Clyde FC Season 24/25

[FREDDYFRY]

Is anyone seriously going to believe if we peg the entry to £15 or in fact a tenner it would suddenly add hundreds of Clyde fans or indeed “neutral “ fans to our attendance? Of course it wouldn’t, a successful team might of course and that is the reality.

I remember reading an article a couple of years ago and I wish I could find it again, however it was about football teams who rely on an individual or single consortium for funding. It basically came to the conclusion that often the club  in many cases became lazy and neglected it’s own commercial fundraising etc resulting in the usual ultimate ending in tears, when for whatever reason, that funding reduced or ended.
 

Therefore I think the club is being responsible in adding to our good fortune in having our kind benefactor. In fact now is the time to double the efforts off the park and take advantage of our once in a lifetime situation. From what Allan Maitland is saying we seem to have secured very significant sponsorship which was not happening in recent years, including some secured by our recently appointed Director. So asking the support to buy into that is an ask and a risk worth taking, as I said before I’m sick and tired of watching utter garbage on the park and other clubs literally (and tbh deservedly) laughing at us enjoying our downfall.

[PTR]

52 minutes ago, Captain Sham said:

I may be in the minority but I’m not sure what people expect with pricing? Allan Maitland did say that in order to fund a better product on the park, people will have to pay more for season tickets and pay at the gate so it’s hardly unexpected.  
 

The benefactor can’t be expected to fund absolutely everything and it’s obvious that the fans will need to play their part in backing the club in order to move forward.  It’s ridiculous to expect a better product on the park and for pricing to be low.  I’m sorry you have cheap prices to watch Connor Young and Ross Forbes.  You pay more you get a bigger budget and better players like Lee Hamilton and the new signings .  That’s the reality of the situation.   

I understand the point of view, but we've not been talking about £10 to watch the previous product. The obvious thing to point out here is the stadium issue. I understand very well the funding gap this causes and the impact this has on the admission price. I must admit, I was concerned with the match day ticket price comment in Allan Maitland's interview.

Everybody wants to see a winning team, naturally, but there's more to it than that. £17 was already hefty and there's a new source of funding. I'm not saying use that funding directly to cover tickets (i.e. drop prices), but at least put that budget work and protect ticket prices. The budget difference over a season may be a player (not done the maths), that's fine. Don't sign the extra player. It sounds like the benefactor was going to contribute an amount that would ensure a competitive squad on its own. 

Whatever way it is dressed up £19 for a League Two game is not acceptable, in any context. Let that budget do its job and have another eye on building the support or at least acknowledge the support that have stuck with the club through a horrendous couple of seasons.

[the_bully_wee]

Just to put it into perspective, the amount the club is likely to make from increasing attendance prices won't even amount to what we were paying of Jordan Allan's wages last season. It is an absolute fallacy to suggest that it'll make a significant difference to the strength of our squad.

[CM.]

At least the season tickets still represent decent value even if the walk up prices are a bit of a joke. £26 per month where most months will have 2 home games is more attractive than paying £19 a whip each time and may just encourage folk to get ST's that wouldn't normally especially with the monthly instalments option.

 

[Bearded Bully]

Supporters moaning about the pricing, as mentioned it only a few quid more. Its not too much to ask from the club to get a better product on the park. The amount of fans that will hit the boozer and scud 3-4 pints before the game and the same after and think nothing of it yet moan when pricing goes up. Back yer club, have 1 pint less and dry yer eyes ffs! 

[Only one David Marsh]

Cancel yer Sky TV and back the famous bully wee #WAC

[Cannibal]

Amusing to see people justifying 19 quid to watch league two football.  It was bad enough at 17 quid.  Every single person saying it is fine would have been losing the plot if Thomson tried this and used the same argument. 

"You'd have just spent the money on food or a pint anyway".   Great argument .

Thank God for the 'anonymous wealthy backer' or god knows what we'd have to charge the fans.

