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Pre-season


Jamie_M

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Inflation will of course hit Morton but its hitting the pockets of Greenock's residents just as hard, if not harder. It might only be £2 but psychologically breaking £20 is a real hit for some folk. I know I'd struggle to convince my fairweather pals to come to a home game at that price.

 

Of course there is a core Morton support who would pay regardless but I can't see how we grow the support with ticket prices set at Premiership levels. 

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44 minutes ago, irnbru said:

surely there could be some sort of incentive in place rather than just blind loyalty. 

 

10 minutes ago, so72 said:

Of course there is a core Morton support who would pay regardless

This is already catered for by the pricing structure:

1 hour ago, vikingTON said:

The early bird and/or MCT offer provides value to cover existing, regular fans.

 

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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11 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

 

This is already catered for by the pricing structure:

 

Asking people to pay for a season ticket because they'll save money if they go every week isn't an incentive to people who can only make 10 or so games. 

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The early-bird season ticket price wasn't exactly cheap as it was (although obviously it's also just the price football is these days, whether you like it or not), and there's any number of reasons that somebody might not have been in a position to buy one at that point. That's not to knock the offer, but it's not a justification for higher prices afterwards and framing the MCT price as some kind of discount is absurd when you're having to pay £120 a year to access the price.

£120 to get nothing more than a vote on 4 shite away strips and £25 off a season ticket to watch a struggling team does not seem like a great deal nor something people are likely to see as essential if they're having to tighten their belts. Again, MCT has to be looking at a socio-type structure to ensure there's something other than blind loyalty keeping the money coming in.

There needs to be something in return for the money Morton want, and it isn't what we're getting.  Expecting such high amounts of expenditure from fans (£295 for a season ticket, £120 in MCT money, two new strips, a load of new merch) only to yet again offer up a team that looks certain to be embroiled in a bottom-half struggle is a situation in which something is surely going to have give at some point in the current climate. 

Nobody's expecting a Gretna-esque spending splurge, but it is entirely reasonable to be asking why Cameron Blues, Jai Quitongo, Grant Gillespie and a handful Livingston loanees seems to be the peak of our ambitions when it's costing fans so much, and "increasing costs" doesn't begin to answer that question in full. 

If this is the entire extent of the club's ambitions, it could surely be managed at a much lower cost than punters are being expected to pay.


Tl;dr: Morton are wanting an awful lot of money for a club that's putting Alec fuckin Easdale and Lewis McGrattan on its promo material. 

AWMSC

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44 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

 

This is already catered for by the pricing structure:

 

My point was about trying to attract more fans or to retain the fairweather fans that we do have. I have a group of mates who probably attend Cappielow about 5/6 times a season with me because they play football most saturdays, I could easily see them not bothering now for the games where it raining etc. even though its only extra £2. Now thats only 3 guys probably missing 3 games but I can't imagine there won't be others in a similar boat. 

 

There is only so far you can increase prices to increase revenue before you actually see a fall in customer that is larger than your increase In price. For this to generate extra revenue there has to be less than a 10% drop-off in fans who pay at the gate. Thats without considering that it may increase season ticket sales which means potentially less PATG but more secure revenue. I just think that there are more ways of raising revenue than making Cappielow one of the most expensive grounds to visit in the league.

 

 

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3 hours ago, irnbru said:

Don't see the problem with this at all. Teams let fans know pre season plans all the time and there's always closed door games. 

 

1 hour ago, irnbru said:

Asking people to pay for a season ticket because they'll save money if they go every week isn't an incentive to people who can only make 10 or so games. 

Right, own up. Who gave irnbru a WiFi password today?

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1 hour ago, irnbru said:

Asking people to pay for a season ticket because they'll save money if they go every week isn't an incentive to people who can only make 10 or so games. 

I'm not sure why GMFC (or indeed any other Scottish football club) should be prioritising incentives for this particular, miniscule category of customer. 

Either PATG prices have to increase or season tickets do. We can't have it both ways here and if that means that a handful of people end up worse off, then that's just tough.

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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1 hour ago, EanieMeany said:

Nobody's expecting a Gretna-esque spending splurge, but it is entirely reasonable to be asking why Cameron Blues, Jai Quitongo, Grant Gillespie and a handful Livingston loanees seems to be the peak of our ambitions when it's costing fans so much, and "increasing costs" doesn't begin to answer that question in full.

