How long have the club been doing season tickets?

[Cambridge Away]

I always thought until quite recently, that when i was first bought a season ticket as a kid that this was around the time they started making season ticket packages.  I am not sure why i thought that; but maybe it was because, before that point, i'd only ever seen cash exchanged on the turnstiles and never heard of a season ticket before i got one.

And the length of time you have had a season ticket isn't really something that comes up very often in conversation when you talk to other Fulham fans (or other proper football fans), so, i'd not ever definitively heard much from others about how long they'd had one. People tend to just mention how long they have been a fan, and whether it's 'home' or 'home and away'. Only over recent years on forums do i occasionally see someone mention how many years they've had a season ticket. I saw someone mention they had been a ST holder for double my time, so i'm guessing that season tickets do go way back.

So, without wanting to encourage us to all start comparing the lengths of our season tickets  :003:, have season tickets always  existed as longs as clubs have been around? It would make sense that there was always some sort of membership scheme, as long as the quality of printing was good enough but i really have no idea?

i wonder if the club holds records of season ticket holders from way back?

[bill taylors apprentice]

You could have just said "I would be interested to know when season tickets started" or something similar.

All those words and yet you never actually said when you first had your ST!

[Cambridge Away]

You could have just said "I would be interested to know when season tickets started" or something similar.

All those words and yet you never actually said when you first had your ST!

Thanks for the response and sorry i didn't mean to come across confusing. I was just trying to tell some kind of story at the same time as asking a question.

I didn't think putting how long i had a season ticket was important. I've got past my ignorant/innocent childish thoughts that i could have possibly been part of one of the first batch of first ever season tickets. Unless everyone has been giving BS on forums then i am definitely not close to being any kind of front runner. Someone else posted double my years of service (earlier today)! I was just interested really in the history of season tickets at Fulham and football in general. When did this badge of allegiance first come in?

[cmg]

http://www.thearsenalhistory.com/?p=14805


"Arsenal Season Tickets

The club began issuing season tickets during the 1888-89 season and have provided the option for fans ever since."

[Cambridge Away]

http://www.thearsenalhistory.com/?p=14805


"Arsenal Season Tickets

The club began issuing season tickets during the 1888-89 season and have provided the option for fans ever since."

I first read that as 1988-89!
Thank you.
I can imagine 50p was a lot back then

[RaySmith]

You couldn't have a season ticket for standing on the terraces could you?

Which is what I always did from when I began watching the club in the early 60's until there were no longer any terraces left to stand on: my last terrace place being in the Enclosure - was that when we  first went into the Prem, and had to play at Loftus Road until the ground was converted?

[Jamie88]

If you scroll down toward the bottom of this link, you will see a 'members pass' as they were called back then, for the 1897-98 season! So I think season tickets in some form have been around since the earliest days of the clubs existence.

https://lbhflibraries.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/henry-coleman-and-the-fulham-fc-quadrille/

[hovewhite]

http://www.thearsenalhistory.com/?p=14805


"Arsenal Season Tickets

The club began issuing season tickets during the 1888-89 season and have provided the option for fans ever since."

I first read that as 1988-89!
Thank you.
I can imagine 50p was a lot back then

I have been at the non league club I do work for at programs this last few days for the princely sum of 5 old penny's

[filham]

Season tickets were only available for those that sat in the stands, those of us standing on the terraces simply paid at the turnstiles match by match but always stood in the same place.
Things changed when we returned from Loftus Road to an all seater stadium. To be sure of a regular place a season ticket became essential. My season ticket days started then.

[Lighthouse]

Well they were available in the 60s and 70s so I would imagine they were available way before then.

[filham]

Well they were available in the 60s and 70s so I would imagine they were available way before then.
[/quote

In the 60's the ground was terracing on three sides the only season tickets would have been for some seats in the Stevenage Road stand as it was then known.

[Jamie88]

Well they were available in the 60s and 70s so I would imagine they were available way before then.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I have included a link which shows they were available as far back as 1897-98.

[Jim©]

Season tickets were 100% available for the hammersmith end and enclosure pre Loftus Road as I had them then.

[Southdowns White]

I had a child season ticket for the Hammersmith end back in the late 1970s I went into the old ticket office and asked if I could get one, They sent me upstairs into the admin offices in the cottage where I bought it. I think it was £10.00 which was half the price of the adult one. It was a little green book with tickets, you took out a ticket and presented it at the turnstile, It was exactly the same as the adult ticket but I am sure someone had written Child on the front. I still have the little books in the loft along with programmes and memorabilia. I paid for it out of my paper round money, I also would do odd jobs at craven cottage during the school holidays, The groundsman was called Fred, a group of us would sweep the stands after games, paint the barriers and help set up the hoses for watering the pitch. We would get tickets to sit in the riverside stand or we would be ball boys for the next game. I also remember moving what seemed like thousands of old programmes out of the little programme booth and a little store cupboard in the Stevenage Road stand, so they could be painted, don't remember putting them back though!

[Lighthouse]

My first season ticket I bought with my first wage of 13 quid a week. I could travel by Bus, Train, underground and still have change for something to eat and survive the week until the next game. Nowadays prices are just so ridiculous. I am priced out of watching the club live now. But then going to the shops to buy a twiglet needs a mortgage and a letter from the bank.

[filham]

Season tickets were 100% available for the hammersmith end and enclosure pre Loftus Road as I had them then.

Yes, I stand corrected, I recall now that season tickets were available for the terraced areas for a a while before all seating took place. Not for that long though, can anyone remember the first date, I think it would have been sometime during the MAF years.

[Wolf]

Season tickets were 100% available for the hammersmith end and enclosure pre Loftus Road as I had them then.

Yes, I stand corrected, I recall now that season tickets were available for the terraced areas for a a while before all seating took place. Not for that long though, can anyone remember the first date, I think it would have been sometime during the MAF years.

Definitely pre MAF as I had them. Sixties or seventies.

[Southdowns White]

Season tickets were 100% available for the hammersmith end and enclosure pre Loftus Road as I had them then.

Yes, I stand corrected, I recall now that season tickets were available for the terraced areas for a a while before all seating took place. Not for that long though, can anyone remember the first date, I think it would have been sometime during the MAF years.

If you read my post above, I can confirm that I had a hammersmith end child season ticket in the late 1970s. I still have the stubs of the books in the loft.

[Cambridge Away]

I had a child season ticket for the Hammersmith end back in the late 1970s I went into the old ticket office and asked if I could get one, They sent me upstairs into the admin offices in the cottage where I bought it. I think it was £10.00 which was half the price of the adult one. It was a little green book with tickets, you took out a ticket and presented it at the turnstile, It was exactly the same as the adult ticket but I am sure someone had written Child on the front. I still have the little books in the loft along with programmes and memorabilia. I paid for it out of my paper round money, I also would do odd jobs at craven cottage during the school holidays, The groundsman was called Fred, a group of us would sweep the stands after games, paint the barriers and help set up the hoses for watering the pitch. We would get tickets to sit in the riverside stand or we would be ball boys for the next game. I also remember moving what seemed like thousands of old programmes out of the little programme booth and a little store cupboard in the Stevenage Road stand, so they could be painted, don't remember putting them back though!

Good stuff. I am not sure why i imagine everything to be so dusty (in or out of that cupboard) back in the 70s  :003:

[Cambridge Away]

Based on the responses so far (and the limited info i've picked up before now), perhaps the percentage of home fans at Craven Cottage who had season tickets would have been something like this?
1900 - 0.01%
1925 - 0.1%
1950 - 1%
1975 - 5%
2000 - 10%
2025 - 50%