2026/27 Season Tickets (Pricing and Message from Gavin Carter, pg.8)

LargeAddick said:

Airman Brown said:

LargeAddick said:

clive said:

https://www.charltonafc.com/news/season-tickets-selling-highest-rate-over-decade

Still awaiting news on Valley Express as to whether there are any route changes and any price increases.

For transparency, there’s a discussion about Valley Express to which I have contributed privately. Not for me to say, but I wouldn’t anticipate it changing in a negative way.

Yes I’d heard there was a meeting with Bayliss last Friday. There have been a few vocal fans on our coach (Bexhill) moaning about the length of time they are on the coach and wanting the route modified. I personally don’t think that’s possible without cutting out a stop or two where most fans actually get on so counterproductive. It’s a shame there are not any feasible places to stop on the A21 without us having to divert into towns to pick up.

Push up the numbers and it can work. I have a plan for the A21. I agree that ten pick-ups is too much.

Just posting below the text of a season ticket article in the Guardian. As a (new) ST holder who has a really good seat/view in the Lower West, the article plus what has recently happened to some people in the Lower West, does make me wonder when I might need to move to a still good but less premium place...... where I might be able to sit out my remaining years....... before hospitality pushes me out?

'A Manchester United fan said he feels “helpless and hopeless” after being evicted from the seat his family have held since just after the second world war to make way for £300-a-head VIPs.

Tony Riley, whose father-in-law played for United under Sir Matt Busby, is among 1,100 supporters forced to move under cash-boosting plans overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

The prime seats near the dugout in the Sir Bobby Charlton stand will be reallocated to hospitality from next season.

“We feel it’s an injustice, not just for us but all the others as well,” said Riley, 76, whose family has used the seat continuously since 1949, when United returned to Old Trafford after the war. “I just feel really sad about it. I feel helpless and hopeless”.

For £315 a head, VIPs will be offered “some of the best seats in the house” – and a three-course meal at Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat restaurant – in the spot where Riley and his family have sat for nearly 80 years.

Those hoping to “impress key business contacts” can pay £425 a seat for “the most premium” game-watching experience, with “luxury padded seats”, champagne and sommelier-selected wines. The cheapest adult season ticket, by contrast, is £646.

Even though his name is engraved in the seat, Riley feared the move was coming when a neighbouring block of 600 fans was turfed out last year for what he called “the prawn sandwich brigade” – the passionless corporate fans lambasted by the United captain Roy Keane in 2000.

He said: “I now have the pleasure of sitting next to them. I don’t begrudge them [but] they spend more time taking selfies than anything else. They’re not hardcore supporters.”

By the start of the next Premier League season in August, about 1,100 lifelong fans will have been forced to make way for hospitality in the Sir Bobby Charlton stand since Ratcliffe’s arrival in February 2024.

Riley’s father-in-law, Laurie Cassidy, played for United’s first team under Busby in the late 1940s, with several of his trophies in the club museum.

Cassidy, who died in 2010, taught the club greats Nobby Stiles and Brian Kidd while headteacher at St Patrick’s primary school, in Collyhurst, and later worked for United, helping trainees including a young David Beckham.

Riley, who lives in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, still attends virtually every home game despite the 180-mile, near four-hour round trip to Old Trafford. From next season, he has been told he will no longer be able to sit next to his son as there are not two available seats together.

“It’s going more like American football,” Riley said, with top English clubs increasingly banking on big-spending visitors rather than long-serving fans who “just want to watch the football, support the team and have a moan and groan”.

Manchester United Supporters Trust (Must) said it always opposed compulsory moves for fans, and that “being moved for yet more hospitality is especially galling”.

A Must spokesperson said it was a “major concern” that families and wider groups could be split up in the moves, urging United to work with those affected.

There are concerns too that handing about 1,200 tickets to VIPs every year means those on the season ticket waiting list, who paid £100 for a deposit, will have to wait even longer for a seat.

Riley’s daughter, Catherine Riley, 49, accused the club’s leadership of an “absolute failure … to understand, let alone value, the fans that turn out whatever the weather, the day of the week or the competition to cheer their team on”.

She added: “I know that Premier League football is a business now, perhaps even more than it is a sport.

“But I am incensed by the treatment of my dad, who is not ‘high net worth’ enough to justify keeping a seat he has earned through a lifetime of supporting a club that is literally part of my family’s history.”

She said it was as though loyal fans were in an “abusive relationship” with the club, “whereby United are telling my dad he is not good enough even as he continues to show his unblinking loyalty to the club”.

“He is going to accept being moved to another seat with a poorer view of the pitch because he cannot leave – and they know that,” she said.

As it stands, Riley and hundreds of others will return to their seats only four more times before the VIPs move in. Their final Premier League match at Old Trafford this season will be on 17 May against Nottingham Forest.

The club said it was committed to keeping families and groups together during the relocations, which it acknowledged were inconvenient and could have an emotional impact on fans.'

Very poor from United, as one thing OT isn't short of is prawn sandwich seats and boxes.

At The Valley, I 100% understand how upset people might feel to be turfed out of their long held seats, having sat in the same one in the Curbs since 1994, but if there is a part of The Valley which is prime prawn sandwich territory, it is the West stand, with its main entrance, lounges and car park, and as a club we ought to be able to make more money from hospitality than we currently do, if we can stabilise in the Championship and start to look upwards.

