2013/4 season ticket prices and entrance fees announced

[AustrianAndyGull]

A quicker example is if it were a fiver to stand then Plainmoor would be fuller every home game but if it were £30 then it would be emptier. A fair price is not necessarily what something is worth but also what someone is willing to pay for it regardless of actual value.

[Scott Brehaut]

A quicker example is if it were a fiver to stand then Plainmoor would be fuller every home game but if it were £30 then it would be emptier. A fair price is not necessarily what something is worth but also what someone is willing to pay for it regardless of actual value.

I disagree (I know, I'm sure you're shocked) - I'm sure it is mainly due to apathy rather than ticket price. Yeah, you may gain some but the gain would not, in my opinion, be considerable enough to make back the money you would lose by keeping the current ticket price.

[AustrianAndyGull]

So effectively unless the team is doing well the board has stifled the possibility of anyone who wouldn't usually come going to Plainmoor whilst at the same time possibly alienating some disillusioned fans by keeping things as they are or increasing them resulting in some of them deciding to not get a season ticket or even not going to Plainmoor again? So there is zero room for any growth here and like i said, unless the team is doing well we lose out. You are probably right Scott that apathy will keep people away and not necessarily if the tickets were say £15 on the pop but by doing what they are doing they are going to LOSE fans AND have no new ones instead of lowering and KEEPING those fans AND possibly gaining a few extra. I'm confusing myself now! Does that sound ok or is it poo?

[PlainmoorRoar]

So, those (especially you, you Austrian git!) saying it should be, say, £15 instead of £19 or whatever it is now. 20 years ago, we were in Division 4, exactly the same place we will be next season, but I'll bet it was about a tenner to get in. If someone had asked you how much it should have been then, would you have said £15 was reasonable or would you have said that it should have been about £8?

Everyone always thinks everything is X% too high or too low. The 70mph motorway limit should be 80mph, as if 80mph actually means something and isn't merely 'a little bit faster than now', but if the limit was 60, people would be howling that 70mph was a nice speed. Similarly if the limit was 100mph, no one would cruise at 80 like they do now, because that would be 'far too slow'.

Face it, we live in (almost) the most expensive country in the world. Aside from a few crazy, gold plated Arab nations (all funded by your £1.45/litre fuel), England is the most expensive place on Earth to live. Have a look next time you're shopping for an international product. Go to the American website and see how much your gadget is in USD, then have a look at the English version and, with about a 70% success rate, you'll find that the retailer here charges in GBP the same as they charge in USD in the States, despite a Dollar being worth just 65p. Sales tax in America varies by State, but it's between 5-10%, ours is 20%. Stuff is more money to start with, then the Government want a bigger wedge also.

Think yourselves lucky that with the crowds we get, the club are able to offer (mainly) competitive football on one of the smallest budgets going. If it's expensive to sit in the Bench (it's not, it's just the same as everywhere else), then I consider that a price worth paying, given that it is the best of its kind I have seen. Think back to the posh seats at Old Trafford where, unless you were Mini-Me, you couldn't actually fit. What are they on a match day, £100? The Bench is a fifth of that and I could, reasonably, have a friend sat on my lap throughout and STILL have plenty of room, as well as an unobstructed view (Southend/Barnet take note) and be under cover (Filth/Accrington take note).
If we wanted to have the same levels of finance as, say, Plymouth or Northampton or Rovers, we'd probably need to be charging £40+ to get in, so to be in the same division, and often finishing above these sides, while STILL providing officially the second cheapest football is the Country is quite an achievement.

Man City are the biggest cheats going in terms of entry fees, followed shortly by Chelsea. These owners have so much money they could, quite reasonably, burn £50 notes to keep warm 24/7 for 100 years and still not even really notice. Yet they see fit to charge three figure sums to blokes from Manchester who are not only afflicted with a silly accent, but also are permanently out on strike, complaining about Thatcher or conditions down t'pit. They earn just enough for gruel and water twice a week, yet these bloody Arabs want to charge a huge sum that they don't actually need, so they can give that money to other blokes who have so much money they don't know what to do with it, all for the sake of hacking a ball round a field for an hour and a half.

Taking the last couple of years, rather than this, which has been an exceptionally bad year, the football served up at Plainmoor was, by and large, at least as exciting and 80-90% as good as the average Premier League match. Yet to get into these grounds is 4 or 5 times as much money. Football at this level is excellent value for money. Obviously, less so when we're not playing well, but in the main, Torquay fans get a much better deal than about 99% of other clubs.

Yes, a Volvo XC90 at £30,000 is expensive when Tata Nano is 50p, but then, it's exceptionally good value when you think the new Range Rover is over £100,000.

There are so many things we have to be thankful for in terms of the pricing alone at Plainmoor and it's a little bit sad that some among us are using it as a stick to bash the Board based on some numbers which are essentially plucked out of thin air and only so done because we are doing badly and we need a scapegoat.

