit more advice, ditto.
But the main thing for me is that you are inviting fans (I'd send them out to all lapsed season ticket holders over the last two years for starters) to remain 'fans' with a relatively easy route into buying tickets.
Presumably, the cards could also be used for loyalty points, maybe used for club shop discounts etc but that might be for further down the line.
Lots of potential advantages and you could also market it as a 'Blades Card' or summat.
I'm sure there are flaws or hitches I've not thought of but in principle I think it's something the club should be looking at for next season.
(I think the current membership scheme may already work something like the above so it's not an alien concept)

 

[shorehamview]

Shoreham,

It's shorehamview or SV, cheers.

in principle I think it's something the club should be looking at for next season.
(I think the current membership scheme may already work something like the above so it's not an alien concept)

It's something the club should be looking at NOW, to be honest. Why they've not implemented a system like this is anybody's guess. It did however take an internet forum to come up with the idea, rather than the clueless collective that sort out ticketing at the Lane.

It does seem once again that the fans are ahead of the club when it comes to forward thinking. They do have one or two decent ideas, but often it seems too little, too late.

I know Mick Rooker is a member on here - perhaps other club staff should be perusing this and other forums?

 

[Tuns]

Don't take this the wrong way Len but it's hardly even a ground breaking idea - just common sense and unbelievable that we aren't doing it already given the investment we made in the ticketing technology a few years ago.

We have the database, we have the technology but do we have the drive to do it?

I know ex ST holders (me included) who I am sure would have made it to the extra game or two if it didn't involve having to go the Lane in the week before a game to get a ticket (as they don;t have a membership card and the it seems impossible to buy easily on the internet), particulary when maybe you make a late decision say on the Wednesday onwards before a Saturday game when it's too late to get the tickets posted out.

It would then also be feasible for someone to ring me from the club on the Friday before a game and maybe persuade me with the offer of a £10 ticket and be able to just take my payment and put the ticket on my Blades card.

Or similarly send out emails with enticing offers - 3 games for £30 or whatever - with a link I can click and just buy the tickets and again they're just loaded onto the Blades card.

I appreciate there must still be an incentive to buy ST tickets and hopefully the club are well on with coming up with some groundbreaking deals on these for next season in an effort to hit 20,000 ST holders. Guess many will think that's ambitious but I think it's really achievable if they put their mind to it and rip up the rule book.

Better for the club to have 20,000 at £149 than 10,000 at £299.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Better for the club to have 20,000 at £149 than 10,000 at £299.

20000 = £2980000 10000 = £2990000

£10K less and more staff needed to process the extra 10000 tickets?

I see it would be better having 20000 turn up each week instead of 10000 but there is a cost to achieving that. Also twice as many could be sat there feeling down and on the verge of booing twice as loud if the offer on the pitch is not improved.

It must be tough running a footie club.

 

[lenners]

Tuns,
I'm not claiming it's an act of genius - it's mainly because I know someone who wanted to get a ticket for last Saturday, couldn't get to the ground and then found it difficult to get one online. At the same time, he mentioned a member who is able to simply get the card activated when he buys a 'ticket'.
Ideally you'd build an email address/mobile phone number into the system to alert card holders to offers by email or text and I think you may well get a significant increase for starters on cheap offer games. A lot better than posting out postcards that arrive the day before the game, for example.
Season ticket holders still have the advantage of having a card which gives them a significantly better deal over the whole season and if season tickets are sensibly priced and marketed they should still be the prime target.

 

[sitwell]

I would just like to give a bit of praise to the ticket office ,forgot mine on Tuesday and their assistance was very prompt and easy.

 

[raul]

Echoed. I think our frontline ticket office staff are a genuine asset to the club.

 

[Linz]

Lenners, the idea you mooted has already been mentioned to the club along with the e-ticketing, better opening hours of ticket office, better online system etc.

Although the club hasn't publicised it, you are now able to pick specific seats on the online system:

You now even have the facility to select individual seats giving you the same flexibility as purchasing in person at the Ticket Office

and it seems to suggest HERE that you can now register online to be able to buy tickets without having to fanny about ringing up or getting down to the ticket office. Usefully however, it does appear the online ticketing system is currently down so I can't confirm that... but it does show that they are trying to listen as these were a couple of the points raised from that massive thread of ideas we had before.

