Club ticketing policy

That’s still exactly the case. Yesterday on the Pop Side I bought chips for my lunch (no veggie burger available for a non-meat eater) and was told cash only. Luckily I carry a couple of notes for just such a situation. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever had to use one.

Thanks rjdgull, that explains the difference in payment types. As you say, it would make so much sense for one turnstile at each entrance to take cash and card payments.
Out of interest, does the kiosk in the corner between Bristow’s and the Family Stand do veggie food or are both kiosks run by the same business?

Off to Wales for a couple of days (Sunday/Monday) and a lot to sort on Saturday so I can't make the match on Saturday.

However, if I could pay on the gate on the day and if all went well I may of made the match.

Difficult to understand why any business would go out of its way to make it so difficult for customers to buy its product.

I don’t do conspiracy theories, so I will put it down to sheer stupidity rather than a deliberate attempt to throw away as much revenue as possible.

Mind you, it is pushing credibility to believe that any business could really be that stupid.

The club would not have survived as long as it has if previous owners had tried so hard to discourage casual supporters. It will be far more difficult winning back those casual supporters back than it would have been to keep them.

The hardcore will go out of their way to attend games, but the hardcore are not enough to keep the club going.

Once a fan turns up on the day and cannot get in, he is very unlikely to ever come back.

I think you're right, it's just sheer stupidity. We are not the only club, even at non-league level to do this, and what I think is happening is a case of a business which arrogantly thinks it can bludgeon its customers into accepting its way of doing things (e.g. Banks forcing their customers into on-line banking by closing branches).
Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't, and I think the club is making a very costly and foolish mistake, it has certainly seen me and some of my friends miss games, simply because if on the day I find I have the time and inclination to attend, I simply refuse to be charged an extra £2 for the privilege especially this season with the dross on offer.
If you are a Premier League club with a ten year waiting list for season tickets then you can afford to alienate a small fraction of your customer base because really you don't need them. But this club simply cannot afford that.

I CAN actually fully understand the desire to go cashless.

The days of gatemen carrying huge bags of cash, protected by a steward escort and all the hassle of getting that cash banked - not to mention the risk of misappropriation - are best consigned to the past.

But any small business - a car boot seller or even a Big Issue seller has a very cheap card machine to take money by card swipe.

Imagine if a Big Issue seller said "transfer me the money the day before you want a magazine and then come and pick it up the next day". They would not sell many at all, so they have to make their proposition more customer friendly.

Torquay United are throwing away a huge chunk of their "roll up" business. Because they have the hardcore who will do anything to get to a game, it looks like this is throwing way a small percentage of the overall target audience.

The sad fact is they are throwing away a large percentage of the "softcore customer base". It is revenue from that softcore, added to the hardcore, that makes the business viable.

It is a devil of a job getting professional football in Torquay to pay its way. Those who follow the history pages of this forum will be more aware than most of the immense financial struggles faced by the club throughout its history.

I can honestly say, having studied the club's financial history in minute detail, that this is the first time in the club's history that the club's directorate has gone out of its way to discourage rather than encourage fans to come through the turnstiles.

I did say I vote for incompetence rather than a conspiracy, but it is enough to make you wonder.

"The business OBVIOUSLY cannot pay its way based at Plainmoor (.... without all the softcore fans we have deliberately alienated), so give us the land to build the "enabling development" to build a new stadium (probably in the lower field, where the "drainage issues" will stop it being built), or we will put the club out of its misery".