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[Cheeses Of Nazareth @OhCheesesChrist]

The Demise Of The Season Ticket Holder

I want to give a bit more context on why I believe the recent sanctions being issued to Season Ticket Holders (STHs) are happening, and why I think there’s a revenue-driven agenda to reduce the number of STHs from the last published figure of 46,800 (see repost).

When the Glazers took over the club, they gradually increased the number of Season Tickets. The benefit of doing so was that it brought more money into the club upfront, at the start of each season, through renewals. Back then, there wasn't much difference between what a Season Ticket Holder paid per game and what a member paid to attend the same match.

Last June, Liverpool reported having 34,000 Season Ticket Holders, which represented around 55% of their stadium capacity. By comparison, Manchester United sits at around 62%. That might not sound like a huge difference, but financially it’s significant if the club replaces those season tickets with higher-priced memberships and hospitality.

To bring United down to the same 55%, the club would need to reduce the number of Season Ticket Holders by around 5,800.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll use my own Season Ticket as an example. The figures won’t apply to everyone, but they illustrate why not only United but also a number of Premier League clubs may be looking to reduce the number of legacy Season Ticket Holders.

My Season Ticket costs £874 a season (£46 x 19 league games).

If my Season Ticket were removed and those same seats were instead sold to members at current match-by-match prices, the income would look something like this:

6 Category A games: 6 × £81 = £486
10 Category B games: 10 × £73 = £730
3 Category C games: 3 × £58 = £174
That totals £1,390.

So, on my seat alone, the club would generate an additional £516 per season — an increase of almost 60%.

Now apply that same principle across 5,800 Season Ticket Holders, and the additional revenue is almost £3 million per season (around £2.99m based on these figures). There could be additional operational costs to the club around all of this, but I don’t believe it would make the chase for the extra revenue pointless

This also doesn’t include any additional memberships that would need to be purchased for a member to obtain tickets.

Of course, these are illustrative numbers based solely on my own ticket price, and the actual figure would vary depending on where seats are located and how they’re repriced. But it indicates the financial incentive to reduce the number of Season Ticket Holders and replace them with more profitable ticketing models.

Now, you could argue that United did issue new Season Tickets after the renewal deadline, so they can’t be actively trying to reduce the overall number. My counter-argument would be that they still need to be seen to issue some Season Tickets while encouraging supporters to buy a Premium Membership, pay a Season Ticket deposit and commit to a Cup Season Ticket.

If the club were seen to be significantly reducing the number of Season Ticket Holders, the whole model would start to unravel, as fewer people would see the value in paying deposits and memberships while waiting for a ticket that may never come. That, in turn, could reduce revenue from those products.

The question then becomes whether the additional income from converting more seats to member sales and hospitality outweighs the potential loss in Premium Memberships, deposits and Cup Season Tickets. I don’t know the answer, but it’s certainly part of the financial equation.

The club will be crunching the numbers across all these scenarios.

Whether that’s what’s happening is open to debate, but when you look at the economics, it’s not difficult to see why clubs may be tempted.

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