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1 hour ago, vikingTON said:

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? 

It's at least £120 a year to be an MCT member and even then you'd need to commit to a £295 season ticket to get the discount. That's no use to people who just can't make every week or afford all of that. 

Even if we forget about the membership fee, an MCT member would need to go to 13 or more games to see the benefit of a season ticket.

That means anyone who can't make that amount of games is going to need to consider going on a week by week basis. I'm not bothering with a season ticket since I can only make abou 11-12 games this season with holidays, weddings, work, etc and a lot of people will be similar for their own reasons. 

The simple fact is that the £2 extra is a lot to some people (before the psychological impact someone mentioned) so there's a real risk fans who can't make more than 13 games to justify the season ticket go to less then they would. 

I'm not saying rising costs don't need to be covered somewhere but that we need to  consider all of this and be creative in keeping numbers up rather than the reliance on fans going no matter what. 

The example of a flexible 5 match ticket where it works out at £19/20 a game (more expensive than a season ticket but less than pay at the gate) is a potential way around the issue to pick up a few undecided people and reduce the risk a bit. There will be more way of doing this such as loyalty schemes that some clubs do - that's what commercial people are paid to look into. 

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5 minutes ago, irnbru said:

It's at least £120 a year to be an MCT member and even then you'd need to commit to a £295 season ticket to get the discount. That's no use to people who just can't make every week or afford all of that. 

Even if we forget about the membership fee, an MCT member would need to go to 13 or more games to see the benefit of a season ticket.

That means anyone who can't make that amount of games is going to need to consider going on a week by week basis. I'm not bothering with a season ticket since I can only make abou 11-12 games this season with holidays, weddings, work, etc and a lot of people will be similar for their own reasons. 

The simple fact is that the £2 extra is a lot to some people (before the psychological impact someone mentioned) so there's a real risk fans who can't make more than 13 games to justify the season ticket go to less then they would. 

I'm not saying rising costs don't need to be covered somewhere but that we need to  consider all of this and be creative in keeping numbers up rather than the reliance on fans going no matter what. 

The example of a flexible 5 match ticket where it works out at £19/20 a game (more expensive than a season ticket but less than pay at the gate) is a potential way around the issue to pick up a few undecided people and reduce the risk a bit. There will be more way of doing this such as loyalty schemes that some clubs do - that's what commercial people are paid to look into. 

Imagine expecting a loyalty discount when you only turn up to about half or two thirds of the games?

Make sure you email MCT when you to turn up so they can dust down the red carpet.

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34 minutes ago, Toby said:

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.

I'm not entirely disagreeing with you here. 

My point is really that there's a risk that effects casual fans up to those who can't make more than 13 games so it's a fairly big group of people. With any risk there should be a mitigation to minimise the impact so I'd like to see the club being a bit more creative around this. 

The early bird and MCT offers are examples of things being done well (although showing how good they were at the time they were launched with the new graphic would surely have helped that).

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6 minutes ago, Toby said:

Imagine expecting a loyalty discount when you only turn up to about half or two thirds of the games?

Make sure you email MCT when you to turn up so they can dust down the red carpet.

As much as they'd probably love to, around half of our average crowd can't make every week and don't have season tickets for that reason. 

The club need to make paying an ever increasing gate price more attractive or risk losing out. That can't just be through signings or blind loyalty. 

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The argument that people are making is that 22 quid, while expensive when times are tough, is not an inappropriate amount given that the gate amount has been static for several seasons now and costs are going up across the board in all walks of life. Morton can't be the only business out there to just have to eat the rising costs elsewhere; at some stage they simply have to be passed on to the customer.

For what it's worth I'm not against some kind of flexible ticket or half-season ticket but that needs to be in addition to an increase on the gate.

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38 minutes ago, irnbru said:

It's at least £120 a year to be an MCT member and even then you'd need to commit to a £295 season ticket to get the discount. 

