International Ticket Pricing

[Bobby Skidmarks]

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. 

Just out of curiosity, how much do you reckon you spend following Liverpool each year?

[Rab B Nesbit]

15 minutes ago, Bobby Skidmarks said:

Just out of curiosity, how much do you reckon you spend following Liverpool each year?

 

They say never add it up Bobby  

I do try hard to keep the cost down though, split fuel, cheap train tickets and avoid hotels etc 

[Paisley Ton]

4 hours ago, Greenlantern said:

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.

was thinking of going as had not been to a European game for 30 years and qualifying rules from next season will likely mean no Scots teams will get to the league stage but £150 is a bit rich.

By the way my Malta ticket for East stand had no price on it.

[HibeeJibee]

Also worth remembering that after Slovakia (and any playoff), our only competitive home games between then and March 2019 - 16/17 months on - will be in the Nations League.

We're very likely to be in Division 3 which before this double-header would've meant 2/3 opponents from:

Slovenia, Romania, Denmark, Albania
Serbia, Bulgaria, Norway, Cyprus
Lithuania, Finland, Belarus

They'll surely have to drop prices for that or the crowds will fall further.

[H Wragg]

Also worth remembering that after Slovakia (and any playoff), our only competitive home games between then and March 2019 - 16/17 months on - will be in the Nations League.

We're very likely to be in Division 3 which before this double-header would've meant 2/3 opponents from:

Slovenia, Romania, Denmark, Albania
Serbia, Bulgaria, Norway, Cyprus
Lithuania, Finland, Belarus

They'll surely have to drop prices for that or the crowds will fall further.

Nations League?

[HibeeJibee]

"League of Nations", whatever, the new finals tournament/qualifying system.

[Greenlantern]

was thinking of going as had not been to a European game for 30 years and qualifying rules from next season will likely mean no Scots teams will get to the league stage but £150 is a bit rich.
By the way my Malta ticket for East stand had no price on it.

£150 is a bit steep. However, they've all gone, looks like they judged the supply and demand correct.

I think if Hampden wasn't such a horrendous spectacle in its current form (especially in the east & west stands), with accessible transport links, it wouldn't be such a challenge to draw the crowds with a decent pricing structure that would appeal to most.

[H Wragg]

"League of Nations", whatever, the new finals tournament/qualifying system.

Is this the one off thing for Uefa's anniversary?

 

I thought it was just that the finals were spread over several countries?

 

Never knew the qualifying was different too?

 

[HibeeJibee]

You're thinking of Euro 2020 being hosted across the continent which is (ostensibly) a one-off.


Separately, from next season there is a new tournament - the "Nations League" or "League of Nations". Four divisions, four groups in each division, 3/4 teams per group. Played Sep-Oct-Nov 2018. Group winners promoted. Bottom relegated. Winners of 'Division A' groups hold finals tournament in June 2019, the empty June every 4yrs.

Then qualifying for Euro 2020 runs Mar-Jun-Sep-Oct-Nov 2019. Ten groups of 5/6, top 2 qualify = 20 qualifiers for Euro 2020, no playoffs.

Then the highest ranked non-qualifiers from each NL group hold 1-leg, neutral venue divisional playoff SFs & Final in Mar 2020 = 4 qualifiers for Euro 2020.

So next 3 competitive home games after Slovakia/playoff will be in NL.

[10menwent2mow]

People obviously have a huge passion for the national team that I don't (it could have been free to get into Hampden on Monday and I wouldn't have travelled from Aberdeen for it) but the SFA are clearly taking the piss out of people who follow the national team. This is a piss poor group that aside from England has no major draw. If the top seeded team in that group had been Romania or Croatia, season tickets would've been £100 tops.

I'm not attempting to tap into the TA psyche here but I'd guess when the draw was made a heap of folk were pretty much guaranteeing themselves an England ticket because it was always going to sell out. Either by getting an ST or an SSC membership, or both. You could almost argue that the cost of an England ticket was more than £60.

[Burnie_man]

11 hours ago, Div said:

Must be a better way than doing this though, £30 walk up price for a decent pitch side view against Malta on a Monday night is too much.

Walk-up for the West and East Stands was £20 and a decent view, or £17 if you are an SSC member. My West Stand season ticket cost me £125 for the 5 games. £25 for World Cup Qualifiers (jnc England) is perfectly reasonable when compared to some of the ridiculous prices charged by SPFL clubs for mediocre football.

The North Stand is probably a bit too much and could be reeled back a little, but then you don't need to buy tickets there.

Not sure why this is now an issue, there are people I know with tickets who didn't bother going yesterday, others with spares who couldn't give them away, Malta plus a Monday night plus generally poor form (pre-Lithuania away) does not make for a good attendance, blaming ticket pricing is far too simplistic.

A very good game tonight at St.Mirren versus the Dutch, free for SSC members. Nobody mentions benefits/initiatives like that when sticking the boot in.

