Attendance for Saturday

[Alain Perrin]

Dammit. I was a week late with my prediction.

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?31149-4-weeks-one-day.....&p=1083888#post1083888

 

Anything more than 24K will be a miracle in my opinion (due to holidays and holiday expenses in the most part).

 

I wish people would stop moaning about the the ticket prices. We are in the middlish of the league on prices, we've (in many cases) got better (paid) players and (often) a nicer ground.

 

Mainly it seems to be people caught by the change in categories with the biggest gripes. Whilst Saints may be charging you more, in many other ways lots of those 55+ are living the golden age of retirement. Long life expectancies, unsustainable final salary pensions and good state benefits - all of which will be unaffordable for the pensioners of 20 years time.

 

So in a decade or so when compulsory euthanasia comes in to sort out the demographic problem, you'll be seeking to pay more, just to avoid a bullet.

[scotty]

Yes, we're much much bigger and better supported than Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Sunderland aren't we?

 

He didnt say we were bigger, he said we are better supported. And imho, he is correct.

[The9]

I didn't think anyone was moaning about the ticket prices ? I was pretty happy with the cost of my ST and (60-64s aside, which is a separate issue) most people expected the rise to be about what it has been.

 

Plenty of people are moaning about the various stealth taxes though. It's the principle, not necessarily the cost.

[up and away]

I didn't think anyone was moaning about the ticket prices ? I was pretty happy with the cost of my ST and (60-64s aside, which is a separate issue) most people expected the rise to be about what it has been.

 

Plenty of people are moaning about the various stealth taxes though. It's the principle, not necessarily the cost.

 

There is no hidden agenda here, you don't have to pay the ticket tax. Some may have circumstances where it's difficult, but not insurmountable to get round.

 

The question then comes down to should you add £1 to the price of all tickets and deal with it under a blanket coverage or charge the actual cost incurred by the buying method. Even the likes of Oxford have a greater ticket tax, because it is done by an outside agency with their handling costs included in the price. The price is fixed per transaction so the quantity of tickets can bring that down. This is without doubt the fairest method of covering the costs, but just as with the Poll Tax, it's difficult for many to see the underlying logic.

[View From The Top]

I didn't think anyone was moaning about the ticket prices ? I was pretty happy with the cost of my ST and (60-64s aside, which is a separate issue) most people expected the rise to be about what it has been.

 

Plenty of people are moaning about the various stealth taxes though. It's the principle, not necessarily the cost.

 

Whilst I think the booking fee is totally and utterly wrong it can hardly be described as stealth.

 

Sent using tippy tappy from a beach in France.

[Matthew Le God]

Contrary to what some Saints fans believe, Leeds United still haven't sold out their allocation.

 

They are very close though...

 

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20110802/last-100-for-southampton_2247585_2408065

[ericofarabia]

On a side & purely selfish personal issue, fank fook the first game is on Sky and a late kick off.

 

I don't have footie on my sat system (I'd need entire separate systems for "telly", PL, & NpC each would cost over 300 quid a year just don't see the point)

 

It's also Ramadan, so bars here cannot open until 8:00pm local - 5pm UK, so with the 5:20 kick off the bars will be open and I'll be able to get to see the game for a change.

 

 

 

Fingers crossed for you now that those useless bunch of 5 knuckled shufflers at Al Jazeera sports actually cover the match - their track record last season for Championship / L 1 games was to put it mildly pretty p!ss poor!!

 

I won't even have the soothing tones of DM and A pint (or few) of OSH to keep me company - just a furtive glance and plenty of F5 ing of BBC Teletext and maybe some texts from you to get me thru'the game FFS!!

 

Posted using a sledge hammer on a clapped out PC.

[The9]

There is no hidden agenda here, you don't have to pay the ticket tax. Some may have circumstances where it's difficult, but not insurmountable to get round.

 

The question then comes down to should you add £1 to the price of all tickets and deal with it under a blanket coverage or charge the actual cost incurred by the buying method. Even the likes of Oxford have a greater ticket tax, because it is done by an outside agency with their handling costs included in the price. The price is fixed per transaction so the quantity of tickets can bring that down. This is without doubt the fairest method of covering the costs, but just as with the Poll Tax, it's difficult for many to see the underlying logic.

