Season 20/21

[leon]

on a separate note and not to have a dig at the previous poster but the amount of bed wetting going on about charging £10 for ifollow. How much would a family of 4 cost them to watch an away game up at Derby for example? Some fans are just, well, embarrassing.

What I don't understand are the people who think it should be free!

It was only free last year, because we had already paid season ticket money.

You're right of course. We should be getting paid to watch this shower of shit.

[Hound]

I don't think its overpriced etc, but I didnt esp enjoy the ifollow experience - will prob take it on a game by game basis and pick and choose a bit more. I'd be up for some sort of package, ie months sub for £50, but guess with the uncertainty thats prob difficult to do

[Snowflake Royal]

Think the main complaint about ifollow that I've seen as possibly valid is that it's more than a Sky pass for a single game.

But when I think what it would have cost me to see half the games you'd get for the IFollow £440 assuming we don't reopen, it's a massive saving for double the football. But then I am an exile.

[tidus_mi2]

I'm just glad the club decided to be sensible and not chase the money in offering season ticket renewals when the whole thing was unknown, several other clubs have offered season tickets and with coronavirus cases rising again, fans back in stadiums may be delayed again which could find the clubs who sold season tickets in a bit of a mess.

[SCIAG]

Psychologically I think £10 for a game is quite difficult. I could get 90 minutes of entertainment for less than that, and £460+ for the whole season is a lot. It’s suddenly directly competing with other forms of entertainment in a way that a season ticket didn’t, and there is no longer the same distinction between home and away matches. If you take a step back and compare it to travel + season ticket + away tickets then it is fantastic value, but it’s not always easy to think like that when a year’s Netflix is £108 minus change.

If they offered a half season for £200 then I’d probably buy it. Or perhaps an option to only buy home/away/midweek/weekend in bulk, with the price per match declining as you buy more. If you told me it would be £10 per match if I bought them individually or £9 each for 23 games or £7 if I bought 46 games... then I’d buy more matches.

[Snowball]

Psychologically I think £10 for a game is quite difficult. I could get 90 minutes of entertainment for less than that, and £460+ for the whole season is a lot. It’s suddenly directly competing with other forms of entertainment in a way that a season ticket didn’t, and there is no longer the same distinction between home and away matches. If you take a step back and compare it to travel + season ticket + away tickets then it is fantastic value, but it’s not always easy to think like that when a year’s Netflix is £108 minus change.

If they offered a half season for £200 then I’d probably buy it. Or perhaps an option to only buy home/away/midweek/weekend in bulk, with the price per match declining as you buy more. If you told me it would be £10 per match if I bought them individually or £9 each for 23 games or £7 if I bought 46 games... then I’d buy more matches.

It's £230 for home games, £230 for away


What is the absolute cheapest way of attending live at home?

£20-£30 pound to attend, maybe £5-£20 travel, so £25-£50 a game before food and drink and a program


What is the absolute cheapest way of attending live away?

£20-£30 pound to attend, maybe £10-£40 travel, so £30-£70 a game before food and drink and a program



I dread to think how much money I'd spend on ST, travelling to 23 away games, petrol, food, drink, programmes but it would be a couple of thousand I'd say

[CountryRoyal]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

[SCIAG]

I agree. As I say, it’s fantastic value, cheaper than an ST and much more convenient.

I’m more willing to pay for an ST due to a combination of:

- the ritual element
- the social element
- buying “an experience”
- habit
- not really thinking about it

If I had the choice between buying a ST and an iFollow ST then I’d probably buy the iFollow ST because the choice would be stark. But if I have the choice between paying £10 for a match, or doing everything else I can do in my house, I’ll probably choose from everything else. Midweeks can be tricky - easier to justify missing 8 home midweeks than 16 combined (though equally MUCH easier to actually make them when they’re on iFollow... as long as it is a late start).

As I say, it’s purely psychology, and it isn’t rational.

[Hound]

Psychologically I think £10 for a game is quite difficult. I could get 90 minutes of entertainment for less than that, and £460+ for the whole season is a lot. It’s suddenly directly competing with other forms of entertainment in a way that a season ticket didn’t, and there is no longer the same distinction between home and away matches. If you take a step back and compare it to travel + season ticket + away tickets then it is fantastic value, but it’s not always easy to think like that when a year’s Netflix is £108 minus change.

If they offered a half season for £200 then I’d probably buy it. Or perhaps an option to only buy home/away/midweek/weekend in bulk, with the price per match declining as you buy more. If you told me it would be £10 per match if I bought them individually or £9 each for 23 games or £7 if I bought 46 games... then I’d buy more matches.

yeah was generally my point, but then we were told there might be fans back in by October -hence bundling not really attractive to the club - obvs they'd much rather fans come to the ground if there was the option to

[Zip]

You know, looking at the team that faced Derby a couple of seasons back in the opening game I am struck by how much we have actually improved. I know there is a lot to be negative about but I am much more positive now.

