Huddersfield Town fans have just over a week before the deadline for the early bird prices expire on season cards. Many fans may have seen the numerous recent single ticket promotions to tempt in floating fans and wonder if it’s better value to pay as you go instead of committing for the full season. I know that it made me pause for a moment before renewing my own season ticket.
Because I’m a complete sad act, I went back through the club’s ticket prices for all the home games in the league this season and added them up to see how it compares to the cost of a season card. I’ll go into the details below but the thing I took away from crunching all the numbers was that it’s significantly cheaper to have a season card than to pay as you go along.
How much does it cost per game to watch Huddersfield Town?
If you add up the total cost of buying individual tickets for every home league game this season it comes to a total of £480 all together, which is more than any of the prices you could pay for a standard season ticket regardless of whether you buy early or not. It works out to be an average ticket price of £20.87 per game.
I’m currently on the reduced £249 season card that is offered as a loyalty reward for fans that kept their season cards during the season Town played behind closed doors. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that this commitment to freeze season cards at this price for three seasons for fans in this category will be kept despite the fact the club is currently in the (very slow) process of changing majority owners back to Dean Hoyle. So my season card works out to cost £10.83 per game, which is almost half the cost of paying for individual tickets.
People that don’t qualify for the loyalty bonus mentioned above still only paid £299 for this season if they bought during the Early Bird window, which works out at £13 per game when you average it out. Even those fans that missed the Early Bird offer could get a season card for £329, which worked out at £14.30 a game.
So my takeaway from looking at these numbers is that a season card is good value for anyone that thinks they’ll make it to at least half of Town’s home games. That’s before you consider the advantage of being able to have “your seat” which is a huge perk in my eyes, as I’ve been sitting in the same place for around 20 years now.
But the cheap tickets offers have only been running since Christmas…
Town have been quite aggressive with their ticket price reductions since Christmas, so it’s fair to point out that looking at the average cost of tickets over the whole season might not be the best comparison. So, because I’ve clearly nothing better to do with my time, I looked at the average prices of tickets since Christmas and season cards are still a better deal.
The total cost of the twelve single ticket prices since Christmas comes to £205, which works out at an average of £17.08 per game. This shows that fans have been paying a good bit less per ticket since Christmas but still aren’t getting as good a value as season card holders.
I’ve heard a few grumbles from season card holders that floating fans are getting better treatment than those that have committed to the club for the season but these numbers suggest otherwise. It’s easy to forget how cheap Huddersfield Town season cards are compared to other clubs.
Will cheap ticket deals continue next season?
There are no guarantees about ticket prices for next season. It’s not clear what division Town will be playing in yet, so it’s too early to say. However, thinking rationally, how likely is it that the club will charge a fiver to watch Liverpool or Man City play at the John Smiths’ Stadium? If we go up then it’s likely to be full price for the vast majority of matches.
Even in the Championship, the number of games with reduced prices will be limited. The club has been reducing ticket prices for away fans as well as home fans lately, which is a nice gesture but is too costly for the club in those games where the away end is likely to sell out. It’s also possible that the club could just decide to charge full price for every game because of a change of heart.
Dean Hoyle’s philosophy to business has always been to “sell them cheap and stack them high” but there’s nothing to say that this plan couldn’t change and the cheap tickets could dry up.
How much does a Town fan pay per goal?
Because I really can’t help myself when I’ve got a spreadsheet in front of me, I also crunched the numbers on how much each fan pays per goal scored by Town (assuming they see every goal and don’t sneak out early in any game). Here are the numbers:
- Loyalty rate season card holders pay £7.55 per goal
- Early birds – £9.06
- Full price – £9.97
- Pay as you go – £14.55
The above figures are obviously not including the goals Town might score against Bristol in our final league game. If there’s a Town goal fest in that game then the price per goal (PPG) will go down further.
The sales pitch
The recent special offers on tickets have brought back a load of fans that haven’t regularly been attending games. The quality of the football they’ve seen has generally been good and they’ve got decent value for money. However, the above shows that the best value way to watch Town is, unquestionably, to buy a season card.
Town have had a superb year this season and it’s possible that you may be buying an incredibly cheap Premier League season card if you get in now. Even if we don’t go up, next season in the Championship will be another year full of amazing highs and lows that always come with following Town.
Season card sales are good for the club because it gives them a dependable income rather than a trickle from game-to-game ticket sales which can vary depending on the fortunes of the club. So as much as getting a season card helps you, it will also help the club. Good season ticket sales could even lead to a bigger transfer warchest in the summer!
So, if you are on the fence about whether to get a season card for the 22/23 season then please make the investment. While the cost of living crisis is biting hard on many family’s budgets, watching Town has remained a relatively inexpensive form of live entertainment and if you can commit to the whole season you will be getting a great deal.
(To be clear, I’ve not been paid by the club to write this article, I just want as many fans to buy season cards as possible to help the team. If I had any inside connection to the club my team predictions would be significantly more accurate!)
I too had to think long and hard considering the fact I’m a long distance supporter with each journey being a 200 mile round trip. In fact, due to changes in kick off times courtesy of Sky and cancelled trains, which is a regular occurrence with Trans Pennine, I’ve only managed one game since Christmas. I can’t make midweek games either due to the fact the last train home is 8:15pm. When everything goes to plan it’s still a snip at £249 despite missing midweek affairs but this season has cost me the equivalent of £20 per game. Still cheaper than paying per game. Consequently I’ve renewed. Only difference this time round will be the fact I’ll be holding off booking train tickets and Hotels until 2 weeks prior so I can be sure Sky won’t be sticking a spanner in the works. UTT !
As someone with a 75 mile round trip and still spends some Saturday afternoons running around a muddy cross-country courses, this limits the number of matches I am likely to attend. Add in the evening kick-offs which can mean a late night return home , often in inhospitable Winter weather, I typically go 10 to 15 times per season. Divide £300 by 10 or 15 gives £20 to £30 per match. As an over 65, it costs at most £20 per match so it is a clear decision – a season card is not cost-effective, especially as you pay the same as under 65s for a season card. I did have one in 2008-9, the centenary year which cost only £125 so worth it even for just 14 or 16 matches that I attended that season, ignoring the awful football played under Ternant. I have also noticed creeping increases – Senior used to be classed as over 60, now over 65 (I think most other clubs are also over 65) and the recent introduction of a £1.25 handling fee for online purchases.