It is amazing what guaranteed European Group Stage football does for 'record season ticket sales'.

 

It is this fakeness of a football fan that really does my head in!

"Success" breeds success. A lot of casual fans will be tempted by a perceived better product. Don't think it's just football fans either, people will always want to see a winning team and be entertained. 

I think we were already high in sales prior to European qualification. The Robson effect has clearly worked, but actually I think a lot has to do with the red shed and the extra noise and the kids moving to the upper deck, which is quite an attractive part of the ground to take them too in comparison to the merkland. Had we finished fourth, I think our sales would have been fairly similar.

Improved atmosphere is a big thing, but also the prize for finishing third is so much bigger now that it's not as depressing starting the season feeling third is the highest you can finish.

Our attendance has averaged somewhere between 13-15k throughout the past 3 decades (COVID seasons aside). 

The club has a pretty solid backbone of supporters who stick with them team regardless. But as with any team, success brings certain types of fans back through the turnstiles that may not necessarily go to every game. 

On 05/06/2023 at 23:15, SeeBass said:

It is amazing what guaranteed European Group Stage football does for 'record season ticket sales'.

 

It is this fakeness of a football fan that really does my head in!

I think that's a bit unfair.  A lot of people have busy lives that are usually focused entirely round their kids.  Free time is a very finite resource to them and going to watch a team that isn't playing very well isn't as desirable as it once would have been.  

 

 

Sorry TLG, still not an excuse for me.  I've been having a few discussions about the unfairness of certain aspects of our football club with various personal at Pittodrie past and present.  I hope these chats bring about change because the way some supporters get treated like me is not on.

I'm not really sure what that has to do with people having busy lives but I would be interested to hear what you've discussed with the club 👍

1 hour ago, SeeBass said:

Sorry TLG, still not an excuse for me.  I've been having a few discussions about the unfairness of certain aspects of our football club with various personal at Pittodrie past and present.  I hope these chats bring about change because the way some supporters get treated like me is not on.

Are you saying people should reduce the busyness of their lives to focus on being more betterer Dons fans 🤔? Nae sure how this links to supporters being fake but happy for you to explain,...and the treatment you and other Dons fans receive thats not on?.....

Edited June 7, 20233 yr by Elgindon

Lets just say the real lack of class from the club when it comes to making games accessible for disabled fans like myself that live four hours away from Pittodrie.  If things don't change I will probably need to give up on the club and football altogether.  I'm sick of not being eligible for certain matches because I'm not deemed 'loyal enough'.

 

If what was announced about season ticket sales is true and we get a couple thousand more the likelihood is I won't be going to any of this European adventure at Pittodrie because I'll not have enough 'loyalty credit' for want of a better phrase to be able to purchase a ticket in first place because they'll all be gone by time my phase comes round in general sale.

 

You want to understand the physical toll it takes on me as a 43 year old guy to make just one match on my own with all the other stresses of this messed up world?  I have a 33% brain injury from birth plus left sided cerebral palsy all down that side of the body and it takes me two or three days after a game just to recharge all my energy and go again so I'm sick of all this loyalty chat about folk from the city that go every two weeks and should get priority. 

And because I'm not deemed 'loyal' enough in the eyes of the club I'm not able to enjoy my number one passion watching my football team which has probably stopped me from killing myself all these years. I think about ending it all pretty much every week.

You know I've not been allowed to buy a ticket for my nearest two away grounds in Edinburgh since May and October 2017 respectively.  I spend nearly £200 buying a train ticket, organising overnight accommodation, paying for match brief, plus covering food and drink (not that I take alcohol) but you know what I mean every time I'm at a home game.  Because my local council has taken off the last three bus services to where I live on a weekday a few months ago we will now need to pay about £35 for a taxi from Berwick-upon-Tweed station even though I have a disabled bus pass and until recently used it to get home on last leg of journey back.  So please don't talk to me about the loyalty I've shown this football club since 1991. 

I don't expect any of you to get my argument. I mean how could any of you relate to a guy with my lifelong health issues but I'm more than bloody angry at the way I've been treated as a supporter last five or six years.     

Edited June 7, 20233 yr by SeeBass
Grammar Error.

Dyou not have contacts within the club who could pull some strings for you when ness?  

Edited June 7, 20233 yr by Elgindon

I used to speak with Dave Macdermid often for well over 20 years but he ain't there anymore.  That guy did so much for me to make sure I didn't get overlooked.  The club like to give off this impression they look after their most vulnerable fans but they've got a funny way of showing it. 

Remember during Covid-19 Lockdown when they made a big fuss on social media about making sure all their supporters were OK by phoning them?  They apparently reached out to 10,000 supporters right?  I wasn't one of them.  Out of sight and out of mind nobody gives a damn if you're not in Aberdeen.  I live alone have done for 24 years but with the disabilities we do have surely to God I should have been one of the first people they made sure was alright.  But nothing.  You not think it would have gave me such a boost if Derek McInnes had called me for ten minutes?  Just saying.

5 minutes ago, SeeBass said:

I used to speak with Dave Macdermid often for well over 20 years but he ain't there anymore.  That guy did so much for me to make sure I didn't get overlooked.  The club like to give off this impression they look after their most vulnerable fans but they've got a funny way of showing it. 

Remember during Covid-19 Lockdown when they made a big fuss on social media about making sure all their supporters were OK by phoning them?  They apparently reached out to 10,000 supporters right?  I wasn't one of them.  Out of sight and out of mind nobody gives a damn if you're not in Aberdeen.  I live alone have done for 24 years but with the disabilities we do have surely to God I should have been one of the first people they made sure was alright.  But nothing.  You not think it would have gave me such a boost if Derek McInnes had called me for ten minutes?  Just saying.

