Should admission prices be reduced?

[Shankster]

Last time I recall argyle giving away tickets (happy to be corrected) was when there was something in it for them, v Wolves in the throes of the World Cup venue campaign

Don’t think Argyle have ever been community focussed

It’s a Tory-like manifest ‘for the few, not the many’

 

[HC Green]

Football is not that expensive at this level - yes there will always be some who can’t afford it but is really more about giving up time rather than money. I am a life long fan but after Oxford I won’t be back until things improve - if the team can’t be bothered neither can I

Interesting that it takes only one game where you say the team wasn’t bothered to stop you going after they put in the best performance of the season a couple of games ago, if you aren’t at the next game how will you know if the players are bothered, or will just the team not losing means they are bothered and enough for you?

 

[djg145]

Football is not that expensive at this level - yes there will always be some who can’t afford it but is really more about giving up time rather than money. I am a life long fan but after Oxford I won’t be back until things improve - if the team can’t be bothered neither can I

Interesting that it takes only one game where you say the team wasn’t bothered to stop you going after they put in the best performance of the season a couple of games ago, if you aren’t at the next game how will you know if the players are bothered, or will just the team not losing means they are bothered and enough for you?

Sad to say that putting in the best performance of the season a couple of games ago (so far) - has not registered on the richter scale.

As for the Season Ticket members, we are counted as attending even if we are not there, not sure of the evidence that many are not going to the matches - YET.

 

[Green Flash]

Football is not that expensive at this level - yes there will always be some who can’t afford it but is really more about giving up time rather than money. I am a life long fan but after Oxford I won’t be back until things improve - if the team can’t be bothered neither can I

Interesting that it takes only one game where you say the team wasn’t bothered to stop you going after they put in the best performance of the season a couple of games ago, if you aren’t at the next game how will you know if the players are bothered, or will just the team not losing means they are bothered and enough for you?

I can take losing, I can even take relegation, I cannot take utter lack of effort and care from professionals when we invest time and money to watch. I have never said this about the team before in 30 years even through the darkest of days so I don't say it lightly but Oxford was something else. I don't feel in the least guilty about not bothering until they prove they are going to bother.

 

[oldage]

Green flash, it is still expensive is you look at value for money. How the green tints can highlight one good performance in the last dozen or so is beyond me. The football has been mediocre at best with substandard players and a clueless manager. I still attend home games because I have, and always will, support Argyle but I get little pleasure from it at present.

 

[Keepitgreen]

Green flash, it is still expensive is you look at value for money. How the green tints can highlight one good performance in the last dozen or so is beyond me. The football has been mediocre at best with substandard players and a clueless manager. I still attend home games because I have, and always will, support Argyle but I get little pleasure from it at present.

Got to agree with that (although I do some away games too). I recall going when I knew before entering the ground that we were going to lose. But there was that hope that "today's the day we'll turn it around". I'll be there on Saturday hoping that it's the turning point. If not, it'll be the same for the next match.

 

[Biggs]

Last time I recall argyle giving away tickets (happy to be corrected) was when there was something in it for them, v Wolves in the throes of the World Cup venue campaign

Don’t think Argyle have ever been community focussed

It’s a Tory-like manifest ‘for the few, not the many’

Shanks, you really do talk absolute rot sometimes.

The success and ever-increasing remit of the Argyle Community Trust is perhaps one of the best-kept secrets at Home Park.

People are generally aware of the existence of the Trust, which is the charitable arm of the League One club, and some of the work it carries out.

Usually, they know about their coaching courses for children of all ages across Devon and Cornwall.

Yet, as important as that is to the Trust, there is much more to them. There is also a heavy emphasis on public health and well being initiatives.

They have 46 permanent members of staff, 130 part-time workers, and had a turnover of £2.1 million in 2017.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/ ... me-1650400

And what’s this rubbish about Argyle being Tory-like? Because like every other football club in the 21st century, they want to actually make the grandstand... prepare yourself for this... a nice place to be? And bring in money from corporate and hospitality that goes back into the team?

 

[Shankster]

Last time I recall argyle giving away tickets (happy to be corrected) was when there was something in it for them, v Wolves in the throes of the World Cup venue campaign

Don’t think Argyle have ever been community focussed

It’s a Tory-like manifest ‘for the few, not the many’

Shanks, you really do talk absolute rot sometimes.

The success and ever-increasing remit of the Argyle Community Trust is perhaps one of the best-kept secrets at Home Park.

People are generally aware of the existence of the Trust, which is the charitable arm of the League One club, and some of the work it carries out.

Usually, they know about their coaching courses for children of all ages across Devon and Cornwall.

Yet, as important as that is to the Trust, there is much more to them. There is also a heavy emphasis on public health and well being initiatives.

They have 46 permanent members of staff, 130 part-time workers, and had a turnover of £2.1 million in 2017.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/ ... me-1650400

And what’s this rubbish about Argyle being Tory-like? Because like every other football club in the 21st century, they want to actually make the grandstand... prepare yourself for this... a nice place to be? And bring in money from corporate and hospitality that goes back into the team?

