Well there are several on here who support it so it’s not beyond the realms.

Well... it’s got to the point where it looks to be a sport rather than just youthful exuberance!

Have you joined a debating team, Joe, where you have to defend an indefensible argument? You are certainly doing an admirable job of the customer championing a price increase and additional levy. How would you feel if they brought in a surcharge for season ticket holders who arrive after 2:30pm so they can reduce the number of hours for security staff?

Finally. It wasn’t that painful I hope. But to get a true answer to that question, you need to ask Waggott, since has been initiated by the club as a deterrent so as to avoid problems with late arrivals. If that is only a handful of people then do we really need to put them off or could we just charge the normal price? If it’s several hundred then it’s definitely a daft idea. As it turns out, we have 800 people (on average) at each home game who are paying the surcharge anyway. So that must mean it’s a great idea and we’ll take the extra easy 2 grand. Seems a bit churlish though. However, playing devils advocate, if we are seeing the number of early buyers increase and the number of late arrivals fall then it’s a sign that it is working as intended. Even better, if we sell rakes of half season tickets as people sign-up to avoid these issues altogether then great. Mission accomplished, Waggott will have won through punishing non-ST holders. Let’s see though. My guess is we’ll see exactly the same additions as in recent times as the Christmas present season comes along.

More avoidance. You go first.

I actually replied to Mattyblue about the Rotherham price and never mentioned “rip off”. Interesting that you agree with Matt but disagree with me. But if you are going to be a dick about it, you need to answer the very simple questions posed to you by Franky first.

Local offers to fill high profile games? That won’t catch on. Rovers hierarchy prefer to point at the “commitment” - or lack thereof - of the club’s own fans.

If it’s being suggested that it’s a “special offer”, it hardly supports the counter argument.

Now then...

England bossed the first half brilliantly but have reverted to type in the second.

Exactly, £19 against Rotherham isn’t an imaginative offer. Under Waggott though this is what “cheap” looks like. Instead of applauding and backing him, fans need to keep people like Waggott on their toes and reminding them of the demographic and the economics of the town and giving them a reality check. £19 is NOT cheap. Furthermore pushing that up to £22 if you wait until the last minute is just daft. Boiling frogs, people...

ZZ for manager.

Waggott himself has said that the surcharge is designed to avoid late fans arriving. You seem to have lost the point here. All efforts should be made to get as many fans into the ground as possible. A surcharge does not support that. I honestly cannot believe that there is a single Rovers fan, nay football fan, that thinks this is a good idea. Yet for some reason some want to shout down fans who say they disagree with it. Just seems like bloody mindedness.

And yet ST prices are going up, walk-on prices have increased, including now taxing casual fans, and attendances have stagnated. My view is that Waggott doesn’t have the imagination to increase numbers has decided that revenue increases have to be brought in from existing fans. They’ll either pay the extra or buy a ST. Alternatively, they just won’t come. The atmosphere and momentum from last season has been thrown away by short term thinking. Despite having rich owners rumoured to be wanting to bankroll a promotion charge but for Mowbray talking them down, we are eeking out 11-12k fans and asking them to dig deeper while trying to put off last minute fans from turning up.

Waggott does. That’s why he imposed it.

Because they keep putting up new barriers which go against a strategy of increasing attendance!

Making money without trying to increase volumes. I.e. putting prices up. You're an educated fella, making money and attendances aren’t interdependent.

Just shows that all clubs think the same way. Don’t make any effort to get more people to the games, just milk those that will make the trip “at any cost”. Presumably home fans have to pay the same. When TV takes over completely (universal red button) and attendances fall again, will clubs lower their prices or raise them again I wonder? Football clubs blame the armchair fans yet it’s their own pricing strategies keep them sat in them. Once you get to the point where away fans are in the habit of watching on TV, the final piece of the jigsaw will be in place for the European Super League.

We can’t have loads of last minute fans. Think about all the pies they might have to throw away if they didn’t know how many people to cater for. Imagine the sadness etched on children’s faces because they ran out of crisps. Imagine Paul still sat on the car park at 11pm, in -1 degrees, because of all the extra walk-ons. Now, here’s a thinker for you: Waggott: “we have the £3 surcharge to promote people buying early so we don’t have a last minute rush” - ergo the surcharge is designed to deter people from turning up on a Saturday afternoon. Positive BRFCS: “the surcharge isn’t any kind of deterrent” - ergo Waggott’s strategy is wrong Negative BRFCS: “Waggott’s strategy is wrong” - ergo there is no value in the £3 surcharge Waggott - “we still get 800 people every game that we weren’t expecting” - ergo we know how many people we aren’t expecting - but we can expect about 800 This is about milking fans for every penny. Nothing else.

This thread has turned into a bit of a farce. People defending a £3 surcharge. Talking about it being “cheaper if you buy early”. Gullible is right. We should be talking about how to increase attendances. I made a reasoned post suggesting an opportunity to do so which has garnered little or no discussion, or counter-suggestion, with people preferring to create strawman arguments and justifications for increasing prices at a time when we have average attendances of 12k - about the lowest in the last 25 years.

Let’s hope Duffer doesn’t put any ideas in Darragh’s head.

My mistake. I thought you’d tuned in to my sense of humour over the last few months. Won’t happen again!

Not that I can see. If the bridge isn’t your thing, how about some snake oil?

I wouldn’t target the 1st Dec game - too early. The strategy I’d be looking at would be to use the two games right before Christmas. First up,15th December against Big Club. £10 per ticket, kids for a quid. Really go for a big sell just ahead of the Christmas period and try to get the ground as full as possible. Let the atmosphere sell itself. Then normal price for the following Saturday against Norwich BUT the club will deduct the price of that ticket from the price of a half season ticket if you buy one between 15th and 22nd December. Advertise the hell out of the latter game at the former game, and see how many extras you can shift as late Christmas presents. Maths... 2000 walk ons x £25 = £50,000 Av Half ST (less discount) = £175 Rough cut, you need to shift an extra 300 adult STs to make it work. We got 25k on against Oxford. If we can get 20k (cheap but minus the promotion factor) then that’s up to 6000 extra fans to try to get your 300 from. Seems worth a try to me. Even if we don’t tempt people back you’ve got at least one bumper crowd against Birmingham and nobody can say the club didn’t try.

Literally, or literarily?