Matt.

[gullno4]

surely it the same for plymouth fan? dont see them putting prices down if they drop.

they'll bounce back up again though, unfortunately we won't !!

[budleigh]

Just 2 "directors" joining on shall we say £5,000 each would probably make up the difefrence.

Why would the board of directors take on two new members at £5,000 a piece? That would completely undermine those that are already in place who have paid in vastly higher amounts to take ownership at Plainmoor and who have contributed financially as and when funds were required?
There is absolutely nothing rational about that statement.

[budleigh]

Here are the facts, even with Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle in league 2, Plaimoor has been on average 40.8% full this season

That's excellent news when looking at Bradford City who have only been 39.7% of capacity!

[ferrarilover]

they'll bounce back up again though, unfortunately we won't !!

Not a hope in hell. Have a look at some of the clubs down there. Luton weren't even relegated on merit, they were relegated because the League deducted them 30 points before a ball was kicked and they haven't come close to getting back up (well, not close enough). The Conference is now Division 5 and there are some much bigger and more worthy teams down there than there are even in L1 and possibly the Championship too.
I mean, who the hell are Crawley Town, and Stevenage for Christ's sake? The idea that Luton and Cambridge and Mansfield and innumerate (or innumerable?) other ex-League sides are some two or three divisions below the likes of Yeovil and Hull is crazy.

Plymouth are a club in terminal slide. They need 6000 (or however many it was) through the door each week to break even. If they are relegated, they've had it.

Matt.

[MidDevon]

That is not quite how business work Budleigh

I beleive Torquay have just 12 directors with shares in the club, and about the same number of associate directors without voting rights, in adittion they have a "senior board" who in fact run the business day to day

I am a company director and I know myself and our fellow directors would talk to someone willing to put £5k a year in if they could add some great ideas and contacts to grow the business

[budleigh]

That is not quite how business work Budleigh

Thanks MidDevon; I am quite ignorant as to how business works and had no idea of the make-up at Plainmoor regarding the board of directors.

[MidDevon]

All you need to do is search "company check" on the internet and there will be 101 seraches come up where you can enter "Torquay United" and find out a little about the club.

Some parts of the "club" such as "boots and laces" are run as seperate companies to the main club.

If you are really interested you can buy reports which show the shareholding by director, accounts etc. I am always surprised more fans do not do exactly that considering the minimal cost. One things for certain we will sometimes buy finance reports for suppliers or even competitors to find out more about them.

Of course how a football club is run is entirely different to boring companies like mine, just the fact that they have a stupidly high staff cost in relationship to turnover for a start. The more you find out about how a company is run the more interesting it becomes !

[ROADRUNNER]

you reckon gullno4, with an attfitude like that its no wonder this club is in turmoil, why should plymouth bounce back as ferrari said luton cant do it on 6,000 gates, stockport are f--cked on there 4,000 gates and forest green are doing alright on less than a 1,000, do we want torquay to survive or not because from the negativity on here so far i think we will be in the south devon league before long, see if arygle fans desert there club because they are paying £20, no i bet they will stick withe the club that has seen no good times for the last 5 years, us on the other hand have had 5 good years and what happens when the going gets tough, we all jump forking ship, eh good move.

[Jerry]

Thanks MidDevon; I am quite ignorant as to how business works and had no idea of the make-up at Plainmoor regarding the board of directors.

You've got to love heavy dose of sarcasm! :~D

Mid-Devon, I think Budleigh has a far greater knowledge of the make up and working practises of our board than probably anyone else on this site.

As for season tickets, I bought my first after we failed to get out of the conference in the first season as it seemed to me
that the club needed the fans backing more than ever.

Next season the same may well apply and I will be definitely be renewing mine.

[ROADRUNNER]

well said jerry, pity everyone else cant think like that, coyy!torquay til i die

[Jerry]

you reckon gullno4, with an attfitude like that its no wonder this club is in turmoil, why should plymouth bounce back as ferrari said luton cant do it on 6,000 gates, stockport are f--cked on there 4,000 gates and forest green are doing alright on less than a 1,000, do we want torquay to survive or not because from the negativity on here so far i think we will be in the south devon league before long, see if arygle fans desert there club because they are paying £20, no i bet they will stick withe the club that has seen no good times for the last 5 years, us on the other hand have had 5 good years and what happens when the going gets tough, we all jump forking ship, eh good move.

Spot on RR.

If we go down we may not come back straight away but there is no basis for all this "it's the end of the club" "we will never return" nonsense. Just look at the conference table and you'll see the 2 clubs fighting for the title are Kiddy and Mansfield, neither of whom are bigger clubs than us. In fact they are both averaging lower attendances then us this season. If they can do it so can we!