Clubs start to reduce season ticket prices

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, SWFC Trust said:

It's closer than you might think. BCFC 22,483 in 18/19 (last full season). SWFC 23,867. Our gates on the way down, there's up by 5,000 or so over five years. 

 

It might not all be their ticketing strategy. But, to my mind, it's worth a look. 

 

Birmingham averaged just over 20,000 last season before lockdown struck, a decrease of over 9%. Did they change the price strucutre again or could it have been something else that actually caused the increase in the first place? 

[CircleSeven]

2 minutes ago, Basement Jack said:

And in some ways that’s the point

it alienates fans with each other and  not just with the club

Some who have the money to go don’t seem to grasp the concept that some have difficulty making ends meet

It’s nuts

 

oh and by the way.... when I said I can afford to go thats because I only go to one match a season

 

like I say the prices are scandalous 

The clip wasnt aimed at you (or anyone really) the thread genuinely just brought it to mind (along with the ‘loadsamoney’ character). 
Im in the same boat that prices don’t affect me. My dad buys me a ticket (as he has for 40+ years) and he can easily afford it. But for me the last thing football should ever be is inaccessible. Affordable prices, full,stadiums and great atmosphere. An empty stadium is the only thing that would ever really put me off going. 

[Guest whowantstoberich]

5 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

Ok mate

Seriously i fail to see how anyone would not go because they have to look at what is essentially a menu.

Fancy a McDonalds for tea.. Nahhhhhh *** that the menu is putting me off 

[Django]

If Chansiri comes out and says he’ll do “whatever it takes” to get us back into the championship, then I think it’s only fair we put our money in too

 

[Basement Jack]

2 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

The clip wasnt aimed at you (or anyone really) the thread genuinely just brought it to mind (along with the ‘loadsamoney’ character). 
Im in the same boat that prices don’t affect me. My dad buys me a ticket (as he has for 40+ years) and he can easily afford it. But for me the last thing football should ever be is inaccessible. Affordable prices, full,stadiums and great atmosphere. An empty stadium is the only thing that would ever really put me off going. 

No I didn’t think it was mate

i just thought it was a telling point made in jest

[CircleSeven]

1 minute ago, whowantstoberich said:

Seriously i fail to see how anyone would not go because they have to look at what is essentially a menu.

Fancy a McDonalds for tea.. Nahhhhhh *** that the menu is putting me off 

A football game isn’t a restaurant. There’s a material difference between a burger and a double cheeseburger. We need to encourage as many people as possible to come to watch Sheffield Wednesday at Hilsborough Stadium. Wherever you sit, unless it’s behind a pillar, the ‘product’ is the same. Keep it simple, keep it affordable, make it user friendly. Remove all barriers, Wednesday for all! Until they see the football of course, which is the main problem. 

[CircleSeven]

Just now, Basement Jack said:

No I didn’t think it was mate

i just thought it was a telling point made in jest

Cool. I also send the same link to my dad every time he books a first class ticket on the train. 

[SWFC Trust]

13 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Birmingham averaged just over 20,000 last season before lockdown struck, a decrease of over 9%. Did they change the price strucutre again or could it have been something else that actually caused the increase in the first place? 

 

 

There are 101 things that influence attendance at games. They've raised attendance and revenue. It wasnt because they had a good team, it wasn't away fans making up the numbers and it rose quicker than the championship overall. 

 

It may therefore have been their ticketing structure which they put a great deal of emphasis on. 

 

Whether it was or wasn't - I believe looking at the successes of other clubs to see what SWFC could learn can only be a good thing. 

[@owlstalk]

31 minutes ago, whowantstoberich said:

Seriously i fail to see how anyone would not go because they have to look at what is essentially a menu.

