Post by GH Away Travel on Feb 11, 2024 10:26:40 GMT
Between now and the end of the season we have after the Wimbledon game 8 away league games remaining all of which are long journeys except for the last away game at Sutton.
With all of the postponed games now with dates we can see that it’s possible that we will not be able to run coaches to every one of them due to costs, especially if we don’t get sufficient numbers booking on. We have three away games, Newport County, Mansfield and Wrexham within a period of 9 days it’s going to be very expensive to be able to cover all these matches – all three coaches come to just under £5500, which is going to be impossible to cover any potential losses, if we had full 34 seater coaches for each game we would still lose over £1300 at £40 per seat, and with a full 53 seater we would just about cover the costs but that’s if we even managed to fill them.
With the previous Peterborough and Wimbledon debacles, plus only having the one close game now at Sutton we can’t see us having sufficient funds to cover these potential losses. In all the years we have been providing coaches for supporters this is the first time we have ever had to give this type of announcement. We will obviously try to do our utmost to run coaches to these remaining away games but we need supporters to book the seats by the cut off dates for these games otherwise we will have to cancel the coaches. This is just a warning of what might happen – better to be upfront now rather than springing late cancellations – if we can run the minibuses then we will, but that is only going to be max of 15 supporters each time as we don’t fill the 17 seater to give a bit of room for those travelling. We also want to be upfront with United Coaches to warn them of possible cancellations of their coaches.
We could but up fares to £50/£60 for the longer trips as many of the club do charge but I doubt we would get the supporters travelling in the numbers we do now which we thank them all for travelling with us - we do have an amazing group of supporters who continually travel on our coaches and it is increasing.
Over the past two seasons we have seen the cost of hiring coaches virtually double in price, where we were looking at £1200 for a trip to Grimsby is now £1900, even for for our local games e.g. to Colchester was £650 has gone to £1150. We have always tried to balance costs for the whole season, with the shorter trips subsidising the longer ones, and before you ask about using another Coach company - United were the best prices we received. With late cancellations of matches we still have to pay for the coaches in the terms and conditions of the hire - fortunately we were able to agree with United a reasonable cancellation fee for the Wimbledon game.
We have seen an increase in supporters travelling to away games, which is great for the club. We would obviously like to see a few more on our coaches but we do realise we have to run with restrictions about alcohol drinking and also their are supporters who just can't travel on a coach.
We will continue to provide away travel for supporters to the best of our ability but there will come a time when its just not feasible to run transport to all games.
Alain
With all of the postponed games now with dates we can see that it’s possible that we will not be able to run coaches to every one of them due to costs, especially if we don’t get sufficient numbers booking on. We have three away games, Newport County, Mansfield and Wrexham within a period of 9 days it’s going to be very expensive to be able to cover all these matches – all three coaches come to just under £5500, which is going to be impossible to cover any potential losses, if we had full 34 seater coaches for each game we would still lose over £1300 at £40 per seat, and with a full 53 seater we would just about cover the costs but that’s if we even managed to fill them.
With the previous Peterborough and Wimbledon debacles, plus only having the one close game now at Sutton we can’t see us having sufficient funds to cover these potential losses. In all the years we have been providing coaches for supporters this is the first time we have ever had to give this type of announcement. We will obviously try to do our utmost to run coaches to these remaining away games but we need supporters to book the seats by the cut off dates for these games otherwise we will have to cancel the coaches. This is just a warning of what might happen – better to be upfront now rather than springing late cancellations – if we can run the minibuses then we will, but that is only going to be max of 15 supporters each time as we don’t fill the 17 seater to give a bit of room for those travelling. We also want to be upfront with United Coaches to warn them of possible cancellations of their coaches.
We could but up fares to £50/£60 for the longer trips as many of the club do charge but I doubt we would get the supporters travelling in the numbers we do now which we thank them all for travelling with us - we do have an amazing group of supporters who continually travel on our coaches and it is increasing.
Over the past two seasons we have seen the cost of hiring coaches virtually double in price, where we were looking at £1200 for a trip to Grimsby is now £1900, even for for our local games e.g. to Colchester was £650 has gone to £1150. We have always tried to balance costs for the whole season, with the shorter trips subsidising the longer ones, and before you ask about using another Coach company - United were the best prices we received. With late cancellations of matches we still have to pay for the coaches in the terms and conditions of the hire - fortunately we were able to agree with United a reasonable cancellation fee for the Wimbledon game.
We have seen an increase in supporters travelling to away games, which is great for the club. We would obviously like to see a few more on our coaches but we do realise we have to run with restrictions about alcohol drinking and also their are supporters who just can't travel on a coach.
We will continue to provide away travel for supporters to the best of our ability but there will come a time when its just not feasible to run transport to all games.
Alain
