Shrewsbury Town offer free admission for under-12s as club reveal early bird season ticket prices

Youngsters under the age of 12 will be able to watch for free, while the club has also moved to make it more affordable for young adults.

Under-8s have been allowed in for nothing this season but will raise that threshold as well as freezing admission prices for 12 to 18-year-olds.

The young adult bracket for youngsters aged 19 to 21 will be extended for up to 23-year-olds, but adults and senior prices will rise for the first time in five years.

Caldwell is hoping the prices will help attract the next generation of Town fans to Montgomery Waters Meadow.

“We’re all keen to encourage younger people to come along," he said.

"By freezing the prices for the younger age groups and streamlining it a bit more by extending the under-8 season ticket to under-12 and the 19 to 21 season ticket to 19 to 23 year-olds, we will hopefully encourage more young people to attend by making it good value for money.”

“My idea originally was that primary school children are always going to come with an adult anyway, so you don’t mind giving them away for free.

"Once you’ve been to your first football game, hopefully you get the bug and will come back. There’s no excuse for the parents because it’s not actually costing them anything throughout the whole of primary school, which I think is a positive, and hopefully the child is then hooked on Shrewsbury Town, which is what we're all trying to achieve.

“It is £99 for the 12 to 18 age bracket and I think that’s good value for money. If you look at Cineworld and think about how much that would cost for 23 visits, or tenpin bowling, then we are far cheaper and it’s good that we are being attractive with the pricing.

"Everything else seems to go up in price, but we are trying to keep what we are doing here the same to try and get more young people along.

“I want to take away excuses for people not to come. Realistically people aren’t earning a lot of money when they are under-24, so I think we are being fair with that. When you break it down and see how much it is then you realise that it is good value.

A category B season ticket for 12 to 18-year-olds will work out at £4.30 per game, with the figure £8.70 for 19 to 23-year-olds.

Adults and seniors will pay an extra 65p per game, working out at an average of £13.48 and £9.35 respectively in category B.

“I’ve got to be honest, we looked at raising it last year because it hadn’t been raised for four years," added Caldwell.

"I think we have to raise it at some point and it’s only an extra 65p per game for adults and seniors, which I don’t think is too bad when you consider inflation over the last five years. I hope that season ticket holders will realise that we’re not trying to be unreasonable and will still look at it as good value.

"Hopefully adults and seniors will accept an extra 65p isn't a huge amount of money and we appreciate their support."

Next season will also see a safe standing area at the rear of the Salop Leisure Stand and consists of 550 seats from row M through to the back row of the stand. Season tickets in this area will cost the same amount as other category B season ticket prices.

Existing season ticket holder seats will be held until April 15, after which time seats will go on general sale. Sales start at 9am on Wednesday.