Season Tickets : Fri Nov 01, 2013 5:39 pm  

This is not a discussion about exrending Early Bird deadlines etc so any body expecting one should step away from the discussion.

The siuation is that as a Super Lrague team we have only a limited number of home games to make money that has to last throught the 12 months. Season tickets were the traditional way of raising money throughout the off season but as was seen 2 years ago it also has it's drawbacks. Selling tickets at giveaway prices is a real short- term solution. We managed to sell a lot of tickets that got us through to the start of the season but then had very few walk ups to provide us with much earned income through out the season.
Given that we aren't starting with a pot of money from previous seasons the ideal position would be to have a mix of season tickets and walk ups. We need to have enough from season tickets that would cover expenses until the start of the season and then have the rest of the supporters pay on the gate. But we need them to keep coming week after week.
The more you think about it the rounder the problem becomes. How would you square this circle?

Re: Season Tickets : Fri Nov 01, 2013 7:29 pm  

I think the trouble with the cheap season tickets is that the club assumed that they would make up the short fall by the selling of additional concessions.

Now, that plan would have worked, if they'd been getting all 10k season ticket holders in the ground for every home game. Unfortunately, people used the cheap tickets to pick and choose which games they attended.

The main bulk of Bradford's crowd has always been walk ups and the cheap tickets robbed the club of the income that generates over the season for a short term fix.

I personally think they should look at a similar system to the one Bradford use. They have a scheme where you buy a ticket for, I think it's £50 or £60, then when a game comes along that you want to go to, you only pay £10 for entry.

I have several friends who can't make every home game, so to them a season ticket is a waste of money. But if you offered them a scheme where you paid for a half price pass they'd be more likely to buy that at the start of the season, giving the club a revenue boost before the season starts, as well as encouraging them to make as much use of the pass as they could.

Re: Season Tickets : Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:03 pm  

Who decided we needed 10k season ticket holders? We've never had 10k. Even 10yrs ago when we were averaging 12-13k attendances with 20k vs Leeds, we always had 6k or so ST holders.

What's dropped away over the last 5 yrs is our walk up support. And expecting to convert people who mainly paid on the gate directly to ST holders seems optimistic.

[Bulliac]

Re: Season Tickets : Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:34 am  

Highlander wrote:

Who decided we needed 10k season ticket holders? We've never had 10k. Even 10yrs ago when we were averaging 12-13k attendances with 20k vs Leeds, we always had 6k or so ST holders.

What's dropped away over the last 5 yrs is our walk up support. And expecting to convert people who mainly paid on the gate directly to ST holders seems optimistic.

Always thought expecting 10k season tickets [at full price that is, as we certainly did achieve something of that order with the cheap deals] was whistling in the wind. Why, last year, no-one in the marketing dept could see that doubling the price and expecting the same number of sales was never going to work, is beyond me. Not that there is anything wrong in aiming high - in fact it really should be applauded -but you shouldn't expect to achieve all your aims or leave the business dependent on them, especially when they seem unrealistic to everyone else.

I have to say I like the idea of paying a lower figure [50 - 70 quid?] and then getting cheaper entrance on the gate, it sounds like the sort of idea which should be followed up.

Re: Season Tickets : Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:38 am  

The club has never said they are expecting 10k, that would be insanity.
I think they're more likely to be hoping for around 7k at best. And right now we're nowhere near. How much trouble that puts us in, who knows.

[Bulliac]

Re: Season Tickets : Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:01 pm  

They certainly did last season. They made 10k the "target" which, to me, is the same thing and the rhetoric this time round seems to be the same. Whether the actual figure has been quoted or not I seem to recollect the 'same targets', being applied.

For what it's worth, like you I'd guess around 7k is, more or less, what might be expected realistically and I'd guess that something, maybe a tad under that, might be the break even figure. Maybe losing JB was fortuitous?

Re: Season Tickets : Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:13 pm  

roofaldo2 wrote:

I personally think they should look at a similar system to the one Bradford use. They have a scheme where you buy a ticket for, I think it's £50 or £60, then when a game comes along that you want to go to, you only pay £10 for entry.

Great idea, add to that maybe calling it a membership to the club which gets you a few perks with the season ticket holders and i think a fair few people would go for that.

Re: Season Tickets : Sun Nov 03, 2013 1:54 pm  

The Bradford City thing is called a Flexicard.

It's £50 and gets you a reserved seat for half price for all games, so although it's a saving, it's not as much of a saving as buying a season ticket.

Might have to be a bit more expensive if the Bulls introduce it as it would mean you'd be paying less than if you bought a full price season ticket.

Might be worth it if you only get the free CC game ticket with full season tickets rather than just the flexicard.

Re: Season Tickets : Sun Nov 03, 2013 2:14 pm  

Maybe carry on with cheaper tickets but put a maximum figure on it. Say 3000 first come first served or however the club seem fit or fair. Everything else is full whack

Re: Season Tickets : Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:45 am  

MARKG wrote:

Maybe carry on with cheaper tickets but put a maximum figure on it. Say 3000 first come first served or however the club seem fit or fair. Everything else is full whack

The problem with that being, when you only sell 3,000 anyway, you've just lost out on a massive chunk of money that would have been spent if you hadn't lowered the price.

Unfortunately the club are in that vicious circle of needing success to sell tickets, but needing to sell more tickets to give better chance of success. Until they break that, they're going to be stuck in it, and it's going to continue to be a smaller and smaller circle.