Agreed. This season say our average is 15000 per game of which 10000 of them are s/t holders so the 5000 pay £17 which is £85k a game plus whatever the oppo bring.
Next season selling the remaining 13500 (27000 less 3500 oppo less 10000 s/t) at £10 or £12 per game would bring in £135k - £162k per game.
[cite]Posted By: ValleyFred[/cite]I think, if we're in League 1 next year, we should just make all tickets between £10-£12 for adults and £2 for kids with occasional price cuts like the Exeter game, this would encourage more fans, possibly 20k each game, and would increase the atmosphere and give a good feeling for everyone. Thoughts?
In principle I think this is right but think pricing should be £15-£20, we should not devalue the product at the Valley. We should also not forget that the decline in crowds is due to years of decline in the clubs standing and turgid performances on the field. If we were able to realise free flowing football and more than single goal wins, we would have fans coming back. If Saturdays result is a loss or a turgid scrape through then then next time we do a £5 we won't have the same take up level as we have had this time.
Part of building the match day crowd will be the experience, the club working the database, working creative ticket deals including mini season tickets, added value tickets.
how about instead of offering it as a cash discount on next seasons, any existing season ticket holders that renew get a free ticket to a home fa cup game, to cover the saving others made on reduced prices this season
[cite]Posted By: RodneyCharltonTrotta[/cite]How about if we took a radical gamble and slashed prices by 50% for a season?
We would get more bums on seats and benefit from the associated incremental revenue streams mentioned above ie merchandise, programmes, food etc. And who knows attract new supporters.
It could work like this:
Say a season ticket now is (for simplicity) either £500 in West and East or £300 in Covered End.
In June the Club announce that all £500 seats will be sold for £250 and all the £300 seats for £150 for the forthcoming season. The caveat of this being that it will only be viable if the club can sell double the number of season tickets it has done this year by a certain date in the summer. (Say we sold 8,000 this year then the offer would only stand if we sold 16,000 at this knock down price).
If by the end of the stated date windows enough tickets had not been sold then the price would revert to normal.
Could never have happened under the cash-strapped old regime. But I could see the new lot going for something like this, if they seriously value a long-term strategy of filling the ground and making the Valley rock again over short-term balancing of the books.
Thing is IA they wouldnt be losing ANY money on ticket sales. 8k x 500 is the so the same result as 16000x 250 so there is no lost money on the initial outlay in ticketing as if the take up wasnt sufficient then the offer would be void....those that then couldnt afford the original full price would not get one and just pay on the door....the same as would happen under the current pricing strategy.
Unless the associated additional costs between stewarding/ policing a game for 24k was significantly higher than for 12k then the extra incremental income will in theory increase profits....and bring the additional, invaluable, benefits of busier stands, better atmosphere and increased fan base...many of whom may be returning after long sabbaticals and many new fans who may not have been around before but become hooked and then will happily attend regularly the following seasons when prices return to the status quo.
The club has always said in the past that over the course of a season the season ticket should be cheaper, so I can't see them abandoning that and making the remaining games cheaper. The idea with the £5 for Exeter is that some of those stay-away fans will realise what they are missing and start coming to the Valley again, paying full price.
I'm happy to be the first to say that I wouldn't be happy if the club went back on it's word and make match by match tickets cheaper. Especially when they reduce the Saturday games yet keep the price high for the rubbish midweek games that, had I been paying as I go, I mightn't have gone to.
In fact, this season I was very tempted not to renew my season ticket as I wasn't confident I would fancy the midweek games against relegation fodder.
In the end I passed on the FA Cup games completely. If the prices for the Saturday times are going to go down then I'd be more than happy to go to half a dozen games less next season if it is going to save me c. £100.
I know that makes me sound like an arse, but I make many sacrifices to go to football, and if there is a cheaper way for me to do it I then would feel insulted if I'd paid for a whole year in advance only for others to pay less and pay months after I had for it.
