Armed Forces Day Match at PAFC! | PASOTI
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Armed Forces Day Match at PAFC!

Sep 16, 2010
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Sounds good! Do Armed Forces personnel get free entry to the game?

I have always asked the question of match day concession prices for Armed Forces at Argyle. Argyle's response seems to be that they hold an Armed Forces game every year giving free entry instead. However, when these games come up, it is never advertised how to apply for free tickets! Exeter Chiefs held their annual Armed Forces game last weekend and it was advertised excellently how to apply for a free ticket. You could just rock up to the ticket office with your ID card at any point to select a seat or get your seat online with a promotional code with ID checked on match day entry. It was run so well that I ended up getting a free ticket, then paying two full price adults to bring my father and a friend. There is no mention of how to get a ticket (or even if it is indeed free for personnel) on the website or twitter! There just seems to be more entertainment related to the military!!
 
Feb 8, 2005
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ncbryant":b80baqyw said:
Sounds good! Do Armed Forces personnel get free entry to the game?

I have always asked the question of match day concession prices for Armed Forces at Argyle. Argyle's response seems to be that they hold an Armed Forces game every year giving free entry instead. However, when these games come up, it is never advertised how to apply for free tickets! Exeter Chiefs held their annual Armed Forces game last weekend and it was advertised excellently how to apply for a free ticket. You could just rock up to the ticket office with your ID card at any point to select a seat or get your seat online with a promotional code with ID checked on match day entry. It was run so well that I ended up getting a free ticket, then paying two full price adults to bring my father and a friend. There is no mention of how to get a ticket (or even if it is indeed free for personnel) on the website or twitter! There just seems to be more entertainment related to the military!!

Excellent question.

The annual event is sponsored by the Royal Navy’s main industrial partner Babcock, although I see no advertising

I suspect that serving officers, currently based locally, have the offer of free entry, but numbers would be limited by the military. Top brass attend as guests.

General invitation for a free event would have to be monitored so I suspect your answer is NO,
but an enquiry with the Club would answer your question.
 

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jimsing":15ofmmtk said:
ncbryant":15ofmmtk said:
Sounds good! Do Armed Forces personnel get free entry to the game?

I have always asked the question of match day concession prices for Armed Forces at Argyle. Argyle's response seems to be that they hold an Armed Forces game every year giving free entry instead. However, when these games come up, it is never advertised how to apply for free tickets! Exeter Chiefs held their annual Armed Forces game last weekend and it was advertised excellently how to apply for a free ticket. You could just rock up to the ticket office with your ID card at any point to select a seat or get your seat online with a promotional code with ID checked on match day entry. It was run so well that I ended up getting a free ticket, then paying two full price adults to bring my father and a friend. There is no mention of how to get a ticket (or even if it is indeed free for personnel) on the website or twitter! There just seems to be more entertainment related to the military!!

Excellent question.

The annual event is sponsored by the Royal Navy’s main industrial partner Babcock, although I see no advertising

I suspect that serving officers, currently based locally, have the offer of free entry, but numbers would be limited by the military. Top brass attend as guests.

General invitation for a free event would have to be monitored so I suspect your answer is NO,
but an enquiry with the Club would answer your question.

As it is "Armed Forces Day" Jim, I would seriously hope that the offer was open to ALL serving members of the Armed Forces, not just the "Ruperts". It should, imho, also be free entry to veterans. The club wouldn't lose anything by doing so, it wouldn't cost them anything and all and sundry would spend money either in the shop or the food outlets/50-50, etc.
 
Sep 16, 2010
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So I asked the free entry question to the club and had a response from the Commercial Operations Officer, James Greenacre.

Argyle give a 'very' limited amount of tickets directly to the dockyard. These are given to a single point of contact of which I am in no doubt tickets are offered first to senior officers then trickled down through the ranks, rarely giving all the opportunity to attend. Extremely disappointing if there are empty seats at the armed forces game!

