List of Official Coach Pick Ups for Sheffield

AFKABartram

Fare £22

FA Cup quarter-final: Sheffield United -Sunday, March 9th (12pm)

Larkfield 5:50am
Gravesend 6:15am
Dartford 6:30am
Bexleyheath 6:45am
Bromley 6:30am
Eltham 6:45am
Charlton 7am

Bexhill 4:45am
Hastings 5am
Ore 5:10am
Battle 5:25am
Pembury 5:55am
Tonbridge 6:10am
Bessels Green 6:25am

Ashford 6am

Sandwich 5am
Ramsgate 5:20am
Canterbury 5:50am
Faversham 6am

Medway 5:55am

Maidstone 2 5:40am
Leybourne 5:55am
Cuxton 6:15am

Worthing 4:30am
Brighton 4:50am
Crawley 5:20am
Godstone 5:45am
Orpington 6:15am
Margate 5:10am

Birchington 5:20am
Herne Bay 5:35am
Whitstable 5:45am

New Romney 4:50am
Dymchurch 5am
Hythe 5:15am
Folkestone 5:30am

Maidstone 1 5:20am
Ditton 5:45am
Snodland 6am

PragueAddick

Interested in the response to this news

LargeAddick

thought they might susidise it a bit, disappointed by that

LargeAddick

just to add think you can forget a quick sell out, maybe not sell out at all

Danny Addick

Expensive but the tix aren't too bad so I think it's ok overall.

DartfordAddick

That journey from Bexhill would be absolutely horrible.. I'm half considering it!

Huskaris

I am tempted to offer to pay someone from worthings fare just to pay homage to getting on a coach at 4.30....

RedChaser

DartfordAddick said:

That journey from Bexhill would be absolutely horrible.. I'm half considering it!

No no don't go to pick it up in Sussex jump on it at Halfords Dartford :0)

shine166

LargeAddick said:

thought they might susidise it a bit, disappointed by that

Maybe thats something the trust could try to ask for ?

Curb_It

Why do people think the club should subsidise their travel? I think 22 is reasonable.

Macronate

why should I pay as much as someone travelling from say, Bexhill when they are travelling further?

it would be fairer if they were to pay, say £32 and me £12.

shine166

Curb_It said:

Why do people think the club should subsidise their travel? I think 22 is reasonable.

Its just a guesture I guess due to the train issue. Makes no difference to me anyway, if we get tickets we will drive up.

markwebb25

Is anybody driving from Paddock Wood to Tonbridge to catch the coach? Please inbox me if so. Cheers!!

stonemuse

Curb_It said:

Why do people think the club should subsidise their travel? I think 22 is reasonable.

agree with you, its a fair price

Curb_It

You want to go to Sheffield return for 12 quid? Ok. What was the price last week?

Anyway that wasn't my point with regard to you paying less than others with longer journies. Just why do people expect the club to pay for people's travel? Is that normal?

RedChaser

It was only £6 on a Megabus to Sheffield on Monday :-0 £22 on the club coaches return I believe.

superchrissypowell

I suspect they have subsidised the cost anyway. Coaches are expensive and would be more than 22quid pp for a 300+ mile round trip

PragueAddick

superchrissypowell said:

I suspect they have subsidised the cost anyway. Coaches are expensive and would be more than 22quid pp for a 300+ mile round trip

They have not subsidised it. Quite the contrary. Check Airman Brown's posts on the subject. And nobody on here knows more about the subject than him!

superchrissypowell

@pete_sinclair Valley Away is already a subsidised service, Pete. We've kept prices the same as for the fifth-round tie at @swfc. (IL)

Direct from cafc official twitter

Curb_It

PragueAddick said:

superchrissypowell said:

I suspect they have subsidised the cost anyway. Coaches are expensive and would be more than 22quid pp for a 300+ mile round trip

They have not subsidised it. Quite the contrary. Check Airman Brown's posts on the subject. And nobody on here knows more about the subject than him!

But why should they? It's a business as well not a charity. Club needs to make a bit of dosh.

000__Jaaaaay__000

What they haven't made enough extra money from getting this far?