 

 

[Burnie_man]

6 hours ago, shawfield shed boy said:

 

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

Are you saying that the SFA took tickets for away games and then deliberately inflated the price? that's completely untrue, I've been going for near on 20 years and have never encountered that. Prices are always printed on the tickets, Slovenia definitely and Iceland (twice) definitely.

Jeez, do fowk just make stuff up to look good.

[BIG BEN]

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.

As you say Div, old habits die hard but what Regan and the SFA need to realize is when guys like you decide its gotten too expensive and don't renew, whose is going to take your place as new fans at these prices. Sadly this is the norm for Scottish football. The championship prices should be the price of an SPFL game and then a sliding scale from there.

[Arch Stanton]

You've made the papers [mention=1]Div[/mention]

 

[Jimmy85]

As someone on Twitter put it, Stewart Regan arguing with the most 'yer da' account ever is a bit of a minter. 

In all honesty both of them come across as monumental bellends. 

[Pie Of The Month]

8 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Also worth remembering that after Slovakia (and any playoff), our only competitive home games between then and March 2019 - 16/17 months on - will be in the Nations League.

We're very likely to be in Division 3 which before this double-header would've meant 2/3 opponents from:

Slovenia, Romania, Denmark, Albania
Serbia, Bulgaria, Norway, Cyprus
Lithuania, Finland, Belarus

They'll surely have to drop prices for that or the crowds will fall further.

If we win our next couple of games I think we could sneak into Division 2 depending on results elsewhere which might mean bigger games but less of a chance of qualifying. It would be typical of us to do something like that, lose the playoffs whilst also making our qualification for the next campaign slightly tougher. 

The suggestion from the SFA for the next couple of years from the survey they sent out appears to be that we will be able to purchase a 5 match season ticket for the euro 2020 qualifying campaign or an 8 match package including the 3 home games in the Nations League. The price difference between the 2 was negligible which would suggest the SFA know they'll seriously struggle to sell tickets for these 3 games. The further problem they'll have is if they keep anything close to the 29k SSC members they have with their right to buy a ticket to all competitive games they might be stuck at Hampden for these games with other stadia around the country too small on the off chance even 2/3rds of members decide to go.

[DA Baracus]

1 hour ago, BIG BEN said:

As you say Div, old habits die hard but what Regan and the SFA need to realize is when guys like you decide its gotten too expensive and don't renew, whose is going to take your place as new fans at these prices. Sadly this is the norm for Scottish football. The championship prices should be the price of an SPFL game and then a sliding scale from there.

The price of an SPFL game? That's a wide range considering there are 42 teams in the SPFL and each have their own pricing structure

[DA Baracus]

11 hours ago, Rab B Nesbit said:

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. 

So? Just because people are happy to be mugged off in England doesn't mean we should be as well. £30/£40 is a horrendous price for any football game, let alone some shite boring dross like West Brom vs Stoke. Fans weren't happy to be charged £20 for Dumbarton vs Dunfermline recently, and rightly so. 

If fans keep letting clubs get away with their dickhead, out of touch and out of reach pricing, then nothing will change.

[forameus]

I think the Nations League is already getting unfairly maligned.  Probably because your average person has no fucking clue that it's even happening, let alone what it is.  At its core, it's removing friendlies and replacing them with "competitive" games.  It's also giving the winner of each group another chance at qualifying for Euro 2020.  These matches could be absolutely huge, yet it seems from what POTM is saying, the SFA are already selling it short.  I know selling it as a second chance suggests they're not confident in their first chance, but come on to f**k, let's at least actually sell a product.

[Div]

6 hours ago, Burnie_man said:

Walk-up for the West and East Stands was £20 and a decent view, or £17 if you are an SSC member. My West Stand season ticket cost me £125 for the 5 games. £25 for World Cup Qualifiers (jnc England) is perfectly reasonable when compared to some of the ridiculous prices charged by SPFL clubs for mediocre football.

The North Stand is probably a bit too much and could be reeled back a little, but then you don't need to buy tickets there.

Not sure why this is now an issue, there are people I know with tickets who didn't bother going yesterday, others with spares who couldn't give them away, Malta plus a Monday night plus generally poor form (pre-Lithuania away) does not make for a good attendance, blaming ticket pricing is far too simplistic.

A very good game tonight at St.Mirren versus the Dutch, free for SSC members. Nobody mentions benefits/initiatives like that when sticking the boot in.

 

 

Id' argue that the West 7 East stands are pretty dreadful views for a modern football stadium. Miles away from the pitch.

Reason I go to the North is because it's gott he best view, and the best atmosphere in the stadium.

Totally agree that there were plenty of contributory factors to the poor gate on Monday night but pricing was certainly a big part of it.

The u-21 benefit is great for those fans that live in or around Glasgow or Renfrewshire but I'd say that since the u-21 games are no longer rotated then the benefit has little value to an SSC member located in say Dundee. Would they really travel to Paisley to watch an under-21 match for free that they can watch on Facebook for free?