Admission Prices for 2014/15

[Saint James]

I find this part a tad unfair. You have paired up LO with RC which should not be allowed. Laurence is the figure head of the TB has the backing of them, else i am sure a vote of no confidence would have been given to him. The fact is he took over the role from what many say the worst TB chairman we have means he has to climb back up to the respected top again. (which i believe he has!!)

IMHO under Overends Chairmanship we have seen some changes he has pushed through. He came to me asking if we could help with the website as he wanted the communication of the TB to its members improved drastically. So we built a website that was easy to the eye, easy to navigate through and easy for anyone to update the pages quickly and efficiently.. Laurence asked people to run the website and now its a very good model of comms for the trust.



Hello?? Where has he said this? when has he said this?? Isnt this straight out of the urban myths of exeweb pdf?? I have asked this before but no one has come forward with evidence of this.. I know Roger Conway and Andy Cole threatened to resign if exeweb were invited to the grecian group forum... Ive heard Chorlton threaten to resign if he was given a pay cut etc.. But Taggy?? Please someone give me the evidence of this..

Hmmmm...


We have a gates committee that is made up of TB + CB members, employees and volunteers. This does show that you dont know the make up of our club and really have no idea of our history. The fact it is all a bit cringeworthy that the gates committee allowed this to go through in such a complex thing but prices were to rise. I own shares in EDF but they dont ask me if its ok to put up the price... i just hope i get a slice of the profit (in ecfc case i hope they get success) so why should they have asked the fan base!!??

Three issues there Lez that I feel need addressing. Point 1 in terms of Andy Cole is personal opinion. The effectiveness of the Trust Chair is dependent on what is deemed to be termed as success and surely depends on what you want/feel the Chair's role is? Andy seemed OK to me in the three years we were on the same BOS but inevitably you asked one person they give you another answer. You ask Taggy perhaps you get a different response to Dave Treharne or Roger Conway dependent on what matters - to me the only thing that matters is whether the Trust Chair is ensuring that the interests of 3000 members are paramount by adequate scrutiny and governance of Club Board decisions.

Point two about Taggy and resignation speeches is NOT an urban myth as you put it. It seems that because you haven't been in the same room that countless trustees over the past ten years have been in that it therefore is a myth propagated by those with sinister reasons. Just do a straw poll of say twenty ex trustees and you will find the same response - FACT.

Point three I find so worrying In can't believe you didn't delete it after re-reading it! You ask why the fan base weren't consulted about price changes to ST's and the crass decision to go headlong down the advance ticket route. In the recent past the Grecian Groups forum was heralded as the means with which to consult with supporter groups. Most businesses ensure that anything contentious, new products or a deviation from 'normal business' goes through focus groups or polling before going to launch. This is standard in normal business but to fail to consult in a business owned by the customers is frankly absurd. The reason it didn't happen can only be because the club had no alternative to what Wolfie proposed. This set of stupid ideas would have been kicked into the long grass had the club done what they should have done by consulting. The outcome will be that cash flow already perilous will become even tighter as potd fans will turn away in their droves and refuse to pay inflated gate prices in the same way that many of the fan base have refused to renew season tickets.

Tony B

 

[motorservices]

£2 extra a game is an overall extra of £46 a season, as we dont tend to do cup games tbh im not bothered anymore about the increase

what does worry me (alot) is this

I own a local Indy Garage, if i start to feel the pressure of rates, haz waste certs, rent, electric, PAYE, VAT and the like then there are a couple of things you can do, first off is put the hourly rate up by a couple quid an hour, BUT you run the risk of losing a couple customers so in the long run could be worse off

2, lower the hourly rate by a couple of quid and hope and prey word gets around, BUT then you run the risk of nothing extra coming in so your worse off

3, (and tbh my fav) look at what you have to offer, find a way to harness that and promote it, so for me it might be 10% discount for a cambelt change when done with a full service, OR free coolant with every water pump replacement

Its a gamble whatever they try and do, and not one person can predict what will happen, its scary but this is business, its what its all about, some sink, some swim, IF i had the chance to offer advice to the board on how to up the figures that attend id look at family packs, or 3 games for the price of 2 has to be in order, or even offer fans to have 'a day with the club' so for say £45 you get a day at SJP, spend time with the players, warm up on the pitch with them, then after the game have a meal with the squad

the only limit on what we can do is the limit of the boards thoughts, if they aim high and take a risk it might pay off

I would just like to add im sure that running a pro football club is nothing like owning a garage, BUT business is the same, just different size figures are being played with


maybe ive sniffed to much petrol and methonel today mine (and thats meth for WMI injection not the druggy type)

 

[Colin B]

Well said that man!