It's only the peak of our ambitions, if you're cherry picking to exclude the other deals that have already been completed as well. Which is a completely disingenuous argument from yourself. 

And increasing costs absolutely does answer the question - inflation in the wider economy is 11%, club expenditure on costs and wages within the player market can be expected to rise to the same degree. That cost has to be handed over to the customer in one way or another.

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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1 hour ago, vikingTON said:

It's only the peak of our ambitions, if you're cherry picking to exclude the other deals that have already been completed as well. Which is a completely disingenuous argument from yourself. 

And increasing costs absolutely does answer the question - inflation in the wider economy is 11%, club expenditure on costs and wages within the player market can be expected to rise to the same degree. That cost has to be handed over to the customer in one way or another.

 

My issue isn't that the cost of inflation has to be handed to the customer, my issue is that at what point do the club start losing out because enough people refuse to pay it. 

£22 might not be that point and crowds could stay around the same and the club are able to recoup some of their extra costs (if so great) but it can't be far off the sort of price that loses them near enough the money they are hoping to recoup due to match day ticket attendances being down, and once those fans are lost and doing something else with their Saturday there is little chance of getting them back even if the price went back to £20 in future seasons. 

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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12 minutes ago, port-ton said:

My issue isn't that the cost of inflation has to be handed to the customer, my issue is that at what point do the club start losing out because enough people refuse to pay it. 

£22 might not be that point and crowds could stay around the same and the club are able to recoup some of their extra costs (if so great) but it can't be far off the sort of price that loses them near enough the money they are hoping to recoup due to match day ticket attendances being down, and once those fans are lost and doing something else with their Saturday there is little chance of getting them back even if the price went back to £20 in future seasons. 

What exactly do you want the club to do then? Pretend that the wider inflation in the economy doesn't exist? Not pay its rising bills?

The bottom line here is that your issue *is* in fact about the cost of inflation being handed over to a category of customer. Good luck finding a business that isn't going to do that this year, because that's just the reality of the situation affecting everyone. 

Football clubs are undoubtedly going to suffer badly from the wider squeeze on finances and upcoming recession too, but there's no getting round that. If the price was £20 then the rising cost of gas/electricity/petrol etc. would be cited instead as a reason not to pay and attendances will struggle regardless. 

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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1 hour ago, vikingTON said:

I'm not sure why GMFC (or indeed any other Scottish football club) should be prioritising incentives for this particular, miniscule category of customer. 

Either PATG prices have to increase or season tickets do. We can't have it both ways here and if that means that a handful of people end up worse off, then that's just tough.

There's a middle ground though - 5 match passes, etc and well as more creative approaches like loyalty schemes and so on. As it stands the club are just hoping the appeal of being a morton fan is enough and its not these days. 

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10 minutes ago, irnbru said:

There's a middle ground though - 5 match passes, etc and well as more creative approaches like loyalty schemes and so on. As it stands the club are just hoping the appeal of being a morton fan is enough and its not these days. 

We already have a loyalty scheme, by default, through MCT membership and season ticket discounts. Quite why loyalty discounts should apply to those who aren't actually regular customers is a mystery. 

What should the price be for 5 match passes, and what about those who only attend 4 games, or 8 games a season? There's no escaping the reality that costs have to be made up somewhere: so who should pay? 

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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10 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

What exactly do you want the club to do then? Pretend that the wider inflation in the economy doesn't exist? Not pay its rising bills?

The bottom line here is that your issue *is* in fact about the cost of inflation being handed over to a category of customer. Good luck finding a business that isn't going to do that this year, because that's just the reality of the situation affecting everyone. 

Football clubs are undoubtedly going to suffer badly from the wider squeeze on finances and upcoming recession too, but there's no getting round that. If the price was £20 then the rising cost of gas/electricity/petrol etc. would be cited instead as a reason not to pay and attendances will struggle regardless. 

Well we are both arguing two different points in my opinion. Of course the customer is going to need to be handed the rising costs, I don't think most if any people are denying that. 

I'm not sticking up for the rights of match day fans not to be fleeced by the club with this increase, I'm concerned that the club will lose out on any financial benefit of the increase in cost through match attendences this season and going forward if those fans get out of the routine of going to Morton games. 

You're working on the assumption that the club will have around the same match day ticket attendences as last year with each one paying £2 extra for the privelige meaning they will have extra funds to pay bills etc. I'm just not sure it's that simple. 

Happy to be proven wrong though with time. 

