Is Project 6000 and sustainability in L1 compatible with selling our "Gems"?

[Colesman Ballz]

Of course the question remains as to whether season tickets of any variety are actually more profitable than pay on the day punters, especially for clubs with smaller grounds like us. Yes it's money coming in at a time when there is little coming in and it's guaranteed income no matter how well the season is going on the pitch, but having to declare a sell out when thousands of ST holders are evidently not in attendance is a waste of space and premium rate money. I appreciate there is a scheme whereby unused tickets can be returned but not sure on the take up of that service. It seemed a lot of "sell outs" were no where near a full ground last season.

What a bleddy exaggeration ! "THOUSANDS OF ST HOLDERS" my ar$e, we only sold just over 3000 ST'S so you are saying more then half regularly don't show up , really ? Yes we do have an excellent scheme to mitigate the problem, and we perhaps could do more to promulgate it's increased use, but do try and keep things in perspective old chap !

 

[MJP_Exeter]

Of course the question remains as to whether season tickets of any variety are actually more profitable than pay on the day punters, especially for clubs with smaller grounds like us. Yes it's money coming in at a time when there is little coming in and it's guaranteed income no matter how well the season is going on the pitch, but having to declare a sell out when thousands of ST holders are evidently not in attendance is a waste of space and premium rate money. I appreciate there is a scheme whereby unused tickets can be returned but not sure on the take up of that service. It seemed a lot of "sell outs" were no where near a full ground last season.

Season ticket money is for the club to survive over the summer, by getting people to commit to every match at a discounted price. General ticket sales allow for better flexibility, but at a greater cost, which is the clubs income stream during the season. The other part the club / fans are doing well atm is encouraging fans to give up tickets when they cannot attend to either give to people whom cannot normally afford to attend or for re-sale. So whilst no system is perfect, the club do pretty well overall. Price hikes at this moment would be a really poor look for the club imho and retaining prices was the best option imho

 

[denzel]

Of course the question remains as to whether season tickets of any variety are actually more profitable than pay on the day punters, especially for clubs with smaller grounds like us. Yes it's money coming in at a time when there is little coming in and it's guaranteed income no matter how well the season is going on the pitch, but having to declare a sell out when thousands of ST holders are evidently not in attendance is a waste of space and premium rate money. I appreciate there is a scheme whereby unused tickets can be returned but not sure on the take up of that service. It seemed a lot of "sell outs" were no where near a full ground last season.

Hey why not go the whole hog and cease season tickets. Make people pay full price every game. If we are doing well, ramp it up to 50 quid

 

[tom_ecfc]

Of course the question remains as to whether season tickets of any variety are actually more profitable than pay on the day punters, especially for clubs with smaller grounds like us. Yes it's money coming in at a time when there is little coming in and it's guaranteed income no matter how well the season is going on the pitch, but having to declare a sell out when thousands of ST holders are evidently not in attendance is a waste of space and premium rate money. I appreciate there is a scheme whereby unused tickets can be returned but not sure on the take up of that service. It seemed a lot of "sell outs" were no where near a full ground last season.

Could we say that if you return your ST ticket you get a reward alongside the City For All scheme? Maybe a free hot drinks voucher or a one time only 10% off in the club shop? That way the club can use some of the tickets for the City For All scheme (do all tickets returned for this scheme get used each time?) and resell others increasing income from what would have been an empty seat + income that person also spends on the day in the ground, food/drink etc.

 

[Grecian Max]

Quote from the OP - seems it's not the only way when you consider that horrendous run, and being the season following the promotion bounce - would it be a stretch to claim we now have 5-6k diehard fans in L1 ? Years ago used to be able to guarantee around 3k diehards would turn up regularly in L2, rain or shine, on runs good and poor.

I personally think we have a "hardcore" of around 4,000-4,500 - perhaps a slight increase on the old days, recent years have brought in additional fans but they will drift unless the home offering is good as is the way in football

One thing I noticed from the photos of the Vale game was how unfamiliar a lot of the faces were - 5-10 years ago I would have recognised loads of faces

Natural cycle of fans I guess, I'm sure the ones not attending away are still City fans perhaps with different priorities

I see this as a good thing btw

 

[Boyo]

Could we say that if you return your ST ticket you get a reward alongside the City For All scheme? Maybe a free hot drinks voucher or a one time only 10% off in the club shop? That way the club can use some of the tickets for the City For All scheme (do all tickets returned for this scheme get used each time?) and resell others increasing income from what would have been an empty seat + income that person also spends on the day in the ground, food/drink etc.

I read recently that the City For All scheme had dished out over 400 tickets this season. However the presentation by the Financial chap at the Forum suggested that several hundred STH were not turning up at each game, which highlights that the vast majority are not donating their tickets to the scheme.

Personally I'd advocate a scheme whereby STH can pass their ticket back to the club for either re-sale or the City For All scheme and in return receive a credit of say 50% of the value of the ticket to be spent on future tickets, in the club shop, food and drink. The club benefit by being able to re-sell tickets at face value (and get more people into the ground and spending money) and STHs would be more inclined to return tickets. The money returned to STHs would then be spent in the club anyway.

 

[Spoonz Red E]

Could we say that if you return your ST ticket you get a reward alongside the City For All scheme? Maybe a free hot drinks voucher or a one time only 10% off in the club shop? That way the club can use some of the tickets for the City For All scheme (do all tickets returned for this scheme get used each time?) and resell others increasing income from what would have been an empty seat + income that person also spends on the day in the ground, food/drink etc.

The values for each surrendered ticket would be variable.
e.g. an Adult season ticket resold as an U18 creates less value than an U12 surrendered ticket being resold as an Adult.

If we want to offer a reward for surrender I would propose a once a season solution somewhere along these lines:

If the Season Ticket holder lets the club know the ticket is not being used they can choose one of two options.

[1] City for All (donated ticket - no reward) or [2] Reward scheme*

*Reward scheme formula.

At the end of season calculate the overall monetary total received from re-sales under this option (pulled from the ticket system data).
A percentage of this could be used by the Club towards Academy, Women's Team, Disability teams etc leaving a total reward fund amount.
Divide by the total number of tickets returned under this option (pulled from the ticket system data).
This will give a unit reward amount.

For each individual season ticket holder multiply this unit reward amount by the number of tickets they have surrendered and offer this amount as a club voucher (against shop or future match-day spend).

 

[STURTZ]

Love the way people get all prickly when price rises are mentioned! Council tax, fuel, transport just about everything goes up each year with little comment. Ask for a couple of quid a match to keep the club on line with inflation and people huff, puff and grumble like Parisian whores on a slow night.

 

[iscalad]

I couldn't attend the Stevenage match ( Wedding). I gave the club about 2 weeks notice via City4All. Imagine my surprise when on Good Friday, someone turned up with a ticket for my seat. Luckily he was good humoured about it.

 

[MJP_Exeter]

Love the way people get all prickly when price rises are mentioned! Council tax, fuel, transport just about everything goes up each year with little comment. Ask for a couple of quid a match to keep the club on line with inflation and people huff, puff and grumble like Parisian whores on a slow night.

I don't think people go by without mentioning them, but you highlight things that are much more of a need, than an optional extra. If you live in a house, can you avoid those items. If you need to save money, football won't come ahead of heating your house won't it. Football is an optional extra and one which people will walk away from if the price isn't right.