Steve Lewis is the Head of Commercial in charge of the season ticket marketing plan. It wouldn't take a genius to work out his email address if anyone wants to get in touch

 

[boo radley]

Boo ,I don't know if this would be help to you or even if I'm allowed to do it ,but my son has just joined the RAF Regiment and will not be getting back as much as he thought he would so his ticket is free for most home games. Its on the JSS you could pick it up in the boozer and give it me back in the ground.

Sorry just catching up on this one.
Sitwell, That is a most generous and wonderfull offer. I will PM you to discuss in the next few days, Thankyou.

I have also spoken to a very nice gentleman at the club, who's name i will not divulge at the moment and he is going to discuss with others about this situation. There are some good ideas on here and they have been seen by the club, I know. Some I'm sure they will explore further.

 

[lenners]

Lenners, the idea you mooted has already been mentioned to the club along with the e-ticketing, better opening hours of ticket office, better online system etc.

Although the club hasn't publicised it, you are now able to pick specific seats on the online system:



and it seems to suggest HERE that you can now register online to be able to buy tickets without having to fanny about ringing up or getting down to the ticket office. Usefully however, it does appear the online ticketing system is currently down so I can't confirm that... but it does show that they are trying to listen as these were a couple of the points raised from that massive thread of ideas we had before.

Steve Lewis is the Head of Commercial in charge of the season ticket marketing plan. It wouldn't take a genius to work out his email address if anyone wants to get in touch

Cheers for the info Linz.
Looks to me as if it's a relatively easy step to intoduce a Blades Card into that set up.
Send one out to all lapsed season ticket holders who continue to be lapsed at say the end of August or start of the season.
Perhaps you need to log in once to activate your card - and make it simple and quick - but use it to obtain an email address.
It could also double as a loyalty card with perhaps 5% off all club shop buys or summat. Perhaps money spent on the card on tickets or in the shop adds up to a bonus ticket at some point or a half-price one.
It's probably not that hard to make it simple to access your account details to see how many points you've acquired etc and what you might be entitled to as a result.
Seems to me there's a lot of room for maneouvre once you've established the value of your Blades Card but the focus is on the tickets and having a piece of plastic which means potential ticket in the owner's hand.
They've already got the principle in place with membership cards, I think, all they need to do is work on getting as many such cards to non-season ticket holders as possible and then expanding how they can be used from then.

 

[boo radley]

I know Mick Rooker is a member on here - perhaps other club staff should be perusing this and other forums?

Fancy quoting names, Anyone would think I'd been contacted by someone like the above.
I like others have had only good experiences when dealing with the ticket office and promotions department. Daniel (I think it was) Michelle and Emma have been very helpful over the years.
What I can tell you is that they do read certain items on forums. It surly is the best way to gage customer feelings, its easy market research for them.
This thread will be looked at this afternoon by department heads, so any other ideas, now is the time to put them forward.
If nothing else they have made me feel valued by their approach to this.

 

[mickerz-blade]

Have always had a good relationship with ticket office. They continue to be helpful and just add that bit of brightness during this gloomy time.

 

[bricktop]

I think the ticket office do a good job. Over the years they seem to get better and better at what they do.

There are a couple of things they could do.

The first is for people who are not renewing season tickets, or don't attend enough games to justify purchasing a season ticket but will still attend a dozen games over the season, is giving them the option of buying a membership card for the season at £10/20. Giving them the discounts in the club shop and knocking off a couple of quid of the price of match tickets on an individual basis, and also offer them a guaranteed seat for the season a month before the season start after the season ticket purchases have taken place, if they buy their match tickets before a certain deadline before the match.

The second would be open a few pay turnstiles around the ground, for anyone who is tempted to walk up and pay on the day, its got to be a ball ache having to queue in the ticket office to buy a ticket before the match. I've had to do this a couple of times for cup games and its a major ball ache and would have been a lot easier for me to use a turnstile to pay for my ticket.

 

[lenners]

I think the ticket office do a good job. Over the years they seem to get better and better at what they do.

There are a couple of things they could do.

