International Ticket Pricing

[H Wragg]

 

You should contact sport-sound with this story. I'm certain they'd pick it up.

 

If nothing else it shows how defensive and touchy Regan is about the whole thing.

Whilst he's talking to them he could bring up the fact that the SSC away points table isn't going to be updated to include Friday's Lithuania game before the Slovenia sales! [emoji23]

 

Laughable.

[pandarilla]

Whilst he's talking to them he could bring up the fact that the SSC away points table isn't going to be updated to include Friday's Lithuania game before the Slovenia sales! [emoji23]
 
Laughable.

Are you getting all this div?

We can write a list. A sort of p&b charter for the sfa.

No-one said it would be easy being the 'man of the people' and all that...

[Rugster]

Where's ma fucking towel?

[yorkshirepud]

Another who has given up his SSC membership due to the week of football nonsense. 10 years ago we were in a group with Italy, France, Ukraine etc and all home games were on a Saturday. No brainer as I could get to all the games. Only one I could get to in this set was the home England game but there was no way I was forking out all that cash for one game. England are just not worth it. Again, a no-brainer to not bother. TV money has killed the fun of Scotland games for many.

[Greenlantern]

SFA ripping off the fans as per. Giving value for money isn't really their strategy.
In comparison (albeit less games, but I feel better quality opposition) the 3 match package for Celtic's UCL home games against PSG / Bayern / Anderlecht is £114 for adult season ticket holders, and £150 for a general sale package.

[pandarilla]

SFA ripping off the fans as per. Giving value for money isn't really their strategy.
In comparison (albeit less games, but I feel better quality opposition) the 3 match package for Celtic's UCL home games against PSG / Bayern / Anderlecht is £114 for adult season ticket holders, and £150 for a general sale package.

Are you happy with £38 per game?

It seems to me that Celtic are as corporate as anyone in Scottish sport. (Admittedly the discount is better than the ssc, but let's face it, it couldn't be worse).

[Greenlantern]

Are you happy with £38 per game?

It seems to me that Celtic are as corporate as anyone in Scottish sport. (Admittedly the discount is better than the ssc, but let's face it, it couldn't be worse).

Obviously I'd like it cheaper, but considering what's on show, it's a mouthwatering prospect.
The packages are already sold out.

[shivute]

The first game of the campaign, when optimism and hope should have been high, was on Saturday evening.
The attendance was 36,000. If that doesn't scream at them that pricing and marketing was wrong then nothing will.

[HibeeJibee]

Attendances increased at every campaign since Hampden reopened - since when they have fallen every campaign except for Euro 2016 (and that was helped along by sell-out at the significantly larger Celtic Park). Despite having drawn England this campaign is set to be the lowest yet - and even a sell-out v Slovakia will only lift it to 36,000 and so second-lowest.


Campaign ... Home Average
W.C. 2002 ... 33,851
Euro 2004 ... 44,307 - plus 50,670 in playoff v Netherlands = 45,579
W.C. 2006 ... 46,753
Euro 2008 ... 50,896 _{- includes 1 game at Celtic Park}
W.C. 2010 ... 44,477
Euro 2012 ... 43,475
W.C. 2014 ... 37,924
Euro 2016 ... 45,665 _{- includes 1 game at Ibrox, 1 game at Celtic Park}
W.C. 2018 ... 32,843 to date


Going ever-longer without qualifying won't help but fundamentally it must also be influenced by scheduling and ticket pricing - and it's only the latter the SFA has direct influence over.

[doulikefish]

So basically Div bought a season ticket at the start of the campaign and is now complaining about ticket prices after knowing how much a season ticket was and who we were drawn against??Does that about cover it??

