Could not agree anymore.

Also throw in that you can pay monthly for your season ticket instead of a lump sum as well as the memberships and it makes it much more affordable. The issue is knowing about it. You have to get into the complicated ticketing website to find this out when it should be plastered all over billboards across the town, all over social media, posters at amateur clubs, radio adverts etc.

Season ticket application forms need to be sent to every coach (ages 5-icon_cool.gif for every amateur club in the area. Make a big push on it, send in a couple of senior players during the off season. Meet and greet in the clubhouses, photo opportunities and get kids signed up for their free season tickets.

That's four age groups (4 x 20 kids per club). That's before any of the parents sign up as well.

Edited.

Not going to argue. Season ticket affordability are subjective after all.

I disagree JJ. They are definitely affordable. I'm not sure how much more affordable they could reasonably be expected to be, especially given the new rise of free tickets to cover up to age 8. Whether any given individual can afford them is an entirely different argument.

affordable
/əˈfɔːdəbəl/
adjective
inexpensive; reasonably priced.

Here is the problem. Yesterday we had a full day out in the Lake District. Three ferry trips, car parking, visit to some National Trust pile, couple of pints and a few miles walking. That cost us £50. We can’t do a home game for that but I can watch every second on Wigan TV for next to nothing.
I have no idea how cheap tickets could be if IL really tried but do agree they offer good value compared to other clubs. The problem is that I’m comparing it to a completely different activity for around about the same cost with Wigan TV as my backup.

My word, they are like 2017 for St. Helens. If you consider two back to back years, St. Helens are actually worse with Wigan £-1.8m and St. Helens £-2.1m with only a revaluation of fixed assets apparently making that look better.

Apples and oranges JJ. You can't compare walking in the countryside which is effectively free, with a paid activity. National trust is paid for in other ways, including your taxes, too so we all pay for that already. The same can't be said for Wigan. Did you include your petrol and food in your £50? In addition you'd have to wait around 3 days to see the game on Wigan TV which I would argue is not anything approaching a like for like alternative.

Anyway, I'm certainly not arguing the relative merits of free stuff against paid. My point was that, as season tickets go, Wigan's are very good value and certainly fall within an acceptable definition of 'affordable'. Given the losses posted year on year, more so. As I said above, though, whether any particular individual can afford them is an altogether separate argument and, in truth, is probably more a societal problem and not for these pages.

Only if you don't understand what you're looking at.

And I disagree with you mate. Affordability and value for money are completely different concepts. I think they’re great value but we are a family of 5. That’s 2 adults, a 16 year old and 2 children. Even with the cheapest tickets in the South Stand, it’s £704 a year, plus drinks, food etc on game day. I’d love to get season tickets but the fact is that we have higher priorities to spend the money on therefore for us, they’re not affordable.

Like I said - subjective.

Perhaps the club could look at family season tickets to encompass those in a similar situation to yourself. It would certainly entice the families back to Wigan and thus increase attendances and match day revenue.

So are you saying they aren't reasonably priced? How much do you think a fair price would be?

Just to be absolutely clear, I never stated affordability and value for money where the same thing so I'm not sure what your point in raising that is.

What you're quoting above relates to your personal ability to afford them or not. That has no bearing on the definition of affordable (I've put the definition in the original post if you aren't sure what that is). It's purely a comment on on your personal circumstances.

Correct

The current Economic/Political situation won't be helping but the pure Fact of the issue is People only have so much Disposable income.
How they choose to use that is entirely up to each individual.
The other poster is saying it's £704 in the South stand - I would dispute that
Even if we count the 16yr old as a Student (Not sure what age the price goes up to a student?) I know my 20yr olds is £155 in the East & my 16yr old gets his at £35
Mine was 235 for renewal (That's around £16.50 per game for me & £30 per game for 3 of us) and I'm sure South will be cheaper

2 x Adults at say £215 each - 430
Student (May even be cheaper if still at school) - £130
2 x kids (Assuming over 8 as under 8 is free and that would be even cheaper) - 35x2 = £70

I reckon you could get a Family of 5 in this scenario for around £630
That's £45 per game

As you say Affordability & Peoples circumstances are one thing - Value for Money is another

And Wigan's Seasons Tickets IMO are fantastic Value for money and on a par if not a lot cheaper than other clubs.

Wigan have upped the Season ticket for free range to 8
They've introduced cheaper pricing structures for Students & U16's over the last couple of years to bring their process more in line with the discounts that the South Stand people were getting (My Lads Student ticket is cheaper now that 3 years ago AND my 16yr old is now paying £35 like the East instead of the 110 plus in the East it used to be).

Whilst welcoming the above I do ask the question how charging me & Thousands others Less will help improve the clubs finances.
I also wonder how much of an impact upping the free age to 8 etc. will have.

I wonder if this is Leneghans attempt to get the numbers in along with the Big signings and he's prepared to take a hit in the short term to try and encourage more Fans/attendees for the future?

What I do know is that complaining about ticket prices and asking for them to be reduced even further won't help the financial situation were complaining about.

Said it before & will say it again - Wigan and it's fans will get what it deserves - If "WE" don't back it better then there will be knock on effects & consequences to us being able to be at the forefront of the Game

By charging them at rates more suitable to people’s finances it entices them into buying one. If the South Stand was £350, East £400 and West £500 for an adult season ticket you wouldn’t catch a lot of people getting season tickets. By going for the cheaper rate they entice more fence sitters in and thereby increase revenue.

The pay monthly option will also bring people in who couldn’t afford the all at once hit for a season ticket. If you make it more accommodating to people it gives them less of an excuse to not buy one, especially with the signings we’ve made for 2020.

What I am saying is that by offering the existing customers/fans cheaper deals you have to be careful not to reduce income to an extent that the "Newcomers" don't cover the reduce income the existing fan base are paying.

To say by reducing ticket prices it will increase the amount of people coming through the door and in turn increase revenue is WAY to simplistic.

If there are 500 fans getting free ST's that weren't before that could be nearly 20k less revenue (And I understand it may entice "Future Customers"icon_wink.gif
By offering cheaper East Stand tickets for U18's & Students in line with the South Stand it could have reduced income by 50k per year (My sons East Stand has gone down from 140ish to £35 for the past 2 x seasons) If 500 people are benefitting from this that 50k

The auto renewal (Which has obviously had it's technical issues) has reduced the cost of season ticket prices further and if each of the 7/8k tickets are £10 cheaper because of this that's 80k

Now 150k lost income is a lot to recover and if we take an "Average" of 1 x adult & 1 x Junior season ticket being £150 then that's a Thousand New Fans/Season ticket holders (That may have been walk up fans anyway so that revenue is lost) that will be needed to just Break even.

The post that I replied to was in relation to the club making ALL TICKETS EVEN CHEAPER to entice new fans!
If they did that then suddenly we could be looking at being 300K down on existing revenue requiring 2k new season ticket holders (Who as I say a lot could walk up anyway so you would lose that income and that would need offsetting also) just to break even to where we are now!

That's a Hell of a Risk!

My point is - If were going to charge the existing Fan base even less to entice new customers your taking less money off 10/11k people in the hope of enticing that off New customers and that's not the way forward for me.

We need to be focussing on increasing the amount of people attending based on current prices as they Really are Value for money already.