Firstly, I would like to give a warm welcome to the new members who have recently signed up with the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, and I would also like to thank those of you who have renewed your memberships during the last couple of months. Your support is very much appreciated by the Trust’s board.
As you are no doubt aware, the club is already offering fans the chance to buy season tickets for the 2010/11 campaign. The ‘Platinum Ambassadors’ deal involves a promise of a guaranteed price freeze for a further four seasons for those of us who are amongst the first 10,000 supporters to purchase season tickets before 31/12/2009.
On the face of it, the offer appears to be an excellent one for City fans, whether you are a current season ticket holder or not. Naturally enough, the board of the Supporters’ Trust welcomes any initiative which gives our members a chance to save money. However, we currently have three main concerns about this scheme, which are as follows:
1) The fact that the club has once again implemented a new ticketing policy without any consultation whatsoever with the Trust, the Supporters’ Club or any of the other fans’ groups.
2) The fact that supporters are now unable to pay for their season tickets by interest-free instalments (the only instalment option is through a company called Zebra Finance and involves paying interest at a rate of almost 20% on top of the price of a season ticket).
3) The timing of the deal. Selling season tickets in the last week of October is a totally unprecedented move as far as Cardiff City is concerned. It would suggest that our club is once again desperate to raise money quickly, which is a definite worry considering the increased crowds following the move to the new stadium, the much-publicised talk of new investment and the fact that we are less than three months into the current campaign.
The Trust’s board will be meeting on Monday evening to discuss this issue, and ticketing policies are sure to be high on the agenda when our representatives next meet with the club’s officials. Therefore, we would like to hear your opinions on the subject of the Platinum Ambassadors scheme.
Do you think this initiative is a positive or a negative step for our club to be taking at this point in time? Do you have any particular concerns about the way the deal is structured? Will you be taking advantage of the club’s ‘Platinum Ambassadors’ offer? If not, why not?
Please e-mail your views to members@ccfctrust.org
Many thanks for your continued and much-valued support.
Dave Sugarman
Membership Secretary