The Gas Trust applauds the decision by the board of Bristol Rovers to apply an across the board reduction of £46 on individual season tickets for the 2008-2009 season. It is also pleased by the prices arranged by the club for coach travel to Whaddon Road for those supporters that do not have their own transport or are unable to afford either the cost of public transport or the increasing price of fuel. We do feel, however, that there should be a wider network of pick up points so that more fans are able to take advantage of this service.

For the single supporter who will be able to make it to every game this is indeed as good an offer as can be reasonably expected from BRFC. However, from feedback given to the Gas Trust from both members and other supporters, there are a number of issues that we would like to see addressed for the benefit of both Bristol Rovers in terms of income generation and, more importantly, its loyal supporters.

Firstly, for a variety of reasons (e.g., work commitments, the extra travel time, the lack of public transport, getting children home at an acceptable time on a school night) a significant number of supporters will simply not be able to attend evening matches. At Ipswich Town, for example, it is recognised that their fan base includes a large number of supporters who live many miles from Ipswich itself and as such a special Season Ticket is available that includes weekend games only. We would like to see a similar offer introduced at Bristol Rovers for those supporters who will find it extremely difficult to attend evening matches but still want to support their club as much as possible.

The main concern that we have though is regarding the prices that have been set for family season tickets.

The club has stated on many occasions how important families and young supporters are to the future of the club. Upon taking over the chairmanship of the club in April 2007, Ron Craig spoke of the importance of growing the club’s fanbase through young people and this was reiterated by Fans’ Director Ken Masters when he said the following: “Supporters are what football clubs need most of all. Bringing on young fans these days is as important as bring on young players. It is so easy for our next generation to tag on to the successes of a premier league club instead of following the tradition of their local league club”.

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