Huddersfield Town

 

The Club is proactive in using match day ticketing offers and discounted pricing to try and attract new supporters and encourage occasional supporter to come to games.  

The Club is committed to making sure that a Season Card offers the best value for money option for supporters. However, from time to time, supporters do ask about the value for money of a Season Card compared with match day pricing.    

 

Of course, if a Season Card holder does not attend games then the savings compared with paying on a walk up basis naturally reduce. The actual savings and value for a Season Card holder will vary depending on the actual number of games, which games are attended and which discounted match day offers are available to them. Each individual’s own definition of value will be unique to them and their personal circumstances, and every possible scenario cannot be considered. However, for the first time at the Club, we have looked back at our Championship match day prices and offers in 2014/15 compared with Season Card cost for adult purchasers.  

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Last season, the Club had the following basic match day walk-up categorised prices for the Britannia Rescue (BR) and Fantastic Media (FM) stands:

 

 

If a supporter paid these basic walk-up prices for all 23 games, this equates to a total undiscounted maximum walk-up cost of: 

 

- £541 Britannia Rescue (£23.52 per game)

- £461 FM Lower (£20.04 per game)

- £541 FM Upper (£23.52 per game)

 

The cheapest Season Card cost (for early bird renewal by existing Season Card holders) was:

 

- £369 Britannia Rescue (£16.04 per game) (£384 for new fans)

- £249 FM Lower (£10.82 per game) (£259 for new fans)

- £289 FM Upper (£12.56 per game) (£304 for new fans)

 

The Season Cards compare with basic walk-up gave savings of:

 

- £172 Britannia Rescue; 30% (this represented seven free games versus undiscounted walk-up price)

- £212 FM Lower; 46% (this represented 10 free games versus undiscounted average walk-up price)

- £252 FM Upper; 47% (this represented 10 free games versus undiscounted average walk-up price)

 

For a supporter attending every game, the Season Card offers huge savings compared with undiscounted match day walk-up prices.  A Season Card offered the biggest savings behind the goal and in the family stand.

 

In order to encourage match day ticket sales and target supporters, we continued to have special deals offering a discounted prices against the basic match day walk-up prices. These allowed big savings at big games for home fans (category A, A*, B) or smaller savings at less attractive games depending on the opposition and scheduling. We also targeted offers to our partner schools, local clubs and gave discounts to the family and friends of Season Card holders too.  Again we had a £10 Promo game and finally, as a ‘Special’ we offered £5 in all areas versus Blackburn Rovers in our final home league game of the season.

 

We had the following match day walk-up offers on 12 games across three stands (plus one offer for Revell Ward Upper*):

 

 *Only one offer was available in the Revell Ward stand via Living social for Watford (C). Price only £12 saving £13 on the walk-up adult price.  

**Most match day offers were restricted to the Fantastic Media Upper (11 games), which is our family stand and were therefore only available to adults purchasing with children’s tickets.

 

Britannia Rescue stand had six offers (three 'Friend for Twenty' offers available to Season Card holders only).

 

The £5 offer for all vs Blackburn was effectively a walk-up of £5 in all areas. 

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Taking all the 13 match day offers together (if a supporter was able to take advantage of them all), stand by stand, this could have potentially saved the following compared with the total undiscounted normal categorised walk-up cost:

 

- £70 on Britannia Rescue 

- £36 on FM Lower

- £36 on FM Lower

- £12 on Revell Ward Upper

          

The overall minimum walk-up cost potentially available for 23 games in that stand could therefore have been:

 

- £471 on Britannia Rescue (£541 less £70 saved); six games for £90 and 17 at undiscounted prices (an average undiscounted cost of £22.41)

- £425 on FM Lower (£461 less £36 saved); five games for £80 and 18 at undiscounted prices (an average undiscounted cost of £19.17)

- £399 on FM Upper (£541 less £142 saved); 11 games for £140 and 12 at undiscounted prices (an average undiscounted cost of £21.58)

 

It goes without saying, taking advantage of the match day offers is beneficial compared with not – and some substantial savings could be made, but the availability of offers was generally restricted.

