Season Tickets 2009-10: Your Season Ticket, Your Choice

The Board is excited to announce a radical new campaign in which you can decide how much you pay for your own season ticket this summer.

At this stage in our development we need to recognise some important facts:
• Due to the costs of hiring playing facilities the club has made an operating loss over the past two years - we have been able to sustain this thanks to donations and original pledges
• Further cost-cutting measures will be implemented over the course of the next year, but there is a limit to how far these can go.
• We cannot continue to incur losses, especially as we need to demonstrate the club’s financial viability as we work towards our own ground in the near future
• We need to raise more revenue but we don’t want to do this by imposing unilateral ticket price increases - particularly in the current economic climate and in keeping with our philosophy of providing affordable football.

In light of this, FC United would like to become, to the best of our knowledge, the first club to say to supporters: "you decide how much you can individually afford and the value you place on being able to watch your team"??.

It should be noted that with the average season ticket price of about £140 last year, we still made a financial loss and therefore supporters may wish to consider this when choosing how much to donate. Some supporters may be able to pay more than £140, some supporters may only be able to afford less than last year’s figure, but together there is no reason why we cannot increase revenue from this source.

Supporters will understand that we cannot afford to give season tickets away and like all clubs we need a degree of security so a minimum price for adults of £90 will be asked, though if anyone finds themselves in particular circumstances that they cannot afford that amount, they are free to contact the club to discuss the matter.

However we would ask supporters that when you are deciding what you can afford it is important to use last season’s average price of £140 as a barometer of affordability rather than the £90 figure.

Accordingly, rather than set a target of numbers of season tickets sold, the board has set a cash target of £125,000 from the season ticket campaign.

This is an ambitious target, significantly up on last year’s budget, but not an impossible one. We raised even more than that once before with the pledges. There is no reason why we can’t do it again.

Jules Spencer spoke on behalf of the board:

"We believe this is unprecedented in football, a club saying to its supporters "pay what you can afford"??. Some may question whether we’re being foolhardy, but why shouldn’t we trust supporters?

"This is about empowerment, of collective responsibility, of us all pulling together to ensure the club’s future. It’s about recognising some may not be able to afford last season’s prices, but some will be able to afford more."??

Season tickets cover 21 league games but not cup or playoff games.

In effect concession season tickets for Over 60s/the unwaged have been scrapped as the minimum price for all adults is less than last season’s concession price. Those supporters in this category are invited to make a donation, if affordable, along with all other adults. It is proposed that Under 18 season tickets will remain at £21.

An evaluation of the proposal will be made in one month’s time, after which the Board will discuss both the viability of the proposal and next season’s pay on the day gate prices.

Full details of how to apply for your season ticket will follow over the next few days, but in the meantime spread the word as wide as you can: FC United are doing things differently again.