FREE SCARF! (For Season Ticket Holders Only)

[working class hero]

why do folk go on about VAT so much, there is a cost, with or wothout, if it costs £2 per item it makes no difference , they will have a bottom line figure, the vat is only 15% of the total, so on a low priced item is hardly imposrtant

Agreed, it's not massively significant on small numbers, but work it through.

If you add a non-vatable item like a book to the ST purchase, and give it a cover price of £19.99, the VAT you don't have to pay on that item is £2.98. Not much, and you do have to cover the book production costs out of that.

But now do the sums if you're pretty much assured of selling 18,000 STs. With that sort of print run you could easily get the printing costs down to under a quid a copy - so that saves you paying VAT of about £2 per ST - or about 36 grand in all, which is not to be sniffed at, and is perfectly legal. You could do a lot of useful stuff with that money (or pay a player for 10 days!)

That's why I agree it's less worthwhile if it is tax-orientated than it was when they did it with the yearbook.

Not sure you are right that the £19.99 part for the book can be taken out of the equation for VAT as the principal supply is that of a seat at the stadium and so standard rated and in a composite supply the VAT follows the main supply. This is why your airline ticket is still zero rated evenif you fly with someone who 'feeds' you on the plane. The food supply should be standard rated but the courts decided it is incidental and so the whole supply is zero.

I don't think the club could justify people buying a season ticket to get hold of the book do you? The book was a lot more incidental than a meal on a transatlantic flight.

Although it can work the other way. During the Miners Strike of 1974 [?] and the 3 day week matches were often played on both Saturday and Sunday to avoid using floodlights midweek. At the time it was illegal to charge for admission to a match on a Sunday - so admission was made free - provided you bought a programme [which oddly enough cost as much on its own on a Sunday as admission and a programme cost on any other day...]

[bobby1413]

John Madejski is known for his excellence as an entrepreneur, and some might suggest that this "commemorative" scarf is just a ploy to lure in more season ticket buyers

That would be a good point if it wasn't a cheap scarf he was giving away. I hardly think someone's going to rush out and spend £500 after seeing that they get a free scarf.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

This make's up for us being relegated.

[Row Z Royal]

This make's up for us being relegated.

Why the ?

They wouldn't have given us one when they weren't trying to keep fans, so 'hurrah', I say.

[working class hero]

This make's up for us being relegated.

Why the ?

They wouldn't have given us one when they weren't trying to keep fans, so 'hurrah', I say.

I shall say hurrah when I see the scarf. If it is a scarf with the word 'MAdejski' all over it I shall be less than happy....

[voice of reason]

So, is this in commemoration, or is it another way to hook in the buyers?

You are actually joking in asking this question, surely?

Why be cynical about it? You don't have to pick yours up if you don't want one.

Newcastle fans were given free scarves about a season or so back and they looked quite impressive when twirled around en masse.

I'm not being cynical about the scarf as such as it may turn out to be quite a nice scarf, just the premise that they will probably end up being sold for £15 to non STH's is a bit strange that's all.

That doesn't really make sense. Yes it would be strange if RFC gave away 12,000 odd scarves on the premise that they would be able to sell them for £15 to non STH's as that would be financially naive to say the least, but I am fairly certain that is not their motivation for doing it. Also I can't remember seeing too many scarves in the Megastore above the £8 mark? I know inflation is getting worse but I cant RFC scarves being affected that badly by it . . .

It's a very clever scheme from the club as they can say the Season Ticket includes this item which is at a lower tax band thus making a bit more...

That just makes no sense!? If your referring to VAT, as previously stated, goods can either be zero-rated or 17.5% and unless deemed childrens clothes, scarves are definately 17.5%. The most commonly encountered kind of tax with "bands" is income tax which I don't think football scarves really applys to?

This club is actually plagued with supporters of a shockingly low level of intelligence. It doesn't help having a huge proportion of our supporters yet to complete their GCSE's but there are a few posts on this thread that really highlight a lot of what is wrong with this club.

[The 17 Bus]

Surely the club can only claw back what they have paid in tax, therefore if the item is costing them say £1-50 including VAT then all they can claim back is the VAT on that amount, not on some notional RRP that they set?

As for Sunday football it was indeed allowed to charge entry to sports events, however you could not demand entry and had to allow fans in for free if they so wished, RFC used a side gate in the Southbank, at the left of the turnstiles as you entered, I know cos one week I decided to have a freebie.

[catfork]

Surely the club can only claw back what they have paid in tax, therefore if the item is costing them say £1-50 including VAT then all they can claim back is the VAT on that amount, not on some notional RRP that they set?

As for Sunday football it was indeed allowed to charge entry to sports events, however you could not demand entry and had to allow fans in for free if they so wished, RFC used a side gate in the Southbank, at the left of the turnstiles as you entered, I know cos one week I decided to have a freebie.

that was sneaky

[STAR Liaison]

It's a scarf. Cost them about 5p to make and will appear in the Megastore at xmas for £15 to make STH's think they got a bargain.

not sure how much they cost to make but if you want to buy one it will have to be on e-bay as the club will not be selling them, I have been assured by relevnat people at the club.

[Readingfanman]

It's a scarf. Cost them about 5p to make and will appear in the Megastore at xmas for £15 to make STH's think they got a bargain.

not sure how much they cost to make but if you want to buy one it will have to be on e-bay as the club will not be selling them, I have been assured by relevnat people at the club.

I have a STH. HTH.

[working class hero]

It's a scarf. Cost them about 5p to make and will appear in the Megastore at xmas for £15 to make STH's think they got a bargain.

not sure how much they cost to make but if you want to buy one it will have to be on e-bay as the club will not be selling them, I have been assured by relevnat people at the club.

I have a STH. HTH.

Owning slaves is illegal.

[Rawlie19]

not sure how much they cost to make but if you want to buy one it will have to be on e-bay as the club will not be selling them, I have been assured by relevnat people at the club.

I have a STH. HTH.

Owning slaves is illegal.

And Readingfanman, he said if you want to BUY one, nothing about the one that you're already going to get free with your ST.

[Royal Lady]

When are we getting these scarves then? Only they've had our money a couple of weeks now, the least they can do is send us our scarves!

[The 17 Bus]

Worse than that they have had your money for weeks and no sign of any football, be patient, us oldies usually are.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Bit plastic I suppose but I think it will look good for everyone to raise their scarf when the teams come out. Newcastle have done it well with their black and white ones, and I believe Arsenal have done it too. Apart from anything it will keep me warm over winter!

[Sarah Star]

Just received my shiny new season ticket, which was exciting (for me anyway). So it's official now.

It didn't come with a scarf though, which was slightly disappointing.

[Rawlie19]

I thought that all they were going to give us was the opportunity to pick one up from the megastore (showing our season ticket should be sufficient). This way of course they are making sure you get into the shop and maybe you'll buy something else. I was never under the impression that they were going to post them out.

And Sarah, was that a new season ticket for you this year or did you previously have one and they've replaced it?

[Sarah Star]

Brand spanking new, Rawlie.

[Roger the Rabbit]

Makes sense to collect them - by definition if you have a ST you'll be going to the stadium so why spend extra pounds on stuffing scarfs in bags and posting them out ?
They can probably also work on only having 7000 and half the people not actually picking them up !

[Sarah Star]

The last time I tried to visit the Megastore on a match day it was full and they weren't letting anyone else in. Can I expect the same mad scramble for free scarfs?