Increase gate prices?

[Christies Child]

At the risk of being shot at dawn ( the firing squad missed last time ) should the Board consider a temporary increase in admission prices by £1?

With some teams now charging £20 to get in ( Rochdale being the latest) maybe we should review our prices?

There is an arguement that by REDUCING prices that more would come. I somehow doubt it.

There is also the arguement that by increasing admission costs that LESS would come.

Increase, decrease or leave it as they are....for this season but next....?

What would you do?

[outsider]

so will you be sending the club £1 per home game after all you are getting in cheaper with your season ticket?

[Christies Child]

so will you be sending the club £1 per home game after all you are getting in cheaper with your season ticket?

I'd make it a tenner a game if it would help.

Seriously asking Season Ticket holders to maybe make a contribution per game isn't such a bad idea. Especially those who have lifetime tickets.

[mounse mk2]

I don't see what by increasing the price by £1 will do other than decrease attendances even more.

I'd like to see what can be done to the apathetic nature of a lot of people in this area who like football but don't go to games.

I wonder how many Morecambe and Lancaster based PNE fans went to Deepdale for the 1st time in years last night because they were playing Liverpool? I also wonder if many of them have a passing interest in The Shrimps and the last game of football they went to see before last night was our Playoff Final at Wembley, us against the nob enders etc.

I think there is 3 markets in particular that maybe the club can tap into.

St Martins/Lancaster Uni students, kids, and the Polish community.

As for us i think we've got to continue banging on and encouraging as many people as possible to come to a game. Mates, family members, ex's, aliens, passers by in the street.

[George Dawes]

^ spot on

[George Dawes]

you would like to think the board, if it looked Morecambe might struggle financially ie. points being deducted, then why not get rid of a few high earners who ain't even on the bench

[thegentlegiant]

i'd be will to pay an extra pound to watch the shrimps....it's always a good day out and when christie is abouts always a good laugh!! i also think next season it shold be a perm change. I also feel that away fans should be paying the same prices as what we have to pay to get into away ground. fair id fair right?

[campdave]

you would like to think the board, if it looked Morecambe might struggle financially ie. points being deducted, then why not get rid of a few high earners who ain't even on the bench

How do you propose we do that without paying up their contracts?

As for increasing gate prices, at a time when we need as many people coming through the gate as possible, it sounds like a ridiculous idea.

[Duffman]

Mounse said pretty much what I was going to say but the issue is attendances are down after last season. The novelty has worn off for a lot of people in the area. Dare I say but the standard of football was better and more exciting in the Conference days with JH. I understand that in order to stay in the league we'll have to play less attractive football but most part time fans won't want to see that. I will make a bold prediction now that our average will once again be lower next season if its another mid-table-being-safe-season.

I don't see the reasoning behind charging the existing fans more because other fans don't want to anymore. The opposite should have happen by having a special day with offers on for families to get people through the gates and hopefully for the next game.

[Christies Child]

As I said it was only a thought to help with the finances.

What other suggestions to fellow SVs have?

[postie]

£13 is enough to pay in Morecambe. I think people would start to choose betweeen matches and an increase would almost certainly lose the club support.

[Heysham_Shrimp]

The sale of season tickets doesn't seem to have changed from the days of the NPL.

We need to be more inovative when the season tickets are marketed.

A lot of people don't buy them because it is a lot of money to shell out in one go. Let them pay for their season tickets over a period of say 6 months by direct debit.

Some people such as shift workers won't buy them because they are not sure if they will be able to see enough games to justify the expenses. Why not sell "mini season tickets" such as
10 matches for the price of 8.

How about some incentives to buy season tickets such as a half price programme or vouchers for a pie at half time etc

[Duffman]

The sale of season tickets doesn't seem to have changed from the days of the NPL.

We need to be more inovative when the season tickets are marketed.

A lot of people don't buy them because it is a lot of money to shell out in one go. Let them pay for their season tickets over a period of say 6 months by direct debit.

Some people such as shift workers won't buy them because they are not sure if they will be able to see enough games to justify the expenses. Why not sell "mini season tickets" such as
10 matches for the price of 8.

How about some incentives to buy season tickets such as a half price programme or vouchers for a pie at half time etc

I like the idea on staggered season ticket payments. Perhaps if you paid by direct debit you got one less free game compared to paying in full? I know I would buy one this way, summer is expensive for some with holidays etc and this would be a welcome relief.

[The Red Knight]

The whole point of season tickets is so the club gets some money up front at the start of the season so having the payments staggered over 6 months isn't really an option I don't think.

[Phoenix]

What other suggestions to fellow SVs have?

What happened to your money-making scheme you put to a director a while ago?

[Phoenix]

The whole point of season tickets is so the club gets some money up front at the start of the season so having the payments staggered over 6 months isn't really an option I don't think.

The idea of it is good, it would give the club committed revenue which is something financial people like. The management of it is an overhead the club can do without. There's also the chance someone could simply cancel their direct debit or standing order then the admin of holding them to some sort of legal contract to force them to pay is a nightmare.

