Increase gate prices?

[Christies Child]

If you thought it was a good idea and the board thought it was a good idea, why let the opinion of a forum stop it?

Legal complications after it was gone into...in depth.

[Keith]

Ok here's an idea or 3

1) When we move to Westgate lifetime season tickets become invalid (are they for C.P. )

I'm guessing you're not a life season ticket holder???

[captain sparkle]

pardon my ignorance,
but are the board still selling shares? I've had b*gger all for mine in all the years i've had them, but i still get the joy of believing i own a (very) small piece of the club!
perhaps an incentive or two wouldn't go amiss e.g. free portions of ice cream & pictures of Christie the Cat, or vice versa.

[al1]

lets have collection buckets at each turnstile,then if anyone wishes to pay extra they can,i would.
i dont believe the club will have budgeted for the same crowds that we had last season,nor would they have budgeted for a cup run.we have been so well run over the past 10/15 years,cant see them slipping up now.i am sure this situation will be rectified swiftly and the embargo will be lifted asap.

[Curly]

Ok here's an idea or 3

1) When we move to Westgate lifetime season tickets become invalid (are they for C.P. )

2) A sponsored wall at Westgate where you pay to have you name or message on a supporters wall, the did one at the Ricoh arena (Cov City's new ground), and I think they have one at Celtic, if my memory is correct it was only £20ish per brick, so not to expensive to be part of history.

3) Auction of parts of C.P. for collection after the move i.e. own you own seat, buy a dug-out for your garden, lots of things cheep to do as well.

Ok now my head hurts I need to lie down for a bit

I agree with parts 2 + 3 but part 1 is ridiculous and obviously an attempt to add a six foot wooden spoon to the debate, you are also (if serious about that) encouraging the idea that the club should renege on deals that it made to its fans.
The people that it gains most of its revenue from.
Would you be happy, for example, if after paying your £13 to get in, you found at the end of the game that you had to pay £10 to get out?

As for asking fans with lifetime season tickets to cough up extra to do something more for the club, How do you know they haven't already? I don't remember seeing much Alfa Aesar advertising around the ground before I asked my M.D. to consider some sort of sponsorship, after already presuading her to spend over £1500 at the Gala Draw night.

[wijit]

£13 is enough to pay in Morecambe. I think people would start to choose betweeen matches and an increase would almost certainly lose the club support.

Ordinarily, I'd agree. But I don't honestly think that if the club increased to £15 it would have a detrimental effect on attendances or pockets. £13 is 15 in all but name and the extra 2 quid would be very useful to our club. Maybe we could try to do two people for £20. If supporters applied this fairly and brought first timers and not fellow regulars then we would get more money from other sales with the added prospect that some may return.

EDIT for reply to curly, above. Suppose that all 1800 frequent supporters had the lifetime tickets. We'd be dead now. No regular gate income. This was good at the time, but we have got to get real, we are in a little trouble now and were it not for our board we could easily go to the wall.

[outsider]

it was not meant as a big spoon just a genuine question, are they lifetime season tickets for MFC or for CP? If the later then when we move they would become invalid, wouldn't they?

[wijit]

Perfectly valid question either way, in my opinion.

[morecambe mick]

They are tickets sold by Morecambe Football Club to the supporter, for the lifetime of the supporter. Not by "Christie Park" but by the club.
They were sold in times when the club was desperate for funds, as we are now.

OK, so now it's your turn to get a big wedge of money out to help the club.

I know I've been a regular, helping out over the seasons, unpaid.
Ask yourself, what you have done for the club?

[Phoenix]

Would you be happy, for example, if after paying your £13 to get in, you found at the end of the game that you had to pay £10 to get out?

Have you ever flown from Norwich? You pay at a car park style machine to get a ticket to be able to get to passport control. They call it an "airport development fee".

[Skid]

Ah yes, the old 'what have you ever done for the club', or 'where were you at Guiseley away in 1995'.....

