How would a club survive without early bird tickets! Pretty much the way for for over a 100 years. Generally speaking I would have thought the idea for a club that doesn’t sell out it’s allocation would be to try and get as many customers as possible but hey what do I know.
I tried getting one through the finance option.. not sure why they declined me, my rating is spot on.
I get your point Jim, genuinely. Unfortunately, after about 100 years, the Premier League happened. Then pretty much overnight, fans' expectations and player salaries went off the scale. Personally, I'm all for single rate season tickets, if that's what everyone thinks is fair. But I also think it would wreck the financial model. The problem I have is with people saying they want a single rate, but then still saying "I'll wait to see who we sign first before I buy one". Which I'm absolutely convinced would happen. Those two things simply can't co-exist in the modern game. We would sink like a stone. Best analogy I can find is with music festivals. There's two festivals I love. I go every year. Tickets come out and I buy them em straight away at the 'Early Bird' price. No idea who the line up is when I buy em. I just know I'll love it, because I love it every time I've been. So I buy early and save some money. Those early sales give the festival organisers the best chance to book the best possible acts early, which ultimately gives me the best possible festival experience. So I do exactly the same thing the following year. And the year after that. etc. Alternatively, if everyone said "I'll wait until the line up is announced", the line up almost definitely gets worse, as they don't have the money up front to guarantee bookings. Fewer people then buy a ticket, when a sub-par line up is announced. The festival is worse, and fewer people go the following year. This trend continues, until the festival that everyone once loved, becomes a shadow of what it once was. It might even disappear entirely. If we were a community owned club in non league, with a single price that was affordable to all, I'd be there serving tea & coffee. But I suspect a shed load of people who once clamoured for a single price season ticket, wouldn't be. They'd probably be saying they weren't paying a tenner to watch non-league $hite.
A Way for the club to lose my potential revenue is to hike the price massively after a certain date, following years of selling off our best players. I don't see it as a early bird, I see it as a if you don't buy before this date you aren't welcome. Moreover I'm fairly certain it wouldn't have a negative impact on sales, the hard-core would still renew. So planning wouldn't be impacted at all. Then potential extra revenue would come in. Probably not a lot more but even a couple of hundred who then go onto renew is what it's all about in growing the fanbase. Yes lots of other clubs do it, I wish we could be different and put the fans first.
fair dos mate. we just have a different opinion on it. looking at ST sales at EB prices though, I'd say the numbers suggest the vast majority of fans support it
I wouldn't say it shows that. It shows the current season ticket holders will renew anyway and if you threaten them with higher prices they will buy early.
fair dos. genuine question on the topic then. for next season, would you lower all ST prices to be the same as EB, or increase them all to a higher price than EB?
I can remember first going late 70's / early 80's and not that many having season tickets. Vast majority of crowd now are season ticket holders
I'd lower them all, as that is clearly the price the club are happy at. Can't imagine a significant amount of sales are made at anything other than the EB price.
When we were promoted to the Premier League we signed John Hendrie in October. We signed Hignett in November during Hendrie's season as a manager. It didn't used to be as important for a club to get their money in so early as they could sign players right up to the last month or so of the season. Transfer windows changed that. I think the disparity between early bird and full price needs looking at. Full price does appear to be a punishment price. I understand why early bird exists,I just don't think the price needs to rise so much after it's over. People from Barnsley like a bargain. Everyone who bought their season ticket during early bird would still have done so if the saving was only £20. And I believe more season tickets would be sold after it closes if the price hike wasn't so steep. The difference between early bird and full price makes full price unpalatable for many, me included.
Me too, I currently make a decision game by game but would definitely be interested in a bundle ticket, be nice if it was discounted but wouldn’t expect to be on par with EB.
No, it definitely wouldn’t be on a par with early bird. Shouldn’t even be on a par with season ticket cost per game. But there will be a price that represents value compared to match day prices
Why not if it gets more people to come amd spend money. Being a season ticket holder gives perks like getting tickets first, keeping the seat you want etc.
Because you'd lose a lot of season ticket sales. A lot of people round me are season ticket holders but probably miss around 5 games per season, some even miss up to 10. Reduce the price of a part season ticket in line with what they pay and they will buy the cheaper part ticket instead depriving the club of a lot of money. And that's just those who would do it because they can't make every game. On top of that there are a lot more people who, if we had say 5 match season tickets on sale, would buy one now and if we are bottom of the league and losing every week at the end of September wouldn't buy another. Last season there were thousands of fans who only turned up because they'd paid up front. If they hadn't I bet the stadium would have been empty every week.
I think whatever you’re selling/buying, the higher the volume you buy, the lower the unit price should be.
Difficult call TBH. On one hand the club should be doing all it can to encourage more to attend on the other it can’t do anything to discourage season ticket holders. Personally I think a discount on the day price would be fair to a 5 game ticket. The added advantage of doing something like this is the club could group the games as saw fit and could increase revenue/attendance for a less popular game. Something like 4 x group 1 games & 1 x group 2 game.
I think we should tap into the numbers who went to Wembley by offering this....If you went to Wembley and are on the clubs purchase history file you can buy match day tkts this season at a 20% ( Or 15% whichever is best) discount for any game up to Christmas..Then at Christmas offer the reduced season ticket price to the end of the season ( lots would buy as presents) to all who attended Wembley....therefore we would finish next season with increased ST holders who we can tempt with EB the season after......
Time to bang the Bradford drum again. They had well over 22k for their final L2 game, then 20k+ for the playoff semi. Lowest league gate was 15.5k. It's taken many consecutive seasons of bold ST pricing, but they took on that risk and its paid off. Loads of folk I know over here renew every single year - at those prices, why wouldn't you? The recent window to do this for Barnsley - promotion challenge, Wembley, feel good factor back - has probably passed, but I'd like to see the club attempt this down the line. Maybe if we're in the mix again next April. Sure, it's a leap of faith, but if you don't try it, you'll never know. One cheap, flat rate across the ground. Concessions, Flexi tickets, bundled games. Absolutely rinse the fu¢k out of promoting it - across town and surrounding areas, billboards, social media, press, schools, player involvement. I sometimes walk up to Oakwell and see groups of kids, teenagers, walking the other way. Clearly not going to the game. It never used to be like that back in the day - always seemed like everyone was walking up to the ground on Matchday. Got to get that back.
Club are missing a big opportunity to bring in some much needed additional revenue if they don't take the opportunity to build on that togetherness shown by reds fans on Monday. I reckon they could add 500 to 1k extra season tickets minimum if they said anyone with a wembley ticket can take advantage of the early bird price. It's not a case of planning for next season, it's either get that extra cash in for wages or miss out on it. Absolute no brainer.