The first is for people who are not renewing season tickets, or don't attend enough games to justify purchasing a season ticket but will still attend a dozen games over the season, is giving them the option of buying a membership card for the season at £10/20. Giving them the discounts in the club shop and knocking off a couple of quid of the price of match tickets on an individual basis, and also offer them a guaranteed seat for the season a month before the season start after the season ticket purchases have taken place, if they buy their match tickets before a certain deadline before the match.

The second would be open a few pay turnstiles around the ground, for anyone who is tempted to walk up and pay on the day, its got to be a ball ache having to queue in the ticket office to buy a ticket before the match. I've had to do this a couple of times for cup games and its a major ball ache and would have been a lot easier for me to use a turnstile to pay for my ticket.

Definitely wouldn't make anyone pay for membership next season.
With the likelihood of us being in League One, the object should be to ensure as many people as possible have membership cards, Blades Cards, whatever you want to call them.
Making it easy has got to be the first priority - expecting people to pay for the privilege of being able to buy tickets for League One football in a half empty stadium is definitely not the way to go.
Loyalty points, discounts on tickets or in the club shop etc can be acquired as and when you use your card to buy tickets or in the shop.
You wouldn't expect Tescos to charge you for the privilege of having a loyalty card or any other shop, United shouldn't either.
Heck, they could even call it the Blades Loyalty Card.
Make it easy, keep it simple and cast the net wide.

 

[Tuns]

Agree with a lot of this. The Blades Card idea is a no brainer.

But I wouldn't go overboard on the shop discount stuff.

Maybe I'm in a minority but I have never been tempted to buy a ST cos it gave me a discount in the club shop and I don't think I would ever buy a match ticket on that basis. SWimilarly does anyone really give a toss about loyalty points?

I'd keep it simple and make most of the the discounts/rewards for using the card relate directly into encouraging buying future tickets and further discounts on tickets.

But whatever we do with Blades Cards the key to getting good gates and ensuring the club has a healthy number of supporters in the future will always be in shifting as many STs as possible.

I hope we don;t commit ST suicide by just freezing prices or lowering them by a token amount, by only allowing the big discounts to existing ST holders, by having a ridiculously early deadline for buying them, and by not coming up with some really exciting pricing.

 

[Vancouver]

I paid 80 quid for my season ticket when I was student. Used to drive down from Bratford for the games; arrived early a few days so was sat on John St West Terrace on my own reading Sartre. Fun times.

 

[raul]

Dear Supporter,

Please buy a ST for anywhere in the ground @£250.00. If we make the play-offs, you give us an extra £50 payment at the end of the season. If we don't, we give you £50 cashback.

 

[diplomat]

I'm seriously considering my renewal. I think something needs to be done to make it too cheap to not get one. Even averaging 20k or so still leaves a third empty. It needs to be a no brainer. I don't mind the offers and have always 'brought a friend' on those deals. But I'm thinking of just being the friend next year. I'll probably get one just out of interest to see what the cull brings on. Make a statement tho utd, have the cheapest tickets around, admit we've been put thro the mill, you might be surprised with the take up. And sod the diff categories, just make it easy round numbers for ticket pricing. Most people I know have a choice of the match OR something else to do not both.

 

[lenners]

Tuns,
Season tickets are the most important but I think the club has to be realistic and also recognise that there is a large pool of supporters who aren't going to get one after what's happened but who could be reached by making it easy to get tickets in future.
There ought to be something radical in the pricing of season tickets because the likely fall in sales without doing something radical makes the usual arguments about margins etc almost redundant.
And I'm not suggesting the club shop is a big marketing ploy but I do think you should be able to rack up some loyalty points by spending there on your loyalty card.
Those points can ultimately be redeemed against tickets, in terms of a discount, or future club shop buys.
For me, the card is something that can bond the holder to the club and lord knows we need to re-establish or maintain that bond with a lot of people at the moment.

 

[boo radley]

The club has been kind enough to contact me several times on the issues raised in this thread. They are looking at many different options for next year. What we have to remember is that any idea has to be examined and looked at from lots of different angles as to not leave things open to abuse or loopholes that cost the club in other ways. Most of the suggestions so far on this thread, especially the loyalty suggestions are under serious consideration.
keep the ideas or part ideas coming, all these will help the club as well as us the supporters.

