2015 fixtures

[cvtiger]

Fixtures now added to the all powerful kitchen calendar.........very strange not having fixtures in August, as yet, as Papa said. I suddenly feel less likely to renew my season ticket for some reason?

[HuddsTigers]

Fixtures now added to the all powerful kitchen calendar.........very strange not having fixtures in August, as yet, as Papa said. I suddenly feel less likely to renew my season ticket for some reason?

Why? We'll still get games in August and September at home. They're just not announced yet due to split.

[cvtiger]

That's the problem, I am not gonna be able to plan my hols around the published fixtures cos we don't get em til end of July. If I'm going to miss 2 or 3 home games the tight hearted Yorkshire man in me will see no benefit from a season ticket, I'll just pay on the door.

[I of the Tigers]

That's the problem, I am not gonna be able to plan my hols around the published fixtures cos we don't get em til end of July. If I'm going to miss 2 or 3 home games the tight hearted Yorkshire man in me will see no benefit from a season ticket, I'll just pay on the door.

Good point cvt, I was thinking the same. I don't want to sound mercenary, but the fact is that the cost (upfront) for a season ticket isn't really that attractive a proposition if there are circumstances where you can't make every game, & also don't want to go to, or can't make, academy games.
I haven't done the maths on this, perhaps it's one for HT to get his teeth into ?!

[HuddsTigers]

Really depends on matchday prices next year. This is all based on last year.

If you buy at an advanced price of £19 (based on last year), a season ticket cost Is equivalent to 11.8 games.

Given that we're going to have at least 14 games including Super 8 games, if you missed two games, it would be more expensive buying up front than buying a ST (reliant on you buying in advance every time). You'd have to miss 3 to make it cheaper. Should we have 15 home games, then you'd have to miss 4 games. Remember the 15th game is only "free" to ST holders. Presumably non-ST holders will still have to pay full whack. Is it really worth the effort of having to go into the club shop every week for the sake of £16 quid or 7 pints-ish? I expect a backlash from this comment but parking in Cas, plus personal time doing so would surely equate to more than £16 over course of a season?

But this changes should you buy on turnstile prices (£21). You'd have to miss 4 games to make it cheaper with 14 games or 5 games with 15.

However, without a ST you wouldn't get associated discounts locally still and you wouldn't get priority ticketing either, as well as missing out on U18 games (free). Not to mention 50% off Magic Weekend and 10% off merchandise.

So for someone buying a home and away shirt, attending Magic and attending 11 matches on priority tickets (£326 approx), it's probably cheaper getting a ST (£320 circa).

Nevertheless, I still think it's vitally important we commit to buying season tickets. I say it every year. It would disappoint me that our fans would rather deliberately miss games to make it cheaper for themselves than commit to buying a ST.

The club runs off of us; without us it wouldn't exist. If it knows it can get 5000 ST holders up front it makes it easier to work out budgets the next season. If 5000 people buy a ST then the club knows it can afford to spend the full cap or more money than it does (if it allows).

If we only sell 2k season tickets we will work to that as a minimum budget for recruitment as there's no guarantee floating supporters will turn up. We have a choice to make: support the club and strengthen it, or pick and choose and weaken its prospects.

I know people cannot always afford to buy STs but for those of us that can I urge you to buy one. If we all work together then maybe down the line we can convert people into full ST holders and make this club a prosperous and successful one.

Getting to Wembley last season should have whetted the appetite for anyone to make it a regular occurrence, not just a flash in the pan. Supporting the club with STs, shirts etc will give a grounding to facilitate that. No guarantees but least we can say we've done our best.

[I of the Tigers]

Great post & analysis HT, much appreciated ... A few observations :-
As you say the crux is what are matchday prices gonna be next year ... surely higher?
It's possible to buy tickets on-line & collect from the ground on matchday; parking is free if you're early & savvy ... so there's not really any hassle in doing any of this if you so choose.
Fair point on discounts, merchandise, Magic, etc.
Our success, & the somewhat fluid Sky match screening schedule (& on different days) also adds another dimension for many due to other commitments on knowing (or not) whether they can make (most or every) match. Oh the beauty of all home games on the same day & time; them were the days! I subscribe to Sky & in the back of my mind I know that if i do miss a home game & for whatever reason I watch it on Sky (usually "on the go") then I'm still contributing, albeit very indirectly, to the club.
Agree on the need for the club to maximise ST sales to know "where it's at" for investment & spend purposes.
Having considered all the above : yes it's difficult for the club, as we know that dropping prices doesn't necessarily deliver an increased uptake ... easy for me to say but I do feel that if ST prices were (somewhat) lower it would be far more an attractive proposition than what it is right now. There are just too many "variables" all working against the fan & I feel that this isn't being taken into account in current ST pricing structures.

[Tamworth Tiger]

It's a real dilemma for us.We are very keen home and away supporters and have two season tickets although we can have up to four on match days (although one of these is a Saints fan!)
We've always bought the tickets to support the club, but with a 200 mile round trip it's very difficult (and expensive) to get to matches on Thursday nights. The roads are so unpredictable, it has to involve an early finish but more likely a half day off work, which isn't always possible often with very little notice because of a late decision by Sky.
Last season I had to add in taking more time off work because the club hadn't got its act together to allow you to buy tickets over the phone(although this is hopefully sorted now) so as a long distance supporter, a season ticket is becoming a less and less attractive proposition, not great for a club trying to expand its fan base outside its core area.
We have renewed and will probably do so in future years, but worryingly I know of a couple of very keen fans who live not too far away from me who are coming to matches on an increasingly infrequent basis. In my personal opinion Thursday nights are a disaster and say an awful lot about where we fall in Sky's pecking order. If we make the mistake of making Friday night match night I predict that crowds will reduce.

[Wf10Tiger]

According to the league express we are playing Widnes in a friendly at the Jungle on 25th of Jan

[papa]

I'll be renewing my ST again for a couple of reasons:
1) I go to every game I can anyway - home and away
2) I want to support the club again financially and show my commitment in return for the fantastic year they just gave us.
However, there must be season ticket holders from all clubs in the top 2 divisions who are in the same predicament, every year as soon as the fixture list comes out we check the home fixtures in august and try and book the annual hols around them, so that we don't miss any home games and throw money away.
In this respect I think the RFL may have missed a potential problem for the clubs, some fans who have to take their hols in school holidays may decide not renew season tickets because there's no visibility of august fixture dates until the end of July.
So I will take the risk and book our hols in august, but if I end up missing a couple of home games I'll not be too impressed with the RFL

[StevieTheTV]

I wont be getting a season ticket as my fiance is a teacher, we have to go on holiday in the school hols. Having no visibility of the fixtures has hampered this year, meaning I could well miss 4/5 games due to holidays/stag do's/ working away around August/Sept.