Long standing Hereford/Hereford United supporter Bill Thomas from Bradford on Avon expresses his opposition to the Club’s Cashless Policy.
'Just four hours after renewing my season ticket, I learned to my horror that the club was going cashless. My anger at this decision just won’t go away, as I don’t think it’s right. I’m even more concerned about it than I am about our recent results on the pitch.
Cash payers will be greatly inconvenienced, and their reaction to this may be to attend fewer matches, and spend less of their disposable income at Edgar Street. People with low incomes may find it easier to avoid overspending if they can pay by cash, and they should be allowed to do so. A lot of people find cash easier to manage for various reasons, and they shouldn’t be disadvantaged.
I must also point out that around 2.1% of UK residents don’t have bank accounts, so by law of averages this could include about sixty of our supporters. How will these people buy tickets? Surely a so called community club should welcome all forms of payment with open arms, so that no one is disadvantaged.
The club claim that cash only represents 4% of their takings, but surely the reason for this is that they have so severely discouraged cash payments in recent years. Higher prices on the day, no cash on the turnstiles, and the ticket office closing at ten to three.
As a comparison, train companies accept cash, and don’t appear to discourage it, so I asked at Bradford on Avon ticket office, what percentage of rail tickets were paid for by cash. I was told that it was about a third, so my guess is that if HFC hadn’t discouraged cash payments in recent years, then around a third of the club’s turnover would also be cash.
If the club want to maximise their profits, and increase their chances of going full time, then I believe that they need to accept and encourage all forms of payment, and stop trying to force people to do everything their way. If match attendances, bar turnover, and shop turnover all go down, as a result of going cashless, then the club will only have themselves to blame.
I have argued many times in recent years that the club should either accept cash at the turnstiles, or keep the ticket office open until kick off. I have have also argued that not doing this could be reducing our potential attendances by around 10%. Whilst on line sales have been a great step forward, not everybody wants to do things this way, and fans that would rather pay cash on the day should not be discouraged from doing so.
My fanzine articles arguing this point, plus a polite letter to the chairman via HUST that I sent last year, saying the same thing, have proved fruitless, and the club have now done the exact opposite by going cashless. I have therefore reluctantly concluded that the only remaining way to try and get my message across is to give the club less money, in the hope that it may encourage them to have a rethink.
I have therefore decided not to buy any half time draw tickets until the decision to go cashless is reversed. Please note that I was buying ten tickets every time I attend a home game, and have also handed back all of my winnings, so the loss to the club will be around £175 per season. In truth, I don’t think they should profit from anything that can be bought with cash, if they won’t accept it themselves.
The club have also missed out on my potential generosity with Boost The Budget, as I don’t want to give away my bank details to make a donation. If they want to maximise the potential donations, then I think they need to be flexible, and give us more ways to pay. If it were possible to donate with cash, by card, or by Pay Pal, and the club hadn’t made the mistake of going cashless, then I would almost certainly have donated.
I don’t like holding back on my normal generosity, but in all truth I’ve reached the point where I feel it’s the only way to get my message across. If the club do get the message, and start to run themselves in a more fan friendly way, then I will revert to my previous policy of throwing as much money at them as possible, with immediate effect.
As things stand now, the club will still benefit from my purchase of a season ticket, plus any all pay matches I attend. But if they corrected what I believe to be the errors of their ways then I would probably be giving them an extra £250 per season.
I don’t doubt that Stig (Ed - Chris Ammonds, Hereford FC Chairman) and everyone connected to the club work extremely hard, and that they all want the club to be successful. But at the same time, I genuinely believe that if they ran the club in a more fan friendly way, then it would make things significantly easier for them as our gates would be higher.
Our potential support, is a massive asset and I think we need to maximise it by making everything as convenient for the fans as possible. In my opinion the clubs that do this are far more likely to maximise their potential support than those that don’t.'