Eleven members of the Wolves Fans Parliament attended an extra meeting immediately before Saturday's game at home to Wigan.

 

The session was held in order that club officials could be given some idea of fans' feelings on ticket prices

before the launch of the popular Early Bird scheme for the ninth successive season.

 

Chief Executive Jez Moxey kicked off by saying Wolves currently had just over 20,400 season ticket holders, of which 14,500-plus were 'Early Birds.' He said many fans were watching Premier League football at Championship prices. "Our pricing is really competitive and I'd have a debate with anyone who wanted to challenge us on it," he said. "We think the Early Bird scheme is a fundamentally important promotion and it's a good way of rewarding loyalty because we could expect about 20,000 season ticket holders in the Premier regardless of the scheme."

 

Looking ahead, he added: "This time round, when we launch, I'm expecting a very good take-up. Last time we were in the Premier League, it was the second biggest take-up we've ever had. The biggest was 2002 when we were running away with it (promotion) and didn't get there. The basic premise is to buy next season's ticket at this season's summer price, although we're very mindful of the fact this season's is a Premier League price."

 

Jez pointed out that there were 6,000 people who didn't buy under the Early Bird scheme in 2009 who were eligible. They would have paid £595 for a season ticket in the Billy Wright Stand Upper whereby 'new' season ticket holders paid £630."

 

Chris Cox, said: "It's simple economics. Until the ground is full, you can't put your prices up. Also,

it's a hard economic climate and people are struggling to make ends meet. It has got to be attractive. None of the people I canvassed at the Hall of Fame dinner welcomed the prospect of a price increase. When the ground is full, that's the time to put your prices up."

 

Richard Harries said he echoed those comments and would consider an increase to be insensitive. He claimed that a single new adult season ticket price could be purchased more cheaply at 12 other Premier League clubs than at Wolves.

 

Georgina Savage said she did voluntary work for an organisation at which calls about debt had gone up four-fold since September. "I'm worried football becomes a luxury rather than the necessity it has been," she said. She asked the club to consider drawing up two price proposals - one in place for the Premier League, one in case they were in the Championship. On being asked by Jez what a reasonable surcharge would be, she added: "You'd have to correlate it to match-day charges."

 

Mark Cadman pointed out that there were more matches in a Championship season - a point Richard Harries countered by saying it was for a much poorer product.

 

Richard was critical of the season ticket prices that applied to fans purchasing last summer and Chris Cox agreed. "They were far too high," he said. "They came as a shock. £500 behind the goal is far too much."

 

Mike Taylor remarked it would be prudent to keep an eye on what neighbouring clubs were charging as sales could be affected if Wolves' prices were significantly higher, say, than Birmingham's.

 

Parliament Chairman Matt Grayson, the club's Head of Marketing and Communications, pointed out that the majority of Wolves fans were watching games for an average of £19 a time. And he reminded the meeting that the Wigan game at the weekend, under the Family Four promotion, meant £40 would buy two adult tickets and two kids' ones, the fourth such promotion so far this season.

 

Dave Bezzina said: "The issue is: How do we attract fans on a regular basis? You might get more people interested if the prices were lower. We've supported Wolves for years and years but if you're talking about

attracting new people……."

 

Jez Moxey argued that price wasn't the sole reason for people attending or not and said: "It isn't necessarily the most important factor." Chris Cox said, though: "If it's unaffordable, they won't even have the option.

 

James Fielden warned the club to beware the possibility of even the Premier League losing some of its appeal to supporters in the second season. "The novelty wears off a little and people might watch instead on TV," he said. "Stoke sold out virtually every game last season but now they are struggling to sell out."

 

Ryan Leister asked: "If we had a 40,000-capacity ground, do you think we would be having 35-40,000 gates or what we have now?" Jez replied: "If we didn't think we could attract more, we would be crazy to consider the redevelopment plans. Do we have the ability in the Premier League climate to get up to a 35,000 average? I hope the answer is yes but we would need to improve the team" I don't know."

