New Everton Stadium - Hill Dickinson Stadium

[SJB]

Perhaps the more pertinent question should be: where are all those wannabe ST holders on the waiting lists, when thousands of tickets are either on general sale or resale and going to waste?

A ticket on the resale site costs a lot more than a season ticket - maybe they can't/don't want to pay £60-£75 per game for a ticket that a season ticket hoarder has paid £38 for.

 

[rochdaleblue]

They must have took the results of them never ending consultations they done pre
Build and lashed them in the mersey

You’d think the powers that be would have noticed how some teams have struggled initially moving into a new stadium and done everything to make it feel like ‘our home’. Nothing could be further from the truth. You’d be hard pushed to know it was Everton football club who played there, if you sailed up the Mersey for the first time. Inside is even worse, no branding on the seats, some of the concourses looking very bland and to top it off the awful football on show this season. Must do better in all areas next season.

 

[Tom Hughes]

A ticket on the resale site costs a lot more than a season ticket - maybe they can't/don't want to pay £60-£75 per game for a ticket that a season ticket hoarder has paid £38 for.

Which is pretty much what I said, but it doesn't appear to tally with supposedly having 20k-30k+ on a waiting list, yet not being able to snap up just 1-2k resales on top of the general sales. Especially so soon after opening..... and almost regardless of what ST holders have paid (I think mine works out at £42 per match).

 

[dannyboy]

You mean the people who have put their money where their mouth is for years/decades, when so many couldn't be bothered going, because "Everton don't come and see you when you're bad".....?

Perhaps the more pertinent question should be: where are all those wannabe ST holders on the waiting lists, when thousands of tickets are either on general sale or resale and going to waste?

Furthermore, does this suggest that the waiting lists are a sham (or a scam)? Or is the whole digital tkt transfer/resale process too complicated and/or prices too high...? Or a combination?

The fact is, the waiting lists evolved over several years, largely when tkt prices were much lower. They also grew in an era of a smaller capacity in a stadium with many obstructed views, and in eager anticipation of the new stadium. However, that isn't the case now, there isn't limitless price-elasticity-of-demand in our fanbase and £60-70, plus a membership fee for a matchday tkt, is probably beyond that limit for the bulk of our non ST holders. We haven't got an endless amount of latent support, or out-of-towners desperate to come and watch us a few times per season.

The club now have American owners. They generally love to squeeze their asset to the max, especially when hoping to fully exploit any "new stadium effect." The point is, at these prices, with some transport issues disenfranchising the less mobile and still needing to be resolved, and with this quality of football (at least marginally better than the previous 5+ seasons), we may already be at or near those limits. We don't yet have those masses of empty seats that we've seen at the Etihad or London stadium for years.... but the owners should be conscious of where they are on those supply/demand curves. They also need a good surplus of demand to fully exploit corporate and corporate-lite packages and for "Seat Unique" sales to work. Quite a few jumped the waiting lists by opting for the corporate tkts. Empty general admission seats, might make some of those corporate packages look a lot less attractive going forward. If they're not careful the bubble will burst and more people could walk away, the waiting lists will vanish overnight and the whole pricing structure will collapse.

I think our attendances are massively inflated from their historic norm right now. I was watching the goals from our 5th round cup tie against Villa from our run to the final in 2009 and couldn't believe the attendance was only 32k - that was with 6k Villa fans there that day too.

If we're going to sell out the new ground consistently in years to come, I think prices are going to have to be lowered and the experience of getting to the match will have to improve as well. Even then I think it's going to be a struggle. Finding 12,000 new people to change their habits and regularly attend a football match is not an easy thing to do.

 

[SJB]

Which is pretty much what I said, but it doesn't appear to tally with supposedly having 20k-30k+ on a waiting list, yet not being able to snap up just 1-2k resales on top of the general sales. Especially so soon after opening..... and almost regardless of what ST holders have paid (I think mine works out at £42 per match).

So STH's don't wanna go the Bournemouth game on a cold, dark, wet night in February for valid reasons, but expect 30k people to be snapping up their cast off tickets? Just coz you're on the waiting list doesn't mean you're desperate to get to every game or don't face the very same issues that lead those STH's to not want/be able to go.

 

[PhilM]

A ticket on the resale site costs a lot more than a season ticket - maybe they can't/don't want to pay £60-£75 per game for a ticket that a season ticket hoarder has paid £38 for.

Whether you're poking the bear or being serious, I'm unsure, but I'll respond either way because I think there's a wider issue here.

The sequence of midweek night games, with more and more fixtures moved for TV, mean that it's more difficult for some fans to attend.

My youngest has a ST, and the late night fixtures make it more difficult: he's attended some, but with school it isn't suitable for him to do it regularly.

Thankfully, a family member makes use of it. Similarly, a lad I sit near to, who comes from the Midlands, has rarely missed a game for donkey years.

If it were a night game, he would plan to finish early from work, travel up and see the game, knowing that the Saturday and Sunday games balanced it out.

Can he do that for five or six games in a row, within a few months? No, so he has to forfeit games. Is it a choice? Well, yes, but there's real mitigation.

The elephant in the room here is that those ST holders have already stumped up the money - the club have got it - whether it's less per ticket or not.

If they get their money back, it's a bonus; if they don't, well that's the risk we take, but I think it crass to criticise when non-STs won't then take the seat.

