Most liked posts in thread: 25 Year 'Season Tickets' (Now with Suites Poll)

There were complications not mentioned yet that I was going to start to talk about but I quickly realised it got very complicated and I could not remember them all. Given I do not have all the facts any longer, I'm not going to debate or argue over it. I'll just restate the main original point. I did not get any money back and I understood only a quite small minority did. I have had to pay for suites I've never used and many are in the same boat. I paid for a free ticket for 25 years but am now paying nearly full price to attend games despite shelling out not to. I'm not freeloading and I suspect most 25-yearers are similar. I don't hold it against the club. It's a bit cynical the way the benefit we did get out of the admins has subsequently been chipped away at but we were lucky to get anything. I have probably brought several new fans to the club and will myself pay for at least 7 season tickets next season plus some match-day spending for some of them. I pay plenty and I'm happy to do so regardless of some ignorance on social media.

 

Both issues seem wrong to me and now it's been pointed out the club should really be trying to rectify this instead of just shrugging their shoulders. It's leaving a bad taste imo and completely unnecessary after all the good work they've been credited with.

 

I get this point and I've already paid so I suppose I'm in this group but it does rankle a bit that out of the 15,000 or so ST holders we are the ONLY ones to have been hit with a price rise and not only that, it's a huge 50% price rise.

 

Back in the mists of time I did use the Bantams Bar for two seasons and I accept that it's a reasonably convivial bar. But for those in the main stand, the upstairs suite is a soulless aircraft hanger with crap beer which I have no interest in using. And those in the Midland Rd stand have no suite option but are still being forced to pay for one.

Why can't the club maintain the ST price for 25 yearers, as they have for everyone else, and offer the suite upgrade at £60 to those 25 yearers who want it?

 

This is my response:

Thank you for your email Marco.

Unfortunately, in your response you have completely ignored the crux of my complaint, just as Ryan's response did. It is beginning to look like the club is deliberately trying to sidestep the issue that has been raised by several 25 yearers.
The issue is simple:

• Why should 25 yearers be the only group of fans to have a 50% price hike, when everyone else enjoys frozen ticket prices?
• Alternatively, why should 25 yearers be forced to pay an additional £60 per season for a suite upgrade if they have no intention of using the suites?

Your response assumes that the club is doing us a favour by giving us a 'complimentary' suite upgrade. But this upgrade is not complimentary - it is costing us £60 more than our ticket cost last year. And, in any event, the 'complimentary' upgrade is a worthless gesture to anyone who does not want to use the suites.

Most 25 yearers do not accept the premise, implicit in your response, that we have been paying annually for access to a suite, with a season ticket thrown in for free. This is nonsense. We pay our money to come and watch our team. The fact that you choose to frame it in the way you have is ridiculous.

By continually focusing your response on the running costs of the suites etc you are adding insult to injury. I have already said that, if there has to be a charge for using the suites, then those who use them (the majority of whom are not 25 yearers) should pay an economic cost for the privilege. But why should those of us who don't use the suites subsidise those who do? And how can you justify charging an extra £60 to 25 yearers in the Midland Road Stand who don't even have a suite to access?!

It appears from your response that you want to take extra money from me, and other 25 yearers, to invest in upgrading suites that I, and many other 25 yearers, never use. This is outrageous!

The solution to this issue is blindingly obvious - charge those 25 yearers who want suite access, £180. Charge those who don't require the suite access, £120, so that their ticket price is frozen just like the rest of the club's ST holders.
Making 25 yearers pay for a service that many of them don't want is simply wrong. It's a very shabby way to treat longstanding loyal supporters.

Please reconsider this discriminatory pricing decision.

PS. Has the club considered making suite access free to all season ticket holders, or even all supporters? I'm sure you would sell a lot more beer and food if you did so. I've been in various bars at away grounds, none of which have charged me for entry. The club's approach in charging for suite access is an anomaly in L2. It's not as though they are particularly luxurious or in any way special, to justify an entry charge. Other clubs' bars, which are often much nicer than ours, simply allow access on a first come first serve basis, are usually full and do a roaring trade. Just a thought.

 

I included this line in my email to Ryan “It feels like you have simply binned us off”. Which is exactly what they are trying to do from the replies. Shocking how they are refusing to admit the disparity between 25 years and everybody else. Why are they insisting that Midland Road buy a suite ticket to keep my 25 year ticket running. There are no suites in MR and I don’t want a bloody suite upgrade, so why should I have to pay for one to keep my ticket running and pay towards suite renovations when I don’t use them.

 

As stated above, there’s no seats left in BB and I don’t want to sit in upper sunwin.
So I have to accept paying £60 more for something less.
This club really do know how to look after their long term supporters don’t they

 

You obviously don't get it either.

The club are telling us we get a free suite upgrade but then raise our ST price by 50% from last season, even for people who don't use the suites. So we are the only supporters of the club getting a price hike.

It's quite simple - charge £180 for those 25 yearers who use the seats; freeze the others at last year's price like all other supporters.

It's not about the money. I can easily afford £180. It's about the principle, and about the clubs evasive two-faced responses which actually contradict the statement on their own website.