Atletico Addick

superchrissypowell said:

@pete_sinclair Valley Away is already a subsidised service, Pete. We've kept prices the same as for the fifth-round tie at @swfc. (IL)

Direct from cafc official twitter

Subsidised from what? They're running at a profit and a fairly OK sized profit on the coaches if and when they fill them up, considering fans are being forced to either drive, travel the day before and stay over night or coach, would of been a nice touch if they offered a no profit service just to get us there. Had this not been a quarter final we'd be struggling for 500.

nth_london_addick

i don't think we should subsidise anything, the minute you do that you start the thought process of "operation " and those were all failures, 22 quid to Sheffield is a fair price,

sunbury-addick

ffs - 22 quid to get transported 300 plus miles, 20 quid to get in - really hope the club don't subsidise

PL54

Assume 50 people per coach is maximum revenue of £1,100 to cover driver, coach, fuel and time.

PragueAddick

Curb_It said:

PragueAddick said:

superchrissypowell said:

I suspect they have subsidised the cost anyway. Coaches are expensive and would be more than 22quid pp for a 300+ mile round trip

They have not subsidised it. Quite the contrary. Check Airman Brown's posts on the subject. And nobody on here knows more about the subject than him!

But why should they? It's a business as well not a charity. Club needs to make a bit of dosh.

Proper businesses make dosh by delighting their customers so that they are happy to part with their readies again and again.

This business could have said "sorry, we are not kicking off at this day and time, because it is unreasonable to ask our customers to get up at 05.00 just to go to a frigging football match in the middle of the country"

To which the answer will have been "OK so you lose £250,000 in TV money." which is not a small amount in our current state.

So this business could have said to its customers "look, sorry to do this to you, but by accepting this ridiculous kick off time we get a whole load of dosh we would not get otherwise. But as a gesture of how much we value you as customers we are going to use 5% of this money to help get you there at a reasonable price"

That is what a properbusiness would do.

(purely my personal opinion BTW)

superchrissypowell

I think 22 quid for a 300 hundred mile round trip is reasonable! You wouldnt get a train for that sort of price.

It would cost more in petrol unless you have a carful and you get the atmosphere of being on a coach too

MrOneLung

Thought we were meant to support the club, not have the club support us. Pricing is right not that I would ever go on a coach.

Airman Brown

Charlton were paying under £700 to hire coaches to Sheffield two years ago. It would be astonishing if they were paying over £1,000 now ... even allowing for the fact that they may have to pay a premium to subcontract extra vehicles and to run from the coast, although probably 80 per cent of passengers will be local. Anyone who thinks Valley Away is subsidised if the fares are set against the coach hire charges is simply wrong. I dare say you could make an argument around a share of the cost of the commercial centre, but you can't run a football club without a ticket office whether you sell travel or not.

The argument for a subsidy for Sheffield is to try to ensure we sell out, which of itself generates ticket revenue of about £4 per person for the club. Charlton have chosen to target a profit from the coaches instead. If they get 50 coaches they might make £10-£15k. If they get 25 and we don't sell out the decision will look questionable, but as I've said there are no certainties either way and decisions have to be made on guesswork.

Fanny Fanackapan

PragueAddick said:

Curb_It said:

PragueAddick said:

superchrissypowell said:

I suspect they have subsidised the cost anyway. Coaches are expensive and would be more than 22quid pp for a 300+ mile round trip

They have not subsidised it. Quite the contrary. Check Airman Brown's posts on the subject. And nobody on here knows more about the subject than him!

But why should they? It's a business as well not a charity. Club needs to make a bit of dosh.

Proper businesses make dosh by delighting their customers so that they are happy to part with their readies again and again.

This business could have said "sorry, we are not kicking off at this day and time, because it is unreasonable to ask our customers to get up at 05.00 just to go to a frigging football match in the middle of the country"

To which the answer will have been "OK so you lose £250,000 in TV money." which is not a small amount in our current state.

So this business could have said to its customers "look, sorry to do this to you, but by accepting this ridiculous kick off time we get a whole load of dosh we would not get otherwise. But as a gesture of how much we value you as customers we are going to use 5% of this money to help get you there at a reasonable price"

That is what a properbusiness would do.

(purely my personal opinion BTW)

But, PA, we know that the majority of those travelling to the Cup game WON'T buy tickets/travel to Forest/Derby/Leeds etc .ie they won't be "happy to part with their readies again & again ".

No way saying they're glory boys and girls but it's a fact, borne out by the regular away support numbers.

Neither am I saying that I wouldn't be impressed by the Club subsidising coach travel this once. However, I still would prefer to go by car and did so when , under Airman's watch, freebies were offered for Forest a few seasons back.

Maybe it would be better to look at what needs spending to sort out our drainage system at The Valley and hence, the pitch ? At least that's something that benefits ALL fans, not just a percentage who choose to attend an away game...

Just my view of course.