 

[SJB]

If they get their money back, it's a bonus; if they don't, well that's the risk we take.

The most sensible sentence in this debate.

STH's are hugely priveleged. They have a gauranteed seat for every single game, at a heavily discounted price compared to those who are buying tickets game by game. If they can't/don't want to attend a game here and there and their seat is empty/given away for free, they're still making a saving over the season. Yet all you see is them cryarsing coz they can't find desperate fans to palm their tickets off on for the difficult/unfashionable games.

 

[welshtoffee]

My issues this season is mainly the HORRID home form, Var which is destroying the game and the late kick off times. The only issue I have with the stadium location is getting home after the match in the supporters coach which takes longer then getting home from Goodison. We get jammed going along Regents Road by all the other coaches and the volume of people coming out (They really did not think this out). Then battle up Bankfield Street then onto a very busy Stanley Road then finally onto Scotty Road when we can get into the tunnel. Regarding the stadium I actually like it, I have a great seat in the Upper North (245) with lovely fellow Blues around me. Now I have been using the lift to get up to the upper section it makes it much better for me, although I do walk down the stairs after the match as I find that a hell of a lot easier then going up the stairs.

 

[Tom Hughes]

So STH's don't wanna go the Bournemouth game on a cold, dark, wet night in February for valid reasons, but expect 30k people to be snapping up their cast off tickets? Just coz you're on the waiting list doesn't mean you're desperate to get to every game or don't face the very same issues that lead those STH's to not want/be able to go.

I would expect a small percentage of ST no shows for almost every match. Some deterred by weather, change KO times/dates, travel arrangements/work commitments etc, especially now with it not being so easy to transfer tkts. But by the same token, I would also expect non-season ticket holders to be able to easily take up the the resales (1-2k) and general sales (8k) if there was supposedly 30k+ of them desperate to for a ST, and multiples of that wanting to attend occasionally.

 

[SJB]

I would also expect non-season ticket holders to be able to easily take up the the resales (1-2k) and general sales (8k) if there was supposedly 30k+ of them desperate to for a ST, and multiples of that wanting to attend occasionally.

You're only seeing the unsold tickets on the resale site though, you have no data on how many tickets are successfully resold each game.

 

[Tom Hughes]

The most sensible sentence in this debate.

STH's are hugely priveleged. They have a gauranteed seat for every single game, at a heavily discounted price compared to those who are buying tickets game by game. If they can't/don't want to attend a game here and there and their seat is empty/given away for free, they're still making a saving over the season. Yet all you see is them cryarsing coz they can't find desperate fans to palm their tickets off on for the difficult/unfashionable games.

Or, ST holders are rewarded for their loyalty over many years. I don't think anyone is crying about losing out. The vast majority have probably given their tickets away to friends and family for years when unable to attend... I think most just don't want to see seats going empty, and agree that the general sale prices are too high.

 

[SJB]

Or, ST holders are rewarded for their loyalty over many years. I don't think anyone is crying about losing out. The vast majority have probably given their tickets away to friends and family for years when unable to attend... I think most just don't want to see seats going empty, and agree that the general sale prices are too high.

Yeah, they're so desperate to give them away that they've been selling them at an inflated supposed "face value" for the last few years, instead of asking for the price they paid they fleece fellow Evertonians for what they'd pay if it wasn't the heavily discounted STH rate.

 

[PhilM]

The most sensible sentence in this debate.

STH's are hugely priveleged. They have a gauranteed seat for every single game, at a heavily discounted price compared to those who are buying tickets game by game. If they can't/don't want to attend a game here and there and their seat is empty/given away for free, they're still making a saving over the season. Yet all you see is them cryarsing coz they can't find desperate fans to palm their tickets off on for the difficult/unfashionable games.

Privileged? I understand your point, however I think there are two sides to that particular word and its usage, which importantly shouldn't be ignored.

Am I privileged to get to watch my beloved Everton regularly, and sit in a favourable seat? Yes, I am, but let's not pretend it doesn't come without a cost.

Everton know they're getting well over £1k off me for myself and my son, to see those game. The discount per seat is provided for that commitment.

Add in, they know with that commitment they're more likely to get money for programmes, food and kits. Everton get well over £2k off me each year.

Now, I'm not saying woe betide me or whatnot, because a) I'm privileged to afford it, and b) it's a choice of mine, but there is a fair compromise.

I don't feel the club are obliged to reimburse me if I can't attend, and if fans do feel that, well they need to give their heads a wobble.

But without STs regularly taking up their privilege, the club (and any club when we're at it) wouldn't be where it is, and more so with the current home form.

Where I sit, most of us are ST holders and most have regularly attended this season, and when they haven't it's been a family member of friend.

 

[Bedfordblue]

Pretty despicable behaviour of the STH’s to cherry pick the best games and then exploit the waiting list fans to offset their costs for the best matches tbh.

 

[Tom Hughes]

You're only seeing the unsold tickets on the resale site though, you have no data on how many tickets are successfully resold each game.

I have to get extra tickets regularly and as far as I can see there has been a drop-off on resales. Of course that has to be viewed with respect to opposition, KO changes, weather and performances etc.... but the resales haven’t been going up till later and there have been more left on matchdays recently. I've had no problems getting them.