ANYGAME VOUCHERS EXPIRE SOON!

[EdinburghHQ]

Edinburgh Rugby would like to remind fans that the club's last home game of the season, against Treviso on Saturday 5 May (kick-off 7.30pm), is the last opportunity to use your AnyGame vouchers for 2011/12, after which point the vouchers will expire.

The turn of the season will also see the end of the AnyGame voucher, as a new season and match ticket strategy is rolled out (details of which will land early next week).

While we understand that the flexibility offered by the vouchers was appreciated by small groups of fans, poor uptake of the offer has led to its retraction.

[Baz]

Just out of interest what's the reason they're being scrapped?

[Wottie]

Just out of interest what's the reason they're being scrapped?

Would imagine ER consider them superfluous now with the introduction of the new online ticketing facilities Baz, but I don't know.

[Oldsalt]

ER said there was not enough uptake during the season. Well we bought a dozen.

[Baz]

But surely it can't cost anymore to produce? Its a great idea and I can't see any drawbacks to them.

[Martin Bell]

If the uptake has been low hitherto, then I can see why the club are looking to stop. But I, too, wonder whether there's a danger that we might be missing a trick here, in the wake of the spectacular quarter final attendance.

There probably are a fair proportion of The 38,000 who will not become ST holders, but would like to be irregulars. An Anygame/6 pack-type offer might get some of them on board and convert them into regulars.

Equally - and the club may already have this in mind - there will probably be quite a lot of folk who will want to come back for the big games next season i.e. Heineken pool matches and probably the home 1872 match, but may not be so enthused about the visit of e.g. Connacht in January. Difficult to believe, I know, and no offence meant. Some sort of semi-season ticket covering those big matches - and maybe the likes of Leinster, Munter, Ulster, Ospreys - might be worth looking at. Also, a half season ticket might be worth considering - launching late Nov/early December in time for Christmas might smoke out a few people for the 1872 and the Heino and Rabo run-ins. This is not unusual in the soccer world. Need to be careful with the pricing structure and launch dates etc, but worth a thought.

One other thought that I've had on and off for a few years is whether some sort of ST ('membership') package could be introduced whereby folk sign up for a monthly direct debit, say in March/April 2013 for the 2013/14 season, to spread the cost of a ST over 12 months. I would personally find this more convenient than the current system. You could then look at reintroducing premium/higher margin things like the old PST package, which would be more appealing to some folk if they were paying just a bit more every month rather than quite a lot more in a oner. If they didn't cancel, their 'membership' would be automatically renewed for the next again season and so on. That would also reduce ST 'churn' from the club's perspective, although I accept that it would have a cashflow impact. People like Historic Scotland, the National Trust etc have arrangements like that which seem to work. Given the new barcode technology that's been introduced for ticketing/membership cards, if someone sneakily cancelled their direct debit mid-season, this could presumably be detected and their card invalidated.

I must say that I have been impressed by Edinburgh Rugby's pricing policy for the quarter final and next season's ST packages, so I'm happy to go with what they think will work.

Edited to add: that Ulster seem to operate a direct debit scheme already, so it is not unprecedented.

[Annie Emm]

Re the half-season tickets:

In December 2001 a friend and I bought these and have had full a season ticket every year since (along with a third person since 2004/5 season). If we had needed to footer (futter?) about buying a ticket for each individual game that first season, we may very well not have bothered...Having said that it was probably a wee bit more convenient for us to buy tickets on the day at Myreside and Meadowbank than Murrayfield is now - Murrayfield being a bit more convenient for us when the portacabin was still the ER office and ticket office.

[Hil]

Re the half-season tickets:

In December 2001 a friend and I bought these and have had full a season ticket every year since (along with a third person since 2004/5 season). If we had needed to footer (futter?) about buying a ticket for each individual game that first season, we may very well not have bothered...Having said that it was probably a wee bit more convenient for us to buy tickets on the day at Myreside and Meadowbank than Murrayfield is now - Murrayfield being a bit more convenient for us when the portacabin was still the ER office and ticket office.

You can now just pay cash at the turnstiles - can't get much more convenient than that

I know that my memory is failing but have we not had half-season tickets for the latter half of the season over the past few years???

[Hil]

Found it!!

PART-SEASON TICKET LAUNCHED!
by EdinburghHQ on Fri Dec 30, 2011 4:03 pm

Edinburgh Rugby are delighted to unveil a part-season ticket to allow fans to follow the season run-in of the capital club at in incredible discount that give great value for money.

With six exhilarating Murrayfield matches in the regular season pipe-line, the package gives supporters the chance to see the club’s round six encounter with London Irish in the Heineken Cup as well as the home straight in the RaboDirect PRO12 from next Friday against Ulster, followed by Ospreys, Dragons, Scarlets and Treviso.

More here - http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/edin ... son-ticket

Love the direct debit option suggested by Martin - that would make a big difference to us.

[Annie Emm]

Re the half-season tickets:

In December 2001 a friend and I bought these and have had full a season ticket every year since (along with a third person since 2004/5 season). If we had needed to footer (futter?) about buying a ticket for each individual game that first season, we may very well not have bothered...Having said that it was probably a wee bit more convenient for us to buy tickets on the day at Myreside and Meadowbank than Murrayfield is now - Murrayfield being a bit more convenient for us when the portacabin was still the ER office and ticket office.

You can now just pay cash at the turnstiles - can't get much more convenient than that

I know that my memory is failing but have we not had half-season tickets for the latter half of the season over the past few years???

I should have remembered that...the turnstiles I always gravitate towards are now cash sales only
Put it down to brain being in holiday mode already...we're off to Ireland tomorrow...small matter of a rugby match dontcha know

[Hil]

See you there

[Martin Bell]

at the turnstiles - can't get much more convenient than that

I know that my memory is failing but have we not had half-season tickets for the latter half of the season over the past few years???

Clearly not half as much as mine ....