[shawfield shed boy]

Bit of a long ramble here but felt it was necessary!
Last night I was at the Malta game, pleased we won, delighted.
During the game I took a photo showing the sparse crowd in the East and South Stands.
This was taken from my seat in the North. I tweeted this out;
[/url] The figure of £36 was printed on my ticket.
Background.
I took the option of purchasing the "Season Ticket" package in advance for the campaign. The North Stand season ticket for an adult was £180 so this basically equates to £36 for every game so that's what's printed on the ticket whether it's for Malta or for England.
In order to qualify to buy this season ticket I also had to renew membership of the Scotland Travel Club for 16/17 which was £55.
I got a red SSC shirt as a "gift" for that, and this also allows me the opportunity of being able to buy away tickets if I want to enter the ballot and I can get into under-21 games for free.
So, I forked out £235 in total up front. My choice, nobody forced me.
I knew the pricing and whilst I considered it to be expensive I did it along with ten others in our group. Old habits die hard and I do love an international day out.
So then I got a response from the CEO of the Scottish FA, Stewart Regan;
I was slightly puzzled so responded with the picture of my ticket;
Stewart wasn't having this;
Ok. So I didn't pay £36 for the Malta ticket apparently. It was an "average" price.
Actually if you factor in the £55 membership you could argue it was really £47 a ticket, but hey I got a red shirt.
The games are categorised, England was most expensive, Malta least expensive and the other three were somewhere in between.
So let's look at the actual ticket pricing for the campaign;

So if I had bought the same seat in the North Stand without my SSC membership it would have cost me;
£30 for Malta, £40 for each of Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia and an eye watering £60 for England. Total £210.
We'll ovelook the fact that buying each of these tickets online also attracts a £2 delivery and £3 booking fee per ticket!
So I've paid £235 in total, which is actually £25 MORE than I would have paid if I had shelled out for each game without membership.
Either way, that was my decision, but strikes me that even £30 walk up price for Malta on a Monday night was excessive, as was/is £40 for the middle three and certainly the £60 for England was madness. I get the supply & demand argument for that one, it was more or less a sell out, but it sticks in my throat that they charged that.
£20 for the North & South Stand, £15 for East & West, £5 for kids would be a fair tarriff for all home games IMO. If you want to bundle them up to sell as a package then by all means do so and discount further.
Hampden is a pretty awful stadium when all said and done and the "Week of Football" calendar is deeply unhelpful but we need the SFA to sit up and try and help supporters get along to games rather than simply trying to fleece them.

Div. This is why i never joined the imfamous TA Club. Between 1999-2006 when i went to every game H&A. Friendly or a campaign game i found out very quickly my friends who bought tickets for away games were paying over in flated prices...

Cant recall every game and price of course though several games i paid £5 against their £20 on many occasions. Portugal. Iceland. Slovenia just a few i instant recall...

One Q. I would ask to a TA. When you go away does your away ticket still not display a price...??! Never did in my era

[Div]

7 minutes ago, doulikefish said:

So basically Div bought a season ticket at the start of the campaign and is now complaining about ticket prices after knowing how much a season ticket was and who we were drawn against??Does that about cover it??

No, not really.

The point was that there were 25,000 empty seats at Hampden last night.

I was there, this wasn't about me, it was about the people who weren't there.

You reap what you sow and all that, and the SFA fucked up here. In my opinion.

[No_Problemo]

I had mentioned on one of the other threads that I went on to buy Slovakia tickets last night. £40 plus fees for a decent view - no thanks!

[Rab B Nesbit]

I saw your tweet and did think it was initially pretty misleading. As Mr Regan said you could walk up and pay £20 cash if you wanted. Also half the ground behind the camera was full. 

I think I'm right in saying off the back of the 2014 World Cup and us getting Germany in our group the SFA ramped up their prices and they've stayed there. 

I do think there is a bit of a mental thing up here with prices. £30/40 is peanuts down South. My season ticket seat for Liverpool v Seville next week is £59, although that is top whack. It looks as if the SFA have priced it at a level just above club games up here. 

Have to say that the £55 membership is horrendous. Booking fees and delivery doesn't half add up. 

