Reduced price

From reading here I see that the attendance should be higher for the game Saturday which can't almost certainly be attributed to the price reduction. This has led to lots of people on here and elsewhere suggesting that if 12.50 were the regular price then our attendances would be higher for all games.

IMO these people need to realise that charging that price puts us into a position where we can't sustain championship football (which would limit attendances) and that in the longer term if we charged that price attendances wouldn't be as high as Saturdays is likely to be as for many of the fans buying matchday tickets going to the Blackpool game won't mean they will become regulars. In the same way that I only buy some things from the supermarket when they're on offer.

But well done to the club for trying an offer and hopefully we can manage to win rather than lose like we usually do when we get a decent crowd.

 

I agree with you that the attendances would deffo increase if we charged £12.50 for all home games & I also agree with you that £12.50 is too low a price to charge to watch a game at Oakwell in the championship.

That said ...... no matter how good the Blackpool game is & no matter how good the Peterborough game is when we charge £20, I still won't be encouraged to attend any further home games where the entrance fee is £28.

My line is drawn in the sand at £20 ...... and not a penny more.

 

£12.50 too low?

it's not worth a tanner most of the time

hth

 

looks like you won't be watching much football then, i know lots of people have lots of reasons for attending or not attending but if you got a season ticket its less than £14 every game, cracking value

 

Correct I won't ..... And looking at the attendance for the first 2 home games I'm not the only one !

8088 (was it) which included 6500 season ticket holders (allegedly) & 500 away fans ......

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every Barnsley fan was in a position to buy a season ticket and commit to attending all 23 homes games (or near as damn it) ....... because as you say it is pretty good value. Unfortunately here in planet 'real world' they are not !!

The fact is that there is quite a high proportion of supporters who want/need/have to come and watch Barnsley as and when they can & will not come down to a game and pay £28.

I actually think the club are realising this too as 2 home games into the season they have already taken measures to address this so fair play to them.

Anyway, the cost of individual matches 'thingy' has been 'done to death' so what's the point in us going on about it anymore.

People will either pay it or they won't ....... and even though it's early days it's pretty clear what's happening so far.

 

They'll struggle to sustain Championship football with only 500 - 1,000 fans paying on the day at £28.

 

this has been done to death i think , even at £20 there has been no significant increase in attendance... its not the price its the product.

lets imagine we are playing in the promised land of the premier league , sold out at a price most probably higher than £28

 

Were not playing in the Premier League though.

Fans aren't willing to pay £25/£28 to watch Barnsley week in week out. End of story, the Boro & Bristol games have proven this. 1,300 paid on the day for our first game of the season and 500 for the Bristol game. So average of 900 pay on the day so far, if they are all paying £28 which they aren't then the maximum gate receipts are £25,200. Would the club really be risking it with that little gate receipt amount to do a bit of fiddling around with the admission prices to find the most suitable price/attendance formula? Obviously the prices cannot fall to the cost of a season ticket but something has to be done because the home support is dropping dramatically.

I don't also wear the "thousand found money for the Premiership campaign/well were doing well etc " speech. I can't remember a recession in 1997 and the town being on its arse like it is now.

 

But if you buy summat on offer and enjoy it you'll buy it again.

It's about longer term sustainability - getting people back in to the habit of going. £12.50 isn't sustainable but £15, £20 might bring in just as much as charging £28. So it makes sense.

 

i think you missed my point , if we were playing man united on the opening day and it was £28 to get in would there have been more barnsley fans willing to pay?

im fully in agreement btw that £25/28 is too much for the product currently on offer

 

Probably to watch one of Europe's greatest football sides, a comparison you cant really use.

I don't know the definate answer to the pay on the day situation but l feel with the very little fans turning up on the day the club can afford to experiment with the price, which they are doing over the next two games. We shouldn't be judging it on solitary games though, like people saying it was £16 for some games last season and people still didn't turn up.... Palace (h) Watford (h)...no, l'm not surprised they didn't against that opposition but make it £20 against Leeds, Wednesday, Bolton, Blackburn etc.. and its a different story. So when we get 9,000 for the Peterboro game on a Tuesday night people shouldn't be quick to say, still didn't turn up at £20 a game. I won't be going if it was as low as £15 admission or if my mate gives me his season ticket again, Peterboro at home on a Tuesday night doesn't appeal to me, after a long day at work l would rather spend the evening with my new born baby.

 

If you start charging £15 on a regular basis then you will have to make season tickets £150.

 

I wouldn't charge £15, i said l wouldnt be going to the Peterboro game even if they were charging that. l think the minimum we could charge for a Championship game is £18-£20, you can't put the ST Holders noses out who have paid their money up front.

