I am by no means a master of economics,but I can never understand why people who run companies think that increasing prices will improve profits,especially in the leisure industry. I saw the Elvis film the other week,£11.00 a pop,the theatre was almost empty,getting a round of golf has never been easier to book,weekend tee times £35.00 plus,when essentials are going through the roof,these are the areas people will have to cut back on,heat the house or watch Charlton.
I was told prices were going up with the rates of inflation, be interesting to know if the increase covered the lost ST sales... I doubt it did.
If we are floundering in mid table or worse by Christmas there will be no one there except season ticket holders (and a few of them will be absentees). Then we will see the return of the freebies and everyone will be pissed off. The only way to get bums on seats is to create a successful team. The jury is out on that one for now. In the meantime a ticketing strategy that encourages attendance in light of the economic situation whilst respecting the status of the season ticket should be the aim. To quote TS “how hard can that be?” All this pricing strategy does is make it very easy for people to say “I’m out”.
I am by no means a master of economics,but I can never understand why people who run companies think that increasing prices will improve profits,especially in the leisure industry. I saw the Elvis film the other week,£11.00 a pop,the theatre was almost empty,getting a round of golf has never been easier to book,weekend tee times £35.00 plus,when essentials are going through the roof,these are the areas people will have to cut back on,heat the house or watch Charlton.
I was told prices were going up with the rates of inflation, be interesting to know if the increase covered the lost ST sales... I doubt it did.
The main problem is the adult increase from, I think, £23 to £29 to gain access to most of the stands. I don’t think it makes a great deal of difference to casual attendees whether they sit in block G, F or D of the AC Stand and as we know people don’t necessarily respect the price differentials within stands. This is a 26% increase.
I don’t doubt there are other wrinkles but I’m sure that was the most popular and lucrative price point. The £6 increase is actually £5 for the club because of the VAT. Only an idiot would assume that the increase will of itself yield x (number of admissions at that price point in 21/22) times £5. The assumption of an increase in revenue depends on the increase in price not being offset by a corresponding fall in sales by volume (and some people will be able to trade down). So it assumes that fewer than one in four will be deterred (although there is a likely knock-on effect on concession revenue and some ancillary sales to be factored in at the margin).
We also have to consider the vast number of tickets given away last season which will have reduced revenue and the club’s planned behaviour on that front this season.
A lot depends on the team’s performance so it’s difficult to isolate the impact of price in isolation. But it doesn’t pass the smell test for me and I’ve been looking at this stuff for 30 years, 20 of them on the club’s behalf. A significant problem will be the perception that the club is taking the piss, not just affordability.
I also think the club will have to charge away fans £23 in advance or fall foul of EFL rules. That seems fair to me but it may not impress home fans being asked for £29.
It’s difficult to put yourself in others’ shoes. I would always buy a season ticket anyway and most on here are reasonably committed otherwise they wouldn’t be on here. But I wouldn’t pay £29 to watch L1 home games in this division on a regular basis, especially when I know I can use a VPN to watch them on Charlton TV for much less.
Sadly I don't think the club have changed their strategy of giving away lots of freebies all over the place for the coming season.
I think if anything we are likely to see more of this and also adopt a bit of "sports direct" model... Where there are always discounts available on tickets. 20% off here, 50% off with any purchase from the shop etc. etc.
I expect the high prices advertised across the season will allow the club to claim come May that it would have been cheaper to buy a season ticket at £425 than to have paid £29 a game - 2 games at a fiver (£619).
However in reality, if you were to claim a freebie every time your child at school got offered one, along with football for a fiver, and a couple more match tickets (plus any additional promo's they run) you could easily have your cost still lower than a season ticket
I am by no means a master of economics,but I can never understand why people who run companies think that increasing prices will improve profits,especially in the leisure industry. I saw the Elvis film the other week,£11.00 a pop,the theatre was almost empty,getting a round of golf has never been easier to book,weekend tee times £35.00 plus,when essentials are going through the roof,these are the areas people will have to cut back on,heat the house or watch Charlton.
I was told prices were going up with the rates of inflation, be interesting to know if the increase covered the lost ST sales... I doubt it did.
Only an idiot would assume that the increase will of itself yield x (number of admissions at that price point in 21/22) times £5. The assumption of an increase in revenue depends on the increase in price not being offset by a corresponding fall in sales by volume (and some people will be able to trade down). So it assumes that fewer than one in four will be deterred (although there is a likely knock-on effect on concession revenue and some ancillary sales to be factored in at the margin).