Indeed the ST pricing changes reflect this, with the centre blocks of the Curbs downgraded to Tier 2 and more blocks in the West upgraded to Tier 1. The Curbs has just as good a view as the West stand and some boxes, but that side of the ground has never felt like a "premium" area.

DOUCHER said:

It's a balancing act and things change but I don’t really understand the need to create more hospitality seating in an area that isn’t currently when the current hospitality seating isn’t full - there must be logic there and I want a good team on the pitch so if they feel they can bring more revenue in doing this then so be it 

I’m guessing the idea isn’t to initially make it bigger but make it better which may require more space in order to do so and the expansion is just as a result of that. Have to wait to next season to see whether it worked out or not, 

Carter In an interview talked about how Palace and QPR’s facilities were significantly better than ours and that could be another reason for the upgrade is a lack of neglect over the years 

Loftus Road is a cramped and tired ground, which QPR would love to leave. Selhurst's hospitality offering may be poor now, but will be WAY better than ours when they build their new stand. Fulham's will be top notch too with their massive new Riverside stand and prime location.

A more direct comparison will be with grounds like The Den, Vicarage Road and Brentford's new stadium.

killerandflash said:

Loftus Road is a cramped and tired ground, which QPR would love to leave. Selhurst's hospitality offering may be poor now, but will be WAY better than ours when they build their new stand. Fulham's will be top notch too with their massive new Riverside stand and prime location.

A more direct comparison will be with grounds like The Den, Vicarage Road and Brentford's new stadium.

The time to build those types of new stand is when you are on the way up, not when you’ve been there for a while. The cost of that project to develop and build the proposed new stand at Selhurst must be increasing year by year and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s at or past the point where it’s no longer affordable. It’s Crystal Palace, it’s the PL, sooner or later with each passing season the likelihood increases that they will be relegated. Spurs coming down could be the tipping point, although that one if it does happen could trigger a total rethink / acceleration on the Championship becoming the PL2 and more TV money flowing down the pyramid.

Any news on this new loyalty scheme?

Henry Irving said:

Part of the problem, as someone on the board explained it to me, is the access from the seats to the lounges behind them.

There are only a few doorways and these get jammed at half and full time. 

Increasing the size and having more doors should aliviate this.

I'm not saying that justifies the changes or that that is the only reason but that's what I was told.

They also said our transfer targets are [redacted by Admin]

Wealthy people must not queue? 😆

Henry Irving said:

Crispywood said:

DOUCHER said:

It's a balancing act and things change but I don’t really understand the need to create more hospitality seating in an area that isn’t currently when the current hospitality seating isn’t full - there must be logic there and I want a good team on the pitch so if they feel they can bring more revenue in doing this then so be it 

I’m guessing the idea isn’t to initially make it bigger but make it better which may require more space in order to do so and the expansion is just as a result of that. Have to wait to next season to see whether it worked out or not, 

Carter In an interview talked about how Palace and QPR’s facilities were significantly better than ours and that could be another reason for the upgrade is a lack of neglect over the years 

What Carter said was 
"Gavin had recently attended matches at Selhurst and QPR and recognises that our stadium and facilities are way better."

Any specsavers alternatives for getting ears checked? I’ve completely misheard that then 

valleynick66 said:

Henry Irving said:

Part of the problem, as someone on the board explained it to me, is the access from the seats to the lounges behind them.

There are only a few doorways and these get jammed at half and full time. 

Increasing the size and having more doors should aliviate this.

I'm not saying that justifies the changes or that that is the only reason but that's what I was told.

They also said our transfer targets are [redacted by Admin]

Wealthy people must not queue? 😆

I know you are having a laugh but it's not that. It's that at the moment the people trying to go up to get into the hospitality area have to swim against the tide of people trying to get down to the concourse refreshments or exits. It doesn't work well. That issue is probably exacerbated by the significant number of people using Club 1905 who are elderly and/or disabled.
Now, the thing about the doors is amusing. Most of the overload issues are not caused by the doors themselves but by the stewards checking people's access wristbands. (These things themselves are not fit for purpose:  they are popped on to your wrist on entry and promptly disappear up your sleeve when you put a coat on, making the stewards' checking job impossible.  I don't know what the answer is but maybe some electronic option would work better?

The numbers using the Club 1905 lounge are interesting. My guess is that a low attendance would be around 150, average about 180 and high (as in full like against Norwich) 220. Again a guess but I would say 4/5 home games so far plus the Chelsea cup game were full or near to. 
Of course, what I don't know is the split between seasonal hospitality, match sponsors and match-by-match attendees. But I can say there are sometimes very large parties up to maybe 30 celebrating a birthday or whatever.  It is quite likely that the Club have had to decline large gatherings because of lack of capacity.  Of course, more doors and/or larger doors would mean less capacity which is odd. I would estimate that the club would like to get the Club 1905 capacity up to maybe 250/300.  I have no idea how they achieve that within the confines of the existing space.  
But if they can get the numbers up for more games or more seasonal members that could bring in a gross figure in the region of maybe £150k per season if they get an extra 50 people (plus beverage sales) per game.  

Rothko said:

I get Bob’s decision, just think it’s wild that people, who were happy to watch shit in League 1, are suddenly finding the football a bit tough, in the Championship and won’t go 

Never happy?