 

As the amount varies depending on timing rather than method (and the cost is the same per unit for the cheapest methods of buying tickets - online and by phone) the charge doesn't seem to be to do with the cost of administration. It almost certainly costs the same to the club to sell a ticket face to face on a Wednesday afternoon as a Saturday afternoon - and if it doesn't the club should be amending their staff contracts to reflect the need to work occasional match days and get time off in lieu during the week at the same rate. The cheapest way to sell tickets is probably to remove the TO altogether. Clearly Saints' business model implies that a TO is cheaper than the club from having to pay to outsource, or we'd be doing that. For a smaller club with lower volumes with plenty of "closed" days that may not be the cheapest option.

 

The methods of being able to acquire tickets without paying SOMETHING extra are being squeezed, and I'd suggest that the costs are being applied to significantly more people than was the case even last season due to the introduction of parking fees and apparent removal of the options to have tickets posted - for most people.

[The Kraken]

There is no hidden agenda here, you don't have to pay the ticket tax. Some may have circumstances where it's difficult, but not insurmountable to get round.

 

The question then comes down to should you add £1 to the price of all tickets and deal with it under a blanket coverage or charge the actual cost incurred by the buying method. Even the likes of Oxford have a greater ticket tax, because it is done by an outside agency with their handling costs included in the price. The price is fixed per transaction so the quantity of tickets can bring that down. This is without doubt the fairest method of covering the costs, but just as with the Poll Tax, it's difficult for many to see the underlying logic.

 

This is exactly right. There are quite clearly additional costs involved in sending out tickets by mail as opposed to selling them from the ticket office. The "ticket tax" in itself is the fairest way to cover that extra cost without penalising those who choose to visit the ground to but their tickets.

 

The only issue I have is with the actual cost of £3 per transaction. I'd suggest a much fairer cost would be £1 - £1.50.

[The9]

Whilst I think the booking fee is totally and utterly wrong it can hardly be described as stealth.

 

Sent using tippy tappy from a beach in France.

 

It's not just the booking fee(s), it's the parking fee and the sudden need to have to visit the TO in person to do everything.

[Barry the Badger]

Have I missed something? Are Saints not posting out any tickets now? I thought it was just the Season Tickets unless you asked.

[JRM]

I noticed on the Brighton website where they are moving to a model where it is ticketless, season tickets on a card that gets scanned, membership cards activated for other games, and print off your own match ticket when bought on line, makes sense like a boarding pass for a flight, if saints can do this for home games would remove the need for a ticket posting system,

[The Kraken]

I noticed on the Brighton website where they are moving to a model where it is ticketless, season tickets on a card that gets scanned, membership cards activated for other games, and print off your own match ticket when bought on line, makes sense like a boarding pass for a flight, if saints can do this for home games would remove the need for a ticket posting system,

 

Doesn't necessarily mean it would suddenly become free though; Ryanair do this and still make you pay extra for the privilege.

[up and away]

Originally Posted by up and away

There is no hidden agenda here, you don't have to pay the ticket tax. Some may have circumstances where it's difficult, but not insurmountable to get round.

 

The question then comes down to should you add £1 to the price of all tickets and deal with it under a blanket coverage or charge the actual cost incurred by the buying method. Even the likes of Oxford have a greater ticket tax, because it is done by an outside agency with their handling costs included in the price. The price is fixed per transaction so the quantity of tickets can bring that down. This is without doubt the fairest method of covering the costs, but just as with the Poll Tax, it's difficult for many to see the underlying logic.

This is exactly right. There are quite clearly additional costs involved in sending out tickets by mail as opposed to selling them from the ticket office. The "ticket tax" in itself is the fairest way to cover that extra cost without penalising those who choose to visit the ground to but their tickets.

 

The only issue I have is with the actual cost of £3 per transaction. I'd suggest a much fairer cost would be £1 - £1.50.