 

South Wales-based Dave Bezzina reminded club officials that a lot of fans travelled to games from outside the area while Georgina Savage said she had a friend (usually an armchair fan) who bought two tickets for the Spurs game and who was 'horrified' to be paying £40 each for seats in the Billy Wright wings.

 

Jez acknowledged it was important to attract new fans but added: "The ad-hoc ones have to pay that price because there's no reason for them to have a reduction."

 

Mark Cadman asked about the possibility of a two-stage Early Bird price structure, whereby existing season ticket holders paid less than those buying in the summer. Wolves' Ticketing and Membership Manager Lynne O'Reardon replied: "We tried it with our Recommend a Friend promotion and the take-up was almost 2,000. We haven't done it since."

 

Jez considered it worth underlined the point that the simplest way of buying anything from the club was through the official website and with a card. "You can do it at six in the morning or one at night without leaving the comfort of your home," he added.

 

In response to a question from Ryan Leister, Lynne said 21,000 or 21,500 was the ideal number of season ticket holders. Jez said this was so more casual fans could also still attend.

 

Mike Hughes said the admin fee should be factored into the price. "Just have one price," he said. "It's relatively small and, for what you're raising, build it into the season ticket price." Lynne said the club were

committed to being transparent on the matter and Jez added: "Everyone else does it, including the theatre, the NEC and O2. I was recently in America and paid £66 in admin fees for six tickets to a sporting event."

 

Mike Hughes asked: "Why do we have to follow everyone else?" Jez answered: "We don't. We were one of the earlier ones to introduce it. It's irksome to some but we won't be changing it." And the Chief Exec added on a more general note: "We can't have a cheap Championship price for ever and a day with the Early Bird. That's financial suicide but I accept that we must establish ourselves as Premier League club first."

 

Dave Bezzina and Ryan Leister both said they were more interested in seeing the stadium fuller, in principle, than worrying whether someone else had had better value for money from their purchase. Jez asked: "So what you're saying is you're only interested in what you pay - not how your prices compare with someone else's?"

 

Jez added: "It's £20 to watch today's (Saturday's) game from the South West corner stand (wolves Community Trust Stand). We need to do more to be promoting ourselves. And the area that's last to sell out is the £20 ticket. We get so fixated with prices. This very simple adage which is often suggested…..if you halve the price you'll double the gate, that's nonsense it just doesn't work that way. The most important factor is: Are you going to be satisfied overall? Quality of seat, ease of entry to the stadium, drinks, seat, food prices and not forgetting the football. It's about your day out. But the jump from coming to an odd game to buying a season ticket is big - and we want to catch young kids and stop them supporting Man United or Liverpool."

 

Chris Cox said there was still 'a deep underlying thing' about Wolves' League game at Old Trafford in December and fans were still looking for a gesture from the club. "Keeping the prices the same next season would be tremendous," he said. Jez replied: "Apart from the Premier League

decision, that matter is now closed but we are here to talk to Parliament members about what prices - and we're listening."

 

Chris also considered the price gap between Band A games and Band B ones to be too high. "I thought this price behind the goals would be £30 or £32, not £34."

 

Jez answered Wilf Hadley by saying the structure regarding concessionary ticket prices would remain the same in future. "Not only do we have a cheap match-to-match offer for students, I think it's important to be consistent because a load of people have paid the additional price in the past and I think it's fundamentally wrong to change something when it's worked so long. It would be wrong, for example, in the eyes of people who turned 18 two years ago. There are certain principles we've established and stuck to in order to ensure the overall pot is fair. And tell me where else in the Premier League 7,000 or 8,000 fans can watch Manchester United, Liverpool and all the others from behind the goal for just £19.50, as our supporters do."

 

Richard Harries said it would be helpful if the Early Bird window covered two month ends, so fans had two pay-days from which to make the payment. Jez said: "We won't be changing it this year but it's a reasonable point for future consideration, whether it's end of March as opposed to end of February could be debated."

 

Lynne O'Reardon also reminded members that supporters could buy using Mastercard over six months at 0 per cent - a facility Martyn Edwards described as 'excellent.'