[Keith]

Ah yes, the old 'what have you ever done for the club', or 'where were you at Guiseley away in 1995'.....

No, a perfectly valid question from someone who spent a four figure sum to buy something that other supporters believe should now be rescinded. It is not unreasonable to ask those supporters to contribute a four figure sum themselves. "Put up or shut up" springs to mind.

Fortunately, I, like Mick, trust the board of Morecambe FC to be morally above the suggestion that is being made on here by some people!

[North Stand Shrimp]

.

[campdave]

Those of you that bought life time season tickets.... have any of you got your value out of them yet? what I mean is, if you'd have been paying for each game, or for a season ticket each season you've had your lifetime ticket for, have you made your money back yet?

If you have then every game you go to now is kind of free isn't it?

Therefore you got your money's worth and now you're dead wood to the club in financial terms.

I know this sounds very hash and I know that at the time the large injection of cash would have been greatly needed, but I don't see how paying a four figure sum up front for something that saves you alot in the future is supporting the club more than paying week in week out especially at a time when regular income is needed.

Not exactly going to generate a lot of good publicity for the club is it? You could say the same for a "normal" season ticket, once you've gone to the matches you've paid for, it would be a bit of a kick in the teeth if the club expected us to pay for the last two home matches of the season.

I'd like to see the club charge whatever the minimum we can charge for admission for one match (£10? What we paid to stand at Macc last season) and make a bit of a fanfare and see how much that increases the gate by.

[Wild Bill]

£13 is enough to pay in Morecambe. I think people would start to choose betweeen matches and an increase would almost certainly lose the club support.

Ordinarily, I'd agree. But I don't honestly think that if the club increased to £15 it would have a detrimental effect on attendances or pockets. £13 is 15 in all but name and the extra 2 quid would be very useful to our club. Maybe we could try to do two people for £20. If supporters applied this fairly and brought first timers and not fellow regulars then we would get more money from other sales with the added prospect that some may return.

EDIT for reply to curly, above. Suppose that all 1800 frequent supporters had the lifetime tickets. We'd be dead now. No regular gate income. This was good at the time, but we have got to get real, we are in a little trouble now and were it not for our board we could easily go to the wall.

If prices went up a couple of quid then attendances would suffer further. Times are hard and Morecambe is far from an athluent area. 15 quid would mean working until midday for workers on a minimum wage (After tax) and thats if you only have yourself to pay for. Many would choose to stay at home for an average game.

I try every week to blag friends to come and most are put off by the price. Unless you are a big fan you are unlikely to see it as value for money.

The club owes a lot to life season ticket holders and they deserve respect. Didn't their money help to pay for the north stand? Without the development we would not even have been allowed into the league.

The club should live within its means and I think the wage cap is a good idea. Hopefully we can get rid of some of the dead wood in our squad this summer and have 22-man squad for next season who are up to the league we are in and don't expect to be paid the earth to play here.

[P/T Indie]

Didn't Accy do the lifetime season ticket thing a while back which was popular and all the money was used on the ground so when you look at the low attendances they get you can knock a few more off that for actual paying people which makes it even more remarkable how they survive.

[4G63]

There is never an easy solution to this.

Personally, i'd pay £15 to watch Morecambe play, but some others can't even afford that extra £2. It soon adds up. It's all swings and roundabouts.

Maybe the club should try some fundraising events etc?

[Keith]

Those of you that bought life time season tickets.... have any of you got your value out of them yet? what I mean is, if you'd have been paying for each game, or for a season ticket each season you've had your lifetime ticket for, have you made your money back yet?

For me, at current rates I'll have to live to a ripe old age or for us to be in The Premiership for a few seasons before I get my money back!

This season, I've seen seven games...
Of those four were at home...
Of the four at home one was a cup match...
Of the three league matches, I forgot my ticket once so still had to pay...