 

I don't know the exact position at Saints but some of the other clubs who have a ticket tax just charge the average cost of transactions from a third party, no profit making in the exercise and still in that price range.

 

I don't know what it costs internally or externally for Saints, but I really don't believe they would be screwing fans for something that hardly registers on the bottom line.

[The Kraken]

I don't know the exact position at Saints but some of the other clubs who have a ticket tax just charge the average cost of transactions from a third party, no profit making in the exercise and still in that price range.

 

I don't know what it costs internally or externally for Saints, but I really don't believe they would be screwing fans for something that hardly registers on the bottom line.

 

Without knowing the actual costs it's hard to say for certain how much Saints are over-charging; however, it's quite simple to make a best guess.

 

The first, and most obvious extra, is the cost of postage and the envelope. You also have one extra print containing the mailing address for placing in the envelope.

Next, you have the additional staff time to print the tickets and place them in envelopes, seal it and post it out. Also the extra time taken to find a customer on the database prior to printing out the tickets, or manually entering a new customer's details into the database. Of course it's a minor amount of time, but if it takes an extra 30 seconds, that's an extra hour of staff pay per every 120 transactions, so there is a cost, albeit small.

Finally, there are the incidental costs that we can only guess at; if they have to have supervisory staff oversee all mail-outs, dealing with any mistakes made by staff etc etc. Again minimal per transaction, but an extra cost to just selling from the TO counter.

 

We know an envelope and stamp is not really going to cost much more than 50p. Which is why I suggested £1 to £1.50 was perhaps a fair price to pay for receiving tickets by post. I can't see how all of the above could justifiably add up to a £3 charge though, particularly as there is apparently not an extra credit card fee (and this would also be incurred by payment by card at the TO).

Edited 2 August, 2011 by The Kraken

[Saint Garrett]

Difficult to say, as the staff probably will be paid whether they send out 15000 tickets or 5. They're all fixed costs pretty much, they will have already been paid for before now. The cost will depend on how many tickets are sent out at the end of the day, but i'd be very surprised if they're £3.

[The Kraken]

Difficult to say, as the staff probably will be paid whether they send out 15000 tickets or 5. They're all fixed costs pretty much, they will have already been paid for before now. The cost will depend on how many tickets are sent out at the end of the day, but i'd be very surprised if they're £3.

 

That's my point; there is already a cost to Saints in selling tickets, in the running of the ticket office. So all we need to try and figure out is the ADDITIONAL cost that posting out tickets incurs. As I've said, there is obviously some form of cost, which is why a ticket tax in principle is fair. I just think that £3 is overpriced for what it actually does cost.

[Alucard]

I don't know the exact position at Saints but some of the other clubs who have a ticket tax just charge the average cost of transactions from a third party, no profit making in the exercise and still in that price range.

 

I don't know what it costs internally or externally for Saints, but I really don't believe they would be screwing fans for something that hardly registers on the bottom line.

 

If you honestly believe that it costs £3 to handle an online transaction you deserve to be parted from your cash. If it does cost SFC that amount then I suggest they start looking elsewhere for someone to handle the online ticket sales. Why do you believe SFC would not be screwing fans for something that hardly registers on the bottom line when they've reduced the free parking time to 15 minutes to do just that.

[Aardvark]

He didnt say we were bigger, he said we are better supported. And imho, he is correct.

 

"Better" as in more, or as in quantity? Surely the first is subjective and the second is just plain wrong?

[teamsaint]

I would just like to say that if a business wants people to pay up around £25 around 20 times a season, for a product that is uncertain and variable in quality, it ought to look to make the process as painless as possible.

the current model of charges really puts me off buying...because it feels like I am being taken for granted.

and I don't like that.

 

Look at something in comparison. amazon will send you anything over £5 postage free..and in a nice sturdy little box, with a polite return note. Seems to work well enough as a business model. Though of course you should try to use you local independent store where possible !!

[LGTL]

The £3 is probably less then it would cost me in petrol to SMS and back, so doesn't really bother me.

[merrimd]

It's not just the booking fee(s), it's the parking fee and the sudden need to have to visit the TO in person to do everything.

