With the price hike of over 10% on the average ticket price, nearly 4 times that of the Gooner Scum down the High Road, are the club taking to much advantage of our loyalty (or should that be gulibility)??
Strengthen the squad! Improve the facilities! Compete with the "Big Boys"! Improve the stadium!
We've been hearing this for years. Yes we've had a couple of good finishes in the last few years and yes I have spent a fortune following the team in Europe for the last 2 seasons. Probably will again this time too.
But is it time to stand up to the club and shout "Enough is Enough!!" You want more revenue expand the bloody stadium and get more people in. We can't afford to be raped for every penny anymore!!
Mortgages have gone up. Petrol has gone up. Beer has gone up. Food and every other cost of living has gone up but the club still think they can rob us blind!!
The problem is that if you want to follow YOUR team you have to renew. OK, in real money terms £3 a match is not major. Don’t buy a program next season and it’ll cost you no different per match. But as a percentage is STEEP! 10% on average the survey in today’s paper reckons!!
But with 13,000 people paying £37 each last year just to be on the waiting list hoping to get a ticket you give yours up then you'd better be sure because I doubt you'll get it back even IF we get a bigger 50k stadium. This year if you want to continue on the waiting list is £45 (Bronze membership) but to be a new joiner on the waiting list is £55!!! Seeing as we have a cap of 25,000 season ticket holders at WHL each year not renewing as a protest against the rises is pointless.
If it's because you can't afford it then fair enough, I know I've struggled for the last couple of seasons and nearly lost mine. I managed to get a bank loan the day after the renewal date and had lost my Park Lane seat already when I phoned them up. So I have had to pay a couple of hundred quid a year more since for my seat on the Shelf.
If it's just disillusionment I'd strongly suggest thinking twice. A friend of mine dropped his 3 seasons ago. Next season we finished 5th and as a member he'd only managed to get to a few games since (mainly due to useless seatbooker!) and is now about number 6 or 7,000 on the waiting list.
Even if 5 to 10% of season ticket holders drop out every year for whatever reason (and I'd suspect it's more like 2%) he's still going to be lucky to get a ST before the London Olympics are long forgotten, at the additional cost of over £45 a season. Not only do you have to pay to wait but, and this is as I understand it (so could well be wrong!!) NOT the club official stance but if you are offered a ST and decline then you drop to the back of the queue, even if all they can offer are the £1500 West Upper blocks. Like I say, I’m probably wrong and anyone who knows for sure feel free to comment and correct me. Can you specify what areas you want when you buy your Bronze membership for instance?
On current percentage our season tickets take up about 70% of our total seating. If we keep that percentage (and I seem to recall there is something in the league rules about having to keep a certain percentage for travelling fans & non ST Holders) then in order to accommodate everyone on the waiting list we’d have to have a 55,000 seater stadium. Now allowing for people that come the time couldn’t afford it or change their minds, does that not seem remarkably close to the 50,000 seater stadium the club is looking to build?
And this will still only leave a small number of tickets available for Lilywhite and Bronze members to buy once away seat allocation has been taken (approx 10% as per Premiership rules has to be offered to the visiting club) so likelihood is that you’re paying for these memberships and only able to attend a couple of matches a season unless you’re very lucky (and Ticketmaster finally sorts out the new “improved” online ticketing system!!). Even a new 50,000 stadium, on these guestimated percentages would leave only 11,000 seats to non-season ticket holders. If you don’t have a membership of some sort you’re unlikely to get a look in even with a new stadium.
At the end of the day the club has us over a barrel. If you want to see your team every match you’ll pay up to the maximum you can afford. When you can’t afford it any longer there’ll always be someone waiting. So the prices will continue to go up. We’ll all continue to call the club a bunch of robbing B’studs but we’ll all continue to pay.
Season tickets for Spurs are Dead Mens shoes. If you’re offered one some one has either financially, or physically, snuffed it!!!