Hadn't seen this anywhere else, but it was announced earlier on the Bulls Facebook page that the deadline is being extended until 1st Dec.

Tbh it makes sense for those who may miss a match or two depending on fixtures which are out next week. Once they see actual fixtures it may tip balance and persuade them it's financially a better option to buy a ticket.
You could argue for extending deadline further as doubt many,if any,will be sold at Full price but that creates a problem in future years. If people know deadline will be extended repeatedly then they will wait till last minute to purchase causing the club cash flow problems.

I think the 3 payment option is a good one and should be timed so that the 3rd payment is finished a week before Xmas and collected after the last payment is made! But anyone paying the full Early Bird amount straight off should have a further discount. (eg a 3 payment would cost say 160 and full payment 150)
The Club could still offer a limited smaller discount for the week preceeding Xmas up till the 2nd week of January
Again its looking at how they Market for next year based on how the Sales have gone this year!

That's true enough, though there is the point that people with a seat in the stand, who wish to to retain the same seat, need to do so before the cut off (usually a week or more before the early bird ends), so it won't militate against all early renewals. Don't know if that alone would bring in sufficient cash though.

Doubt it would TBH. Attendance in main stand was poor last year. It was frequently half empty looking across from the pop side. Whether it was a case of people buying season ticket at cheap prices and not turning up or just poor takeup in the stand I dont know. But was definitely a lot emptier than 2011.

The thing is though, the seating, other than that held by season ticket holders, tends to only fill up on either a big match day or when the weather is less than clement. I think 2012 is pretty unique in Odsal history in not actually having many bad weather days last year.

That could account for some of the financial problems then; not enough rain to make folk pay extra for a seat...

Just over 4000 season tickets sold so far according to this article in the T&A: www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... _discount/

Just over 4000 season tickets sold so far according to this article in the T&A: www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... _discount/

Pretty much figure I expected. Can't see it getting over 5k, which is more than we got at height of bull mania so a decent amount at full price. We need those who are reverting to paying on gate turn out regularly, which in turn relies on team performing on pitch.

Yeah, agree with that.

I'm not hooked into this idea that we [imust[/i get a certain number of season tickets sold; like all clubs, we have a certain number of 'hard core' fans who will go, pretty much, week in and week out, and that won't change because some are paying on the gate. There are after all many who will find the price of season tickets (even at EB prices) to be just unaffordable, particularly when they are buying for a family, also whilst summer rugby definitely has its attractions, for most people, the fact that season tickets come on sale in the run up to Christmas certainly isn't one of them.

Pretty obviously there are also some, maybe a bit on the outer of not so 'hardcore' who will pick and choose or even stop going if things aren't to their liking, but these fans have always existed, here and at other clubs. I'd put the figure of diehards at somewhere between 6 to 6.5k, people who will turn up pretty much every week and above that if things go reasonably well. Given a good season (Oh, please, god!) then the fact that many didn't pay up front will be a bonus when they pay weekly on the gate.

I know a few people who, because of work, family or uni commitments can only get to 5 or 6 games a season. The last couple of seasons they bought the cheap tickets, next year they'll be paying at the gate. There'll be a few who will not be able to afford the full price of a season ticket but will go when they can.

Hopefully we might get 2-3,000 home supporters paying at the gate, plus away fans.

This is much to my thinking and I will add:
If a supporter on the terrace (for example) buys a season ticket at early bird prices and misses 5 matches for whatever reason -maybe holidays, illness, other commitments or declining to attend under atrocious weather conditions then it is cheaper over the season to simply pay on the gate each attendance.

Where that supporter has missed the early bird discount so paying the full season ticket price he has only to miss 3 matches to save money with a pay at the gate choice.
(Actually the terrace concessions need only to miss 2 matches to make the alternative cheper)

Where the season ticket pricing is most advantageous is that of Juniors being £45 early bird and £55 full, whereas buying single match tickets @ £10 a pop would cost £130.
The same is true for juniors in the main stand (£75 early bird, £85 full against £15 matchday = £195 for the season.

I'm surprised that OK has so far missed the opportunity to resurect the Bulls game day experience, especially for the kids. Maybe he will and has plans to do so - but this is the time to announce them when fans are considering buying season tickets

Think they have already said they will be bringing back a lot of the game day stuff for kids. Tbh if we only get 2-3k walkup we're in trouble. See no reason why walkup shouldn't be in 5-6k region which it was pre-cheap season tickets. We need to be averaging 10k to break even iirc.

I can't see us getting back to 10k paying full whack in one season.

We never really dropped below the 10k average figure at full price. Couple of really low gates (6k) at bottom off McNamara reign dragged our average down in 2010 iirc. Team isn't unrecognisable from last years, albeit light in props, so don't see why we're going to see a 4k drop off in attendances like your suggesting.