The example of a flexible 5 match ticket where it works out at £19/20 a game (more expensive than a season ticket but less than pay at the gate) is a potential way around the issue to pick up a few undecided people and reduce the risk a bit. There will be more way of doing this such as loyalty schemes that some clubs do - that's what commercial people are paid to look into. 

1) It's not actually £120 a year to be a MCT member, since the original pledges expired. 

2) Giving the 'casual fan' a walk-up price of £100 to watch Hamilton and then any four games of their choice is not quite the stunning commercial coup that you think it is, versus a £22 a pop take it or leave it option for each of the five. Your 'creative' scheme of £19 per match would actually lose the club money over last season's walk-up prices.

The bottom line is that this is largely special pleading because there isn't a package that gives you good value going to every other home game. As much as I'd like GMFC to be shitting gold coins and so reducing prices all round, that is absolutely not the case and so the costs will have to be passed on somewhere. 

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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Rising prices are a sad fact of life but Morton are not taking the piss with £2 increase. Have you been protesting outside petrol stations or supermarkets or is it just Morton that don't have to live in the real world?

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14 minutes ago, irnbru said:

As much as they'd probably love to, around half of our average crowd can't make every week and don't have season tickets for that reason. 

The club need to make paying an ever increasing gate price more attractive or risk losing out. That can't just be through signings or blind loyalty. 

It’s not an “ever increasing gate price”, though. As I said in a previous post, it’s the first increase in a few years now, and is a modest 10%.

The club also have to make ends meet, and had an admirable promotion during the Easter holidays which allowed kids who attended the training camps into the Hamilton game as part of that package.

I’ve advocated in the not-too-distant past for similar schemes to the one you’re suggesting just now, but at a time when the whole country is tightening their belts, and Morton especially are still in a period of transition from a rich man’s brat’s neglected toy to a self sufficient community-run club, something has to give.

If you, or anyone else who can’t or won’t make every game isn’t getting special treatment I’m afraid that’s just tough. We’re talking about a club for whom every penny’s a prisoner, here as you well know. They’ve rewarded their most loyal and on occasion reward those with no disposable income (the weans) so it has to be paid for elsewhere. I’m afraid those with a disposable income that can take or leave Morton are the ideal candidates to charge a premium.

 

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30 minutes ago, irnbru said:

As much as they'd probably love to, around half of our average crowd can't make every week and don't have season tickets for that reason. 

That's not necessarily true at all. Buying a season ticket was the exception rather than the rule at Cappielow until fairly recently - because there was little financial incentive to committing to a season's matches in advance.

Now that there is a clear incentive, the onus is on the customer to respond to that - which they have been doing over time - instead of mewling about weddings and holidays. It won't wash for any other business right now and it shouldn't for GMFC either. 

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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4 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

That's not necessarily true at all. Buying a season ticket was the exception rather than the rule at Cappielow until fairly recently - because there was little financial incentive to committing to a season's matches in advance.

Now that there is a clear incentive, the onus is on the customer to respond to that - which they have been doing over time - instead of mewling about weddings and holidays. It won't wash for any other business right now and it shouldn't for GMFC either. 

Over half the customers don't have season tickets.

It's not exactly a controversial statement to say the club should look at ways of making paying an increased amount more attractive. 

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9 minutes ago, TaunTon said:

Rising prices are a sad fact of life but Morton are not taking the piss with £2 increase. Have you been protesting outside petrol stations or supermarkets or is it just Morton that don't have to live in the real world?

Petrol is an essential but loads of people are moaning about that anyway so it's not really equivalent here. 

I'm not saying prices shouldn't go up either, just that the fact they are gives an increased risk where some of over half the fortnightly crowd might not go. The onus is on the club to mitigate this. Its how businesses work. 

A £2 increase might not be the tipping point but I'd rather they didn't gamble and done more to maintain the non-season ticket numbers and not just hope for the best. 

