plainmoor members' club

[the_shredder]

wow.
sigh.

must-..resist-...being rude-........... oh no wait you crossed that line already.

there is only so much time i spend talking to someone before having to admit we're talking in different languages, and i may as well be speaking in russian here, so here it is, last time:

YES YOU CAN compare the 2. Premiership is in a higher league than league 2. The prices are higher in the premiership. The standard of football is usually higher. The grounds are bigger, and the fans are stupider.

See? I just compared the two. It was possible after all!
Both league of clubs charge the same currency, of the same worth - only the premiership offers better value (at some clubs). This is unavoidable, never claimed it wasn't, or that we should charge £5 or less because that's all it's worth.
What i proposed is we even-up this balance by giving the fans more value, if they spend more. You know when you see müller yoghurts for 40p, or 3 for £1? it's a bit like that you end up spending more, but per-penny-spent, you're getting more for it, so you are a happier customer, and the company is richer too. WIN/WIN.

It really isn't hard to get your head around this is it? You can keep claiming i've missed YOUR point, but YOUR point is that MY point is not fair to compare the 2 different leagues. But in reality, that comparison is made every day by thousands of would-be fans. The decision of whether 8 year old Timmy asks for a Man City shirt for his birthday or a TUFC shirt, which will likely cost his mummy and daddy the same money, despite one offering better value if he ever desired to watch his future team play in real life. So yes it is fair to compare, yes i am discussing adjusting the value due to the money spent - not adjusting the money spent due the value. I'm quite sure this is getting through to most people, even if they are staying out of it lol

[Southampton Gull]

I crossed a line and was rude? Behave.

NO, you cannot compare the two, PERIOD.

[the_shredder]

[portugull]

Bixie I am pleased you drew attention to this topic as I originally submitted the idea to Plainmoor based on how the system works here in Portugal.

In the first year I was a member number 0000 and I paid £100 up front even though I was unlikely to attend more than one or two games.

I was very disappointed with the virtually zero lack of marketing of the scheme in year one and then at the beginning of last season I received a phone call to say it had gone up to £13 per month but payable over 10 months. It was obvious to me that the Directors were not behind the scheme and I cancelled my bankers order for an annual payment of £100, which I was prepared to give to the club, in shere frustration.

Either the club runs the scheme properly which includes a major promotion on the website, marketing the scheme at each home match, a full page in the match programme and administers the scheme in a professional way OR you shut it down. It has always been my view that you either do something properly or you dont do it at all.

Now the Andrew Candy is on board, who I think is a great asset to the club, I very much hope we will get an announcement in June that will be professional, well thought out, and administered in an efficient and sensible manner.

In Portugal nearly all clubs have Socio membership with a monthly subscription which entitles the member to lower admission charges to games. The big clubs like Benfica have some of the highest membership numbers in the world.

[stevegull]

I crossed a line and was rude? Behave.

NO, you cannot compare the two, PERIOD.

HA. period...

(Just trying to lighten the tone)

[tattooedjackass]

Back on track of the original post the Members club will be relaunched from the 1st July!

[portugull]

I really look forward to the relaunch.I so hope that this time the club will think through how to promote and administer the Scheme in an efficient and
sensible manner. The potential is massive but it needs very careful thought and professional management to succeed. I strongly believe this is the
way forward for community clubs like United.

[stevegull]

Okay, I don't really want to sift through the other pages to find out but...

What is the actual idea of this 'club'? Fans are supposed to be 'getting' for parting with their hard earned cash?

[Plymouth Gull]

I too look forward to the relaunch of this scheme. Steve, basically fans who don't want a season ticket as they can't make many games, they pay X amount per month, to the club. That gives them a reduced fee for every game they do attend, £10 a game (or it was), as opposed to the £18 it would be. They also get discount in the club shop etc. It is a good idea, and hopefully this relaunch will improve it.

[happytorq]

Blimey. It's all got a bit heated, hasn't it?