So so far this season, I've used my Life Season Ticket... Twice!

I know this sounds very hash and I know that at the time the large injection of cash would have been greatly needed, but I don't see how paying a four figure sum up front for something that saves you alot in the future is supporting the club more than paying week in week out especially at a time when regular income is needed.

I don't for one minute entertain the notion that the life time ticket holders should be made to pay anything further but I do resent any comment made that suggests being a life time ticket holder in some way makes you a better supporter, after all if all of us had the money at the time I think we would have all bought one when it was £1000 but look where the club would have been financially if that had happened!

I don't think that Mick was suggesting that he's a 'better supporter' by being a Life Season Ticket holder and certainly, I wasn't. The response was as a direct suggestion that these tickets should become invalid when we move grounds.

What would have happened if we'd all bought one? Well, many years ago, the club would have got a huge cash injection that would have made Rushden & Diamonds to shame because the club would have got millions of pounds all at once. I guess the 'what would have happened' would have depended upon how the club used that money? If they were available now at say £2200 (mine was £1,500 a few seasons back) and was bought by 2000 people, we'd be looking at £4,400,000. That would equate to approximately eight years of income from home fans all in one go. Would that appeal to the club as a business? Perhaps...

[sw1980]

Well for me - we have to long no further than the very poor signings the manager has made!!

like a previous poster said we are struggling to get high earners off the wage bill (who currently are no where near the first team starting eleven)

what a joke - this is why we will financially struggle because our manager makes terrible footballing decisions - for me the buck stops with him and the directors who are willing to sign players on long term contracts willy nilly

[sw1980]

And PS - the academy should be our bread and butter!!!

why sammy chooses to ignore it i dont know!

we need to be self financing!

[wonder shrimp]

a few people have mentioned the lancaster scheme as a good idea, and on the face of it it sounds like a good idea. i think, though a reasonable question should be 'has it actually affected their gates at all?'. so, has it?

[Skid]

Well for me - we have to long no further than the very poor signings the manager has made!!

like a previous poster said we are struggling to get high earners off the wage bill (who currently are no where near the first team starting eleven)

what a joke - this is why we will financially struggle because our manager makes terrible footballing decisions - for me the buck stops with him and the directors who are willing to sign players on long term contracts willy nilly

Every manager makes poor signings, you chose to overlook the money that our manager got the club, by nurturing Carl Baker's talent - subsequently getting us circa £170,000.

[North Stand Shrimp]

Well for me - we have to long no further than the very poor signings the manager has made!!

like a previous poster said we are struggling to get high earners off the wage bill (who currently are no where near the first team starting eleven)

what a joke - this is why we will financially struggle because our manager makes terrible footballing decisions - for me the buck stops with him and the directors who are willing to sign players on long term contracts willy nilly

Every manager makes poor signings, you chose to overlook the money that our manager got the club, by nurturing Carl Baker's talent - subsequently getting us circa £170,000.

You have to speculate alot in this league with limited funds, sometimes this means you sign someone who turns out to be a right waste of space, but would you have got a signing at all if contract terms of 2 years were not agreed? because there's that much competion for players out there that you might lose the signing on contract terms.

As stated above, they speculated on Carl Baker and that worked out well, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

[Heysham_red]

Every manager makes poor signings, you chose to overlook the money that our manager got the club, by nurturing Carl Baker's talent - subsequently getting us circa £170,000.

Thats a very good point. But more worryingly is that despite the club earning 170,000 for Baker that we still cant hit under 60% of out turn over on wages. ok so Some was used to get new players in but not all of it and surely that includes turnover. what happens this summer when we dont sell anyone for that kind of money? the Wage bill will be reduced again.

I am sorry to sound bleak but this isnt looking good for us in neither the short term or long term.
We certainly dont have a Carl Baker in the team to sell on this year!

[P/T Indie]

Plus we wont have the money from the cup runs especially the carling cup brought us last year.