 

[Kenilworth]

JUST SEEN A SILVER LINING.

When we get relegated back down to the 3rd division does that mean the club can set aside an area of the stadium for standing on terracing again? That would make the prices more acceptable and might even generate an area where an atmosphere forms.

The only standing area at the stadium at the moment is our defenders at set pieces.

Please Bring Back Standing for Fans As Well.

 

[ghandi]

Tuns,
Season tickets are the most important but I think the club has to be realistic and also recognise that there is a large pool of supporters who aren't going to get one after what's happened but who could be reached by making it easy to get tickets in future.
There ought to be something radical in the pricing of season tickets because the likely fall in sales without doing something radical makes the usual arguments about margins etc almost redundant.
And I'm not suggesting the club shop is a big marketing ploy but I do think you should be able to rack up some loyalty points by spending there on your loyalty card.
Those points can ultimately be redeemed against tickets, in terms of a discount, or future club shop buys.
For me, the card is something that can bond the holder to the club and lord knows we need to re-establish or maintain that bond with a lot of people at the moment.

Len we already operate a loyalty points scheme it is used to ensure that the most loyal supporters (those that attend the most away matches and cup matches at home) have first dibs on tickets when demand is likely to be at a premium. I remember how well it worked for the Play-off final where we sold out despite your protestations at the time we would not sell out due to the ticketing arrangements.

Regarding the wider point on the pricing of next year's season tickets I'd drop the prices by about 15%-20% (to reflect playing in a lower division without any Match Cats) for those that renew but would extend the deadline until the 1st/2nd week in August. Supporters will renew with that sort of discount, dropping any lower you may attract extra penny numbers to renew but at a significant overall loss in revenue. The only other option I think should be considered is an extended ST (4-5 years) as was one done with the Blades 2000 which was excellent value to the real supporter and did not pander to glory hunters.

 

[raul]

Think they sold about 100 didn't they? And they came with free halo?

 

[ghandi]

Think they sold about 100 didn't they? And they came with free halo?

From what I remember they sold about 400. The 1st 100 received a huge framed signed photograph of Alan Kelly saving the last Coventry penalty in the shoot out quarter final at a free buffet (when the food was good) presented by Alan Kelly himself.
For everyone else (those with smaller halos due to them not being sainted as much as the 1st 100) there was a roll of honour displayed in the ticket office for 4 or 5 years. A brass plate on your seat. Plus a dinner with guest speakers plus a Q&A with the then manager Neil Warnock. The dinner was memorable for Bill Brealey asking Warnock if his wife minded him sleeping with Bobby Ford as this was the only reason Bill could think of why Warnock kept picking him!!

 

[lenners]

ghandi,
I know we already operate a loyalty scheme and I also know it's now virtually redundant because anyone can get a ticket for any game now in any case.
What's being suggested is something a bit more imaginative anyway, something that could work like a Tesco loyalty card.
Looking at the logic of it at the moment, I'm amazed that we haven't done it before seeing as we seem to have got our ticketing system fully IT'd up.
Maybe when you spend £50 on tickets, you qualify for £10 off the next one or summat like that. Or £50 in the shop. Though you'd probably do it on a points basis related to spending.
The detail would have to be worked out but I'm struggling to see too many loopholes for abuse.
The card itself is only activated when you pay for something so the money coming in is assured.
And to initially activate it you have to log in and provide an email address enabling the club to punt out offers etc pretty much as it does now, only not very well.
In fact, you'd use the email system to remind your cardholder that they've just gone past 10,000 points or whatever and that qualifies them for a £10 ticket etc.

 

[Grecian2000]

I'm amazed that we haven't done it before seeing as we seem to have got our ticketing system fully IT'd up.

Not quite the case I don't think.

Having missed out on the freebie draw (yet again) I was trying to take advantage of the "Book for Derby AND Forest and save a tenner" offer. However, this offer cannot be activated on-line. I'm afraid our on-line systems are still way short of where they should be.

On a brighter note, having sent an e-mail to the ticket office asking why I couldn't book on-line THEY RANG ME and I booked over the phone.
Crap system, good people.

 

[bbc]

Its ok i get mine for nowt as a reserve player gets me them for free for every home game