STOP EXPLOITING LOYALTY

[Pierre]

FSA Football Supporters Association “Stop Exploiting Loyalty” campaign


Of all the issues impacting football supporters, the price of tickets has always been close to the top in importance. In recent seasons we have seen price hikes across the Premier League on top of what were already some of the most expensive tickets in world football together with the erosion of concessions not to mention that we pay more than many fans abroad to watch our teams on TV.

CPISA are grateful to CPFC for freezing season ticket and concession prices this season, however, we are concerned that CPFC’s 24-25 season implementation of conversion from plastic season tickets to digital ticketing was poorly planned and badly executed.

Along with fans of all Premier League clubs, we will be joining forces in the next few weeks in unity with our fellow football fans to make our concerns known with a ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ message around league matches.

If you want to lend your weight to this campaign we will be meeting up at the Holmesdale Road/Park Road junction on Sunday from 12:45 to 1:30 in solidarity with Spurs fans in their campaign 'Save Our Seniors' who are protesting the cessation of new seniors concession tickets and the phasing out of reductions for existing seniors going forward. This disproportionately impacts their older fans many of whom have faithfully supported the club for many years.

As fans we all have to stand together if we want our voices to be heard.

 

[derfes]

FSA Football Supporters Association “Stop Exploiting Loyalty” campaign


Of all the issues impacting football supporters, the price of tickets has always been close to the top in importance. In recent seasons we have seen price hikes across the Premier League on top of what were already some of the most expensive tickets in world football together with the erosion of concessions not to mention that we pay more than many fans abroad to watch our teams on TV.

CPISA are grateful to CPFC for freezing season ticket and concession prices this season, however, we are concerned that CPFC’s 24-25 season implementation of conversion from plastic season tickets to digital ticketing was poorly planned and badly executed.

Along with fans of all Premier League clubs, we will be joining forces in the next few weeks in unity with our fellow football fans to make our concerns known with a ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ message around league matches.

If you want to lend your weight to this campaign we will be meeting up at the Holmesdale Road/Park Road junction on Sunday from 12:45 to 1:30 in solidarity with Spurs fans in their campaign 'Save Our Seniors' who are protesting the cessation of new seniors concession tickets and the phasing out of reductions for existing seniors going forward. This disproportionately impacts their older fans many of whom have faithfully supported the club for many years.

As fans we all have to stand together if we want our voices to be heard.

 

[Dubai Eagle]

The whole "Spurs withdrawing Pensioners concession tickets" issue is a downright flipping disgrace.

 

[eritheagle]

The whole "Spurs withdrawing Pensioners concession tickets" issue is a downright flipping disgrace.

I agree!! Plus West Ham dropping junior concessions for matchday tickets and also lots of problems at Aston Villa (extortionate prices for Champs Lge games and fans moved displaced from their seats (bit like E400)) there seems to be an increasing amount of unrest among fans in Prem League.

I think the problem is only going to get worse and can see a protest of sorts somewhere down the line i.e. a mass walkout of ganes in a particular minute as a show of solidarity.

 

[Badger11]

The whole "Spurs withdrawing Pensioners concession tickets" issue is a downright flipping disgrace.

As I am now over 60 I have noticed it's not just football that is scrapping pensioner benefits.

Once upon a time Museums, galleries, stately homes etc. all gave generous discounts to the over 60's but not any more. They have either been scrapped or reduced to nothing.

I guess this is the result of an ageing population.

Oddly enough cinema is one of the areas where discounts have improved. Most chains have special screenings for the silver crowd in the afternoons.

Back to the football and ticket prices they do really need to think about the demographics.

Working age people are really screwed. By the time you are in your twenties most people are dating getting married and having kids and can't afford to go. It's only when the kids have left home that these fans come back usually late fifties (you hope).

So a club's support base tends to go like this:

Child - Goes with parent passionate about the club
Young Man* - Away days, goes with their mates, noisiest fans.
Family man - Rarely seen at games, picks his games because of work or finances. He follows team from afar, I will not say plastic supporter as that is unfair.
Silver Man - Kids grown up now has time to attend mostly home games, grumpy git cynical about the team and owners as he has seen it all before. 😀

Clubs rely these fans coming back at an older age. Of course if the number of kids goes down due to cost then they never learn to love the club and so won't be there as an older fan. And if the older fan tickets are too expensive then like Family Man they are just fans from afar.

I believe Palace only earn about £10m revenue from ticket sales so there is plenty of wiggle room to reduce prices overall.

*Yes I know women go to football but it is still overwhelmingly men.

 

[BromleyMonkey]

Silver Man - Kids grown up now has time to attend mostly home games, grumpy git cynical about the team and owners as he has seen it all before. 😀

.

