2024/25 Season Ticket Update .... extra £15 charge for cards

The club have replied to the Supporters club. No backing down from their sh*tty stance.
A few mistakes in there; it isn't easy to read in places. Perhaps we have a new intern or someone on work experience writing our emails:

bristolroverssc.co.uk/season-ticket-cards/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR14LWY-AUJPrg8lpafsBlzVOLkPPJPXMiUFDyfDN1Xta64opf1gtqXbrlA_aem_Abhm_OVcvVc4D_dTWV4USvWbYZpqX2fH8qyqTLPKhh3VeJ4GEPkGU-z5cNMteBrrqnTUIflG3V5A67LQ04NU_bDf


‘As a club we are looking to progress and going electronic on season passes and not allowing cash in the stadium are things that are done in all successful clubs in the UK and around the world.

‘We have provided all disabled fans through Clare to get FREE cards for them upon request. As for normal fans and older fans they can purchase the card for 15 pounds, which is the exact cost on the club, and we are not making any money on it, just covering the costs.

‘Clubs like Peterborough and Blackpool charge all fans 20 pounds for cards that includes disabled fans too.

‘We feel we are extremely fair priced as we cover costs only and in the recent future the cards will be stopped with the new stadium and no option but electronic will be available, and everyone has to move electronically.

‘Satisfying every fan is an impossible task; however, we have the club progress from the administrative side, football side and infrastructure side as our main priority and we are not afraid to make the tough decisions that we feel will take Bristol Rovers Football Club to the next level and be a sustainable football club.

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
Rovers PR will still be sh*t

This is going to turn more people against Abdullatif and the p*ss taking has already started on Gaschat.

Easily preventable by employing a PR agency and having a layer of experienced professional management between himself and the fans.

If this kind of thing continues it’s going to be much harder for the owners to keep up the pretense that they are enjoying the experience.

I’m a big believer in using professional PR but my experience of it is in industry rather than professional sport where it’s even more essential.

A few years ago I was introduced to a relatively new London based agency which you might say was “ hungry to do well”. Over a period of a few months we had a series of conversations about Rovers and the two guys involved were very enthusiastic about the potential for creating a modern brand whilst preserving our important traditions.  I actually had to temper their enthusiasm and make it clear that progress with PR could only come with a change of ownership which at the time was on the cards. They saw Rovers as a good first move into the EFL for their business and for quite some time they continued to check in with me to see if anything was likely to happen.

In the period since then Rovers image has suffered mind blowing damage while the PR agency I was talking to has gone from strength to strength and recently gained the Manchester City account.

Gorringe deleted his Twitter response, which was to blame the Supporter's Club for publishing.

Edit: I feel for any junior staffer who in error but without malice replied mentioning disabled supporters, normal and older supporters. He or she must be mortified. I'm actually more concerned about executive/board oversight who write these (now deleted) tweets blaming others.

If you're 'abnormal' then don't have to pay, they said. Sorry.

It'll almost certainly be less than this season LIS,or they would of been shouting from the South Stand roof top.

A few snippets from an article from the 28th February By James Piercy, Sports Editor.

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Bristol Rovers have released their season ticket prices for next season, raising the cost of an adult ticket by around seven per cent as the Gas anticipate another campaign in League One.

Rovers are hoping to build on their record sales for the current season, with 5,090 sold in the wake of the Gas’ promotion back into League One under Joey B*****.

Having previously frozen prices, the cheapest adult ticket is now £339 under the early bird scheme (£369 thereafter) with standing along three of the Memorial Stadium’s four areas - North (Thatcher’s End), North West, East and West. While the most expensive is seating inside the West Stand which is priced at £499 for early birds and £519 once on general sale from April 10th.

Last season the most affordable adult ticket was £315 in the standing sections with seating in the West Standing at £470, both under the early bird structure, representing price increases of 7.6 and 6.1 per cent, respectively.

In terms of Over 65s/Under 21s, the cheapest ticket is standing at £199/£219 and then £419/£439 for a seat in the West Stand. That age range has seen the highest price hike with a standing ticket for such concession raised as much as 17 per cent as last season those figures were £170 and £390.


"Our fans are the lifeblood of the club. During Covid, we saw first-hand the impact that not having you with us could have on the team, whilst last season you were able to play your part in cheering us on to promotion,” CEO Tom Gorringe said.

"We entered this season with more Season Ticket holders than ever before and we would like to thank you all for sticking with this team through thick and thin. We remain ambitious and want to keep improving (on and off the pitch) and we can’t wait for you to be with us on the next part of this journey."

The release of the season ticket prices continues a flurry of news around the Mem with Tom Gorringe outlining plans to rebuild the South Stand, where away supporters are traditionally held, in time for the start of next season.

