The Terrace View - Holte End Upper

[olaftab]

Excellent idea and I think Club are being very generous to charge only £480 to access this superb exclusive facility. I have put my name down for it and here is hoping it will keep the riffraff out allowing some of us decent supporters a relaxed space from where we can wave at Mr Purslow.

I wish he would sort out the parking behind the Holte, the chaffeur has trouble parking the Rolls Royce on match day next to them BMW'S

To be truthful low end shite like BM's, Mercs and Range Rovers  should not be allowed anywhere near essential convenient parking facility reserved for those of us who appreciate enhanced experience.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

It’s easy to say “it’s what the fans wanted” when the fans had no idea the prices would be such a piss take.

[olaftab]

Whats the new white heart lane like for regular fans?

I’ve been in the big home end / South Stand at the Spurs stadium (for a gig) and let’s just say that what Villa are charging £480 for, are the standard facilities for Spurs fans as their whole concourse looks like that anyway.

The cheapest season ticket in their South stand is about £1000 and  average price is £1200 so not surprised at the "standard  facility".

[Brend'Watkins]

The take up on this will be negligible. They’ll halve the price and it will still be very few. In the end they’ll be offering it for £100. Even if it was free I wouldn’t use it. I’ll stick to the usual plan, arrive at kick off and leave at full time to support local hospitality.

[RamboandBruno]

Yet more reason to drink in town pre match, and again afterwards. It’s becoming like a Ryanair flight going to the match these days. What next? 20p to have a piss?

Good comparison, pay money to be treated like shit, very Ryanair.

They're not forcing anyone to use the new Terrace Bar though. The only people people it might efffect are those who use it already.

Its not really the point though is it. They’ve spun it as if supporters have asked for this, i doubt very much anyone asked for somewhere to go pre/post match that will cost them the best part of £500 a year, announced at the same time as huge season ticket hikes. Nobody will be forced to use it, its what  it signifies about how the club view us.

[Nev]

If,as predicted, this has a negative impact on the concourse in the upper Holte I shall arrive even later to the ground than I do at the moment. I don't spend a lot but I'm sure there are people who spend more than me. It seems counter productive (unless this thing is a wild success which is fanciful in the extreme) to discourage spending inside the ground.

[chrisw1]

They're not forcing anyone to use the new Terrace Bar though. The only people people it might efffect are those who use it already.

I think Chris nailed it with his point - the rest of us in the Upper Holte will find that everyone is now going to be crammed into a much smaller space. We are going to be paying more for reduced facilities. That bar seemed to be the only place in the entire ground where you could get a drink without having to queue for 25 minutes, and now that's being taken away.

Me, my brother and my dad had got into the habit of having a drink before the match, just because it's convenient. We'll almost definitely end up just getting to the ground later and going straight to our seats now.

If it was an extra benefit for season ticket holders, or incorporated into the Pride Rewards, or even just a few quid to enter, I could understand it - but £25 a match is just a ludicrous price. I honestly can't get my head around how anyone at the club could possibly think that is reasonable.

This is exactly it.  I don't know how many the Holte upper holds - maybe 5k?  So if ambitiously 1k take this up then 80% of 'customers' will be shoehorned into maybe half the current space.  It's packed up there as it is and the increased demand for the remaining 'plebs' bars and toilets will surely be unsustainable.

How the hell can this be considered a step forward in fan experience?

I'm not happy about the ST prices, but I can kind of see the logic in terms of taking steps to bridge the revenue gap.  But forcing this sort of shit onto us when these are the type of facilities they should be providing anyway is pretty disgusting in my view.

[LeeB]

It's just so wank, such a shitty, corporate, pretty much this government style of solution to a problem.

You've got 13,500 customers in there who to a man are telling you it's difficult for them to spend the money they want to spend. To solve it, you ask a small percentage to pay almost the cost of their ticket again to have the ability to do so, whilst simultaneously making the already poor experience worse for the majority by removing space in the from the already problematic area.