 

I have renewed 5 ST, 3 of which required proof of id as they were under 17's. I now have the tickets at home. I did not leave my house to do it. It just needed a phone call.

[merrimd]

If you honestly believe that it costs £3 to handle an online transaction you deserve to be parted from your cash. If it does cost SFC that amount then I suggest they start looking elsewhere for someone to handle the online ticket sales. Why do you believe SFC would not be screwing fans for something that hardly registers on the bottom line when they've reduced the free parking time to 15 minutes to do just that.

 

Surely if they wanted to "screw" with the fans, they would have just increased the price of every ticket by £3. That would have been a stealth tax, and it would have hit everybody. Why would they call it an admin fee if it was not the cost of administrating the sale of the ticket?

[Chez]

Surely if they wanted to "screw" with the fans, they would have just increased the price of every ticket by £3. That would have been a stealth tax, and it would have hit everybody. Why would they call it an admin fee if it was not the cost of administrating the sale of the ticket?

 

don't you have to hand a percentage of ticket sales over to the football league? You probably don't have to hand over a percentage of admin charges.

[The Kraken]

don't you have to hand a percentage of ticket sales over to the football league? You probably don't have to hand over a percentage of admin charges.

 

Not sure about that. FA Cup games, yes; it's split evenly between the two sides with a percentage going to the FA. Not heard of it for Football League though.

[CLOTH EARS]

I think this season crowds for most clubs will be substancially down. The cuts made by the coalition government are now just starting to bite, people have to be carefull with their pennies and football is one of those things that family men/women with mortgages have to sacrifice. I think Saints will get 24k on sat, that is not bad in this economic climate, especially as the game is televised.

[ottery st mary]

28,500 and Saints to win 3-0..

 

COYS

 

WIFM

[Chez]

Not sure about that. FA Cup games, yes; it's split evenly between the two sides with a percentage going to the FA. Not heard of it for Football League though.

foolish on my part to trust anything from that lot, but this is where I got that idea from:

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/great-matches/pompey_fans_face_hike_in_ticket_prices_as_club_budgets_for_vat_rise_1_2512893

 

"And all Championship teams need to cover a three per cent levy on ticket sales to The Football League"

[rpb]

I think this season crowds for most clubs will be substancially down. The cuts made by the coalition government are now just starting to bite, people have to be carefull with their pennies and football is one of those things that family men/women with mortgages have to sacrifice. I think Saints will get 24k on sat, that is not bad in this economic climate, especially as the game is televised.

 

Maybe, recent audiences at the Nuffield have been substantially down on past years.

[keithd]

can i be the first to say an attendance of 22k would be embarassing/woeful/shocking?

[Alucard]

Surely if they wanted to "screw" with the fans, they would have just increased the price of every ticket by £3. That would have been a stealth tax, and it would have hit everybody. Why would they call it an admin fee if it was not the cost of administrating the sale of the ticket?

 

That is what I really object to, being charged £3 to administer something that in reality costs less than 50p. However if they called it a 50p admin fee + £2.50 rip off charge even the terminally gullible would see it for what it is. Can you please, please, please explain to me how the £2 charge to deter me from buying a ticket on the day works when my only alternative is paying a £3 'administration' fee for buying it online or over the phone pre match day. If you are going to make a surcharge a deterrent then the amount charged has to actually be large enough to deter people not just raise extra revenue.

 

Why has the free parking time been reduced to 15 minutes. We were told some BS about the parking charge being introduced to prevent hordes of people parking at SMS and spending the day in town shopping so the first 30 minutes were free to allow customers to buy tickets without being charged. I take it that Usain Bolt has started using SMS to park his car and gets to West Quay and back within 30 minutes so now the free period has had to be reduced.

 

The club is following the Ryanair model so expect check-in charges and toilet taxes to be rolled out next

[trousers]

can i be the first to say an attendance of 22k would be embarassing/woeful/shocking?

 

Alas, no, you can't be first - there are 37 people before you who are somehow 'embarrassed' by the number of people who will be in a football stadium watching a game of football whilst a third of the country are on their summer holidays.