The last 3/4 campaigns I've started taking a school group and have to say we get very good deals for staff and kids. With most games now midweek at nights it means we get a bus right to the car park and wouldn't have bothered with the pub anyway. 

[velo army]

I was delighted with my SSC membership when we had those games in 2007. It meant that I had no worries having to secure tickets for high demand games (the SSC was born out of, partly, outrage of those regular Scotland fans who missed out on tickets for the England playoff in 1999) and felt that the additional price was for that peace of mind. The ticket prices back then, however, were not hugely unreasonable.

I love going to Scotland games, but we seriously risk having empty seats against Slovakia if the SFA are insisting that we pay £40 for a ticket. I may actually not go. Factoring in a bite to eat and a couple of pints I'll easily be down £100. I can watch it in a packed pub and still not have to take the full day off work (zero hours contract means that I'd be down another £100 by taking the day off) and that's now becoming an appealing prospect.

Aye, the SFA need to seriously think about their duty to fans living outwith the central belt. 

[Young Eddie]

It all comes down to supply and demand in the end. As long as fans keep buying these tickets the SFA can say that they have got their pricing right. I don't think any football match is worth paying more than £20 to watch, but that's just my opinion. Clearly many thousands of fans differ and are willing to pay more, sometimes much more.

Regarding the Malta match, even reducing the prices might not have put too many more on the gate. Malta are never going to be a big draw. Perhaps a better idea would be moving these types of games around the country to smaller capacity grounds. Allows non central-belt fans to see the team and makes for a better atmosphere in a smaller stadium.

[Rab B Nesbit]

22 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

£59 for Liverpool v sevilla is fucking horrendous. Seriously Rab. Even at top whack.

Fitba is fucked with those kinds of prices.

Must admit I'm grudging it. Got another for my mate £37 on the Kop I should really take it instead but want to sit in my seat. Mimd you suppose it's only £30 for the Etihad on Saturday. 

Habe to say I'm still annoyed at the u21s again being in Paisley should have been elsewhere.  

[HibeeJibee]

13 minutes ago, Young Eddie said:

It all comes down to supply and demand in the end. As long as fans keep buying these tickets the SFA can say that they have got their pricing right. I don't think any football match is worth paying more than £20 to watch, but that's just my opinion. Clearly many thousands of fans differ and are willing to pay more, sometimes much more.

Regarding the Malta match, even reducing the prices might not have put too many more on the gate. Malta are never going to be a big draw. Perhaps a better idea would be moving these types of games around the country to smaller capacity grounds. Allows non central-belt fans to see the team and makes for a better atmosphere in a smaller stadium.

It's not just supply-demand if the ground is half empty, tbf, unless no-one more will come even if it was a bit cheaper.

Crowds are also falling, not level, and are down 30-35% on 10yrs ago.

Oddly, your solution is to take them to places with capacities of 20,000?

Trendwise, Slovenia in March and Malta now are our lowest 2 home crowds since dead-rubber v Latvia in 2001.

[Jambomo]

To be honest, whilst the ticket prices are a bit high, I think the empty seats are a lot more to do with scheduling than price.


I normally go to the majority of home games but missed the Malta game and will miss the next one simply because they are on weeknights and getting back from Hampden to Edinburgh is a nightmare. Usually we end up staying the night in Glasgow after a game to make it easier but midweek games basically mean 1 1/2 days off work.

In all fairness I'm not sure there is much the SFA can do about that.

[Rab B Nesbit]

10 minutes ago, Jambomo said:

To be honest, whilst the ticket prices are a bit high, I think the empty seats are a lot more to do with scheduling than price.


I normally go to the majority of home games but missed the Malta game and will miss the next one simply because they are on weeknights and getting back from Hampden to Edinburgh is a nightmare. Usually we end up staying the night in Glasgow after a game to make it easier but midweek games basically mean 1 1/2 days off work.

In all fairness I'm not sure there is much the SFA can do about that.

That's definitely a big factor. I don't think I saw a kid under 12 all night which is a huge shame and can't be a good thing long term.