 

[The Moonster]

8 hours ago, RutherGlen said:

I think if you can afford to pay 16/17 quid every 2nd Saturday to watch Clyde at NDP you can probably afford £19. Let's be honest, it's not THAT much of an increase and at least it is still sub £20.

Ideally we would be reducing adult entry to somewhere around the £15 mark in a bid to encourage more home fans and recognise the fact we're in League 2. That said, if this is what's required to sign a promotion winning team I'll gladly pay it. 

If you can afford £20 you can probably afford £25. Where do you stop? Yer man @the_bully_wee is spot on, it will at most fund 1 player for you and not even a great one. Putting the price down to £15 isn't going to bring you hundreds of extra fans but putting the prices up across-the-board might lose you some current fans. 

Edited June 5 by The Moonster

[Clyde_1977]

£30 quid a ticket and we can all meet in the underground carpark with a bag of cans before the game

[PTR]

I feel supporters almost have a responsibility to each other to keep things right. One club raises prices others follow and a new higher benchmark is set, and so it continues. 

I will have a season ticket anyway and I'm happy enough with the pricing for that, and many of us would still pay £20+ because going to the football is what we do. This loyalty doesn't justify the pricing, however. 

It feels shortsighted to get a more attractive offering on the pitch whilst making it less attractive financially to attend, especially when it doesn't feel like it was completely necessary to do so. I'm quite surprised so many people seem to not see a problem.

[Karpaty Lviv]

£19 for this level of football is ridiculous. The promise of money men and promotion, the same shite we’ve been told for years; or not. 

[BB_Bino]

Have to say that I am with the majority on this one and that £19 is too high. I remember when East Fife did the same 2 seasons ago and I raised the point then that it was too high for me personally and that I would boycott going through. A large number of their posters laughed and I got  " but it's only £2 more than you charge", however that doesn't make it right and it doesn't make it affordable.

Over the years, as my sons Saturday morning football becomes later and later and longer and longer, I can't physically get to a lot of Stirling's away games due to the location, so I'll go to games all across the central belt. If a club like Clyde charge £19 for an adult and say £12 for concessions, there's £31 just for us to get in. Inevitably we'll be looking for food, so stopping at a bakers/supermarket meal deal or getting food at the ground, you can be easily another £10-15, so your day is sitting at £41. Then there's the fuel/supporters bus cost on top so a day at the football is way over £50 for a father and son, my disposable income for the month is only a couple of hundred pound, if every club does the same then that's my money pretty much wiped out going to an away game every second week.

Clyde lose out on this because at the end of the day, I am a consumer and as much as football fans don't like to admit it, we all are. I start picking and choosing my away games (which I now do), it means less income for Clyde. Simple. Floating fans like myself are also less likely to come and I'm probably in the majority now, where fans just don't attend way games through cost.

The biggest teams who will benefit out of this is your Lowland League, WOS/EOS football clubs. As I said above, I'll always go to the football but in the last 4 years, when Stirling have been in Peterhead, Stranraer, Elgin, Dumfries etc etc. I've regularly gone to watch Linlithgow, Bo'ness, Cumbernauld Colts, Caledonian Braves, Dunipace, Camelon, Cumbernauld United etc etc everyone of which, a day out in total might only cost me about £20-25. A lot of people are doing the same now and are going to football which is affordable. So whilst the countries 42 big clubs, price fans out, these smaller clubs are starting to thrive because they are affordable and community focused. Linlithgow and Bo'ness are regularly pulling in more than 400 a week and I have seen Dunipace and Camelon also pull in around about that number (higher when they play each other), that's only going to continue as clubs like Clyde (And inevitably Stirling) continue to raise prices when the working classes are having to watch their spend more and more closely.