[70's Mike]

Alas, no, you can't be first - there are 37 people before you who are somehow 'embarrassed' by the number of people who will be in a football stadium watching a game of football whilst a third of the country are on their summer holidays.

 

wonder how many of the 37 will actually be at SMS thereselves

[RedWillie]

Including me......

 

Alas, no, you can't be first - there are 37 people before you who are somehow 'embarrassed' by the number of people who will be in a football stadium watching a game of football whilst a third of the country are on their summer holidays.

[The Kraken]

Why has the free parking time been reduced to 15 minutes. We were told some BS about the parking charge being introduced to prevent hordes of people parking at SMS and spending the day in town shopping so the first 30 minutes were free to allow customers to buy tickets without being charged. I take it that Usain Bolt has started using SMS to park his car and gets to West Quay and back within 30 minutes so now the free period has had to be reduced.

 

Not sure if this is a permanent move, but when I was at the ground yesterday the car park outside the Northam was closed for customers, with a sign saying that it was for staff only and customers needed to use the other car park by the megastore.

 

So instead of a 1 minute walk to the ticket office it's now 3 or 4 minutes. That, and the reduction to 15 minutes for free parking, do suggest a certain agenda designed to catch customers out. I avoided the charge by parking on the road, so it's quite simple to do at quieter times. But it's a bit disappointing that I can't visit the ground, park on-site, buy my match tickets then have a look around the club shop without incurring a parking charge. It certainly doesn't do anything to encourage me to spend more money there.

Edited 3 August, 2011 by The Kraken

[JRM]

The Sun are currently running an offer collecting vouchers to get 2 tickets for selected football league games at reduced prices, 2 for £29.50, 2 for £19.50 or 2 for £9.50 depending on the club / game, not surprisingly for the 2nd year in a row saints have not participated in this, with our only chance to benefit being those lucky enough to snap up the 100 tickets on this deal for Ipswich away.

 

Another opportunity missed for good exposure and to bring in a few more thousand for one of the less popular home games, the sky home game v Birmingham, or Watford at home, would be obvious ones where we’ll have loads of empty seats to fill.

 

I’ll probably use the vouchers I’ve collected to go along to Brentford or AFC Wimbledon which are both down the road for me, both doing 2 for £9.50

[Wurzel]

Not read the whole thread so may have been mentioned but the need to post out tickets could be done away with completely. Cinema tickets can be booked and paid online, you just turn up, stick the card you paid with in a vending machine and out come the prepaid tickets. Technology wise it could probably even extend to opening the turnstile for you, although some sort of ticket would still be needed to show seat number. They still charge a fee as well but nothing like £3 but with no postage their costs are lower.

Only downside , but an upside for club, would be not risking getting there too late as queues likely to build up. Earlier arrival=potential to spend more whilst you're there.

[CFSFC]

The Sun are currently running an offer collecting vouchers to get 2 tickets for selected football league games at reduced prices, 2 for £29.50, 2 for £19.50 or 2 for £9.50 depending on the club / game, not surprisingly for the 2nd year in a row saints have not participated in this, with our only chance to benefit being those lucky enough to snap up the 100 tickets on this deal for Ipswich away.

 

Another opportunity missed for good exposure and to bring in a few more thousand for one of the less popular home games, the sky home game v Birmingham, or Watford at home, would be obvious ones where we’ll have loads of empty seats to fill.

 

I’ll probably use the vouchers I’ve collected to go along to Brentford or AFC Wimbledon which are both down the road for me, both doing 2 for £9.50

 

Could this be due to the fact that we were openly slagged off in the sun??? If it was my business out of principal i wouldn't help them sell papers.

[CFSFC]

Also on the main site - over 20,000 saints fans plus a large yorkshire following allready commited to this weekends game. So i'm guessing thats 23500 sold plus the few days leading up and the walk up 25/26,000

[The Kraken]

Could this be due to the fact that we were openly slagged off in the sun??? If it was my business out of principal i wouldn't help them sell papers.

 

Notwithstanding the fact that they've since kissed and made-up, you'd be cutting your nose off to spite your face if that were your reasoning.