Without providing solutions, a quick fag packet calculation says:

1000 people pay it at £480 = £480,000
They each spend £15 = £280,000

total £760,000

I think that's being generous too, I don't think the take up would be anything near that. Now lets instead that every fan spends an extra £5 on matchday in there, because the bars work and the food is good. There will always be people that wont spend that but others will spend a lot more so I don't think it's unrealistic, but just that over a league season would be just over £1.25m, and you'd have a lot more happy customers.

A pox on the witless spunkbubbles that come up with this shit.

[chrisw1]

You're exactly right Lee.

If I could get a pint or a bovril at half time without missing some of the game then I probably would buy one most games.  I'd probably spend more before the game too if the facilities, service and quality of pie was better.  Bur forcing most the fans into half the pace is going to make it far worse.

[chrisw1]

Also, I'm sure the people who spend the most - which is surely the younger fans drinking - are the least likely to pay for this in the Holte.  Alienating those that spend the most has to be a daft commercial decision.

[algy]

I'd imagine it's probably more targeted at the likes of me - folk who'll go once or twice a year and as of such will probably more inclined to spend an extra bit of money to make it a nicer experience, because you're only going to the odd game so why not hedge your bets a bit and make sure you've got somewhere to sit down, have a beer, etc.  They're probably right to some extent, for example when I go I'm usually open to spending a little bit more on slightly nicer seats than I'd consider if I were going more regularly.

I can see it working, but I'd predict it's not necessarily going to be something aimed at people who go every other week.  If you're more of an occasional visitor, though, then paying an extra £30 on top of the match ticket for a programme, couple of pints, having somewhere obvious to go before/after the match to miss out on the queues for traffic or trains, .... I can see the attraction.  It's them it's aimed at - people who go to a handful of games, either because they can only make a handful or they've come as tourists - rather than season ticket holders, I'd think.

[Drummond]

That walk through video has accurately predicted the number of people who will take the offer up.

[chrisw1]

I'd imagine it's probably more targeted at the likes of me - folk who'll go once or twice a year and as of such will probably more inclined to spend an extra bit of money to make it a nicer experience, because you're only going to the odd game so why not hedge your bets a bit and make sure you've got somewhere to sit down, have a beer, etc.  They're probably right to some extent, for example when I go I'm usually open to spending a little bit more on slightly nicer seats than I'd consider if I were going more regularly.

I can see it working, but I'd predict it's not necessarily going to be something aimed at people who go every other week.  If you're more of an occasional visitor, though, then paying an extra £30 on top of the match ticket for a programme, couple of pints, having somewhere obvious to go before/after the match to miss out on the queues for traffic or trains, .... I can see the attraction.  It's them it's aimed at - people who go to a handful of games, either because they can only make a handful or they've come as tourists - rather than season ticket holders, I'd think.

But it's pretty much impossible to get two seats together in the upper Holte for occasional fans, so this sort of 'experience' would be better placed in the Witton or new North (and I'm sure there will be plenty of it in there)

[LeeB]

Last year I went to Elland Rd for the first time in years. It's an absolute shit tip of a stadium, but there were plenty of toilets and they had two lads, one with a keg and a tap and another with a card reader, who were knocking out pints to everyone effortlessly, we had time to get two rounds in.

It's not that fucking hard, it actually feels like they want to make it hard so you'll pay for these ludicrous white elephant schemes. They love this shit, these fucking Purslow types, what was that thing at Spurs? Eat the finest cheeses whilst staring at players in the tunnel through a one way glass for about £3m a season, fuck off.

[artvandelay]

Thinking about it, it's a phenomenal piece of business. They've identified a problem caused by underperformance (not being able to get a pint and/or pie at half time). They have then charged the consumers two fold to solve it, both in the form of 15% ticket rises and £25 to solve their problem. They've even managed to make it seem like the consumers asked for this solution, rather than just a bar that worked, due to the leading questions on the survey.

There's some management consultant somewhere feeling really fucking proud of themselves right now.