Fancy a McDonalds for tea.. Nahhhhhh *** that the menu is putting me off 

ok

[@owlstalk]

30 minutes ago, Django said:

If Chansiri comes out and says he’ll do “whatever it takes” to get us back into the championship, then I think it’s only fair we put our money in too

 

If FFP is scrapped/doesn't apply then there's absolutely no need to

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, SWFC Trust said:

 

 

There are 101 things that influence attendance at games. They've raised attendance and revenue. It wasnt because they had a good team, it wasn't away fans making up the numbers and it rose quicker than the championship overall. 

 

It may therefore have been their ticketing structure which they put a great deal of emphasis on. 

 

Whether it was or wasn't - I believe looking at the successes of other clubs to see what SWFC could learn can only be a good thing. 

 

So what about the decrease of 9% last season then?

 

Was their approach not sustainable? 

[@owlstalk]

1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

A football game isn’t a restaurant. There’s a material difference between a burger and a double cheeseburger.  

 

That's not the right analogy in this case

It's like saying you can buy a burger from here. It will cost you £5, or it will cost you £9 if it's on a Tuesday, or £12 if you are between 20 and 40 and eat more than 4 burgers a month at our place, or it's £22 if you aren't a member, are sitting on your own and if you're definitely not with someone called Brian.

 

The burger will be £22 if you don't buy burgers from us every week. You can buy a burger membership which means you will get £2 off some of the times you eat burgers at our place. And the burgers will be £2 extra if you sit in the middle of the restaurant but not if you're a member, but if you are an OAP you might get it a bit cheaper but if you eat burgers on the left hand side of the restaurant it's £1 cheaper

Now...

How much is a burger again?

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, SWFC Trust said:

 

 

There are 101 things that influence attendance at games. They've raised attendance and revenue. It wasnt because they had a good team, it wasn't away fans making up the numbers and it rose quicker than the championship overall. 

 

It may therefore have been their ticketing structure which they put a great deal of emphasis on. 

 

Whether it was or wasn't - I believe looking at the successes of other clubs to see what SWFC could learn can only be a good thing. 

 

Perhaps having fixtures against local rivals Aston Villa and West Brom in recent seasons was used as an incentive to buy more tickets too?

 

I've had a look at your report. Do you have any figures that show how many season tickets and how many match day tickets are bought in each of the numerous categories that Birmingham offer?

 

From 2011-2015 Birmingham's ownership by Yeung & Trillion Trophy saw them make numerous questionable decisions which alienated some of the fan base and almost result in administration. Maybe the move away from that and the healing of relationships with the fan base led to an increase in attendances as much as offering numerous price categories did?  

 

 

[bradowl]

9 hours ago, T Hardy said:

Assuming we do get relegated, it would be great to see Chansiri adopt something similar. If he made season tickets £150-£250 for next season, I reckon twice as many people would buy them.

 

This would mean a change in approach from Chansiri though and a move away from stubbornness, so I won’t be holding my breath.

 

Those that are carrying there's over from this season might not be too pleased.  I'm carrying mine over but wouldn't mind. 

 

Extremely unlikely to happen anyway.

[Guest LondonOwl313]

9 hours ago, Nero said:

While thats true its only one side of the coin though.

It annoys me when Wednesday fans are economically stereotyped as ALL working in factories on minimum wage. 

Loads of people haven't spent anything and there are lots of sectors that are going mad. 

Spoke to a window sales guy said it was his busiest time in 30 years. Speak to anyone in Construction, its mad busy and wages are on the up.

Prices for almost everything are actually going up.

Lots of people such as Pensioners aren't gonna be affected at all.

Lots of people will be massively affected by the job losses but I doubt that its a big proportion of the fans who currently attend the games. 

As a solution to the disparity

I liked the idea of the Wednesday trust to split the ground into lower and higher bands. Say starting at 150 for edge of kop and 700 for middle of cCant.

I would pay for away points too.....

 

Personally I think he’s right in that our area is probably badly affected relative to a lot of others. It’s a K shaped recovery.. all of the inflation is in asset prices so there could be a positive wealth effect for homeowners or those who have other financial assets. But there’s a lot more people like that in say London and the South East than there is up here. The sectors you mention as booming are related to this as its housing.

