Leeds Carnegie Supporters Association

Leeds Tykes Season Ticket Campaign

At the Evening with Leeds Rugby on the 2nd May, Gary Hetherington announced a brave new move for the Leeds Tykes. Instead of the budget for player salaries coming out of a central pot with all the other departmental budgets, the salary fund will come directly from a dedicated source. This budget will be provided directly from two income streams: corporate sales and your season tickets.

Further, for each pound raised in this way, Tykes Chairman Paul Caddick will add a pound. That means that for each adult ground season ticket sold, £374 will go into recruiting and retaining players. The targets for the corporate sales and season ticket areas are £300,000 and £200,000 respectively.

That means that we need to purchase at least 1,070 standing season tickets in the next few months. In a season where we were relegated, the average gate of the diehard core of Tykes fans was around 2,500 to 3,000, so 1070 should not be too much of a stretch. Paul has donated millions of pounds to the Tykes cause in the last ten years. Reasonably, he wants to see what the rest of us are prepared to do to help him. Your independent LTSA committee recognizes this great opportunity to help Stuart Lancaster and his team develop his vision to see the club thrive and we offer our full support to this initiative. Every penny spent on season tickets and corporate membership will go to support the team.

The more tickets sold, the better players we can buy and retain. No other club has this direct correlation between your pocket and the talent you see on display. No other club has this openness with its supporters.

So what can you do?

First of all, buy a season ticket for yourself. At the moment you will receive entry to fourteen home games for the price of eleven. So even if you think that you may miss a couple of games, you are still making a saving. If you haven’t bought a season ticket before, please do so now. Whatever happens next year, you will get great entertainment from a great team. Experience the highs and lows of the Guinness Premiership every fortnight first-hand!

Secondly, consider buying tickets for those around you. Junior tickets are only £40 for the season, saving you a massive £100 on entry over the course of the year. Further, if you buy a season ticket for your significant other as well, a junior ticket costs just £5. That’s over 1120 minutes of entertainment for the price of two pints!

Next, consider your friends who are not season ticket holders. We had a great season while in ND1 – did any of them come to the games with you? Have they experienced GP rugby before? Were they previously season ticket holders? Please sell the idea of this deal to them. The more tickets are sold, the better our chance of GP survival.

Are you tired of hearing in the press about low attendances at Tykes games? The LTSA committee are. If each supporter brings one more person to every game, the crowd will double towards Lanny’s target of 6,000 in three years. If your friends are going to come, they will save money by buying a season ticket. If they buy a ticket, at last £374 will be added to the pot. When we stay up at the end of next season, it will be because you invested in the team by buying a season ticket.

Finally, consider how you can help corporate ticket sales. Do you know anyone who could sponsor the Tykes? Advertising deals start at £750. Do your Marketing Department want to network with potential customers? Season tickets for the members clubs start at £750 which includes lunch and the match ticket. If your employers don’t know about these opportunities, tell them. What harm can it do? They can only say “no”, but they might say “yes”…

What’s in it for me?

As well as the 14 games for the price of 11 deal mentioned above, season ticket holders receive the following benefits:

Two free tickets for your friends. Bring them to the first home game, watch the Tykes win and then encourage them to buy their own season tickets!
Free Tykes Handbook – full of facts and figures about the players you know and the new squad members that you don’t!
Increased access to England International tickets. When better than in a World Cup year to see the England team play when tickets are rarer than hen’s teeth?
An invite to an exclusive pre-season “meet the players” barbecue and fun day at Headingley. See the new team before anyone else!
Discount in the club shop. The shop is now franchised to the Tykes’ new merchandise provider, ISC, so you’re going to want that shirt!
Further benefits may be announced as the season develops. We may even throw in earplugs for those of you that don’t like the drums!

Leeds Rugby has pledged to let us know each week how many tickets are sold and how close we are to the targets. We would like to exceed those targets, but we cannot do that without your help.

So what are you waiting for? Please buy your tickets now at https://tickets.leedsrugby.com/tykesonline and let’s start building next season’s winning team!