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

Looks up to date to me http://ecfcst.org.uk/meetingsminutes/minutes/

Hmmmm.....Yes I see. A bit odd, cos when I checked it earlier it stopped at 22nd January!

 

[grecian55]

I would like to know how Guy got this through the gate committee... Anyone know who is on it

From reading what Tyrone123 has put on here it's Wolfie,his missus ,the kids ,and most of his mates ? i think it's called "Jobs for the Boys " ? he should've stood as a MP .

 

[Edward]

You look at percentages Pete, I look at pound coins . Your 12% is a couple of quid. Your 12% makes it sound considerably bigger than the reality. Your spin bashing isn't going to wash. It is Two English Pounds. Those are the facts (satisfied of my understanding now).
Now 21% in the stand that doesn't bother me much at higher base price, I agree with you. It is excessive. But then why do people sit there? Because, by and large, they can afford to. If they'd had the comparative rise of The Big Bank, no complaints. If you can't afford to, go where you can. At least you have that option (two of them, Old Grandstand or The Big Bank). If The Big bank gets too expensive, the exit gate is the only option

Apologies if it seems like I am picking on you today but I am not certain you are thinking this through. You say it is only £2 but the reality is that any business threatens its ability to secure the original purchase price by imposing a rise. People consider options when you give them reason to think. You want to impose a price rise when times are good; otherwise, you suggest there is more value. Hell, look at any product on the supermarket shelf and there is always an 'improved flavour' tag to accompany a price rise. Now contrast that with ECFC where the people in power tell the fans that the club will struggle. Does that support a positive outcome when fans or non-fans are considering their options on how to spend a Saturday afternoon? Because if you don't go to the match, you not only save the admission fee but the petrol money, and parking charge and all the other things you buy whilst at the game disappear too. And that might seem a pretty decent outcome to many who have sat through poor displays for the past 2/3 seasons.

 

[Edward]

That is spot on.


I find this part a tad unfair. You have paired up LO with RC which should not be allowed. Laurence is the figure head of the TB has the backing of them, else i am sure a vote of no confidence would have been given to him. The fact is he took over the role from what many say the worst TB chairman we have means he has to climb back up to the respected top again. (which i believe he has!!)

IMHO under Overends Chairmanship we have seen some changes he has pushed through. He came to me asking if we could help with the website as he wanted the communication of the TB to its members improved drastically. So we built a website that was easy to the eye, easy to navigate through and easy for anyone to update the pages quickly and efficiently.. Laurence asked people to run the website and now its a very good model of comms for the trust.

The fact that accounts were released was also a move he pressed to get the go ahead. We have fans forums to discuss the views of the TB. We didnt have any of this before. Credit where it is due. His role though is mediator of both boards imho.. This would be easier if he was chair of both!! Which in my opinion is the way forward (which means going back if you see what i mean )




Hello?? Where has he said this? when has he said this?? Isnt this straight out of the urban myths of exeweb pdf?? I have asked this before but no one has come forward with evidence of this.. I know Roger Conway and Andy Cole threatened to resign if exeweb were invited to the grecian group forum... Ive heard Chorlton threaten to resign if he was given a pay cut etc.. But Taggy?? Please someone give me the evidence of this..

Hmmmm...


We have a gates committee that is made up of TB + CB members, employees and volunteers. This does show that you dont know the make up of our club and really have no idea of our history. The fact it is all a bit cringeworthy that the gates committee allowed this to go through in such a complex thing but prices were to rise. I own shares in EDF but they dont ask me if its ok to put up the price... i just hope i get a slice of the profit (in ecfc case i hope they get success) so why should they have asked the fan base!!??