Funny enough while on the phone to the ticket office, I mentioned exactly that and was told im welcome to an opinion but that doesnt mean im correct. The same phone call I was also told that the perks are simply that and shouldnt be a reason to purchase.... even though said perks were introduced after shit sales.
Sadly I don't think the club have changed their strategy of giving away lots of freebies all over the place for the coming season.
I think if anything we are likely to see more of this and also adopt a bit of "sports direct" model... Where there are always discounts available on tickets. 20% off here, 50% off with any purchase from the shop etc. etc.
I expect the high prices advertised across the season will allow the club to claim come May that it would have been cheaper to buy a season ticket at £425 than to have paid £29 a game - 2 games at a fiver (£619).
However in reality, if you were to claim a freebie every time your child at school got offered one, along with football for a fiver, and a couple more match tickets (plus any additional promo's they run) you could easily have your cost still lower than a season ticket
I think you're right. Start with a high base and throw offers during more or less each game of a different nature. Some will suit and some will not.
50% matchday ticket if you purchase a hotdog and receive a free day pass to Queen Elizabeth hos.
Out of interest, how much are Millwall, Palace and West Ham charging for walk ups?
Millwall £26-£33 for championship football v Stoke on opening game it looks like.
Makes our pricing look even more ridiculous.
Exactly. Casual football fan in London for the weekend fancies catching a match. Cheaper, a higher level/quality and only a few miles down the road.
Looking at those prices for Millwall doesn’t leave me with the impression that they are likely to attract a casual football fan anymore than the ones Charlton have published. To me they just look like numbers from a spreadsheet compiled by somebody that doesn’t have to make a decision on a match day whether to buy their own ticket or do something else with the money instead. If you can’t empathise with your client base then you are in for a big reality check for your business particularly when the temperature starts to drop. IMO, it would be far better to have a knee jerk reaction now and rethink those prices before the season starts rather than later when the damage has already been done.
Get people in the ground and then maximise your revenues by other means - sell merchandise inside the stadium for instance on the various concourses and lounges. If it’s a sunny day, increase the stock of baseball caps on sale in the covered end, if it’s warm weather increase the availability of scarves and woolly hats.
Out of interest, how much are Millwall, Palace and West Ham charging for walk ups?
Millwall £26-£33 for championship football v Stoke on opening game it looks like.
Makes our pricing look even more ridiculous.
Exactly. Casual football fan in London for the weekend fancies catching a match. Cheaper, a higher level/quality and only a few miles down the road.
Looking at those prices for Millwall doesn’t leave me with the impression that they are likely to attract a casual football fan anymore than the ones Charlton have published. To me they just look like numbers from a spreadsheet compiled by somebody that doesn’t have to make a decision on a match day whether to buy their own ticket or do something else with the money instead. If you can’t empathise with your client base then you are in for a big reality check for your business particularly when the temperature starts to drop. IMO, it would be far better to have a knee jerk reaction now and rethink those prices before the season starts rather than later when the damage has already been done.
Get people in the ground and then maximise your revenues by other means - sell merchandise inside the stadium for instance on the various concourses and lounges. If it’s a sunny day, increase the stock of baseball caps on sale in the covered end, if it’s warm weather increase the availability of scarves and woolly hats.
Tickets, tickets, tickets are what matters because there is virtually no marginal cost of sale. You can’t easily make it up by selling things you have to pay for in the first place, even though that’s worthwhile.
Out of interest, how much are Millwall, Palace and West Ham charging for walk ups?
Millwall £26-£33 for championship football v Stoke on opening game it looks like.
Makes our pricing look even more ridiculous.
Exactly. Casual football fan in London for the weekend fancies catching a match. Cheaper, a higher level/quality and only a few miles down the road.
Looking at those prices for Millwall doesn’t leave me with the impression that they are likely to attract a casual football fan anymore than the ones Charlton have published. To me they just look like numbers from a spreadsheet compiled by somebody that doesn’t have to make a decision on a match day whether to buy their own ticket or do something else with the money instead. If you can’t empathise with your client base then you are in for a big reality check for your business particularly when the temperature starts to drop. IMO, it would be far better to have a knee jerk reaction now and rethink those prices before the season starts rather than later when the damage has already been done.
