Will you renew?

[Redlips]

The club wont care what RF's opinion is, I don't expect any back tracking from MFC

The club don’t even, it still annoys me that the club lied about the digital tickets to the supporters forum. Just a tick box exercise.

Another thing that annoys me it is impossible to get a kit that in a normal size after September.

 

[BobUpnDown]

I gave up on season ticket decades ago, too many swapped dates & changes to KO plus working weekends..

If I did regular M-F job I may have kept it on, I certainly go to fewer games per season cos walkup prices are too high..

 

[HolgateCorner]

Maybe the club is not sustainable.

A lot of fans seem to think the ticket costs are too high or not worth it for what’s on offer.

The club apparently loses a lot of money anyway, even though crowds are at good levels for the second tier.

I don’t know how well the corporate side is supported by the business community but we dont have many boxes compared to other similar sized clubs.

It‘s like a lot of things in this area - golf clubs struggle to attract members whereas clubs in other places have waiting lists. Teesside Airport. - put the politics to one side there are posters on here who would rather travel to Newcastle to save £20. We have big anchor retail stores closed and empty in Middlesbrough due to lack of footfall. No doubt plenty of other examples.

We don‘t have anything which the Teesside public is 100% fully behind and prepared to sustain for the long term.

But if money is so tight, it is what it is.

 

[VestasBoro]

I like to think this forum is a good judge of the Boro fanbase and after 167 votes there are only just over 50% who said Yes, they'll be renewing. If the higher ups at Boro seen that figure i like to think they'd be devastated. It won't collate to the actual figures but you'd think the club would be releasing new ST prices and all this and hoping for a figure of 75-80% who will renew. This isnt new tickets this is people who they already have on board, who have already taken the bait and are paying customers who are saying they won't renew for next year. Almost 50% saying either No or they're not sure. If those not sures turned to yes there is still a quarter of people saying No, if that was the figure at the end of the ticket renewals that'll hit the club hard. They've ****ed up here big time. There is discontent on here, on twitter, on facebook, on the radio and i think you'll feel it at the Plymouth game but the only thing the club have going for them is time, there is 2 games before then and it won't be fresh in peoples minds - especially if the club get results at Preston and Leicester.



I know 167 people voting on FMTTM doesn't show the true reflection, but its quite damning that at least 25% of the posters on here who are ST holders won't be renewing for next season. The club have got this wrong.

 

[indeedido]

Maybe the club is not sustainable.

A lot of fans seem to think the ticket costs are too high or not worth it for what’s on offer.

The club apparently loses a lot of money anyway, even though crowds are at good levels for the second tier.

I don’t know how well the corporate side is supported by the business community but we dont have many boxes compared to other similar sized clubs.

It‘s like a lot of things in this area - golf clubs struggle to attract members whereas clubs in other places have waiting lists. Teesside Airport. - put the politics to one side there are posters on here who would rather travel to Newcastle to save £20. We have big anchor retail stores closed and empty in Middlesbrough due to lack of footfall. No doubt plenty of other examples.

We don‘t have anything which the Teesside public is 100% fully behind and prepared to sustain for the long term.

But if money is so tight, it is what it is.

No Championship club without Parachute Payments can sustainably challenge for promotion. They will all lose money and require a benefactor.
I struggle to see how you can say the Teesside public are not behind. The crowd average is over 27k man.

What we have is an owner who has clearly drawn a line under things.
He's almost the cleared the £250.3m loss he has led the club to make since he became owner. His £107m debt to equity conversion means he has injected £197m into a Club he already wholly owned.
He is still owed over c £42m in remaining Group Undertakings (loans) which if in the Championship he will never see again.

He has clearly had enough. The loss last season after his tax adjustments was £4m, which was covered again by Group Undertakings.

That is his choice and fair enough for him to call a halt to massive funding.
So long as he accepts he will slide to eventual relegation and he will be faced with starting again or losing control of his "precious".
Selling whoever he can, whenever he can and treating his supporters/customers with utter contempt is a route I didn't think he would go. The club is unrecognisable from a year ago.
I wonder how many will be standing and singing he's king in a year's time?

I'm a Boro fan, always will be, but not a Steve Gibson fan

 

[VestasBoro]

I told the kids yesterday that we won't be renewing and they were devastated. They asked if we can go to a few games and i said yeah we'll go to a few, but tried to reassure them that we can still watch every game, they can have the shirts, they can do the rest just i cannot justify the price increase for 3x season tickets.

The eldest said what if he didnt go on his school trip and didn't have pocket money could have a ST. It's breaking my heart this.

 

[davidmills]

£30 increase x 25,000 season ticket holders = £750,000
Hardly a great amount of potential extra income.
Selling Hoppe would probably have generated as much income.
Going by the percentages on this poll there is going to be a massive loss to the club from this.
PR own goal of massive proportions and probably a very costly one at that.
And March 15th don't even go there!

 

[HolgateCorner]

No Championship club without Parachute Payments can sustainably challenge for promotion. They will all lose money and require a benefactor.
I struggle to see how you can say the Teesside public are not behind. The crowd average is over 27k man.

What we have is an owner who has clearly drawn a line under things.
He's almost the cleared the £250.3m loss he has led the club to make since he became owner. His £107m debt to equity conversion means he has injected £197m into a Club he already wholly owned.
He is still owed over c £42m in remaining Group Undertakings (loans) which if in the Championship he will never see again.

He has clearly had enough. The loss last season after his tax adjustments was £4m, which was covered again by Group Undertakings.

