Should away fans be charged Terrace prices

[Dougie]

Like Pigman, I don’t want to criticise the management of the club but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that this is an issue which has been totally mishandled from start to finish by all concerned.

I am not in a position to know who first raised the issue of ticket prices to visiting fans with the Conference Board or indeed why it should have been raised. It may be that once it was raised, the Conference Board were then at fault through inadequate discussion of the issues involved or by failing to anticipate the possible impact on individual clubs. It would also be useful to know when this instruction on pricing was first issued or raised with the clubs themselves.

From that point onwards it seems that our own Football Club Board were simply taken unawares or were to slow to understand the effect this action by the Conference Board would have on our own pricing structure. The problem is that with RDFC’s ‘Strategic Director’ Helen Thompson still – so far as I know – being a member of the Conference Board and therefore involved both in their discussions and in the resulting directive to member clubs, it is difficult to understand how our club could not have been aware of these proposals from the very start.

As I say, I don’t want to criticise the management of the club but as others have said, the simple and most obvious solution would be to reopen the two end wings of the Airwear then seating away fans at one end and home fans at the other with tickets priced at the same level as the PDB prior to this ‘enforced’ increase.

Problem solved – so why didn’t they? Probably one of two reasons – either they thought that there would be too few fans using the Airwear to justify the additional stewarding and other costs or KC simply underestimated the reaction and resistance to the price increase to home fans in the PDB.

Whichever, it isn’t too late for common sense to prevail.

[Trek]

It would also be useful to know when this instruction on pricing was first issued or raised with the clubs themselves.

Matt Wild advised me yesterday that they received the directive late June/ early July and perhaps it was never referred to the Conference management board and may simply, be a knee jerk reaction, as a result of two clubs complaining, by some administrator in the Conference Birmingham office.

I have, this morning, by email requested a copy of this directive from the Conference which I'm still awaiting since it might have no weight if it is un-equitable.

Matt has asked me to contact him at the end of the week for a further up-date.

Your suggestion regarding the Airwair is one I made a few days ago on another thread. ;)

[Pigman]

Let me know how you get on with getting a copy of the directive - I've emailed them twice now and not got so much as an acknowledgment - I intend phoning them tomorrow !!!

[Trek]

Let me know how you get on with getting a copy of the directive - I've emailed them twice now and not got so much as an acknowledgment - I intend phoning them tomorrow !!!

Will do. My next course of action is to ring them and blow into them over the phone. I need to find out who at our Club, besides Matt, is dealing with this because it doesn't appear to be something which our Chairman is actively involved with, unless I'm mistaken. They really need to be looking at the small print, particularly with regard to the agreed constitution of the Conference to see if they are empowered to issue such directives on the hoof so to speak.
I would love to know what sanctions the Conference think they can impose if the Club ignore this directive. Very little I reckon.

[Bob's Bitch]

Question: If it turns out that the Conference can do f*** all to us or that the directive isn't legal, do you think the Club will put the prices back down to £15 or do you think they'll keep them as they are?

[Pigman]

I couldn't comment Rob, but I suspect I know the answer to that question !!

Here ya go, all the information you need for next season ;)

http://www.bedfordrugby.co.uk/tickets.htm - £12 per match if paid for by 12 noon the day before !!! Sorted !!

I'll be stood with a pint in my hand cheering on The Blues I reckon and I know of 2 other Diamonds fans from this way that will be doing the same - thats £45 per game the club will have lost (or £51 I should say !!).

[Mad Dog]

Question: If it turns out that the Conference can do f*** all to us or that the directive isn't legal, do you think the Club will put the prices back down to £15 or do you think they'll keep them as they are?

Drawing from Trek's posts about his conversation with Matt Wild and taking it to the FA, I think they'd come down.

@Dougie: Welcome to the board. A lot of things you've posted have been posted and discussed on here and the other topic (which admittedly is growing). I get the impression this was forced on the club late on, especially given how late they waited to announce ticket prices in the first place. The best bet seems to be to focus on the source of the trouble, that of this directive. It would be great if you could also request a copy of this Conference Directive from the Conference, if anything to add to the voices that have done so already.

[Three of Diamonds]

I just nicked this from the FGR website;-

"** This includes the EESI (South) Stand for visiting supporters, which will bring that stand into line with the pricing regulations to be introduced next season by the Football Conference, whenever only one area of accommodating away support is offered then it must be at the lowest price charged in other areas of the stadium. This will not apply however where visiting supporters are offered a choice of standing or seating. "

http://www.forestgreenroversfc.com/news ... asp?id=863

Dated the 1st of MAY 2010, so it's nothing too new if they knew about it then.
Of course it doesn't explain why our club chose to raise terrace prices to match the new seating price, nor how the Trust workaround applies.

[Mad Dog]

I just nicked this from the FGR website;-

"** This includes the EESI (South) Stand for visiting supporters, which will bring that stand into line with the pricing regulations to be introduced next season by the Football Conference, whenever only one area of accommodating away support is offered then it must be at the lowest price charged in other areas of the stadium. This will not apply however where visiting supporters are offered a choice of standing or seating. "

http://www.forestgreenroversfc.com/news ... asp?id=863

Dated the 1st of MAY 2010, so it's nothing too new if they knew about it then.
Of course it doesn't explain why our club chose to raise terrace prices to match the new seating price, nor how the Trust workaround applies.

Then there is no hope for you.

[Pigman]

So, on the basis of that info from the FGR website, it seems to indicate that it was the club's decision to rise the home supporters entrance fee rather than lower the away supporters entrance fee, as Coltrane indicted elsewhere on this message board?

If you include the Oxford Play Off game, we had 11,200 away fans visit NP last season - an average of 509 per game (11200/22 games = 509).

Had the club decided to lower the away fans admission fee to £15 (the same as the PDB would have been with the £1 increase) it would have cost them £1018 per game on this season's prices (£2 x 509 = £1018) assuming away support remained the same of course.

So, assuming people won't pay the Trust membership, the club can afford to lose roughly 59 home fans @ £17 before it starts to hit them, I presume they have weighed it up and think that won't happen due to the loyalty of the PDB supporters, plus of course those that do pay up the £15 membership will off set some of the loss anyway in time?

All of this is assuming I've got my sums right of course and thats never a strong point of mine ................ ;)