[Doc Holiday]

It's certainly a bargain for the youngsters for me that's all the matters

[shawfielder]

I’ll be renewing my season ticket this season, but for anyone paying by game it will be an extra £36 for the season, assuming they go to every game, a couple of seasons ago , I attended both away games against Falkirk, and if I remember right I paid £8 for car parking. I understand that money is tight just now, but if we want to be more competitive, the bigger the budget the better, last season we couldn’t compete with LL teams, and for the first half of the season watched utter dross.

[Ocelot1877]

19 quid for league two football is an absolute joke make no mistake about it. The club have been gouging the fans for years I remember a few years ago the home page of our websites top 4 stories were all for different schemes to get money into the club. Then when a mystery benefactor turns up and dumps money into the club the same fans who kept the club afloat and put their money in are rewarded by having to pay more in entry fees. 
 

This isn’t just Clyde that is doing this btw it’s all over. Companies that make poor business decisions pass the cost onto their consumers and slowly increase the price of their product. Look at Netflix, Amazon etc. The price will continue to rise and rise to cover the fact our commercial team haven’t been doing enough for a long time.

Just wait and see if we get promoted this year the prices will be 23-25 quid for league 1.

 

[Clyde_MM]

1 hour ago, BB_Bino said:

Over the years, as my sons Saturday morning football becomes later and later and longer and longer, I can't physically get to a lot of Stirling's away games due to the location, so I'll go to games all across the central belt. If a club like Clyde charge £19 for an adult and say £12 for concessions, there's £31 just for us to get in. Inevitably we'll be looking for food, so stopping at a bakers/supermarket meal deal or getting food at the ground, you can be easily another £10-15, so your day is sitting at £41. Then there's the fuel/supporters bus cost on top so a day at the football is way over £50 for a father and son, my disposable income for the month is only a couple of hundred pound, if every club does the same then that's my money pretty much wiped out going to an away game every second week.

Takes a brass neck to ask anyone to fork out £19 for football at this level for sure.

If your boy is playing Saturday morning football, I'm guessing he's under 18? Would be £24 entry for the pair of you if that were the case.

Edited June 5 by Clyde_MM

[FREDDYFRY]

What will say is that Ian McCall is under big pressure to have a winning side this year.

No place to hide, well backed both personally and in terms of budget, back room staff, and of course by supporters pocket. 

[Brian Carrigan]

I can see the thinking behind raising the price from £17 to £19. As has been said previously, if you can afford 17 you can probably afford 19 whilst still keeping things under £20. It raises a wee bit more money, capitalising on a wave of positivity and probably won't put anyone off.

That said, the optics are absolutely shocking. Just speaking hypothetically, if we have 200 punters that paid by the week continuing to do so, that's only an extra £400 top line raised every home game. It's something, sure, but barely worth even considering raising the price and causing this conversation in the first place. I think the club has taken the wrong message from the aforementioned wave of positivity. 'People want to come back, so they'll pay more' almost. What should have happened is the club to keep the tickets the same/similar prices but have more *stuff*, more extras and wee bits you can pay for throughout the season.

Raising ticket prices after statistically one of the worst seasons in the clubs history is a terrible look.

[Davy the Dug]

It’s obviously been pushed up to try and get more people buying a season book.  I totally get that £260 in one go is a big ask in the current climate, hence why I am delighted that the spread over 10 is being offered again.  Certainly don’t begrudge paying £26 a month, but I understand that it might not be an option for all sadly.

[Ocelot1877]

39 minutes ago, Brian Carrigan said:

I can see the thinking behind raising the price from £17 to £19. As has been said previously, if you can afford 17 you can probably afford 19 whilst still keeping things under £20. 

 

 

my issue with this is that 20 quid is an imaginary line in the sand that has been drawn. If the price was raised to 20 quid then you could apply the same arguments that have been placed in here. If you could afford 17 you could afford 20. Just don’t have a pint before the game etc. it’s creepflation and that’s all it is. The 20 quid mark will get broken shortly and people won’t mind because it’s only a quid more than what we were paying this season.

The rest of the post r.e. Optics I agree with 100%