I’m not exposed to the charitable aspects of argyle, as I stated I’m happy to be corrected although how the fund is executed will always be down to priority (the children of our society are always a priority I must add)

I don’t trust the ‘suits’ of the football community, they are always self-serving, there’s little wrong with that this is after all
a capatilist state BUT I never trust that any suit would reinvest to the degree they profess to do so (this isn’t specific to Argyle)

 

[Ham Green]

Reducing admission prices won't work; as others have said, there's also a time cost to watching Argyle. I wouldn't take free tickets to see a band that couldn't play their instruments (even if they were pretentious enough to call it "Free Jazz"). Who would take two hours out of their weekend to watch eleven men trying to pass the ball five yards, when there's endless Fortnite and PUBG, Netflix and Now, Pewdiepie and Markiplier to catch up with? Sky now offers match and day passes, and they've managed to turn reading the scores out on a Saturday into an entertainment form. Your average Janner would be far more likely to recognise Chris Kamara than Graham Carey.

To be honest it surprises me that a club like Argyle manages to survive, and I fear for its future. Unable to pick up new fans in anything like the numbers required to keep up with footballers' wages, Argyle like many clubs have resorted to fleecing the "wind, rain or snow" brigade to such absurd levels that it is now cheaper to watch a top-flight game in many European leagues. Value for money when compared with almost every other leisure activity is practically non-existent; footballers have wondered into manager's offices demanding higher and higher salaries, and club owners, desperate to hold on to their top stars, have gleefully acquiesced to their demands. What we have now is quite honestly a scandal where an un-fancied journeyman like O'Keefe or Ladapo not only earns a living from football but a relatively comfortable one. It's all done on the dangerous assumption that the loyal fans will happily take another one for the team, and the suicidal assumption that there will always be a steady stream of such fans.

But those fans are not young any more; take a look around Home Park next time you're there. During my days in the Grandstand I could happily play "spot the under-60"; sometimes that was more entertaining than the football. The demographic at Argyle is not spread evenly and those who depart for the terraces in the sky are not being replaced in sufficient numbers.

A netflix subscription is £5.99 a month, or about 3/10ths of an adult match ticket. That's ridiculous. Football at this level never should have become so expensive, but here we are. Now the clubs in the lower leagues, for so long pushing up prices while keeping the product broadly the same in terms of quality, are facing an onslaught of alternative ways to waste your weekend and they have neither the ingenuity nor the ability to react. Like all those high-street stores closing around us because they either couldn't or wouldn't adapt to online shopping, I wonder how long before football clubs begin to feel the pinch as a generation of potential fans realises just how badly their parents were being ripped off.

 

[Presto]

Reducing prices will make little or no difference particularly when we are playing like a L2 side. Last season during the last 10/15 games of the season gates increased but not dramatically so.

The world has moved on from when I used to go in the late 50s and 60s. Then 15,16, 17,18, 19000 gates were not that unusual. Sky and BBC TV have decimated the gates at the lower league clubs. In the 50s and 60s there was little or no available football on tv what was accessible was invariably recorded. The establishment of an independent self governing premier league has effectively ensured that mediocrity is the rule for non premiership clubs.

We for a wide range of reasons including accessible finance and location ensures we are inevitably going to remain in the one or other of the lower leagues. An extra 1500 through the gates will make absolutely no difference to our prospects.

We have to come to terms with the fact that we are not a "big" club or as some have stated belong in the 1st or 2nd tier of the game.

 

[davie nine]

No is the obvious answer.

 

[Green Flash]

Reducing admission prices won't work; as others have said, there's also a time cost to watching Argyle. I wouldn't take free tickets to see a band that couldn't play their instruments (even if they were pretentious enough to call it "Free Jazz"). Who would take two hours out of their weekend to watch eleven men trying to pass the ball five yards, when there's endless Fortnite and PUBG, Netflix and Now, Pewdiepie and Markiplier to catch up with? Sky now offers match and day passes, and they've managed to turn reading the scores out on a Saturday into an entertainment form. Your average Janner would be far more likely to recognise Chris Kamara than Graham Carey.

To be honest it surprises me that a club like Argyle manages to survive, and I fear for its future. Unable to pick up new fans in anything like the numbers required to keep up with footballers' wages, Argyle like many clubs have resorted to fleecing the "wind, rain or snow" brigade to such absurd levels that it is now cheaper to watch a top-flight game in many European leagues. Value for money when compared with almost every other leisure activity is practically non-existent; footballers have wondered into manager's offices demanding higher and higher salaries, and club owners, desperate to hold on to their top stars, have gleefully acquiesced to their demands. What we have now is quite honestly a scandal where an un-fancied journeyman like O'Keefe or Ladapo not only earns a living from football but a relatively comfortable one. It's all done on the dangerous assumption that the loyal fans will happily take another one for the team, and the suicidal assumption that there will always be a steady stream of such fans.