[JRM]

Also on the main site - over 20,000 saints fans plus a large yorkshire following allready commited to this weekends game. So i'm guessing thats 23500 sold plus the few days leading up and the walk up 25/26,000

 

yeah i saw that, i reckon that is correct, 23500 with 3 days to go plus on the day walk up isn't too bad, i laughed when the article said we also had an early season treat with Torquay at home Tuesday night!

[keithd]

well, i'll be there. thats all i care about. if there's 26000 others there to keep me company brillo, if there's only 10,000 there then ok thats fine. be quicker for me to get a pint at half time. win win

[hutch]

Not read the whole thread so may have been mentioned but the need to post out tickets could be done away with completely. Cinema tickets can be booked and paid online, you just turn up, stick the card you paid with in a vending machine and out come the prepaid tickets. Technology wise it could probably even extend to opening the turnstile for you, although some sort of ticket would still be needed to show seat number. They still charge a fee as well but nothing like £3 but with no postage their costs are lower.

Only downside , but an upside for club, would be not risking getting there too late as queues likely to build up. Earlier arrival=potential to spend more whilst you're there.

That was how it was done for the WC tickets here in SA last year, except that the machines which printed the tickets weren't at the grounds, they were in temporary FIFA shops set up in shopping centres a couple of months before the tournament.

 

Seemed to work pretty well, I just nipped in when I was in the shopping centre anyway, stuck my credit card in and out popped the printed tickets.

[This Charming Man]

Notwithstanding the fact that they've since kissed and made-up, you'd be cutting your nose off to spite your face if that were your reasoning.

 

They may have done that publicly but I reckon Cortese probably told them to shove it when approached about this offer.

[merrimd]

That is what I really object to, being charged £3 to administer something that in reality costs less than 50p. However if they called it a 50p admin fee + £2.50 rip off charge even the terminally gullible would see it for what it is. Can you please, please, please explain to me how the £2 charge to deter me from buying a ticket on the day works when my only alternative is paying a £3 'administration' fee for buying it online or over the phone pre match day. If you are going to make a surcharge a deterrent then the amount charged has to actually be large enough to deter people not just raise extra revenue.

 

Why has the free parking time been reduced to 15 minutes. We were told some BS about the parking charge being introduced to prevent hordes of people parking at SMS and spending the day in town shopping so the first 30 minutes were free to allow customers to buy tickets without being charged. I take it that Usain Bolt has started using SMS to park his car and gets to West Quay and back within 30 minutes so now the free period has had to be reduced.

 

The club is following the Ryanair model so expect check-in charges and toilet taxes to be rolled out next

 

Look, i can't explain why its £3, no one on here because we do not have all the figures to hand. However. As a transactional cost for aquiring tickets, i would say it is pretty much the norm. Theatre/gig/plane tickets all carry a transaction cost, and are all pretty similar. It is way too simplistic to say that the cost of the stamp and the 5 mins someone took to post it does not add up to £3 and therefore it should be less. I wonder if you took all the fixed costs of running the ticket office and divided it by the number of transactions, the figure is probably getting close to £3. Therefore, the £3 admin fee means the club is not paying for the distributions of tickets, and may well mean that money is going to go into a nice shiny new centre-back.

 

There is another way of course. Buy a season ticket. Oh no! wait a second! are we not to believe the club do not want us to do that either!

[JRM]

Look, i can't explain why its £3, no one on here because we do not have all the figures to hand. However. As a transactional cost for aquiring tickets, i would say it is pretty much the norm. Theatre/gig/plane tickets all carry a transaction cost, and are all pretty similar. It is way too simplistic to say that the cost of the stamp and the 5 mins someone took to post it does not add up to £3 and therefore it should be less. I wonder if you took all the fixed costs of running the ticket office and divided it by the number of transactions, the figure is probably getting close to £3. Therefore, the £3 admin fee means the club is not paying for the distributions of tickets, and may well mean that money is going to go into a nice shiny new centre-back.

 

There is another way of course. Buy a season ticket. Oh no! wait a second! are we not to believe the club do not want us to do that either!