I think you are right... I get the feeling that there will be some major changes happening soon

Lez Lez Lez

Please do me one favour. Rather than try and counter everything, see if you can bolster your understanding of business so you can see the absurdity of the current club operation. Feel free to ignore everything I write but read every word that Tony B (Saint James) writes and recognise he is spot on. And then read his posts again until they make sense.

The Gates Committee is not relevant here. They predict attendances: they do not set ticket prices. And they can only set attendances once they know the prices. It is an iterative process. And anybody with any business nous who was unfortunate enough to presented with the nonsense conjured up by Wolfie would have recognised instantly that he did not have a clue what he was doing. You do not raise prices when there is no positive vibe about the product and many alternatives for the leisure dollar. And, regarding your ridiculous analogy of EDF, if they raise their prices too much, and you are unhappy, you try and find a more competitively-priced alternative which is exactly what many fans will do. Cinema or football? Meal or football? Rugby or football? AA new shirt or football? Football will become less favoured as it gets more expensive, relative to everything else.

I think others have made clear that Tagg has made threats to resign. I am certainly not re-writing history. You might want to ask yourself whether you are. Your love of Tagg is worrying. And to the best of my knowledge, there isn't a business owner/senior business figure on this forum who has ever suggested he has done a decent job as CEO/Vice Chair/whatever job he has created for himself.

Finally, whatever happpened to Tree? Why isn't he defending the latest pricing nonsense? Has even Guy worked out that he can't defend his position against such widespread opposition?

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Apologies if it seems like I am picking on you today but I am not certain you are thinking this through. You say it is only £2 but the reality is that any business threatens its ability to secure the original purchase price by imposing a rise. People consider options when you give them reason to think. You want to impose a price rise when times are good; otherwise, you suggest there is more value. Hell, look at any product on the supermarket shelf and there is always an 'improved flavour' tag to accompany a price rise. Now contrast that with ECFC where the people in power tell the fans that the club will struggle. Does that support a positive outcome when fans or non-fans are considering their options on how to spend a Saturday afternoon? Because if you don't go to the match, you not only save the admission fee but the petrol money, and parking charge and all the other things you buy whilst at the game disappear too. And that might seem a pretty decent outcome to many who have sat through poor displays for the past 2/3 seasons.

It's easy to wrap a bar of chocolate up in a new packet and print new improved flavour on it at no additional cost so long as you've got a constant stream of supply. Unfortunately football, especially at our level, doesn't have that constant. Sometimes you get a good crop but eventually that runs out and you have to replace but it's not always possible to replace like for like and maintain the quality. All the while the costs are still there to be met and whilst the club may realise the quality doesn't merit the price increase to cover the increasing costs, such as where I pointed out to missy earlier when he bought up relegation, and swallow it for the time being, there comes a time when it just has to be done regardless of the fare on offer. Some people still don't realise how lucky we were to get players like Harley and Matt Taylor on the wages we were paying them. They were probably cheaper than the likes of Danny Coles now. As I said earlier, I don't like it any more than the rest of you but if needs must................

 

[Edward]

It's easy to wrap a bar of chocolate up in a new packet and print new improved flavour on it at no additional cost so long as you've got a constant stream of supply. Unfortunately football, especially at our level, doesn't have that constant. Sometimes you get a good crop but eventually that runs out and you have to replace but it's not always possible to replace like for like and maintain the quality. All the while the costs are still there to be met and whilst the club may realise the quality doesn't merit the price increase to cover the increasing costs, such as where I pointed out to missy earlier when he bought up relegation, and swallow it for the time being, there comes a time when it just has to be done regardless of the fare on offer. Some people still don't realise how lucky we were to get players like Harley and Matt Taylor on the wages we were paying them. They were probably cheaper than the likes of Danny Coles now. As I said earlier, I don't like it any more than the rest of you but if needs must................

The fatal flaw is your position is the presumption that an increase in price (when the product remains dreadful and is arguably getting worse) will lead to an increase in revenue.

It won't.

Refer back to Bitt's excellent post for all the reasons.

 

[Egg]

You look at percentages Pete, I look at pound coins . Your 12% is a couple of quid.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there a time, a year or two ago, when you said you wanted to join the Trust but couldn't afford the couple of quid a month it cost?!