Sheffield Wednesday has taken an almost unprecedented step of making season tickets available for the following season before this coming Christmas.
A full list of the pricing structure for 2010/11 on the clubs official website, www.swfc.co.uk with news of new price incentives and price freezes for adult tickets.
Tickets will be available to purchase from Monday 16th November and those who commit to the new season by 8th February 2010 will be able to so at the same price as they did this season providing they make the purchase online.
Further deadlines with incremental prices increases come into effect on 8th March, 30th May and 10th June.
Community season tickets have been introduced with the opportunity for fantastic savings to be made by students, people on government apprenticeships, people in the armed forces and anyone claiming working tax credits.
Under 8’s and over 80’s will still be able to attend Hillsborough for free whilst those under 13 and under 18 are able to benefit from significantly discounted prices.
The idea behind this new initiative is to make more accurate plans for the following season’s budget based on season ticket sales. The club will be able to assess what money will be available to spend on the team as soon as the current season ends which means the management team will be able to have a clear picture of what is available to them and structure the squad accordingly.
The move also gives supporters plenty of time to budget for the forthcoming season and with interest free payment options available the club have made a real effort to make this affordable.
The main point of concern is that the price structure is more or less set in stone and as such would not alter should the club get relegated this season, thus supporters would be paying the same or more than this season dependant on the time of purchase for an inferior standard of football.
This was a major cause for consternation in April 2008 when the previous regime announced price increases for the following season at a time when the club was hovering around the relegation zone.
While most would feel that the Owls shouldn’t have any issues with relegation this season, no team should be labelled as ‘too good to go down’ and a poor run of form or an injury crisis could cause problems for the vast majority of teams in the Championship considering how most of the division is separated by little more than a handful of points with over a quarter of the matches played.
On the flipside of this, if lo and behold the defence could cut out their sloppy errors and the strikers started to take their chances then by virtue of the competitiveness of the league, an outside push for the play-offs is not impossible and Owls fans could dream of watching Premier League football at the same price as they currently watch the team in the Championship.
More than likely the team will be in the same division next season and the offer of a price freeze with the potential to strengthen the team based on positive sales is more than reasonable.