 

Would you also like to explain why the club, having introduced parking charges to stop people parking there going to town, then reduced the time to 15mins so they can cash in on those coming to the ground to BUY THEIR PRODUCTS?? Also why charge those using the travel club for away games when the car park sits empty anyway? Surely they should be encouraging people to follow the team

[The Kraken]

Look, i can't explain why its £3, no one on here because we do not have all the figures to hand. However. As a transactional cost for aquiring tickets, i would say it is pretty much the norm. Theatre/gig/plane tickets all carry a transaction cost, and are all pretty similar. It is way too simplistic to say that the cost of the stamp and the 5 mins someone took to post it does not add up to £3 and therefore it should be less. I wonder if you took all the fixed costs of running the ticket office and divided it by the number of transactions, the figure is probably getting close to £3. Therefore, the £3 admin fee means the club is not paying for the distributions of tickets, and may well mean that money is going to go into a nice shiny new centre-back.

 

There is another way of course. Buy a season ticket. Oh no! wait a second! are we not to believe the club do not want us to do that either!

 

I think you're missing the point. The club already have a price of ticket for those bought at the ticket office. The "ticket tax" only comes in for those tickets sent out, therefore its an extra premium for the benefit of not having to go to the TO to pick the tickets up. As such, it SHOULD be a cost that simply covers all the club's costs. It really shouldn't be used as an extra revenue-generator, otherwise it discriminates against certain customers over others.

 

To sell any tickets, the club HAS to have a ticket office. So the fixed costs are already covered by having to have that ticket office, the staff within it, staionery etc etc. By implementing an administration fee only for mailing out tickets, what you're effectively doing is saying "we know how much we need to sell tickets at for those coming to the TO. What we now need to do is cover our costs for sending tickets out". So it's only the variable costs of sending out tickets that is needed.

 

Now if it was a "transaction fee" as you mention, that would be different. That would surely apply to all card purchases, whether made online, by telephone, or at the ticket office itself. But I can pay for tickets at the ticket office on my card without incurring a transaction fee; the administration fee only applies to tickets being sent out.

 

Which is why the £3 cost is deemed as unreasonably high.

Edited 3 August, 2011 by The Kraken

[Nexstar]

23,500 already should see around 25,000 total, which is decent for a TV game.

[merrimd]

Would you also like to explain why the club, having introduced parking charges to stop people parking there going to town, then reduced the time to 15mins so they can cash in on those coming to the ground to BUY THEIR PRODUCTS?? Also why charge those using the travel club for away games when the car park sits empty anyway? Surely they should be encouraging people to follow the team

 

Not really. Other than maximising revenue. Look. I would be happier if all parking was free. I would be happier if there was no additional cost of purchasing a ticket. But parking costs and there is an admin fee on the ticket. I will be honest with you. I am past caring. Really I am. I saw they had introduced it. THought it might be a touch harsh, then i got on with my life and have not spent any more time thinking about it.

 

I just wish some would do the same!

[Alucard]

Look, i can't explain why its £3, no one on here because we do not have all the figures to hand. However. As a transactional cost for aquiring tickets, i would say it is pretty much the norm. Theatre/gig/plane tickets all carry a transaction cost, and are all pretty similar. It is way too simplistic to say that the cost of the stamp and the 5 mins someone took to post it does not add up to £3 and therefore it should be less. I wonder if you took all the fixed costs of running the ticket office and divided it by the number of transactions, the figure is probably getting close to £3.

 

As a transactional cost it is not the norm . Booking online at the Odeon Cinema is 75p (or I can avoid it completely by buying my ticket when I actually go). Why are you taking all the fixed costs of running the ticket office and dividing it by the number of online transactions? Surely the fixed costs should be spread across every ticket and not just those purchased online or on the phone. The online charges are so high as they judge that is what they can get away with charging not anything to do with costs actually incurred in performing the transaction. Again I ask you Can you please, please, please explain to me how the £2 charge to deter me from buying a ticket on the day works when my only alternative is paying a £3 'administration' fee for buying it online or over the phone pre match day.