 

Sheffield wages are lower than the national average and it’s the lower paid sectors that are worst hit. More sectors will be adversely affected than have benefitted from it.
 

Plus on top I think we’ve not really felt the full impact economically because the governments have borrowed and printed loads to compensate.. once things are reopened there will be a cliff edge and governments will basically say you’re on your own now to private business so lots of them will look to reduce risk given increased debt levels

[Guest]

3 hours ago, @owlstalk said:

See above

Pricing is one thing
Actually getting people to check the prices who don't come to matches or don't come that often is another

if the perception is complexity then you lose sales - it's literally that simple

Reducing the price but keeping 10 zones, 3 bands, memberships, categories, tiers etc - all that will do is reduce the price for those who DO go

Can't stress this enough again but the ones who don't go to games - I can absolutely guarantee you that their perception is high prices, and their experience is complexity

 

 

I think in the Birmingham City case that the trust keep referring to, a far too big of a significance has been placed on the impact of having loads of pricing options to the overall strategy.

 

 

If Birmingham were to survey their supporters and ask them why they chose to buy a match ticket or a season ticket as opposed to when they previously hadn't done, how many are going to answer that it is because the club introduced so many different price options? 

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

I think in the Birmingham City case that the trust keep referring to, a far too big of a significance has been placed on the impact of having loads of pricing options to the overall strategy.

 

 

If Birmingham were to survey their supporters and ask them why they chose to buy a match ticket or a season ticket as opposed to when they previously hadn't done, how many are going to answer that it is because the club introduced so many different price options? 

 

 

NONE

[SWFC Trust]

13 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

I think in the Birmingham City case that the trust keep referring to, a far too big of a significance has been placed on the impact of having loads of pricing options to the overall strategy.

 

 

If Birmingham were to survey their supporters and ask them why they chose to buy a match ticket or a season ticket as opposed to when they previously hadn't done, how many are going to answer that it is because the club introduced so many different price options? 

Cheers for taking the time to read it. 

 

The Blues Trust who helped with some of the info in the report are convinced that the ticketing strategy has made a difference to attendances there. 

 

It's not just the banding/zones thing though that has an impact I'm sure. The club have made it part of their supporters charter that they will always have tickets to suit all pockets. You can pay on the day and never pay more than £25. Usually much less. 

 

They also have plenty of inventive marketing strategies. 

 

The odd local derby doesn't have a huge impact on average attendances. There might be something in new ownership, but given the relegation battles, points deduction and transfer embargo they've faced I'm not sure if that's true in the most recent years.

 

Regardless of all that - the report is designed to provoke some discussion. So, whether you agree or not with it's conclusions I appreciate you taking the time to read and discuss it. 

 

 

[room0035]

4 hours ago, Busmansholiday said:

If you're an existing season ticket holder at Dingleland it's £265 for their Ponte End for next season, irrespective of whether they are in the Championship or Prem.

 

But they will get £100m this season for finishing last.

[CircleSeven]

1 hour ago, @owlstalk said:

 

That's not the right analogy in this case

It's like saying you can buy a burger from here. It will cost you £5, or it will cost you £9 if it's on a Tuesday, or £12 if you are between 20 and 40 and eat more than 4 burgers a month at our place, or it's £22 if you aren't a member, are sitting on your own and if you're definitely not with someone called Brian.

 

The burger will be £22 if you don't buy burgers from us every week. You can buy a burger membership which means you will get £2 off some of the times you eat burgers at our place. And the burgers will be £2 extra if you sit in the middle of the restaurant but not if you're a member, but if you are an OAP you might get it a bit cheaper but if you eat burgers on the left hand side of the restaurant it's £1 cheaper

Now...

How much is a burger again?

I think I’ll just get fish and chips.