The club need to look at getting the ST's back too and if they're aiming it at folk like me who had a season ticket every season from 1984 (age 7) up to 2006 then l'm absolutely stumped as to how they're going to do it. Personally l may get a ST again in about 5 years when the little un's 5 and l'm taking him.

 

I pretty much agree with the original poster. When I first started going to Oakwell I paid on the day. I went to almost every home game, I worked shifts under the mid 90's so couldn't get to every game but went to as many as I could, often using holiday time to go to some games or getting up at 2pm on a Sat after I'd done a 12 hour night shift and had another one to come.
I bought a season ticket when we went all-seater so I could guarantee sitting with my mates, and also that looking at last few seasons I was only missing 5 or 6 games and so I wasn't really losing out.
I think that if I was to stop buying a season ticket and decide to pick and choose games I'd go less and less, midweek games would go, and I'd just look and think "Is it worth £28 or do I go to the cinema with the missus instead and have a few drinks after?" Even more so when you look at back to back home games with a Saturday and midweek game...that's almost £60 gone!
I don't know what the ideal pricing level is but £20 would seem the maximum.

 

Cheapest ST inc Early bird £335 = £14.56 per game
Dearest ST £435 = £18.91 per game.

I think with those in mind you have to have a bare minimum of £20 per game admission. But l'm sure over a season the gate receipts would be greater with £20 admission rather than £28. We only had 17,000 for the Leeds games last season, our biggest game of the season and they brought 6,500 so even the bigger games weren't paying off for us at £30 a ticket, the club expected to make money out of the big derbies. I'm sure this year at £20 a ticket we will have 20,000+ for the Leeds and Wednesday games. I think we would struggle to get 16-17,000 with them both this year at £28.

 

A few seasons ago, when prices were £16 Cat A, £20 (I think) Cat B, and £25 Cat C, we played 3 home games on the bounce, I don't remember the teams, (Scunny, Reading and Bristol City at a guess) and each one of these games were a different category price. For the cat C game there were about 11,000 there (inc 500 away supporters), for the cat B game, there were about 10,000 there (same size away support) and for the cat A game there were about 9,000 there (again similar sort of away support). And this is the problem, yes it would be nice if the price was low for every game, but the club simply can't afford it when there's no significant rise in attendances. We've already got the worst budget in the league, and if it was left to some on here, it'd only get smaller due to the reduced revenues.

 

Thats the key "the club can't afford it when there's no significant rise in attendances" how do we know there's no significant rise? it needs to be trialled over a number of games -5/6 different teams , not just against poor opposition on a Tuesday night or opposition that have all come on one bus and create no atmosphere in Oakwell at all (Bristol City etc..)

Cases against:
Poor crowds against Watford, Bristol City etc when prices were cheap, mainlt the CAT C games last year.
Cases for:
Leicester & Forest sold out
Blackpool - will be one of the biggest crowds of the season.
Donny game - Away support was under 1,000 until the price was reduced.

From the home support the clubs making 25k from pay on the day so its hardly going to affect with the budget.

 

I think this Saturday's attendance will prove one thing at least - there ARE plenty of potential supporters of this football club.

The club have reduced the prices, advertised it better (for once), and it looks like the people of Barnsley have listened.

But yeah, let's charge £28 for Ipswich, Bristol, Palace, Millwall etc etc....

Btw, the £20 entry fee for Peterbro is a good step/idea. I've always said twenty is plenty. But, there won't be many going to that game, despite the reduction, because it's Peterbro, on a Tuesday night. There are some games you just can't sell.

But, if they'd just charged a flat rate of £20, rather than £28, we'd have seen better crowds, and made more money this season. IMO.

I would though, have charged £30 for the Leeds, Wendy and Hudders games, but done a special offer where you pay £70 for all three.

But then, there's a reason I don't work for BFC. They didn't/don't want me.

 

For me there is too much reliance on gate receipts and more needs to be done to bring income from Commercial activities to balance out income.

Lower attendances are creating higher ticket prices, more income from Commercial side would give the club more scope on pricing.

 

Good points that you and Merlin make ...... there's just some games you can't sell & Peterborough on a Tuesday night falls into that category but it's a start so I'm going to make the effort.

I've not got a season ticket for the 1st time in years & years this season and I'll be honest ...... I'm itching to get back. I have heard how well we are playing and it would be good to get back to a few games.

I didn't get one because I was sick of the dross last season, sick of the managers moaning at the fans and sick of the succession of garbage unfit loan players we were going through.

Decided that the 'power' as it was would be switched back to me rather than me having to go and watch something I simply wasn't enjoying .....

And, as I said above, whether it be Man United, Sheffield Wed, Leeds, Huddersfield or whoever ............£20 is my limit and I'm as Stubborn as Keith Hill so that won't change any day soon regardless of form & league position.