Season Tickets - Spread The Cost

[roadrunner]

Brighton have announced today that supporters that can't afford a season ticket up front will be able to spread the cost over 12 months. Cracking idea and one Reading Football Club would do well to consider, especially when money isn't so freely available to many families right now.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Hmm get an interest free credit card for a year, simples.

AND RFC have done this kind of thing n the past, Brighton have a new ground to fill, makes sense to fill it.

[roadrunner]

AND RFC have done this kind of thing n the past, Brighton have a new ground to fill, makes sense to fill it.

I've never known Reading to offer a 12 month direct debit scheme before.

[Row Z Royal]

AND RFC have done this kind of thing n the past, Brighton have a new ground to fill, makes sense to fill it.

I've never known Reading to offer a 12 month direct debit scheme before.

It was 8 or ten months, wasn't it?

[roadrunner]

AND RFC have done this kind of thing n the past, Brighton have a new ground to fill, makes sense to fill it.

I've never known Reading to offer a 12 month direct debit scheme before.

It was 8 or ten months, wasn't it?

I don't know, was it? I was aware of the sign up for a credit card scheme, but I wouldn't encourage my children to get a credit card for the sake of going to football every week.

[Red]

TBF if it is a credit card then it's probably not available to children anyway.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Sunderland did this a few years ago (not sure if they still do) and when redundancies at the Nissan plant were announced a whole number of people just stopped paying. And that's the problem for clubs - spreading the whole cost across the season means that if the end of the season turns out to be rubbish, or if people decide to stop going for personal reasons, they can just walk away and stop paying the instalments.

So it's better not to think of this as a way to pay for a season ticket over 12 months, but really it's a way to reserve a season's worth of match tickets and then pay for them each month as you attend.

[Red]

Sunderland did this a few years ago (not sure if they still do) and when redundancies at the Nissan plant were announced a whole number of people just stopped paying. And that's the problem for clubs - spreading the whole cost across the season means that if the end of the season turns out to be rubbish, or if people decide to stop going for personal reasons, they can just walk away and stop paying the instalments.

So it's better not to think of this as a way to pay for a season ticket over 12 months, but really it's a way to reserve a season's worth of match tickets and then pay for them each month as you attend.

They're foolish to have the payments over 12 months really. If it was over 6, you'd be paying comparitively more each month than the value of the matches you attended, so to stop paying would be against your interest and you'd be screwing yourself over.

Makes it seem less "affordable" I guess though.

Although I'm curious to know - if it was as easy as you make out to just walk away mid way through the payments - then why would anyone keep paying past the end of the season to the full 12 months

[Svlad Cjelli]

Yes, the key to something like this is that you need to start the payments early, so the whoel ST can be paid for long before the sesaon ends.

Start in Jan for next year's ST and pay for that over 12 months by next Xmas would be a brilliant scheme. (are you reading this, RFC?)

But even better would be if they did what other clubs did and stopped outsiurcing the credit scheme. It may be cheaper and easier for them to let an external company run this in their name, but that stops so many supporters who are either put off by the company or who can't get credit in the current credit squeeze.

The scheme a few years ago run in-house, where you paid for a ST in 4 installments (April, May, June, July with an extra charge of about £20) was superb. I'm sure something in-house, like that again, would make STs a lot more available and attractive than sending people to an outside credit agency.

[Red]

Start in Jan for next year's ST and pay for that over 12 months by next Xmas would be a brilliant scheme. (are you reading this, RFC?)

A moot point this year - but in a season where relegation/promotion is a possibility this would prove difficult - do you really want to set your prices 18 months in advance?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Start in Jan for next year's ST and pay for that over 12 months by next Xmas would be a brilliant scheme. (are you reading this, RFC?)

A moot point this year - but in a season where relegation/promotion is a possibility this would prove difficult - do you really want to set your prices 18 months in advance?

True-ish - it's not 18 months in advance, it's 8, really, as the season starts in August. A number of clubs have already started selling for next season, and the "buy early for next season at this season's prices" is a pretty-well established routine.

[roadrunner]

TBF if it is a credit card then it's probably not available to children anyway.

I said my children, not they are children.

Sunderland did this a few years ago (not sure if they still do) and when redundancies at the Nissan plant were announced a whole number of people just stopped paying. And that's the problem for clubs.

