uh oh.....come out tomorrow!
Paulbeirne Paul Beirne
Also Season seat renewal info arrives tomorrow via email. You can win that very cool TFC Kia Sportage!
uh oh.....come out tomorrow!
Paulbeirne Paul Beirne
Also Season seat renewal info arrives tomorrow via email. You can win that very cool TFC Kia Sportage!
Let's see how much MLSE took on board at the meetings last falll re payment options, what to include etc...
Well we're assuming theres a price freeze but add in 1 more game because of Montreal. Maybe even two because didn't they comp us a game?
Ya count me out.
I'll be downgrading from light gray to yellow. If no yellows are made available, I wont be renewing and I'll just pick up cheaper tickets second hand.
As single match tickets become more and more available, MLSE are going to have to make a more and more persuasive argument as to why people should bother paying the hundreds of dollars up front for a season ticket.
Of course, I suppose if the team manages to find success and the stands start to fill out again, some of those people dropping their season seats might regret essentially moving to the back of the line.
I'm content to pick up single tickets here and there, when I can make it. MLSE are going to have to steer this team to success before I will enthusiastically give them my money again.
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Love my seats but it's depressing to be a SSH holder and see constant promos and secondary market selling your same section seats well below what I pay. At ~$1,000 a pop for my seats it gets hard to justify.
I really doubt that if we start winning the crowds will come back right away. The managment has left a taint on the team that will take a few winning seasons before it starts to fill up again.
This is one of the cases where it is going to be 10x more expensive to find a new customer than keep us.
Yeah, I still love game day and going to the games. Also, I'm most likely going to renew.
It just sucks as a SSH to see tix pretty much the same as yours going for much less. Makes you wonder why one would cough up the cash when you could probably save yourself 20% on the cost of tix by not being a SSH.
Agreed. The newness is gone and the appeal has disappeared for the casual fan. To me, the only hope TFC has of recapturing past glory is to work with the SGs, as opposed to against them. Unfortunately, they view themselves as already bending over backwards so it appears as though we're at an impasse.
Sidenote: I would love to see an agenda of what they're planning to spoon feed us. If its just stuff from the red book, I'll pass.
We've heard the same discontent the last couple of years now. I notice people piss and moan but end up renewing anyways. Once this team gets into your blood it's pretty much here to stay. I know there will be people that don't renew but most of us will despite what some of us say. I haven't looked forward to the following season as much as I do for next year. There are some very positive signs as of late to suggest that we will be a playoff team next year once the backline is fixed and I'm confident it will be.
The only thing that concerns me with myself renewing is the unbalanced schedule we seem to get every year. I'm tired of the constant front end loading of the shedule , If I knew that it would happen again I might not renew. I want a game every other weekend like every other soccer league in the world and not huge gaps between games or lots of games packed together.
I think we'll see more people in the expensive seats (and scalpers) drop some tickets. The guy next to me has two pair and makes it to half the games lately. Seats go unused on nice days, never mind a near-zero March evening with a gale blowing off the lake. There just aren't 20,000 people willing to sit in the shit game after game.
And you're absolutely right about the unbalanced schedule. There should be fewer games in Toronto in March & April, not a third of the season.
Which "people" exactly? In fact, many already haven't renewed, or have renewed fewer seats, or have downgraded. That's why they burned through the complete waiting list at the end of the last season -- and that alone makes this renewal period very different from all the previous ones for the club.
Results have been mostly awful this season, so many more are now considering not to renew. All those extra empty seats this season, even if many are in fact sold to SSH's, represent people who might be having second thoughts about next season. Yes results have improved lately, and MAY continue to get better through the end of the season -- on the other hand, with tickets available for individual games all over the place, often at a big discount, you've got a whole new reason for many people not to renew.
I'm cautiously optimistic the prices will come down a bit. Either that, or they're setting management up for some beatings at the town halls next week.
Out of the 4 of us in 112, I am the only one renewing and I have to decide if I keep my 1 or grab another for 2.
I'll look to downgrade from light grey to yellow. My only issue is whether the sight line at the top of 111 is worth paying for rather than sitting in 116-118 (aka the deadzone).
I think we are just going to be getting our price freeze. That's it.
MLSE would probably rather sell 10,000 season tickets at current prices than 14,000 at a 30% discount.
Its only after the numbers drop dramatically that they will lower the price. So essentially there will be a 1-year buffer period.
They really are hoping that winning will cure all.
^^
that winning cures all statement will go down as one of the dumbest things said by an exec at MLSE. Sure, short term you'll sell extra tickets. But those buying tix just because the team is winning will atop buying as soon as the team starts losing. Not exactly a strong customer base.
What TFC had was an amazing dedicated fanbase who were ready to fill the stadium game in game out. A series of unprecedented miscalculated decisions has essentially killed off a large portion of that fan base.
Now they hiring a new Marketing guru. I can see their plan now. Tens of thousands of soccer moms with disposable cash are in the GTA. That's who we need to market to. Their kids are future customers. And not one person at MLSE will stand up and say that model has failed in every market in the MLS.
Anyway, enough negativity for today. Got to get myself ready to support the boys on the field tonight.
I was a STH the first 4 years and dropped them this season...I've seen every game I've wanted to, usually at BELOW COST....MLSE has KILLED the Golden Goose and will have to lower prices if they want to get people back IMO....
This is the first season I haven't been upset at missing games...and I've missed about a third and didn't buy CCL. Although I am sad at the situation and maybe it's bad to say as "a supporter" I don't feel bad for not buying them.
As for a balanced schedule, that would be a nice treat wouldn't it?
Next year is going to be stellar I will be adding seats
Strictly from a monetary point of view, anyone renewing or buying season tickets for next year is essentially buying an insurance policy against the eventuality that demand will increase significantly in the upcoming years. Otherwise it makes no sense, as tickets in 2012 will be readily available at well below face value for just about every game. Even the "premium games" don't really mean anything anymore; I have a friend at work who can't even give away his tickets for the New York game in two weeks.
Personally I have a pair of half-seasons this year and it was really a last-minute decision to buy them last winter when the ticket rep called me. In retrospect if I hadn't bought them I would have gone to a lot fewer games and would have spent a lot less money on tickets.
On the other hand there is always the possibility that the team will start winning next year and that tickets will once again be hard to get (and that the game-day atmosphere will once again be awesome). Not renewing means losing my place in line and potentially missing out on all the fun -- or having to pay a heck of a lot more for it. Hence the insurance metaphore.
This is specifically PB's baby ported over from the Raptors. I got screwed 3 years in a row with the promise that I'd be able to move and end up in the same seats. Year 4 I just said "no thanks". 4 weeks later a new business sales dude calls me and offers better seats for the same price...wow just want I've been asking for.
Moral of the story here gents (just like with Rogers offering free PVR's to switch from bell, and basically say "sorry no promo's for existing customers" ) is that all business' do this to us until they can't afford to get away with it.
Unfortunately, I love this team too much. I've been dying for professional Football in this city for a long time and now that we have it, a stadium that may be a tin can but it OUR home, and real grass to play on... I just can't NOT get tickets.
I wouldn't mind them stretching the pay period again...
5-payments can be easier than 4...
Every little bit helps in keeping goodwill...
This is an easy one, that costs them basically nothing, and spreading the payments helps people out who might be tight each month for cash...
Simple goodwill can go a long way with people...
"...Money wasn't tight, but it like, it wasn't right..."
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