Pay on the gate is dead - and it’s a problem

[bigthinrob]

People lose the habit. 

 

People get bored.

 

People find other things to do.

 

Accept it. No need to justify not being arsed by saying "road closures make it too difficult" & the default "too expensive" (whether true or not). 

 

On the subject of losing generations of fans, we were top dogs for years & years whilst United languished in the old 3rd & 4th divisions.They retained a similar level of support when they came back, no great drain of support. 

 

Regardless of whether potg prices are too high, the so called 'stay aways' will only stay away while nothing exceptional is happening. If we have a repeat of the Wembley year or are pushing for auto's at some stage, the 'stay aways' will be back in force, probably expressing the fact that they're "Wednesday till they die".

 

If we get to the Prem & the laws of supply & demand kick in, the same will apply & the perpetual moan about POTG prices will be forgotten, (until the novelty wears off & it starts all over again).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Whitton_09]

We need to look at other clubs in our league and use their initiative e (as we seem to have none) so here's one:

WBA home adult POTD tickets, all u can pay is £20 or £23 (when we played them in Nov) and they filled the stadium with 26k. They usually get 23/24k with a high % of middle to lower income support so pricing is sensible to 90% fill stadium. I believe is a combo of pricing, seeing a winning team but it was a good experience allround buying home ticket online, scanning at turnstile, quality of stadium facilities/price and range of food. Learn these simole lessons and we can move forward!! Appreciate they have premier league parachutes and have regularly been in prem but obv do listen and react to their market which is the behaviour of ALL successful businesses

[LiamAP22D]

On 03/01/2020 at 20:28, Mr Farrell said:

 

I used to take non owls to games regularly. 

 

No chance whatsoever for the last 3 years at those prices.

Me too, I used to go with 2 man United fans and an arsenal fan but they ain't gonna pay 40 quid to watch a team they dont support 

[LiamAP22D]

Plus we haven't actually got that many fans that want to go to games regular I dont think, in previous seasons I've been to 10-15 games where i could, this year I've been to 3 always and not been to Hillsborough once. Home games drain the life outta me. 

[Guest Grez Bez]

Hillsborough is a big factor in this IMO

 

Unless you are used to it/ love the place then it's a dump facilities wise.

 

No new fan would pay top whack to watch Wednesday. The match day experience is rubbish for the money. 

[crookesowl]

13 minutes ago, LSOwls said:

Hillsborough is a big factor in this IMO

 

Unless you are used to it/ love the place then it's a dump facilities wise.

 

No new fan would pay top whack to watch Wednesday. The match day experience is rubbish for the money. 

There lies one of the main problems. What are we doing to get people to their first games?

 

Charging them £40 isn’t going to help. 

[oldowl67]

17 hours ago, bladeshater said:

Some us supporting Wednesday it as gone through the generations of the family and no what happens we never loose the buzz 

Only I'll health will ever stop me attending Hillsborough

You and thousands of others deserve great credit for supporting the club in the way you do year after year, but there are also thousands more Wednesdayites who do not attend regularly for whatever reason. Some no doubt would attend more regularly if POTG prices were more reasonable, while others only attend ‘big’ games. Some who identify as Wednesdayites will never attend a match.
 

It’s just a simple fact that not all football fans support their clubs with the same fervour as the hardcore. 

[kobayashi]

17 hours ago, bladeshater said:

Some us supporting Wednesday it as gone through the generations of the family and no what happens we never loose the buzz 

Only I'll health will ever stop me attending Hillsborough

Great, but what is your point? Not everyone can or wants to go to every match but they would like to go to some games but probably it will be fewer or none at a +50 to +100% mark-up vs the ST price.

I don’t go to the pub every night but when I do I pay the same as the guy who does.

[Mr Farrell]

1 hour ago, kobayashi said:

Great, but what is your point? Not everyone can or wants to go to every match but they would like to go to some games but probably it will be fewer or none at a +50 to +100% mark-up vs the ST price.

I don’t go to the pub every night but when I do I pay the same as the guy who does.

 

And that's a major point.

 

We have eliminated new fans, fans who want to pick and choose games, fans who work midweek but would attend weekends, fans who want to bring friends or guests, fans who haven't been for years but want to see if it's worth coming back etc etc

 

So short sighted.

[poite]

On 03/01/2020 at 21:46, alleycat said:

Since the day DC took over the only business plan the club has had is to get into the Premier League, which in itself isn’t a bad plan..............as long as you actually get promoted to the Premier League!!

 

Every year that’s passed since he arrived, and every year that passes going forward that we don’t get promoted just exacerbates the fact that there is absolutely no plan B and puts the club deeper in the mire.