Get people in the ground and then maximise your revenues by other means - sell merchandise inside the stadium for instance on the various concourses and lounges. If it’s a sunny day, increase the stock of baseball caps on sale in the covered end, if it’s warm weather increase the availability of scarves and woolly hats.
Tickets, tickets, tickets are what matters because there is virtually no marginal cost of sale. You can’t easily make it up by selling things you have to pay for in the first place, even though that’s worthwhile.
3000 matchday sales at £34 = £102k. Attract 5000 by selling tickets at a tempting £20 is £100k but you’ve then got 5000 fans in the ground that would likely be more willing to put their hands in their pocket to buy drinks and merchandise instead of 3000 fans that will probably be feeling they’ve already overpaid and they’ll spend their money elsewhere
Huddersfield Town are one of the only clubs who I have seen successfully attracted more fans.
2015/16 season - Average Attendance was 12,631 with approx 8,000 being season tickets
2016/17 season - Average Attendance was 20,343 with 15,083 season tickets being sold.
How they did that was a revolution.
1. They offered first 10,000 season tickets in all zones for £179 adults £69 for 8-17 year olds and £23 for under 8s. Offer was extendable due to high demand.
2. They ranged out into the community the presence of the club via it's media channels being seen in schools, youth clubs, local grassroots clubs...
3. They revamped the whole match day experience to be more inclusive and increased sales with merchandise.
The Football was revolutionary on the pitch and the club all pushed in the same direction with fans on board so got the promotion to the Premier League even now back in the championship still selling 15,000+ season tickets easily this season because they engaged with those fans and kept them.
Target 20,000 done and dusted via one seasons initiative and to continue positive engagement off the pitch. On the pitch will do the rest in attracting fans the football is the best selling product.
Out of interest, how much are Millwall, Palace and West Ham charging for walk ups?
Millwall £26-£33 for championship football v Stoke on opening game it looks like.
Makes our pricing look even more ridiculous.
Exactly. Casual football fan in London for the weekend fancies catching a match. Cheaper, a higher level/quality and only a few miles down the road.
Looking at those prices for Millwall doesn’t leave me with the impression that they are likely to attract a casual football fan anymore than the ones Charlton have published. To me they just look like numbers from a spreadsheet compiled by somebody that doesn’t have to make a decision on a match day whether to buy their own ticket or do something else with the money instead. If you can’t empathise with your client base then you are in for a big reality check for your business particularly when the temperature starts to drop. IMO, it would be far better to have a knee jerk reaction now and rethink those prices before the season starts rather than later when the damage has already been done.
Get people in the ground and then maximise your revenues by other means - sell merchandise inside the stadium for instance on the various concourses and lounges. If it’s a sunny day, increase the stock of baseball caps on sale in the covered end, if it’s warm weather increase the availability of scarves and woolly hats.
Tickets, tickets, tickets are what matters because there is virtually no marginal cost of sale. You can’t easily make it up by selling things you have to pay for in the first place, even though that’s worthwhile.
3000 matchday sales at £34 = £102k. Attract 5000 by selling tickets at a tempting £20 is £100k but you’ve then got 5000 fans in the ground that would likely be more willing to put their hands in their pocket to buy drinks and merchandise instead of 3000 fans that will probably be feeling they’ve already overpaid and they’ll spend their money elsewhere
There is no scenario in which we could sell 3,000 tickets at £34 in L1. Match by match sales in any pricing category are way lower than that.
But again, while I agree that there is benefit in ancillary sales, a £10 spend on other things probably equates to £2.50 for the club after VAT and cost of sale. A spend of £10 on tickets is worth £8 after those. And most people don’t spend £10 over and above their admission fee most games, let alone £30 or £40.
For obvious reasons, the club needs to sell tickets because that is also the way it builds its business for the future. That is why £20-£25 adults is probably the sweet spot. I do agree that if people arrive feeling ripped off they are less likely to tolerate rubbish on the pitch.
That will be the end of the walk ups for my friends & family also,who are unable to commit to season tickets due to work…if they were around the 22-£25 then that would entice them in & they would also spend a little in the ground too…as been mentioned…ludicrous…🤨
Also the concession rates are wrong,a child of 15-16 will more than likely still be at school and parent pays for ticket,whats the difference then between under eleven which costs 6.00 than 16 year old 15.00 ,Dad with two kids one 12 one 14 £65.00 ,plus costs ,dream on Charlton you have really cocked this up.
