​This Thursday morning, OGC Nice are launching an innovative season ticket campaign to facilitate the fans’ return to the stadium. To make sure that in these economically difficult times no supporter has to choose between stability and passion.

“Stronger together”. That’s this campaign’s slogan. What is the strength that you want to get back?

Before when we used the “12th man” term it may have seemed like just a phrase. But stats have shown that football is not the same sport behind closed doors. In Ligue 1, the teams that have a better atmosphere lost a lot of points at home this year. That strength is a reality at Nice, it enables players to give 110%. We’ve missed that.

The absence of a crowd in the stadium quickly became difficult to deal with…

Full stands, chants… they were our day to day. That’s the football we love and what happened this year shows how important that passion is. When we get it back, we’ll appreciate it even more than we used to.

What comes to your mind when you think of the first match back at the Allianz Riviera in August?

The reunion with our fans. An immense amount of joy. There will also be an importance to what happens on the pitch, but it will be more than just that.

Are the fans looking forward to getting back to the stadium?

A lot of people have mentioned it. But we also need to be careful about the negatives of a season behind closed doors. Some people aren’t used to football anymore. It’s a tough thing to analyse and think about. In Nice like everywhere else we’ll work extremely hard. Both to get back in touch with our fans but also by helping people to discover what a football stadium is about. It’s a unique place in a city. There’s no other place that attracts 20,30,35 000 people of all walks of life to share something magical every two weeks.

We can’t predict the future. This past year showed that unfortunately. What are the things that encouraged you to start this campaign on June 17?

The sanitary situation is a lot more favourable now, everything is opening up slowly but surely and we’re hoping that that will continue. To this day, there is no reason to think that stadiums couldn’t be full. Of course there will be some things that will be mandatory, like the sanitary pass* but nothing has been said to this day as to the return of fans. So realistically you’ve got to be positive about it.

What are the initiatives you’ve taken today for the fans who are going to buy a season ticket?

They will never have to pay for a game they’ve not been allowed to go to. The concept of MonGymMaFamille is what we showed this year. We were constantly in contact with our fans. And when they weren’t able to come to the ground, we didn’t just stop at giving them a voucher. We offered them a refund. For 2021-22, we’re preparing to address the rules that will be imposed on us. Flexibility is a necessity. We’ll adapt if things change and will always have our season ticket holders at the heart of our decisions.

The main factor behind buying a season ticket is passion. But there is also a financial aspect that you can’t forget. How has that been taking into account by the club?

The economic crisis that came from the sanitary crisis has been at the centre of thinking. We’ve nearly never increased our prices in the previous seasons, so we’re freezing our prices again this year. But we’re not stopping there. All our thinking over the past few months have been around one thing: we don’t want someone who wants to go to the ground to not be able to go because of financial reasons.

How is that going to happen?

When you’re going through financial difficulty, even just for a short period, there are priorities. Essential needs. Then you think about having fun. And football is part of that. Some put it ahead of everything else. But on our side, we can’t think about it like that. All of the club’s departments have worked hard to find partners who will be able to help our season ticket holders save money in their day-to-day life just by have the OGC Nice season ticket. To make sure that everyone can see that they have saved money on their membership at the end of the month, the entirety or part of it, if the person used the Spending Power Program that we’re putting in place. All of the season ticket holders will benefit from it without exception and with the same quality of service and advantages.

In what way will OGC Nice be able to make a difference when it comes to saving money?

The OGC Nice brand has an ability to sign deals and get discounts that a person can not get alone. That’s what the program is all about. We’ve signed a very advantageous partnership with two specialised platforms. Thanks to their season ticket, everyone will be able to have access to a number of offers at hundreds of food, cosmetic, toy, building shops as well as cinemas… automatically and for free. There are a lot of places meaning that everyone can keep their day-to-day habits, including their entertainment, but at a discounted price. We hope that we can help out a little bit and that we will let no one down this way.

What would you say to someone who’s had a season ticket for 50 years but is not great with technology and still wants to benefit from it.

Our teams will be available to everyone to help them along the way if they need it. And we’ll even thanks to the deal we’ve signed, have a personal assistant from one of our partners to help people with everything they need to save money on their bills (telephone, energy…).

Another new addition is a monthly payment option.

It’ll be a lot more comfortable for our fans because they can spread the payment of their membership over a year, with no additional costs. And it will also show the positive impact of the spending power program. August is usually a difficult month financially for most families. The holidays have happened, and school starts up soon after. If they use the discounts they’re entitled to when they go shopping, the money saved will be able to pay for a part of or even all of the month’s membership. We’re also inviting all the members to make the effort to calculate how much the membership cost and the amount of money they’ve been able to save with the “Spending power program”.

We get back to the effort a club like OGC Nice make off the field as well as on it.

A football club has a strength. And it needs to take advantage of it. As well as playing football we also have a role in society. With the actions we do that everyone knows through our foundation. But also to help all our fans whoever they are, in these difficult times. We worked hard on these things in the past few months and we hope that it will be successful. But when we talk about success, we think of the season ticket holder’s satisfaction when he uses the program he’s been offered and saves some or all the money he’s spent on his membership in some cases.

*The Sanitary Pass is a document that is required to access certain places, events and establishments. This document can be:

- A negative lateral flow or RT-PCR test for covid-19, done less than 48 hours before entering the establishment.

- A full vaccination certificate

- A recovery certificate

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