 

I just wish they'd be honest and say, 'TBH we're sick to death of the whole 25 year thing so we're scrapping it'.
There has to be a meaningful discount for 25 yearers otherwise the whole thing's a waste of time. Giving people crap 'free' upgrades that they don't want and charging them nearly full ST price for the privilege makes having paid £2.5 k for a 25 year ticket worthless.
Pretending that they're doing us a big favour by giving us a suite upgrade we don't want, and putting additional seat restrictions to access them, is just rubbing salt in the wound.

 

Thanks for the info. Hopefully you'll receive a more comprehensive explanation that the stock, copy and paste nonsense everyone else received.

 

And me.

The people that got a refund from their credit card company and continue to reap the benefits of the 25 year tickets are behaving in an underhand way in my opinion.

 

Tenuous link alert as we are doing it on the transfers. Censorship, hoochy min, ho chi min, north Vietnam. Communism, censorship.

I'll get me coat......

 

I’ve been away for some time and I’ve only just caught up with this thread. I’m a 25 yearer. I never got a penny back and I’ve never taken the suite upgrade. I’ve followed City on ifollow for a number of years choosing to see Club video’s on my subscription rather than on a freebie. I subscribe to the T&A to read about City because it’s important to the club that the T&A survives. I watched virtually all away games on ifollow last season paying £10 for each one rather than joining with other friends to get a freebie. I’ve purchased flexi ST’s for family, some were never actually used but I felt I was encouraging attendance and helping the club. It’s only now I realise I might be a blood sucking parasite robbing the club I have watched each season since 1976. Oh and I don’t steal from Netflix, Prime and the like. Just so you know.

Jesus fecking Christ!

 

Bought mine by cheque for £2250 with the 10% discount but I've paid lots on top of this over the years for just my seat and no suite use. A lot paid this way so as to get the discount. As quite a lot also used the direct debit option, I understood only a minority used credit cards and only a small minority of them claimed a rebate and continued to take discounts offered as this would be punishable legally as financial fraud. This was pointed out by some in online discussions at the time and subsequently so anybody who has done or is doing so should be well aware that they are committing a financial crime. To claim freeloading on this basis might be technically correct only about a very small criminal minority but incorrect, ignorant and insulting of the majority. Given there are only about 650 still claiming the benefit and it has shrivelled to virtually nothing for many of us that can't use the suites for various reasons, I don't see why some want to get annoyed about it and insult fellow fans that lost out overall. It's just ignorance on social media again. The club can dump it for me now if they want, though I'm not terrible happy with the way the compromise benefit since the administrations has been eroded by a succession of cynical people at the club. Getting ripped off slowly by a series of different people is still getting ripped off.

 

Ah, that's clearer. I thought you were saying that no one could swap their 25 year ST for an OAP ST and retain their existing seat.
I sit in C Block Sunwin Stand. I've never used the suite upgrade because I can't be arsed trekking upstairs at HT and prefer the pub before the game. As it stands it seems like I might as well bin off my 25 year ST and buy a cheaper OAP one.

 

Absolutely. It's utterly ridiculous.

What is Mick Lamb's email address? I reckon we should all email him and point out how shabby this 30% price hike is for longstanding loyal supporters when everyone else is seeing their ticket price frozen.

 

I’ve personally emailed Ryan Sparks but had no reply (yet) about taking liberties with some of the most loyal. It’s the principle, it’s not about money. It’s a 50% increase as I never use the suite upgrade. A) Because there are no suites in midland road, and B) I don’t want to give up my long time seat. So for me, the prices ARE NOT FIXED as they are proclaiming.

 

I wonder how many people aside from the 25 yearers actually upgrade to a suite?

I can understand the decision to increase suite prices but not at the expense of just 600 people, many of whom never asked for a suite in the first place.

 

Further email just sent:

"Further to my previous email (below) I would like to point out the wording of the 25 Year ST pricing on the club's official website:
"As per previous seasons, ’25 Yearers’ are entitled to a complimentary upgrade in one of these suites as part of their season ticket, which will be priced at £180"
'Complimentary' means 'free' or 'without additional charge". Logic dictates that, if the suite upgrade is free, you must have increased the basic price of the 25 year ST by 50%. If so, this is clearly discriminatory when all other ST prices have been frozen at last season's rate.

The club can't have it both ways. This is either an enforced suite upgrade (whether we want it or not) at a compulsory additional charge of £60 - ie not at all 'complimentary'- or a 50% hike in the basic season ticket price. Either is totally unethical when all other supporters have had their ST prices frozen. But which is it?

Why can't you freeze the 25 year ST price, as you have for all other ST holders, but offer the suite upgrade to those 25 yearers who want it for an additional £60? Or are you worried that insufficient of us would choose the upgrade to meet your financial target? If the latter, this simply proves that you are expecting those 25 yearers who don't (or cannot) use the suites to subsidise others (whether or not 25 yearers) who do.

Once again, I urge you to rethink this unwarranted, discriminatory price hike imposed on longstanding loyal supporters.

I am also aware that other 25 yearers have written to you on this matter but have yet to receive a response and I would politely ask you to reply to their queries as well as mine."