Some decent suggestions on here but surely the pricing policy was discussed ad infinitum with long term season ticket holders as I believe was indicated by the club...
And I also think it was on the agenda of the most recent FF meeting.
As someone pointed out when I highlighted the club's equality policy on the TK thread....
Comments
I don’t doubt there are other wrinkles but I’m sure that was the most popular and lucrative price point. The £6 increase is actually £5 for the club because of the VAT. Only an idiot would assume that the increase will of itself yield x (number of admissions at that price point in 21/22) times £5. The assumption of an increase in revenue depends on the increase in price not being offset by a corresponding fall in sales by volume (and some people will be able to trade down). So it assumes that fewer than one in four will be deterred (although there is a likely knock-on effect on concession revenue and some ancillary sales to be factored in at the margin).
We also have to consider the vast number of tickets given away last season which will have reduced revenue and the club’s planned behaviour on that front this season.
A lot depends on the team’s performance so it’s difficult to isolate the impact of price in isolation. But it doesn’t pass the smell test for me and I’ve been looking at this stuff for 30 years, 20 of them on the club’s behalf. A significant problem will be the perception that the club is taking the piss, not just affordability.
I also think the club will have to charge away fans £23 in advance or fall foul of EFL rules. That seems fair to me but it may not impress home fans being asked for £29.
It’s difficult to put yourself in others’ shoes. I would always buy a season ticket anyway and most on here are reasonably committed otherwise they wouldn’t be on here. But I wouldn’t pay £29 to watch L1 home games in this division on a regular basis, especially when I know I can use a VPN to watch them on Charlton TV for much less.
Sheff W are £28.
MK Dons are £24.
All exclude the usual booking fee.
We have pretty big stadium that saw us get some wins when full, so the decision to price out the fan base really makes little sense.
Makes our pricing look even more ridiculous.
I think if anything we are likely to see more of this and also adopt a bit of "sports direct" model... Where there are always discounts available on tickets. 20% off here, 50% off with any purchase from the shop etc. etc.
I expect the high prices advertised across the season will allow the club to claim come May that it would have been cheaper to buy a season ticket at £425 than to have paid £29 a game - 2 games at a fiver (£619).
However in reality, if you were to claim a freebie every time your child at school got offered one, along with football for a fiver, and a couple more match tickets (plus any additional promo's they run) you could easily have your cost still lower than a season ticket
50% matchday ticket if you purchase a hotdog and receive a free day pass to Queen Elizabeth hos.
Get people in the ground and then maximise your revenues by other means - sell merchandise inside the stadium for instance on the various concourses and lounges. If it’s a sunny day, increase the stock of baseball caps on sale in the covered end, if it’s warm weather increase the availability of scarves and woolly hats.
2015/16 season - Average Attendance was 12,631 with approx 8,000 being season tickets
2016/17 season - Average Attendance was 20,343 with 15,083 season tickets being sold.
How they did that was a revolution.
1. They offered first 10,000 season tickets in all zones for £179 adults £69 for 8-17 year olds and £23 for under 8s. Offer was extendable due to high demand.
2. They ranged out into the community the presence of the club via it's media channels being seen in schools, youth clubs, local grassroots clubs...
3. They revamped the whole match day experience to be more inclusive and increased sales with merchandise.
The Football was revolutionary on the pitch and the club all pushed in the same direction with fans on board so got the promotion to the Premier League even now back in the championship still selling 15,000+ season tickets easily this season because they engaged with those fans and kept them.
Target 20,000 done and dusted via one seasons initiative and to continue positive engagement off the pitch. On the pitch will do the rest in attracting fans the football is the best selling product.
But again, while I agree that there is benefit in ancillary sales, a £10 spend on other things probably equates to £2.50 for the club after VAT and cost of sale. A spend of £10 on tickets is worth £8 after those. And most people don’t spend £10 over and above their admission fee most games, let alone £30 or £40.
For obvious reasons, the club needs to sell tickets because that is also the way it builds its business for the future. That is why £20-£25 adults is probably the sweet spot. I do agree that if people arrive feeling ripped off they are less likely to tolerate rubbish on the pitch.
Why is it not possible to do a 10 game ticket for the season?
And I also think it was on the agenda of the most recent FF meeting.
As someone pointed out when I highlighted the club's equality policy on the TK thread....
...( perhaps) it's only words.