But those fans are not young any more; take a look around Home Park next time you're there. During my days in the Grandstand I could happily play "spot the under-60"; sometimes that was more entertaining than the football. The demographic at Argyle is not spread evenly and those who depart for the terraces in the sky are not being replaced in sufficient numbers.

A netflix subscription is £5.99 a month, or about 3/10ths of an adult match ticket. That's ridiculous. Football at this level never should have become so expensive, but here we are. Now the clubs in the lower leagues, for so long pushing up prices while keeping the product broadly the same in terms of quality, are facing an onslaught of alternative ways to waste your weekend and they have neither the ingenuity nor the ability to react. Like all those high-street stores closing around us because they either couldn't or wouldn't adapt to online shopping, I wonder how long before football clubs begin to feel the pinch as a generation of potential fans realises just how badly their parents were being ripped off.

Except football crowds are around double what they were 30 years ago - including at Argyle all things being equal

 

[Biggs]

Yep, Argyle season tickets are going up every year, and will increase further with the grandstand development making the ground a MUCH better place to be for families and people in general. The club’s family area with PS4s and and the Community Trust work are also attracting young fans.

This all comes with the caveat that success (or not) on the pitch is the main driver of attendances, if Argyle get to the Premier League they will be the hottest ticket in town and add probably 5-10k more onto that core 7k or so home support we have. That’s the sort of trend you see with clubs like Hull, Reading and Portsmouth, who come down from the Premier League possessing thousands of new fans who have tasted success and want more of it. Even the Championship with its effective Premier League 2 status nowadays would be a massive draw.

P.s. I don’t think someone like Freddie Ladapo earning (I’m guessing here) something like £1.5k a week is a scandal at all, given the length and insecurity of a footballer’s career. 300k a week maybe, but many players at this level are anything but comfortable. They’ll have to be saving a massive chunk of that, and/or be training for a new career once they retire.

P.p.s. To say fans are paying more for the same quality, i feel is also untrue. The stadiums are better, the pitches are better, the players are better, the quality of play is better, (in some cases ) the food is better.

 

[Presto]

Reducing admission prices won't work; as others have said, there's also a time cost to watching Argyle. I wouldn't take free tickets to see a band that couldn't play their instruments (even if they were pretentious enough to call it "Free Jazz"). Who would take two hours out of their weekend to watch eleven men trying to pass the ball five yards, when there's endless Fortnite and PUBG, Netflix and Now, Pewdiepie and Markiplier to catch up with? Sky now offers match and day passes, and they've managed to turn reading the scores out on a Saturday into an entertainment form. Your average Janner would be far more likely to recognise Chris Kamara than Graham Carey.

To be honest it surprises me that a club like Argyle manages to survive, and I fear for its future. Unable to pick up new fans in anything like the numbers required to keep up with footballers' wages, Argyle like many clubs have resorted to fleecing the "wind, rain or snow" brigade to such absurd levels that it is now cheaper to watch a top-flight game in many European leagues. Value for money when compared with almost every other leisure activity is practically non-existent; footballers have wondered into manager's offices demanding higher and higher salaries, and club owners, desperate to hold on to their top stars, have gleefully acquiesced to their demands. What we have now is quite honestly a scandal where an un-fancied journeyman like O'Keefe or Ladapo not only earns a living from football but a relatively comfortable one. It's all done on the dangerous assumption that the loyal fans will happily take another one for the team, and the suicidal assumption that there will always be a steady stream of such fans.

But those fans are not young any more; take a look around Home Park next time you're there. During my days in the Grandstand I could happily play "spot the under-60"; sometimes that was more entertaining than the football. The demographic at Argyle is not spread evenly and those who depart for the terraces in the sky are not being replaced in sufficient numbers.

A netflix subscription is £5.99 a month, or about 3/10ths of an adult match ticket. That's ridiculous. Football at this level never should have become so expensive, but here we are. Now the clubs in the lower leagues, for so long pushing up prices while keeping the product broadly the same in terms of quality, are facing an onslaught of alternative ways to waste your weekend and they have neither the ingenuity nor the ability to react. Like all those high-street stores closing around us because they either couldn't or wouldn't adapt to online shopping, I wonder how long before football clubs begin to feel the pinch as a generation of potential fans realises just how badly their parents were being ripped off.

Except football crowds are around double what they were 30 years ago - including at Argyle all things being equal

If you look at the european table of football attendance statistics for Argyle you can see that our average league attendance year by year has not doubled or anywhere near that over the last 30 years. Our attendance levels reflect our league level and standing. In fact over the last 50/60 years average attendance has fallen significantly.

 

[Green Flash]

1985 averages compared to 2017 averages

Tier 1 21,700 38,000
Tier 2 8,700 21,000
Tier 3 4,800 7,800
Tier 4 2,500 4,500

Argyle 5132 (3rd Tier) 10,400 (3rd Tier)

Total 18m 32m

So not quite doubled since then but very nearly.