As I say, Exeter Chiefs and I believe Albion offer free armed forces tickets to ALL on their Armed Forces games. Not just the lucky few who out rank or know the single guy in the dockyard given a few hundred tickets. They offer these tickets directly through their ticketing system and advertise them openly! In my experience, it is the senior officers (normally rugby fans) who are least likely to return to future paid games. The lower ranks however, have so much spare time and income available when stuck in the dockyard hundreds of miles from their families at a weekend and are more likely to return and pay.

A free ticket last weekend at Exeter Chiefs resulted in me buying two extra adult tickets with the three attendees spending at least £20 each on beer and pasties with all planning to attend again! At least £100 of extra income for the sake of one free ticket and three new fans!

We really don't maximise the potential of armed forces attendances at Home Park. They need to get the non natives interested in Argyle before they will consider purchasing Armed Forces memberships!!
 

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It depends on what you mean by ‘Very’ limited? Did you get a figure?
 
Aug 17, 2011
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If all these matelots have a lot of money and bags of free time because they’re hundreds of miles from home then they’d have found their way to Home Park anyway without needing to be given a free ticket.

This subject comes up every year at this time so maybe it would be better making representation at the beginning of the season when they set the prices for season tickets.

Without being All American about it “Thank you for your service”.
 

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The lower ranks however, have so much spare time and income available when stuck in the dockyard hundreds of miles from their families at a weekend and are more likely to return and pay.

You obviously don't have a clue!

For starters, the only reason that you are stuck on board at weekends is either because you are duty watch or it's a blank week and you've run out of rail warrants!!

The expression "lower ranks" sucks! There may well be "lower ranks" in the Army but in the RN it is Junior Ratings.

If there is a limited supply to be divided up amongst all ships in the dockyard, then there will be an "expression of interest" posted. If the number of tickets required is less than those provided, happy days! If it is a greater number, then a ballot is conducted with all names going into a hat! Been there, done it...on more than one occasion. When I was working in Whitehall, there was a regular supply of tickets each and every week from Arsenal, Spurs, Palace, West Ham, etc.
 

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A 1000 free tickets were given to members of the armed forces today.
 

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ncbryant":1tt3b8gq said:
We really don't maximise the potential of armed forces attendances at Home Park. They need to get the non natives interested in Argyle before they will consider purchasing Armed Forces memberships!!

Agreed. There must be a lot of servicemen who need to get their football fix from somewhere and as a city with such an important naval tradition it would be great if we could entice a few more of them through the turnstiles. It feeds into the broader question of how to better promote PAFC in the city of Plymouth and the wider area, I guess. It's always frustrated me that somebody driving into Plymouth from the west would have no idea that the city has a professional football club unless they literally happened to pass Home Park.
 
Aug 17, 2011
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Brussels Bureaucrat":hwmxhlnk said:
ncbryant":hwmxhlnk said:
We really don't maximise the potential of armed forces attendances at Home Park. They need to get the non natives interested in Argyle before they will consider purchasing Armed Forces memberships!!

Agreed. There must be a lot of servicemen who need to get their football fix from somewhere and as a city with such an important naval tradition it would be great if we could entice a few more of them through the turnstiles. It feeds into the broader question of how to better promote PAFC in the city of Plymouth and the wider area, I guess. It's always frustrated me that somebody driving into Plymouth from the west would have no idea that the city has a professional football club unless they literally happened to pass Home Park.


So how many in Cornwall doesn’t know Plymouth has a pro football club called Plymouth......no, don’t tell me?
 
Sep 23, 2005
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I fancy we don't have a very good record in our annual armed forces day match. Have I imagined that? Any idea the last time we won one?
 

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jollygreenjohn":2yl90use said:
I fancy we don't have a very good record in our annual armed forces day match. Have I imagined that? Any idea the last time we won one?
This was our 10th Armed Services Day:

2009 Argyle 1 v Burnley 2
2010 Argyle 1 v Leicester 1
2011 Argyle 2 v Colchester 1
2012 Argyle 1 v Oxford 1
2013 Argyle 2 v Fleetwood 1
2014 Argyle 0 v Scunthorpe 2
2014 Argyle 3 v Portsmouth 0
2016 Argyle 1 v Wimbledon 2
2016 Argyle 0 v Grimsby 3
2017 Argyle 0 v Oxford 4

W3 D2 L5

Apart from the football, well done to everyone for organising and taking part in such a great event.
 
