ncbryant":1q0ajy0a said:
So I asked the free entry question to the club and had a response from the Commercial Operations Officer, James Greenacre.
Argyle give a 'very' limited amount of tickets directly to the dockyard. These are given to a single point of contact of which I am in no doubt tickets are offered first to senior officers then trickled down through the ranks, rarely giving all the opportunity to attend. Extremely disappointing if there are empty seats at the armed forces game!
As I say, Exeter Chiefs and I believe Albion offer free armed forces tickets to ALL on their Armed Forces games. Not just the lucky few who out rank or know the single guy in the dockyard given a few hundred tickets. They offer these tickets directly through their ticketing system and advertise them openly! In my experience, it is the senior officers (normally rugby fans) who are least likely to return to future paid games. The lower ranks however, have so much spare time and income available when stuck in the dockyard hundreds of miles from their families at a weekend and are more likely to return and pay.
A free ticket last weekend at Exeter Chiefs resulted in me buying two extra adult tickets with the three attendees spending at least £20 each on beer and pasties with all planning to attend again! At least £100 of extra income for the sake of one free ticket and three new fans!
We really don't maximise the potential of armed forces attendances at Home Park. They need to get the non natives interested in Argyle before they will consider purchasing Armed Forces memberships!!
Mr Bryant. It is not clear which part of your post above is actually the response from James Greenacre!! It does sound a little like a rant from someone who perhaps wasn't able to get hold of one (or more) of the 1000 free tickets offered locally to members of ALL RANKS of the Armed Forces. It may be that you did and were able to invite your two friends again?
Perhaps I can offer some feedback and clear up some of your presumptions.
Firstly, Argyle are a business. For the club to offer free tickets to ALL the Armed Forces personnel, as you suggest, then it would not be long before they themselves would be looking for hand-outs in order to survive. I think you will find that Plymouth Albion are not exactly in a strong financial position. Perhaps they might need to re-think their Armed Services entry policy. (Another argument, perhaps).
Secondly, for Argyle to offer 1000 tickets free is an extremely generous gesture; year on year they have increased this allocation as demand for this event has grown and this year, was considerably more than those provided and that a reserve list was in operation. The tickets were advertised to ships, establishments and cadet units locally and as far afield as RAF St Mawgan.
Thirdly, Armed Services Day is organised, in conjunction with the club, by a small dedicated team of Naval personnel based in HMS Drake and requests for tickets are processed through them so that a fair distribution of tickets is achieved. I think you will agree that a large contingency of uniform personnel were noticeable at the match.
That others from outside the Plymouth catchment area are unable to get hold of tickets is unfortunate. Maybe you could leave your details with the organisers and they could send you an email informing you of when the next Armed Services Day is to be held (you'll have to wait for next season's fixtures to come out). They will, of course not be discerning of whether the request is coming from a "lower rank" or an officer.
In your original email and above you made some suggestions as to what the club might do in the future. I am sure they will consider your thoughts, but here is one for you. How about you (and your friends, if you like), taking advantage of the fabulous offer the club are promoting at the moment; that of a half season ticket. You will effectively get FOUR free games, regardless of whether you are Armed Forces, or not. Better still, if you put a regular sum of money away each month, you would be able to take advantage of an early bird offer, saving even more money and getting up to 9 games free?
Many letters of congratulations were received by the organisers for a job extremely well done, not only on ticket allocation, but the stalls outside and the events on the pitch pre-match and half time. Perhaps you would like to join, with me and add to those praises and applaud the efforts put into making an enjoyable spectacle for all the fans attending and their appreciation of the Armed Services?
WELL DONE TO THE TEAM IN HMS DRAKE.