 

Season one. Ramping up the ticket prices to the highest in the league doesn’t matter because we’re going to get promoted this season and once we’re in the PL people will think nothing of paying these prices and we’ll sell the ground out every home game. Problem being that we didn’t get promoted, but we’d spent loads of money not getting promoted.

 

Not to worry, we’ll throw loads more money at it in season two, keep the ticket prices high, and get promoted this year. Oops.

 

And so on and so on.

 

The issue with the original (and still the current) business plan is that he’s now got nowhere to go. It was 100% reliant on us going up that first season (or the second season as a last resort). Had we done so then everyone would have scrambled to buy a season ticket for fear of not being able to buy a ticket on a match by match basis but while ever we’re in the Championship we’ll max out at around 20k to 22k season ticket holders and you can now forget about POTG revenue as it’s negligible. The money the people who pay on the gate generate isn’t even a drop in the ocean.

 

He’s backed himself into a corner. The clubs haemorrhaging money every day/month/year and therefore he can’t afford to drop season ticket prices as we’d just end up losing more money. Therefore, as the ST prices need to be kept at that level there’s no margin to reduce POTD prices.

 

We’re now in a vicious circle. Every year that goes by without us getting promoted highlights the short sightedness of the business plan.

 

Lets look at where we are now, compared to the day DC walked through the door:

 

The new pitch looks great. Yeah but we’re still in the Championship.

The scoreboard’s brilliant. Yeah but we’re still in the Championship.

That first season was the best football we’d played for years. Yeah but we’re still in the Championship.

We had a great day out at Wembley. We’re still in the Championship.

We’ve got the highest ticket prices in the league. The (Championship) league.

We pay some of the highest wages in the league. Still the (Championship) league.

 

We’re in a big big mess. We’ve paid the big bucks to the “best” players over the last few years and rather than being in the PL we’re actually no better off league wise than the day he walked through the door. In actual fact, now that the plan hasn’t worked these “best” players will need to be off loaded (quite rightly as it happens, as by and large they’re a disgrace to the shirt) as we are in deep deep shite P&S wise.

 

Which leads to the question of the ground sale and possible sanctions. The issue isn’t the value, it’s the fact that we put the ground sale into the previous years accounts (allegedly). So a question to all the people who think it was a master stroke and that there’s some conspiracy against us by the EFL.

 

Why didn’t we just sell the ground a year earlier and put it in that years accounts. Non of this EFL stuff would then be happening.

 

Answer is that (once again) he gambled that we’d get promoted. (Once again) we didn’t and therefore here we are facing a possible points deduction. Time will tell whether we, or the EFL are right but hey ho. The fact that the club were even in the position of having to “sell” the ground is a disgrace and down to one man and one man only.

 

Some people can wax lyrical all they like about the great position the clubs in at the moment and that DC “saved” us but it would be because they’re looking through blue and white tinted specs.

 

Any supporter who thinks about our current situation and looks at it objectively and isn’t deeply worried is a fool. This club is in a big big mess at the moment. And it’s not because we’ve lost three on the bounce. That’s the least of our worries.

 

Great post. 

[LiamAP22D]

6 hours ago, LSOwls said:

Hillsborough is a big factor in this IMO

 

Unless you are used to it/ love the place then it's a dump facilities wise.

 

No new fan would pay top whack to watch Wednesday. The match day experience is rubbish for the money. 

Dont get me wrong on its day, Brighton & Arsenal at home the other season were some of the best nights I've had watching football anywhere but sadly theres not enough nights like that, Bristol City at home with 60% capacity and no away fans just doesnt do it for me, I'd sit there bored. Another factor for me is the modern game & money involved, disgusting! & almost feels stupid when you sit watching it thinking about how much they get paid & how good they actually are.

[torres]

42 minutes ago, Mr Farrell said:

 

And that's a major point.

 

We have eliminated new fans, fans who want to pick and choose games, fans who work midweek but would attend weekends, fans who want to bring friends or guests, fans who haven't been for years but want to see if it's worth coming back etc etc

 

So short sighted.

Kids prices are brilliant - these are the new fans are they not??

 

 

 

[poite]

The cost of tickets is a factor for me. The prices are ridiculous. It's not so much that I can't afford it, it's more that I just don't think it's worth the money. I can't justify spending 35-40 quid plus the cost of driving up from Leicester to go. 

 

I have a young family and I work all week. It's not easy for me to tell the missus I'm working all week and then I'll disappear for most of Saturday while she had to entertain two young children on her own. It's not worth the money, time or hassle it would cause me at home. 

 

Once my son is old enough I will bring him to a game but not until I know he will sit down and watch for the duration. My daughter is a long way off yet. 