I was thinking this too. Mannone in goal. McShane and Illori at centre back. Bodvarsson up top. Aluko out wide (allegedly). The line up looked like a struggling Championship side which is precisely what it was.

[Zip]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

Say you are a family of STH’s the cost to watch on iFollow for a tenner will be a big saving against the pro rata cost of each member’s ST.
I just didn’t enjoy the iFollow experience. Watching games in empty stadiums lacked everything I enjoy about being at the game. I’m still hoping there will be the opportunity to attend games again sooner rather than later. Maybe a half ST.

[Stranded]

Think the main complaint about ifollow that I've seen as possibly valid is that it's more than a Sky pass for a single game.

But when I think what it would have cost me to see half the games you'd get for the IFollow £440 assuming we don't reopen, it's a massive saving for double the football. But then I am an exile.

I would imagine there are 2 factors in the pricing - Sky probably want it to be more expensive, may even be contractual plus there is finding a price point that people will pay and gives the club a decent income. 7 quid of every subscription goes to the club home or away - so if say 5k pay for it each game that is 35-70k per week, which whilst not a massive amount means they are getting some form of matchday income.

[Snowball]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

I know that, but then saying it costs £460 is much sillier.

It costs £230 to watch all our home league games

[Snowflake Royal]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

There's nothing wrong with the software. Yeah they oxf*rd up demand management for the first lockdown game, but they fixed that before the first half was over.

[Zip]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

I know that, but then saying it costs £460 is much sillier.

It costs £230 to watch all our home league games

Fair comment. It cost £379 for my son and I re ST’s last season. If we watched the games on iFollow it would equate to a saving if £149 or more as there would be some games we might miss. Even allowing for that it doesn’t interest me. I shall be keeping a very close eye on the game online/posting on the match thread.

[Hendo]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

There's nothing wrong with the software. Yeah they oxf*rd up demand management for the first lockdown game, but they fixed that before the first half was over.

Yeah I also found the software fine after that first wobble which lasted about 15 minutes.

The bigger gripe I have is having to listen to BBCRB

[Snowflake Royal]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

There's nothing wrong with the software. Yeah they oxf*rd up demand management for the first lockdown game, but they fixed that before the first half was over.

Yeah I also found the software fine after that first wobble which lasted about 15 minutes.

The bigger gripe I have is having to listen to BBCRB

I will caveat that with I had to find a different browser to make it work. But not a big chore and that was months ago.

[Hendo]

There's nothing wrong with the software. Yeah they oxf*rd up demand management for the first lockdown game, but they fixed that before the first half was over.

Yeah I also found the software fine after that first wobble which lasted about 15 minutes.

The bigger gripe I have is having to listen to BBCRB

I will caveat that with I had to find a different browser to make it work. But not a big chore and that was months ago.

I didn't have to change browser to make it work, just took me 15 minutes to log in. But I understood that was more down to the sheer number of people logging in at the same time and was quite happy with the time it took to fix i.e. less than half a game. That could've easily lasted the entire game.

[Snowball]

Yeah I also found the software fine after that first wobble which lasted about 15 minutes.

The bigger gripe I have is having to listen to BBCRB

I will caveat that with I had to find a different browser to make it work. But not a big chore and that was months ago.

I didn't have to change browser to make it work, just took me 15 minutes to log in. But I understood that was more down to the sheer number of people logging in at the same time and was quite happy with the time it took to fix i.e. less than half a game. That could've easily lasted the entire game.

I wasn't able to log in.

Instead I just went to Live Match Centre and pressed the watch button

[KC Royal]

Comparing Ifollow to a match day experience is nonsensical.

£10 per match is steep, especially when you consider how generally shit the software is.

There's nothing wrong with the software. Yeah they oxf*rd up demand management for the first lockdown game, but they fixed that before the first half was over.

Yeah I also found the software fine after that first wobble which lasted about 15 minutes.

The bigger gripe I have is having to listen to BBCRB

Gave up with streamed games ages ago as got fed up with the constant issues trying to watch, so the idea of paying to watch them on ifollow last season didn't even cross my mind. Tbh, don't particularly get much enjoyment from watching games on a laptop anyway,

Didn't matter as could listen on BBCRB on Freeview...but then for some reason after the restart last season the reception gradually made listening more and more difficult, and going by last week it appears there's no signal at all anymore. Maybe shows where my interest level is these days but doesn't really bother me. There's other ways to follow the game, the match thread, BBC, Berkshire Live, Livescore/Flashscore etc. Though we seem to do better when I don't listen to the games anyway!