Sep 23, 2005
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Thank you for that, not as bad as my memory was suggesting but lost last 3 then. Shame after all being set up so well with so many guests.
 

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ncbryant":1q0ajy0a said:
So I asked the free entry question to the club and had a response from the Commercial Operations Officer, James Greenacre.

Argyle give a 'very' limited amount of tickets directly to the dockyard. These are given to a single point of contact of which I am in no doubt tickets are offered first to senior officers then trickled down through the ranks, rarely giving all the opportunity to attend. Extremely disappointing if there are empty seats at the armed forces game!

As I say, Exeter Chiefs and I believe Albion offer free armed forces tickets to ALL on their Armed Forces games. Not just the lucky few who out rank or know the single guy in the dockyard given a few hundred tickets. They offer these tickets directly through their ticketing system and advertise them openly! In my experience, it is the senior officers (normally rugby fans) who are least likely to return to future paid games. The lower ranks however, have so much spare time and income available when stuck in the dockyard hundreds of miles from their families at a weekend and are more likely to return and pay.

A free ticket last weekend at Exeter Chiefs resulted in me buying two extra adult tickets with the three attendees spending at least £20 each on beer and pasties with all planning to attend again! At least £100 of extra income for the sake of one free ticket and three new fans!

We really don't maximise the potential of armed forces attendances at Home Park. They need to get the non natives interested in Argyle before they will consider purchasing Armed Forces memberships!!

Mr Bryant. It is not clear which part of your post above is actually the response from James Greenacre!! It does sound a little like a rant from someone who perhaps wasn't able to get hold of one (or more) of the 1000 free tickets offered locally to members of ALL RANKS of the Armed Forces. It may be that you did and were able to invite your two friends again?

Perhaps I can offer some feedback and clear up some of your presumptions.
Firstly, Argyle are a business. For the club to offer free tickets to ALL the Armed Forces personnel, as you suggest, then it would not be long before they themselves would be looking for hand-outs in order to survive. I think you will find that Plymouth Albion are not exactly in a strong financial position. Perhaps they might need to re-think their Armed Services entry policy. (Another argument, perhaps).
Secondly, for Argyle to offer 1000 tickets free is an extremely generous gesture; year on year they have increased this allocation as demand for this event has grown and this year, was considerably more than those provided and that a reserve list was in operation. The tickets were advertised to ships, establishments and cadet units locally and as far afield as RAF St Mawgan.
Thirdly, Armed Services Day is organised, in conjunction with the club, by a small dedicated team of Naval personnel based in HMS Drake and requests for tickets are processed through them so that a fair distribution of tickets is achieved. I think you will agree that a large contingency of uniform personnel were noticeable at the match.
That others from outside the Plymouth catchment area are unable to get hold of tickets is unfortunate. Maybe you could leave your details with the organisers and they could send you an email informing you of when the next Armed Services Day is to be held (you'll have to wait for next season's fixtures to come out). They will, of course not be discerning of whether the request is coming from a "lower rank" or an officer.
In your original email and above you made some suggestions as to what the club might do in the future. I am sure they will consider your thoughts, but here is one for you. How about you (and your friends, if you like), taking advantage of the fabulous offer the club are promoting at the moment; that of a half season ticket. You will effectively get FOUR free games, regardless of whether you are Armed Forces, or not. Better still, if you put a regular sum of money away each month, you would be able to take advantage of an early bird offer, saving even more money and getting up to 9 games free?
Many letters of congratulations were received by the organisers for a job extremely well done, not only on ticket allocation, but the stalls outside and the events on the pitch pre-match and half time. Perhaps you would like to join, with me and add to those praises and applaud the efforts put into making an enjoyable spectacle for all the fans attending and their appreciation of the Armed Services?

WELL DONE TO THE TEAM IN HMS DRAKE.