 

Until then I'll follow us from home, watch the highlights, listen to radio Sheffield and talk to you lot if that's ok.

Edited January 5, 2020 by poite

[Roscoe P. Coltrane]

6 minutes ago, torres said:

Kids prices are brilliant - these are the new fans are they not??

 

 

 

How much is it costing the adult to take the kid though?

[poite]

1 minute ago, Mrs Blenkinsops shed said:

How much is it costing the adult to take the kid though?

 

I've just had a brilliant idea. 

 

Kids cost £5 and all you do is drop them off. They get a seat in the lower leapings lane stand and get looked after by David Bates. 

 

It's a kind of swfc crèche. 

[Mr Farrell]

1 hour ago, torres said:

Kids prices are brilliant - these are the new fans are they not??

 

 

 

 

I think several people have pointed out it depends on age. Some are pretty awful as you get older.

[bigthinrob]

1 hour ago, Mr Farrell said:

 

And that's a major point.

 

We have eliminated new fans, fans who want to pick and choose games, fans who work midweek but would attend weekends, fans who want to bring friends or guests, fans who haven't been for years but want to see if it's worth coming back etc etc

 

So short sighted.

If we've eliminated 'new fans' who want to "pick & choose" (bit of a mis-nomer by definition). How come gates have pretty much stayed constant & haven't gradually declined year on year.

 

I see loads of very young 'new fans' home & away week in week out. Maybe you missed them.

 

Yeah fine, prices are top end & I wouldn't be bothered either way if DC looked at the POTG pricing & I would always like to see a fuller Hillsborough, but i'm just not convinced lower pricing would have a SIGNIFICANT long term effect on regular crowd numbers. This has been argued ad infinitum on here that cheaper prices would see a flood of POTG ers. Not convinced (again longer term) this would be the case. I feel the real damage done is the PR & 'moral' angle continually paraded on here not actually to significant crowd numbers.

 

The real driver for crowd numbers is success on the pitch as proven by the play off season. 

 

I got laughed out of town early that season by the usual suspects when i suggested POTG prices would become irrelevant if "Demand ever outstripped supply".  

 

It happened (sooner than I expected) that year and people who had bragged about never going again while DC & his disgusting prices were in force suddenly did a huge U turn & were begging for 'log ins' spare tickets etc etc.

 

Not particularly knocking them, it's the way of the current world, but to argue constantly that it is pricing & only pricing that is the main motivator in people attending or not attending just isn't true. 

 

Just to play devil's advocate. I wonder what the crowd's would be for average (no mark) games, if there was NO incentive to buy season tickets over POTG. Would the extra POTG hordes make up for the ex season ticket holders who would now also have the choice of picking & choosing.

 

Middle of a dodgy run, rainy Tuesday night. What do you reckon 18,000?

[ReadingOwl]

35 minutes ago, bigthinrob said:

It happened (sooner than I expected) that year and people who had bragged about never going again while DC & his disgusting prices were in force suddenly did a huge U turn & were begging for 'log ins' spare tickets etc etc.

Not for me. No. Not even the play off final.

 

I haven’t been since Mandaric left. The opening day against Bristol City did it for me - not attended since.

 

I first attended in 1967. 

 

Visited my Mum over Christmas this year (although they were away, but the point still stands) - no intention of combining my visit with a walk down to Hillsborough.

 

Took her to Ladybower - fair play at 88, she did the full circuit of the reservoir. And she still follows the results and asks about the team.

 

At one time - Wednesday was my real reason for visiting her.

 

I have very little physical connection to the Club anymore. It’s all sentimentality, memories and culture now.
 

It’d take a really culture change of Strafford type proportions to entice me back now. Someone who made me feel I made a difference.
 

It’s not a community Club anymore.

Edited January 5, 2020 by ReadingOwl

[gurujuan]

We are also under attack from a more global outlook In Sheffield, even when I first moved there, you were either Wednesday or United That’s not so much the case now, recent visits to the city have left me shocked at how many younger people are wearing the colours of Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs etc, even Barcelona. I’m not saying they’d  attend those clubs fixtures, but they’d rather sit in a bar watching those games, than attend Hillsborough

Edited January 5, 2020 by gurujuan

[ReadingOwl]

2 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

We are also under attack from a more global outlook In Sheffield, even when I first moved there, you were either Wednesday or United That’s not so much the case now, recent visits to the city have left me shocked at how many younger people are wearing the colours of Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs etc, even Barcelona. I’m not saying they’d  attend those clubs fixtures, but they’d rather sit in a bar watching those games, than attend Hillsborough

Are you still in the Marquis business?
 

Do you remember we once nearly visited a game “up North” together - but you had a Marquis to erect?