While it would be great if the board said "Hey, we're reducing ticket prices to £5 a go, have it" that is clearly not a sustainable business model. I would guess that a very high percentage of a League 2 club's turnover comes directly through the turnstiles, whereas the proportion for a Premiership club is a lot lower. So even though the ticket prices at Chelsea might only by £10 or more per game, that's a false figure because in essence ticket prices are being subsidised by the hundreds of thousands of people who pay for sky, buy a shirt, even own a samsung phone (who then sponsor the club). Those streams of revenue are simply not available to TUFC. If Chelsea had the same proportion of their turnover coming from ticket sales, they'd probably have to charge a lot more. (actually I did a rough calculation - if you took away the estimate £40m a year that TV rights earn, you'd have to raise the price of every single ticket at Stamford Bridge by more than £60 to make up the shortfall. Rough maths, I know, but it shows you how much of a headstart the Prem teams have)

We've been through this many times in the past years but;

if you reduced the ticket price by £2 across the board, and assuming an average gate of 2,500, you'd have to find an extra 300+ fans per week to cover the shortfall. I don't think that would ever happen. It might be that the reduction in price would attract *you* to a couple of extra games, but it wouldn't get the people who've stayed away this whole time. Why would they pay £16 now when they complaining about £14 in 2004? The public of Torquay are so inured to the team that you wouldn't be selling out even with £10 to get in. So what the club has to do is get the maximum amount out the fans who will be there come what may. Clearly the board think that sum is about £18. I know that the next time I happen to be in England, I'll be paying the money, becuase it's my team and I want to see them.

following a football club is not comparison shopping. The car analogies do not hold up - saying that the car is worth £5000 and you won't pay more than that is fine unless you consider that (metaphorically) Torquay fans do not want to be anywhere near any other kind of car. So it becomes *worth* more.

Of course we want to see Plainmoor full every week. If that was the most important thing we could just let everybody in for free. But that would only last for 3 months because at some point players would want to get paid, bills would come due and without the money that the attendance provides we'd be screwed.

There is very much a strong case to be made to appeal to the 'irregulars' who - for various reasons - cannot make every game; this membership seems like a good start.

[bixieupnorth]

agreed, it's a great idea whether it's marketed or run properly, they've got my £15pm every month and I get nothing back, I hardly ever get back to Devon, only one home game in the two years it's been running

but I'm more than happy with that, all I wanted to do was help my team, I don't like the look of any of the tat that the shop sells and as I said my visits to Devon hardly ever coincide with a home match

I'll carry on giving until they stop taking it or I can no longer afford it, (saying that I'm a nurse, and we're constantly being shafted, pensions increases etc and now then want to downband me) and will expect nothing in return, except keep my card no 0001!

hopefully other exiles, or locals, with a kind heart and a few spare quid every month will get involved too. don't forget that £13 is the minimum you can give, they'll take any amount above that I understand? obviously I'd you've got millions to spare you should be looking at a place on the board, but for us mere mortals the act of giving a small sum to the football club we love brings me great satisfaction

[the_shredder]

I appreciate your thoughts happytorq and I agree with you on about 98% of that. I was actually making a different point. I don't think anyone has understood what I was saying so don't worry let's get back to the real membership scheme.

Interesting that the way the OS has chosen to describe/promote this prior to detailed release,
"This incredibly popular scheme enables fans to take advantage of reduced ticket prices and priority purchasing for Cup games." ... I am sceptical that people seem to think otherwise, if there were anyone devoted enough to TUFC to pay money even when not attending matches, surely they would likely frequent this forum also - thus meaning the amount of people thinking this scheme is supposed to be a kind of charity scheme to be about... 10-15 people? So, less than the majority of paying members...? And it's actually just a way to save a couple of quid while giving the club a more pre-determined income for better financial planning ....??
Debate #2 off we go :P

I guess whatever the old scheme was about is immaterial now anyway as the new scheme will be different by the sounds of it.

[bixieupnorth]

mentioned on the OS today that its gonna be revamped, more details on july 1st

no reply to my email from a few days ago yet, is the office closed did i rember reading somewhere??

[bixieupnorth]

news on OS about this now, existing members need to cancel existing direct debits and set up new ones for minimum £15pm over 9 months

[Plymouth Gull]

Yep, changed slightly. Do you think we'll get more news soon or is that all? Be excellent if the club actually publicise it more this time.