Pretty much me 😀

Although I’d like to think I’m not so cynical about parish because I understand how easy it is for the likes of us to criticise and how difficult it must be to run a football club

 

[Dubai Eagle]

So a club's support base tends to go like this:

Child - Goes with parent passionate about the club
Young Man* - Away days, goes with their mates, noisiest fans.
Family man - Rarely seen at games, picks his games because of work or finances. He follows team from afar, I will not say plastic supporter as that is unfair.
Silver Man - Kids grown up now has time to attend mostly home games, grumpy git cynical about the team and owners as he has seen it all before. 😀

Clubs rely these fans coming back at an older age. Of course if the number of kids goes down due to cost then they never learn to love the club and so won't be there as an older fan. And if the older fan tickets are too expensive then like Family Man they are just fans from afar.

This was very much the model that we followed (our generation)

I do wonder with things like reduced interest in sporting activities ( in favour of social media, video games etc) internet streaming programs & sports, peer pressure to support a team thats going to be top 6 / win every week, where the vast majority of would be supporters will never ever see them play live, if the whole demographics of ticket holders in the ground / bums on seats is going to change significantly in the coming years - maybe football tourism is going to overtake the traditional model or somewhere in between where the %ages of season ticket holder drift towards the higher paying one off supporter ?

All well & good if your in the PL perhaps, but any team that gets relegated will certainly drop down the pecking order in terms of supporter revenue -

 

[BromleyMonkey]

I won’t be taking too much notice of this, because I’m very much of the opinion if you don’t like the price of something you don’t pay it.
Clubs are NOT fleecing fans, they don’t go into fans bank accounts and take 100’s of pounds without our knowledge, we have the choice to pay the prices or not.
I’m afraid it’s the monster that’s been created, fans want to see all the top players at the top clubs in the premier league and that costs a heck of a lot of money as we all know these days

 

[grumpymort]

Supply & demand.

Most Prem teams sell out every week so yes they will increase prices.

At end of the day ticket sales for Prem teams really doesn't generate much in the bigger picture.

Once the new stand is complete expect a big price hike anyway someone has to pay for polishing the turd and it will be the fans.

I would rather people moan about the expensive food/drink which is poor quality and the rip of merch prices (uk tv pricing as well for not even getting all the games is a disgrace)

 

[eritheagle]

Supply & demand.

Most Prem teams sell out every week so yes they will increase prices.

At end of the day ticket sales for Prem teams really doesn't generate much in the bigger picture.

Once the new stand is complete expect a big price hike anyway someone has to pay for polishing the turd and it will be the fans.

I would rather people moan about the expensive food/drink which is poor quality and the rip of merch prices (uk tv pricing as well for not even getting all the games is a disgrace)

May bd a bit difficult to charge those prices if we're in the Championship though.

 

[BromleyMonkey]

May bd a bit difficult to charge those prices if we're in the Championship though.

Correct, because obviously the demand drops because all the randoms, tourists and foreigners won’t want to know anymore. You’ll be back to just the real palace fans who go to watch palace and not who they’re playing

 

[Badger11]

Supply & demand.

Most Prem teams sell out every week so yes they will increase prices.

At end of the day ticket sales for Prem teams really doesn't generate much in the bigger picture.

Once the new stand is complete expect a big price hike anyway someone has to pay for polishing the turd and it will be the fans.

I would rather people moan about the expensive food/drink which is poor quality and the rip of merch prices (uk tv pricing as well for not even getting all the games is a disgrace)

Not really. If you don't like Tesco's prices you can go to another supermarket. I doubt many football fans say I'm fed up with West Ham prices I'm off to Millwall instead.

It's more likely that fans who are priced out will just leave the game.

As the OP says stop exploiting loyalty.

 

[BromleyMonkey]

Not really. If you don't like Tesco's prices you can go to another supermarket I doubt many football fans say I'm fed up with West Ham prices I'm off to Millwall instead

It's more likely that fans who are priced out will just leave the game.

As the OP says stop exploiting loyalty.

I think it’s helping the non-league game, a lot of fans are turning to their local teams, crowds are up. A lot of Kent teams get decent crowds now for the level they’re at. Having recently turned 60 I noticed I can get into my local team Sittingbourne FC for £6.

 

[Badger11]

You only have to look at Italy to see the pitfalls. Back in the 1980's -90's Serie A dominated European football, games were packed and they swept the board in the European competitions.

Then the money dried up as the owners were bank rolling the clubs, the TV revenue didn't keep pace with spending and and of course there were a series of scandals involving the big clubs cheating.

At the same time the football was boring. Fans then started to pick their games, some of the attendances for the big clubs against small Serie A teams was shockingly low. Today there has been some recovery but if you look past the big 4/5 the average attendance for the rest is 20-30 thousand.

Anyway we are fortunate that there is no widespread cheating going on over here or so Man City fans tell me.