I think to suggest, as you appear to be, that there is no financial considerations to be taken when pricing season tickets is choosing which parts of the debate you wish to see and which you don't. You appear to be suggesting that the reason we won't have season tickets for £100 or whatever is because we didn't push hard enough for it!
If you think Richard Batho held the final decision as to the pricing, you are very much mistaken. If you think he didn't put your ideas forward, as Foxy and I forwarded them on, again you are very much mistaken.
However, the final decisions are taken at a senior management level which is the domain of Steve Lewis (the head of Commercial) with input from Dave Harrop (chief finance officer). Richard Batho wants what's best for fans and put our feedback forward. However, the senior managers are charged with making money for the club and somehow, they all have to meet in the middle.
No doubt I'll be accused of "sticking up for the club" in pointing that out though
However, I won't be around much longer to read it because I'm going to chill out in a tent for a couple of days.
Blimey. Tenting at this time of year. Hope you've got a heater, otherwise 'chill out' will be a very accurate description!
With regard to season ticket pricing, there are obviously numerous ways that pricing can be approached. And as you quite rightly say, the club has to try and make money. The best way to do that would be to pay the players what they're worth - which isn't very much . Then we could lower the season ticket price to a few pounds.
However, given that noone else would do this, I think the pool of players willing to come and play for us would probably diminish quite a bit.
In reality, there is only so far that the club can go in reducing prices, as if they go too far, it won't matter how many people go through the turnstiles it won't make up for the revenue lost by down pricing.
A decision on whether or not to renew is very much an individual decision. And most people will consider several factors, of which price is just one.
For myself, after much thought, I did not renew last season. I was a bit fed up of making a 300 mile round trip to watch some pretty poor stuff, and it seemed to be getting poorer. The way we were playing I thought we might be in for a season of struggle this season. (I didn't expect it to be quite such a big struggle, though!). I was also a bit indignant that the price went up when the football was clearly getting worse, wage costs were clearly being reduced, and when we had sold off so many players.
However, it wasn't just this alone. Travel is also more costly now, so this has to be factored in along with the cost of the season ticket. And I knew I was't going to be able to get to quite a few games. Evening games in particular can be a problem for me. In the past I've not bothered about that and been happy to pay for the ticket even though I probably ended up paying more than on a match by match basis. But given the rubbish I was watching, I decided to give it a break.
I haven't made up my mind whether or not to get a season ticket for next season. But oddly, I feel more inclined to get one than I did for last season. I feel we really are at a low ebb as a club, and my natural reaction to that is to want to support us as much as I can. The situation does remind me of the late 1970s and early 1980s. And it was during our spell in the 3rd and 4th divisions in the early 1980s that my match day attendance was probably at it's highest. I don't know why, but it seemed to matter a lot more to me, because we were so low. But it has to be said, we were still better than we are now. (or perhaps the memory is playing tricks again!)
D), can say "I stuck with them again, and again..."
