Sheffield Wednesday has moved to afford their loyal supporters more time to purchase season tickets for the 2010/11 season.
The initial 1st deadline at which to obtain the maximum discount was originally set for today, February 8th but has now been put back to March 8th.
Sales so far have totalled more than 3,000 but traditionally a large proportion of season tickets are purchased before the first cut-off date to take advantage of the best prices and with the Owls currently having over 13,500 season ticket holders the vast majority of the Wednesday support is yet to commit.
The decision to make season tickets available for the following season is a relatively new idea at Hillsborough and one that is evidently taking supporters some time to get used to as they have become accustomed to making the purchase in the summer pre-season. The reasoning behind this move is that the club will be better prepared in terms of having detailed specifics about their budget going into the pre-season and will therefore be better positioned to make changes to the team at an early stage. More and more teams are beginning to adopt this approach in order to better assess their finances going forward.
For Owls fans making the commitment they have the opportunity to spread the cost over the season by paying with interest free direct debit payments and there are certainly a range of discounts on offer as well.
Sceptical supporters may argue that they don’t want to make the purchase when there is still a realistic chance that the club could be relegated at the end of the season. Whilst it may be stated that many fans will back their team regardless of what level they are competing at the fact that the cost will remain the same regardless of whether Wednesday will be playing Championship or League One football next season may well be a hindrance. The club could put across the point that the decision was made at the start of the season and at that time there was conceivably a chance that they could achieve promotion and therefore the price would not have increased if the Owls were to be playing Premier League football. The hope is that with the improvement seen in recent weeks the club will maintain Championship status and the season ticket in this respect offers good value for money with the best discounts available to those who purchase early.