I think this £5 deal is an excellent idea, and hopefully its part of an overall marketing strategy. I can't remember if we've done this before but I'd like to see the club introduce A and B category games, so they can up the prices on the "bigger" games against other London teams or teams like of Sheff Weds and Southampton. These games are naturally going to attract a bigger gate, if only from the away fans.
We can then offer discounts & promotions on the B category games to try and increase the gate on these. This should stop any objections from season ticket holders as, whilst they get less value during the promotions, they get increased value on the A class games. If the pricing is structured correctly you can even make the season ticket better value than it is now.
If we did something like this I think we'd get a higher average attendance without taking a knock on ticket revenue, which means we'd be ahead overall because of the extra money we'd make on Food, drink, club shop and program sales.
[cite]Posted By: kings hill addick[/cite]I'm happy to be the first to say that I wouldn't be happy if the club went back on it's word and make match by match tickets cheaper. Especially when they reduce the Saturday games yet keep the price high for the rubbish midweek games that, had I been paying as I go, I mightn't have gone to.
In fact, this season I was very tempted not to renew my season ticket as I wasn't confident I would fancy the midweek games against relegation fodder.
In the end I passed on the FA Cup games completely. If the prices for the Saturday times are going to go down then I'd be more than happy to go to half a dozen games less next season if it is going to save me c. £100.
I know that makes me sound like an arse, but I make many sacrifices to go to football, and if there is a cheaper way for me to do it I then would feel insulted if I'd paid for a whole year in advance only for others to pay less and pay months after I had for it.
I made a similar point higher up the thread. We can be cheeks of the same arse :-)
i think any season ticket holders should be given the option of a discount to even things up but they should also be made to wear an illuminous hat so they can be identified - seems a fair compromise?
Comments
Next season selling the remaining 13500 (27000 less 3500 oppo less 10000 s/t) at £10 or £12 per game would bring in £135k - £162k per game.
In principle I think this is right but think pricing should be £15-£20, we should not devalue the product at the Valley. We should also not forget that the decline in crowds is due to years of decline in the clubs standing and turgid performances on the field. If we were able to realise free flowing football and more than single goal wins, we would have fans coming back. If Saturdays result is a loss or a turgid scrape through then then next time we do a £5 we won't have the same take up level as we have had this time.
Part of building the match day crowd will be the experience, the club working the database, working creative ticket deals including mini season tickets, added value tickets.
Could never have happened under the cash-strapped old regime. But I could see the new lot going for something like this, if they seriously value a long-term strategy of filling the ground and making the Valley rock again over short-term balancing of the books.
Unless the associated additional costs between stewarding/ policing a game for 24k was significantly higher than for 12k then the extra incremental income will in theory increase profits....and bring the additional, invaluable, benefits of busier stands, better atmosphere and increased fan base...many of whom may be returning after long sabbaticals and many new fans who may not have been around before but become hooked and then will happily attend regularly the following seasons when prices return to the status quo.
In fact, this season I was very tempted not to renew my season ticket as I wasn't confident I would fancy the midweek games against relegation fodder.
In the end I passed on the FA Cup games completely. If the prices for the Saturday times are going to go down then I'd be more than happy to go to half a dozen games less next season if it is going to save me c. £100.
I know that makes me sound like an arse, but I make many sacrifices to go to football, and if there is a cheaper way for me to do it I then would feel insulted if I'd paid for a whole year in advance only for others to pay less and pay months after I had for it.
We can then offer discounts & promotions on the B category games to try and increase the gate on these. This should stop any objections from season ticket holders as, whilst they get less value during the promotions, they get increased value on the A class games. If the pricing is structured correctly you can even make the season ticket better value than it is now.
If we did something like this I think we'd get a higher average attendance without taking a knock on ticket revenue, which means we'd be ahead overall because of the extra money we'd make on Food, drink, club shop and program sales.
I made a similar point higher up the thread. We can be cheeks of the same arse :-)