Yes and no. The club don't really lose anything as they then cancel the card. The previous games will have been paid for, so nothing lost in that respect.

[Red]

TBF if it is a credit card then it's probably not available to children anyway.

I said my children, not they are children.

A ridiculous assumption on my part then that adults could sort out their own finances - apologies.

[roadrunner]

TBF if it is a credit card then it's probably not available to children anyway.

I said my children, not they are children.

A ridiculous assumption on my part then that adults could sort out their own finances - apologies.

I brought my kids up not to use credit cards and to save for what they want rather than take on a debt, that's all.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

but well used a CC can be a budgeting tool, depends on circumstances.

Would easy payments still count as a debt?

[roadrunner]

but well used a CC can be a budgeting tool, depends on circumstances.

Would easy payments still count as a debt?

Still too much risk attached to a credit card.

Yes, spreading the cost of a season ticket across 12 months would still be a debt in principle, but no more so than you having a mobile phone contract for 12 months, or a Sky TV subscription.

[weybridgewanderer]

Yes, the key to something like this is that you need to start the payments early, so the whoel ST can be paid for long before the sesaon ends.

Start in Jan for next year's ST and pay for that over 12 months by next Xmas would be a brilliant scheme. (are you reading this, RFC?)

But even better would be if they did what other clubs did and stopped outsiurcing the credit scheme. It may be cheaper and easier for them to let an external company run this in their name, but that stops so many supporters who are either put off by the company or who can't get credit in the current credit squeeze.

The scheme a few years ago run in-house, where you paid for a ST in 4 installments (April, May, June, July with an extra charge of about £20) was superb. I'm sure something in-house, like that again, would make STs a lot more available and attractive than sending people to an outside credit agency.

If club brought it in house they are likely to find even more people fail their credit check as they don't have other credit schemes to offset the cost of a defaulter

i think the fact the last payment on the inhouse run installment was the last payment was in July, probably before the season started so was considered a savings scheme rather than a credit scheme. if someone defaulted then they just didn't get their season ticket activated.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Sunderland did this a few years ago (not sure if they still do) and when redundancies at the Nissan plant were announced a whole number of people just stopped paying. And that's the problem for clubs.

Yes and no. The club don't really lose anything as they then cancel the card. The previous games will have been paid for, so nothing lost in that respect.

Please see the next paragraph of the post you quoted, where I say that this isn't like paying for a seaon-ticket, but it's like a way to reserve a season's worth of match tickets and then pay for them each month on an on-going basis.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Yes, the key to something like this is that you need to start the payments early, so the whoel ST can be paid for long before the sesaon ends.

Start in Jan for next year's ST and pay for that over 12 months by next Xmas would be a brilliant scheme. (are you reading this, RFC?)

But even better would be if they did what other clubs did and stopped outsiurcing the credit scheme. It may be cheaper and easier for them to let an external company run this in their name, but that stops so many supporters who are either put off by the company or who can't get credit in the current credit squeeze.

The scheme a few years ago run in-house, where you paid for a ST in 4 installments (April, May, June, July with an extra charge of about £20) was superb. I'm sure something in-house, like that again, would make STs a lot more available and attractive than sending people to an outside credit agency.

If club brought it in house they are likely to find even more people fail their credit check as they don't have other credit schemes to offset the cost of a defaulter

i think the fact the last payment on the inhouse run installment was the last payment was in July, probably before the season started so was considered a savings scheme rather than a credit scheme. if someone defaulted then they just didn't get their season ticket activated.

You’d think so, yes, but from what I understand that didn’t always happen - people who were in arrears didn’t get their cards cancelled – either that or they were able to go to the ticket office, say “my card’s not working” and get into the games. Whether that’s inefficiency or not having the correct systems to link the ticketing to the payments system at the time I don’t know.

But I think because of that bad experience they abandoned the idea of doing anything in-house ever again, which is a shame, because if there was a will I think they could devise a system that would make season tickets a lot more accessible to a lot more people, without actually bringing any risk to the club.

[weybridgewanderer]

So it's better not to think of this as a way to pay for a season ticket over 12 months, but really it's a way to reserve a season's worth of match tickets and then pay for them each month as you attend.

Do we not already have this? Is it not called a member card with the ability to buy tickets in advance of the game?
Why do you need the "badge" of being a season ticket holder.