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1 hour ago, irnbru said:

Over half the customers don't have season tickets.

It's not exactly a controversial statement to say the club should look at ways of making paying an increased amount more attractive. 

Such as getting them to pay £95 a head for five back of a fag packet games at less than last season's gate price (your bright idea)? Sounds like a winner!

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, irnbru said:

A £2 increase might not be the tipping point but I'd rather they didn't gamble and done more to maintain the non-season ticket numbers and not just hope for the best. 

No, you'd rather pick and choose your games while getting the benefit of a loyalty discount - this has been clearly established.

To suggest that the club is 'gambling' assumes that the status quo price was somehow without risk. This is absolutely not the case given significantly rising overheads - which is why practically every other business that you use will also be increasing their prices in line with costs.

That's how business actually works when inflation is above 10 fucking percent in a year. 

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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58 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

No, you'd rather pick and choose your games while getting the benefit of a loyalty discount - this has been clearly established.

To suggest that the club is 'gambling' assumes that the status quo price was somehow without risk. This is absolutely not the case given significantly rising overheads - which is why practically every other business that you use will also be increasing their prices in line with costs.

That's how business actually works when inflation is above 10 fucking percent in a year. 

No, businesses actually work by assessing the climate, scoring risk and treating them with appropriate mitigations.

Prices going up when people are struggling more means that the probability side of the risk is higher (as opposed to just the impact which you're getting at) unless they have further mitigations. 

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1 minute ago, irnbru said:

No, businesses actually work by assessing the climate, scoring risk and treating them with appropriate mitigations.

Prices going up when people are struggling more means that the probability side of the risk is higher (as opposed to just the impact which you're getting at) unless they have further mitigations. 

Good luck explaining that to literally every single business that has jacked up prices by the time of your next visit champ. I'm sure that they'll appreciate the tutorial. 

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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29 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Good luck explaining that to literally every single business that has jacked up prices by the time of your next visit champ. I'm sure that they'll appreciate the tutorial. 

Well I'm sure the businesses supplying non-essential services who survive and prosper will be looking at approaches to offset their risks and the impact of increased pricing.

It's how companies work in real life and not in the head of an angry wee guy on a football forum. 

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16 minutes ago, irnbru said:

Well I'm sure the businesses supplying non-essential services who survive and prosper will be looking at approaches to offset their risks and the impact of increased pricing.

Hahahaha no they're just passing on the costs to the customer m8. Have you been living under a rock since the New Year? 

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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5 hours ago, Toby said:

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.

Aye fair enough. I'll still pay the £22 at the gate because I can't make every game and my drop off pint is probably closer to £30. My worry is that it won't actually make us more money but I'm not wholly committed to that position so if the increase in prices results in an increase in revenue then I'm very happy to support that. 

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Everyone in this thread who’s repeatedly made the point that Morton aren’t immune to the stratospheric cost increases of everything are 100% correct. And for the club, it’s not just about a projected £36k utility bill rise, but also about every penny they spend on anything - the catering supplies they buy for hospitality, the beer behind the bar, the staff costs, bits and bobs of maintenance on the ground - a whole raft of invisible stuff whose price is heading skyward. And it’s not just larger businesses who are having to pass on cost increases to their customers. I’m a one-man-band joiner - the cost of timber has doubled in a year, most hardware and consumables such as blades, cutters and adhesives aren’t far behind - so those increases have to be passed onto the customer. To me - an increase in gate cost was inevitable, and I also don’t think a couple of quid is unreasonable.

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11 hours ago, irnbru said:

No, businesses actually work by assessing the climate, scoring risk and treating them with appropriate mitigations.

Not increasing gate prices when costs are increasing by 10% would of course result in a 10% reduction in revenue in real terms.

Interested to hear therefore what mitigations the club could take that would allow then to absorb this 10% reduction in revenue, without it having a negative impact on their financial viability and/or the quality of the playing squad. 

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