[thegentlegiant]

Home Club Capacity Ticket Price Average
Darlington 25,294 - £18.00
Bradford City 25,136 - £20.00
Rotherham United 25,00 - £19.00
Notts County 20,300 - £19.00
Port Vale 18,900 - Unable to find info
Brentford 12,763 - £19.00
Bury 11,669 - £16.00
Gillingham 11,582 - £22.10
Rochdale 10,249 - £16.66
Luton Town 10,200 - £17.50
Lincoln City 10,127 - £16.30
Shrewsbury Town 10,000 - £19.33
Wycombe Wanderers 10,000 - £18.60
Grimsby Town 9,546 - £17.00
AFC Bournemouth 9,287 - £17.16
Exeter City 8,830 - £14.25
Chesterfield 8,504 - £18.00
Aldershot Town 7,100 - £16.50
Morecambe 6,400 - £13.33
Macclesfield Town 6,335 - £16.00
Dagenham & Redbridge 6,000 - £18.33
Chester City 5,312 - Unable to find Info
Barnet 5,300 - £15.40
Accrington Stanley 5,057 - £14.00
Total Average Home Ticket Price £17.33

This is from the info i have found on verious sites!!! I still feel we could rise the ticket price slightly!

Thoughts people???

[Bare Ben]

Edit: Me say nothing

[Weetabix Kid]

Common sense dosen't seem to have a place in the FA, they fanny about with stupid little rules that are slowly destroying the game. I'd like them to restrict each division to the same reasonable prices.....

Prem - £25
Champ - £20
L1 - £15
L2 - £10

(all for adult)

But then again I hate all these mickey mouse league names...bring back Div 1-4 for me

[RedRedWine1]

Although having the wrists slapped so publically must be embarrassing for the club and the officials, I don't think we are doing that badly. Without knowing the full ins and outs of the 60% cap rule or the financial structure MFC have in place, I'd say that from an outside perspective, we're still living within our means a lot more than a fair few other clubs at this level, and are now being limited in our spending as a result of it.

For some reason I'm under the impression that we have little or no debt (please correct if this is not the case)? How many other sides can say that? Is the cap as basic as it seems? No more than 60% of net revenue (the gross inflow before the deduction of any expenses) to be spent on player's wages? What does that mean for clubs such as our own that possibly don't have massive outlays for harvesting debt that others might have, be that in terms of loan repayments or interest payable on an overdraft facility? Should the club be capped at the same level of spending, as a club that is in the shit (technical term) financially?

Some clubs at this level don't even own their own ground. How can we possibly be capped at the same level as all other clubs, when clearly some have expenses that we don't have? How is that fair? For example, by my reckoning, under the leagues system (assuming it is as basic as it seems), if we sold our ground and a company leased the ground back to us we'd be able to spend the same on player's wages, and may actually be better off. We'd still generate the same level of income which we'd be allowed to spend on wages, but on top of the outgoing for players wages, we'd also have the expense of the lease repayment yet this would not be reflected in what we are allowed to spend. Shouldn't we be allowed to spend what other clubs could possibly spend on a lease, on player's wages? We'd also now have the capital gain from the sale of the ground (not revenue, as it isn't related to the normal business activity of the club) propping up the balance sheet, which I'm sure we could put to use in other areas.

Have I missed something? Hopefully this cap isn't as crude as I've made it out to be. Obviously a football club selling their ground would make a club extremely unstable in the long-term, which is the exact opposite of what I assume the cap is trying to achieve. The only assets (or liabilities in some cases!) a club would have if they sold their ground would be the player's registrations held by the club, with the added liability of the lease, possibly forever. Pretty much another Leeds United waiting to happen with little or no assets to satisfy creditors. Reiterating my main point, how can every club have the same rules to their level of spending when each individual club is run and financed completely differently? I've not even mentioned the donations business, which I imagine is the only reason many other clubs like Accy, Macc, Barnet etc have not fallen foul of this capping business. How can this stabilise clubs in the long-term? Surely if the sugar daddy's walked away each club would vanish, yet under the leagues rules they are a stable club living within its means. Pathetic.

[Christies Child]

What other suggestions to fellow SVs have?

What happened to your money-making scheme you put to a director a while ago?

Too much negativity on this board towards the scheme....as you well know!

As is usual people are always prepared to be negative but when asked to put forward an alternative or suggestion ........ silence!!!!!!!

[Phoenix]

If you thought it was a good idea and the board thought it was a good idea, why let the opinion of a forum stop it?

[RedRedWine1]

This wasn't the South Lakeland supporters club was it?

[outsider]

Ok here's an idea or 3

1) When we move to Westgate lifetime season tickets become invalid (are they for C.P. )

2) A sponsored wall at Westgate where you pay to have you name or message on a supporters wall, the did one at the Ricoh arena (Cov City's new ground), and I think they have one at Celtic, if my memory is correct it was only £20ish per brick, so not to expensive to be part of history.

3) Auction of parts of C.P. for collection after the move i.e. own you own seat, buy a dug-out for your garden, lots of things cheep to do as well.

Ok now my head hurts I need to lie down for a bit

[Plain Peter]

St Martins/Lancaster Uni students, kids, and the Polish community.

Someone has said that ages ago, and even more recently.
Twin with a Polish side, preferably one that plays in red.
Have a visible presence in Lancaster, ie a shop (it could sell all sorts, and even help tourism in Morecambe).
This is no-brainer stuff.