Quote Originally Posted by CCFCC3PO View Post
I still stand by the analogy because it highlights that football clubs have the real benefit of brand loyalty (itself an emotional trait) and therefore they can use that to eke more from their fans.

The other point I am trying to make, albeit not very well, is that if football clubs are asking ordinary members of the public to donate, or defer close to £100 per ticket (for entire families, that could be pushed to £200-£250), then an act of courtesy would be to demonstrate how that money is being
a) invested in the academy
b) the value of that money against future ticket prices.

I have no issue with fans choosing any of the 3 options, but would like to see more transparency. People asking for refunds in the current state of affairs is, in my opinion, to be wholly accepted and respected.
But people are not being asked to ‘donate’. The money has already been paid to the club and spent over 12 months ago. The owner is offering to put an equivalent amount of money into the academy in return for fans agreeing to renew next season at the full price, which would obviously be beneficial to the club to maintain income streams at a very difficult time. You are just making a meal out of this, as usual, to suit your own warped ideas about how the club is run. Also there is no problem with people wanting or needing a refund of the balance (more likely to be £60-£80 in most cases) as long as they are aware that they are giving up their season tickets, as a result of which they will give up their season ticket rights for next season, including being able to keep the same seat. There is nothing unusual in this at all but you obviously think it is some sort of conspiracy for the club to fleece or mislead its own fans.