Calls for apology after Bristol Rovers refer to 'disabled' fans and 'normal' fans..By Tristan Cork, Senior Reporter.

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Bristol Rovers fans have called on the club to apologise after a letter about season tickets referred to disabled fans and ‘normal’ fans. The club’s Disabled Supporters’ Association said it was ‘disappointed’ to see the wording of the letter - which was sent privately to the supporters’ club and shared with fans on social media - while other fans called it ‘extremely insensitive’.

The club’s chief executive replied to one poster on X/ Twitter, but in a now-deleted tweet didn’t apologise and only said the email should not have been shared publicly.

The furore erupted over the Bank Holiday weekend after the Bristol Rovers Supporters' Club posted on Twitter that they had received a response from the club regarding their questions about new season ticket arrangements for next season. The club is introducing e-tickets for season ticket holders and, like most clubs, is offering a physical card to supporters who don’t want to have their ticket on their phone, for an extra fee.

The club confirmed that fans who want a physical season card instead of an e-ticket will have to pay £15 for that, but disabled fans will receive a physical card for free. In the letter to the supporters’ club, which they subsequently shared word-for-word, the club explained the rationale behind the switch to e-tickets and the charges for a physical season card, and said: “We have provided all disabled fans…to get free cards for them upon request. As for normal fans and older fans they can purchase the card for 15 pounds, which is the exact cost on the club, and we are not making any money on it, just covering the costs.”

Referring to able-bodied or non-disabled fans as ‘normal’ sparked a furore on social media, with fans explaining they were shocked to see what they described as clumsy language.

The Bristol Rovers Disabled Supporters' Association said: “The DSA and our club have made tremendous progress in 23/24 in areas such as facilities and stewarding. We are disappointed to see (the) word ‘normal’ used in this context.

“One area agreed with Club for 2024/25 is a review of comms and styles to reflect what is current best practice,” they added. In a reply to another post, the BRDSA added: “We do get folk make slip ups - we are all human. It’s a word our working group picked up more than once in historic documents on the website which we are working together to review/replace this summer as well as knowledge refreshers. We can only make it better together.”

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Another fan, Steve Western, added: “Disappointing, worrying and extremely insensitively-worded response. So as an older fan I’m not a normal fan and what do disabled fans think about not being regarded as normal! I’d hazard a guess that lost revenue from non renewed season tickets exceeds £15 for those wanting a card.”

One disabled fan, Jake Barber, explained why the word had upset him so much. “I'm a disabled man. Just because I no longer use a wheelchair doesn't mean I'm not,” he tweeted. “Disabled people are normal people. Just because I'm disabled doesn't make me any less normal than anyone else. Wording is so key sometimes. Do better,” he added.

Jake later added that he felt the club had badly-worded their response. “I give the club the benefit of the doubt with things as sometimes it’s not worth the hassle,” he said. “But this has properly wound me up. I didn't ask to be born with what I've got. Just sh** luck. Quite upset tbf.

“I can get very tired and sometimes it is difficult for me to get around. Not that I need any help but I can just be very slow. I just feel like the club have completely mis-worded this awfully.

“I don’t think they meant any harm. I’d like to think they didn’t mean any harm, but like I said just because you’re not in a wheelchair, doesn’t mean that you don’t need access to disabled facilities or help like that. I just think the club have worded that awfully, so do better,” he added, in a video message.

Another disabled fan, Amy-Louise Wood, also criticised the club. “It’s absolutely fantastic that my beloved club, right since early childhood, now thinks of me as not being ‘normal’... because I unfortunately ended up with multiple rare, severe illnesses,” she said. “Cheers lads, someone ‘normal’ deserves the sack.”

In the Twitter backlash, both the Supporters' Club and the club itself remained silent, but Rovers’ chief executive Tom Gorringe did reply to one post, with a tweet he later deleted. He said: “This wasn’t a club statement, it was a response to a private email from an individual so shouldn’t have been published publicly in this way.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the Supporters' Club took down their original post sharing the letter.


"Bristol Rovers Football Club would like to apologise for any offence caused by an error in wording in a recent communication regarding disabled supporters. No harmful intention of meaning was ever intended in the wording, which was included in a private email exchange between the Club and a representative from the Bristol Rovers Supporters Club.

"The Club is proud of our ongoing commitment to provide the best experience for all supporters of Bristol Rovers FC, in particular our work with the Club's Disabled Supporters Association to ensure fans with accessibility or additional needs are able to enjoy each and every match at The Memorial Stadium. In addition, the Club were recently commended by the EFL by achieving Bronze in the EFL Equality Code of Practice.

"Bristol Rovers Football Club is committed to making sure our Club is a safe, welcome and inclusive environment for everyone," the statement added.