That is his choice and fair enough for him to call a halt to massive funding.
So long as he accepts he will slide to eventual relegation and he will be faced with starting again or losing control of his "precious".
Selling whoever he can, whenever he can and treating his supporters/customers with utter contempt is a route I didn't think he would go. The club is unrecognisable from a year ago.
I wonder how many will be standing and singing he's king in a year's time?

I'm a Boro fan, always will be, but not a Steve Gibson fan

Yes part of my post said that even with the currently high crowds it is unsustainable and the club makes a loss.

 

[atypical_boro]

No Championship club without Parachute Payments can sustainably challenge for promotion. They will all lose money and require a benefactor.
I struggle to see how you can say the Teesside public are not behind. The crowd average is over 27k man.

What we have is an owner who has clearly drawn a line under things.
He's almost the cleared the £250.3m loss he has led the club to make since he became owner. His £107m debt to equity conversion means he has injected £197m into a Club he already wholly owned.
He is still owed over c £42m in remaining Group Undertakings (loans) which if in the Championship he will never see again.

He has clearly had enough. The loss last season after his tax adjustments was £4m, which was covered again by Group Undertakings.

That is his choice and fair enough for him to call a halt to massive funding.
So long as he accepts he will slide to eventual relegation and he will be faced with starting again or losing control of his "precious".
Selling whoever he can, whenever he can and treating his supporters/customers with utter contempt is a route I didn't think he would go. The club is unrecognisable from a year ago.
I wonder how many will be standing and singing he's king in a year's time?

I'm a Boro fan, always will be, but not a Steve Gibson fan

As you know I’ve defended him many times in the past. And I’m not even criticising him now. But it is clear he doesn’t have the tools to just “force” the promotion we all want. Or if he does, he doesn’t want to gamble them all again on something that is far from guaranteed.

But he will tell the Gazette he is “as ambitious as ever” or something and most people will be persuaded it’s the truth. The problem is it’s not about ambition, it’s about reality. We all need to accept that promotion isn’t just around the corner, and if/when it does happen again it’ll be mostly down to luck.

 

[18MFC76]

I told the kids yesterday that we won't be renewing and they were devastated. They asked if we can go to a few games and i said yeah we'll go to a few, but tried to reassure them that we can still watch every game, they can have the shirts, they can do the rest just i cannot justify the price increase for 3x season tickets.

The eldest said what if he didnt go on his school trip and didn't have pocket money could have a ST. It's breaking my heart this.

I wouldn't promise the shirt mate. Don't forget ST holders get first dibs and they are out of stock by August! Joking aside, it is a real shame and I feel for you. A mate of mine goes with his Mrs and 2 kids and they're not renewing so there's another 4 gone. The problem is with their 'new applicant' prices they're not going to get new people on board either. Once they lose a ST holder it's making it harder to get them back.

 

[VestasBoro]

Yeah i had a ST growing up with my mam, dad and brother. When it got expensive my mam dropped off (Looking back that was probably when my ticket jumped an age bracket so she gave way for me) and now out of us 4 none of us will be ST next year for the first time since RS opened as my dad and brother have both decided against it - they both have ability to watch the games from home too.

I reckon i've had a ST 75% of the years at the RS and the way the prices are going, kids jumping from U11 to U16 and then U18 i don't think I'll be racing to get another. It's financial, there'll be alot of people in the same boat as me who have been ST holders and are simply being priced out of the thing we love and unfortunately have to pick what we spend our disposable income on.

The club must have the information on people who have had ST and haven't renewed this year, last year etc and its wild to think they aren't reaching out to them. Whenever i leave something in an online shopping basket and don't complete payment i get an email chasing me and asking me, often i'll leave it a bit and then get a discount code or get something off them but the club seem to just be happy to have people forego their ST with no attempt at bringing them back in.

I think i'm at the point now where i'm seeing the club as a business, ran by businessmen who only care about balance sheets and it's just not the football club that i fell in love with unfortunately.

 

[Unravel_Morrison]

I wouldn't promise the shirt mate. Don't forget ST holders get first dibs and they are out of stock by August! Joking aside, it is a real shame and I feel for you. A mate of mine goes with his Mrs and 2 kids and they're not renewing so there's another 4 gone. The problem is with their 'new applicant' prices they're not going to get new people on board either. Once they lose a ST holder it's making it harder to get them back.

I didn't think I'd been in about 4 years or so; turns out it is actually more than 6 and that was on a freebie in The Fenton.

I used to laugh at the old boys in the workies who had stopped going ages ago when I was a kid. I understand now that it's easy to not go once you've stopped.

 

[18MFC76]

£30 increase x 25,000 season ticket holders = £750,000
Hardly a great amount of potential extra income.
Selling Hoppe would probably have generated as much income.
Going by the percentages on this poll there is going to be a massive loss to the club from this.
PR own goal of massive proportions and probably a very costly one at that.
And March 15th don't even go there!

Thats a great idea for the Red Faction protest. A massive banner : FREEZE PRICES. SELL HOPPE!!

It's a very valid point though.

 

[RavsDad]

I told the kids yesterday that we won't be renewing and they were devastated. They asked if we can go to a few games and i said yeah we'll go to a few, but tried to reassure them that we can still watch every game, they can have the shirts, they can do the rest just i cannot justify the price increase for 3x season tickets.

The eldest said what if he didnt go on his school trip and didn't have pocket money could have a ST. It's breaking my heart this.

The last line is so sad.

Edit:
I've been thinking bout this since I posted. He's 14 and he'd be willing to give up everything just to watch the Boro. Heartbreaking.