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The lowest cost Season Card cost (Early bird renewal by existing SC holder) was:

 

- £369 Britannia Rescue (£16.04 per game) (£384 new fans)

- £249 FM Lower (£10.82 per game) (£259 new fans)

- £289 FM Upper (£12.56 per game) (£304 new fans)

 

Even if a supporter was able to take advantage of all the match day offers available, a Season Card gave the following savings compared with the minimum potential discounted walk-up cost:

 

- £102 Britannia Rescue; equal to 4.5 games free at the average discounted walk up price (and 22% saving on the potential discounted walk-up cost of £471)             

- £176 FM Lower; equal to 9 games free at the average discounted walk up price (and 41% saving on the potential discounted walk-up cost of £425)

- £110 FM Upper; equal to 5 games free at the average discounted walk up price (27% on the potential discounted walk-up cost of £399)

 

In addition to the financial savings, a Season Card also brought the following additional benefits in 2014/15:

 

- Allocated reserved seat every game

- Superior ticket priority for away games compared with non-Season Card holders (walk up)

- Interest free purchase available on Season Cards over 10 months

- Three ‘Friend for Twenty’ vouchers 

- £5 off the £22 membership for PPG Canalside

- Special late night opening event in Retail in November 2014 before opening to other supporters

- Extra £5 off replica shirts in January 2015

- Access to ‘try before you buy’ in White Rose Club hospitality at start of 2014/15 season

- Discount on White Rose Club hospitality (£10 off based on an adult with a RW Lower ticket)

- Extra 145 points on the 1908 Rewards Scheme (on top of the 230 points they would get if they attended all 23 home games)

- £2 discount on PPG Canalside Comedy Night tickets (£10 instead of £12)

- Junior season card holders got a free place in the 200 Kids Game (saving £5 an entry price)

- Four day priority booking on “Welcome to the Season Open Day” event on 25 July 2014

- Season Card Holders’ prize draw at all home match days at half time

- £2 discount for Season Card holders on entry into the U18 Play-off semi-final versus Brentford in April 2015

 

By taking advantage of all the discounted match day price offers and then also seeking the cheapest seat on a match day price when no offers were available (regardless of the stand) the supporter could get a lower overall cost than sticking to one stand for every game.  If a supporter was able to take advantage of all the 13 match day offers available, they would pay £162 for those 13 discounted games and would have paid for 10 other games as follows:

 

Games	Category	Prices in BR & FMU	Price in FML
1	Cat A	£28	£24
1	Cat B	£26	£22
5	Cat C	£24	£20
1	Cat D	£22	£20
1	PROMO	£10	£10
1	Special	£5	£5

 

The minimum walk up cost of these 10 remaining undiscounted games would be £181 in the FML or up to £211 if in BR/FMU.

 

For 23 games using all the match day offers (if a supporter was able to take advantage), would give a minimum potential total cost of £343 for 23 home league games (£181 for 10 undiscounted games in FML + £162 for discounted offers at 13 games) with 6 games sat sitting in FMU, 1 in RW Upper, 6 in BR and 10 in FML (average price per game £14.91)

 

The minimum Season Card early bird renewal cost was: 

 

- £249 in FM Lower; this is a Season Card saving of £94 compared with match day offers                           

- £289 in FM Upper; this is a Season Card saving of £54 compared with match day offers (plus 11 games foregone in the FMU for 9 in FML and 1 in RW upper and 1 in BR)

 

If a supporter only went to the 13 games with offers (and was able to take advantage of them all), the cost would be £162 (£12.46 per game), with 6 games sat sitting in FMU, 1 in RW Upper, 6 in BR. This compares with £10.82 in the FML and £12.56 in FMU for a full 23 game season card.

 

Under this scheme for £50 an adult could secure £100 of discounts on normal match day prices on any 10 games (excluding Promo and the Special game).  There a many combinations of attending 10 games out of 23.  

Depending on the fixtures selected, the average cost of the ten games is in the range:  

 

- Britannia Rescue; £21.60 - £18.60 (Season Card average £16.04 per game)          

- FM Lower; £17.60 - £15.00 (Season Card average £10.82 per game)

- FM Upper; £21.60 - £18.60 (Season Card average £12.56 per game)

 

A supporter could have reduced the match day cost by taking advantage of the 13 discounted games for £162 and then also selecting a 'Take 10' ticket (and use it for 8 other non-discounted games, saving £10 on each – but not the Promo or Special games).  

The cost for 23 games could then be 13 discounted games + Take 10 in FML (£162+£181+£50-£80) which is £313 (£13.60)

 

In 2014/15 an Adult Season Card renewed in the Early Bird period gave the following savings compared with the minimum potential discounted walk-up cost for 23 games bought in the stand:

 

- £172-£102 in Britannia Rescue   

- £212-£176 in FM Lower                                

- £252-£110 in FM Upper                       

 

For an adult, the lowest walk up cost which could be obtained for 23 games with all discounts and lowest other match day tickets and using the Take 10 in FML was £313 compared with the lowest Season Card price of £249.  These savings alongside the other benefits represent the value of being a Season Card holder.