Are you in one of the supporters clubs in local area. I know that at the time the club contacted the supporters clubs and asked them which members would benefit from a call. Also might help with getting tickets for games as supporters clubs get an allocation for each game. Club have a disabled supporters association that might be worth contacting if you haven’t already. Also Lynn Fisk is the clubs disability access officer who it might also be worth contacting, again if you haven’t already. 

I don't do supporters clubs or buses.  I tried it a couple of times. With Capital 1903 have never felt more unwelcome in other people's company like we were those couple of times I travelled.  Don't drink and the last thing we wanted to do was sit in a pub for hours before a game.  I'm a one man band.  Plus some of the behaviour from our supporters embarrasses me.  I can't afford to get into any sort of confrontation with rival fans given my disabilities just because some of my own can't behave in public properly.   Yes I've spoken with Lynn Fiske don't think she gets it.  

Edited June 7, 20233 yr by SeeBass

1 hour ago, SeeBass said:

I don't do supporters clubs or buses.  I tried it a couple of times. With Capital 1903 have never felt more unwelcome in other people's company like we were those couple of times I travelled.  Don't drink and the last thing we wanted to do was sit in a pub for hours before a game.  I'm a one man band.  Plus some of the behaviour from our supporters embarrasses me.  I can't afford to get into any sort of confrontation with rival fans given my disabilities just because some of my own can't behave in public properly.   Yes I've spoken with Lynn Fiske don't think she gets it.  

Have you tried the disabled supporters association then. Guessing they might not be as drink focused as a usual supporters club. No idea if they run buses to home games but even if they don’t they might be able to put you in contact with folk who do travel up and arrange tickets. 

Like some have said SeeBass, it's only natural that more people will turn up when the team is doing well and the entertainment level is higher.  There are a lot of things out there for people to spend their hard earned cash on and if the "product" 😉 is crap then a lot of people are just not going to bother.  In the same way as if a musician releases a rubbish album, people don't buy it and don't go to the concert.  I see nothing fake in that, it is personal choice.

It's great that you continue to support the club through thick and thin though and good on you for that.  

 

Trust me it is as fake as it comes.

As dire as your circumstances are, it doesn’t give you any right to judge other supporters without knowing anything about their own circumstances.

You’ll probably find that the increased initiatives to make season tickets more affordable and accessible (e.g. zero interest instalments) has made more of a difference than “fake” fans shelling out hundreds of pounds to get priority to buy tickets to midweek European matches that rarely sell out anyway. 

Slim, we will need to agree to disagree on this one I'm having nobody tell me any different.  It has nothing to do with circumstances.  I don't ever moan about the cost of what it takes to come up whenever I do. 

I pay it because it is what you do but as I said to an ex-Aberdeen employee who worked at the club nearly thirty years I should not need to keep proving my loyalty in order to be able to be at some of the big moments in our club's journey. 

I'm sick of supporters telling me that fans have all different choices to make these days as to what they do with their spare time.  Supporting a football team is not a part-time hobby.  You don't just turn up when it suits.  Or when things are going well.  Doesn't wash with me.

I get both points of view here, but it is a fact of life that those that put the most in the coffers will reap the greatest benefits.

That is simply the way of life, rightly or wrongly.

Actually thinking this through further  given the fact that I have followed Aberdeen for over fifty years, home and away, domestically and in Europe  I could easily claim that I should have priority over some Johnny come lately  that had bought a season ticket and paid DNA money for the past five years or so 🤔

On 08/06/2023 at 21:16, SeeBass said:

Supporting a football team is not a part-time hobby.

I disagree with this. I think you would find for most people (season ticket holders included) it is a part time hobby. Some fans will follow the team all around the country and beyond but a lot turn up at Pittodrie every two weeks or less (myself included) and entertain themselves in other ways the rest of the time. 

Loyalty is a difficult metric for the club to measure outwith sales and I get your frustrations as it sounds like you go to great lengths to support the team. However everyone has their own reasons and opinions on how much time and effort they invest in supporting the club, and I don't think it's fair to make a judgement on that. 

Well I do if it means I miss out and that is as simple as the argument is.  

That's 10,000 glory hunters signed up for season tickets now. 

It's those free under 12s I despise most.

On 12/06/2023 at 09:24, DantheDon said:

I disagree with this. I think you would find for most people (season ticket holders included) it is a part time hobby. Some fans will follow the team all around the country and beyond but a lot turn up at Pittodrie every two weeks or less (myself included) and entertain themselves in other ways the rest of the time.

Agreed. I got to most games (home and away) between 1999 and 2003. I was in my early 20s, single, earning a full time wage, my disposable income was off the charts. Fast-forward 20 years, I live on the other side of the world, have teenage kids, and would only consider travelling for a cup final TBH. 

I have a RedTV subscription and whilst I won't normally get up in the middle of the night to watch a run of the mill league match against St J, I do get up and watch the bigger games or ones that have more on the line, such as the last St Mirren game.

So my circumstances mean I hardly go to any games, and I watch far fewer than I would've if timezones were better. But I consider myself to be just as much a Dons fan now as I was when I was going to most games 20 years ago 

Some of you guys are honestly deluded like.  As long as you keep telling yourself all the lines you're throwing out I guess you'll be fine.

Edited June 14, 20233 yr by SeeBass