 

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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I'm not assuming that match day attendances will stay the same: I'd expect them to decline. I'd expect them to decline regardless of the rise in PATG rates though, and so the causal link between the two to be minor. 

If people are in 'a routine of going to games' then they know where to get a season ticket that offers much better value now than it did 5-10 years ago. The only valid issue I have with this pricing strategy - given the wider economic circumstances - is that the PATG price should have been disclosed while the early bird season ticket offer was still available. 

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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As people have said an increase was always likely and 2 quid won't break the bank for fans who are going regardless of what we charge. I fear the issue might be people can't afford the 20 quid we were charging with fuel food utility bills going off the scale football just might not be affordable whether it's 20 or 22. 

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45 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

What exactly do you want the club to do then? Pretend that the wider inflation in the economy doesn't exist? Not pay its rising bills?

The bottom line here is that your issue *is* in fact about the cost of inflation being handed over to a category of customer. Good luck finding a business that isn't going to do that this year, because that's just the reality of the situation affecting everyone. 

Football clubs are undoubtedly going to suffer badly from the wider squeeze on finances and upcoming recession too, but there's no getting round that. If the price was £20 then the rising cost of gas/electricity/petrol etc. would be cited instead as a reason not to pay and attendances will struggle regardless. 

I understand your argument and we will never know what the balance of £20 vs £22 would.have been next season as thats obviously impossible. There are other ways however of making more money from the customers - increasing food prices (although I'm unsure how our catering deal works out), increase hpspitality cost, increasing cost of renting space, increasing cost of advertising etc. all of which will probably happen or have happened as well. 

 

The issue with the >£20 for me is psychological. Even just the act of having to take out more than £20 from a bank for people who don't pay by card is a barrier. I think theres a reason that £20 has been the maximum charged in our league by the majority of clubs.

 

I'd like to be confident that they have made projections etc for loss of footfall vs rise in cost. I fear though that we are preventing ourselves from growing our fanbase - something that we could really be doing with.

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31 minutes ago, so72 said:

I understand your argument and we will never know what the balance of £20 vs £22 would.have been next season as thats obviously impossible. There are other ways however of making more money from the customers - increasing food prices (although I'm unsure how our catering deal works out), increase hpspitality cost, increasing cost of renting space, increasing cost of advertising etc. all of which will probably happen or have happened as well. 

 

The issue with the >£20 for me is psychological. Even just the act of having to take out more than £20 from a bank for people who don't pay by card is a barrier. I think theres a reason that £20 has been the maximum charged in our league by the majority of clubs.

 

I'd like to be confident that they have made projections etc for loss of footfall vs rise in cost. I fear though that we are preventing ourselves from growing our fanbase - something that we could really be doing with.

I get the point about the extra £20 being psychological, but when do you raise prices? It can’t stay the same forever, whilst every other cost rises. That extra £2 would have to have been added on at some point and taken the price away from a nice round figure, and it’s been sitting around the £20 mark for a while now.

Rather than looking to grow the support, the main aim of MCT in these initial couple of years is to stabilise and see where they can progress from there, a point that was emphasised at the EGM a fortnight ago. If new fans are put off by a couple of quid extra or guys who go to 8-10 home games a season aren’t treated like long lost loved ones the so be it.

It was only 4 years ago that Crawford Rae implemented a quite disastrous season ticket package that ended with a 50% rise the following season just to return to the going rate, yet what we’re seeing here is a modest 10% increase after a good few years (without checking I suspect 4-5) of the £20 tariff and folk are greeting about it.

As vT quite correctly states (and I’m answering irnbru, more than yourself here) there is a loyalty scheme in the season tickets, which is a decent discount and can still be purchased. If that isn’t value for money for folk who don’t want to, or can’t attend every home game, then I’m afraid that’s just tough shit and they’ll have to accept they don’t meet the threshold for a loyalty discount and pay the going rate.

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19 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

I wonder could we rent the gym to fans? I know it's small and is used by first team, but outwith those hours maybe could have a limited number of passes for folk interested.

Not a bad idea, but I'd imagine someone with qualifications would need to be present while the equipment is being used and therefore make it uneconomical.

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A 10% increase of the PATG price is entirely justifiable given the current inflationary pressures. It's nonsense to complain about the lack of quality signings and at the same time bemoan a price increase that is entirely in line with rising costs and expenditure. If they didn't increase the PATG price it would in real terms equate to a 10% reduction.

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