Season Tickets - What's Your View?

[Tom]

Student ST's. This won't benefit me, but I would have bought one this year (did my undergrad in Wales, and this year at Bristol), that I otherwise couldn't afford or justify.

I'm moving to either Berkshire or Leicestershire around September and am frankly glad that I don't have to make this decision. The pride is gone.

[Bristol Rob]

Surely it's possible to have sections of the ground that are unallocated seating?

The EastEnd is unallocated, but with people buying their favourite seats on a season ticket basis, the other stands need to be allocated.

[BdR2000]

For me its not about the freebies, price or results its all down to the players attitudes on the pitch.

This season was disgusting what we all had to watch, if it wasnt half a**ed performances or davies and his cringe worthy child like borderline assualts on opposing players it was long balls from defence upto no one.

My suggestion would be to be allowed to get a refund before first home game of the season if we are stuck with the same shambles of a squad

[mcbcfc]

The problem with 'bring a mate' tickets/offers is 'where do they sit?'

Generally speaking, most areas of the ground have allocated seating, and if where you sit as a season ticket you're surrounded by other season ticket holders then there is a problem.

Lets be honest there is going to be plenty of empty seats next season. Plus it was hard enough giving a free ticket away last year without trying to charge people for one.

[Harry]

I feel we should seriously consider the "sell 'em cheap stack 'em high" policy.

According to the Annual Accounts, our ST Revenue for 2011/12 season was £2m. We sold around 10,000 ST's that season if I recall. Out total turnover was £11.8m, so the ST revenue contributed only 16.88% of the total incomings. No matter what we all wish to believe about the fans still paying the players wages, it isn't strictly true just in relation to the ST price. That £2m was probably paid to about 4 of our players (assume 4 of them are on £10k per week = approx £500k per annum = £2m for 4 of them).

If you consider it this way - the fans season tickets paid the wages of Stead, Skuse, Fontaine and Davies. The rest of them were paid by other means.

So, although we must try to maximise revenue to make sure we can pay for better players, the Season Ticket sales are not the be all and end all of the incoming revenue.

How about this year we actively encourage fans to turn up and pack the stadium as best we can. Make it affordable for all to buy a ST, but also by having reduced ST prices means the POTD price can be realistic.

How about something like :

East End £207 (= £9 per game)

Atyeo £230 (= £10 per game)

Williams £253 (= £11 per game)

Dolman £276 (= £12 per game)

1 Under 10 goes free with any ST purchased, then any subsequent u-10 costs an additional £25 for the season. So a dad + his 2 kids can go in the Dolman for a total of £301.

This seems very cheap, but surely we would sell more tickets at these prices (with a positive and wide reaching advertising campaign)

With these prices, you can then offer realistic POTD prices. Basically add a few quid to the average game price, so something like £12 EE, £13 Atyeo, £14 Williams, £15 Dolman.

Some very conservative and rudimentary maths suggests :

Sell 1000 Adult tickets on the EE and you're incomings are £207k

Sell 1500 in the Atyeo and you've got £345k

A further 1500 in the Williams and you've taken £380k

Then add around 2000 in the Dolman = £550k

That's 6,000 adult tickets and your revenue is already at £1.5m (that can pay for 10 players on £3k per week). Surely we'd sell more than that if it was cheap enough for people to make the ST purchase.

I think there is a real opportunity for the club to engage with it's fan base here. Give something back. Sell 'em cheap and stack 'em high. Get people WANTING to come to the Gate and say what a bloody bargain it is. Get fans enjoying the football again and not feeling as if they've been ripped off. If you're paying on average £10 per game then you surely can't fail to be entertained!!

Once you've got the numbers in through the doors (remember the ST price was only 16.88% of turnover), then you can get people spending more money on matchdays in order to maximise the revenue. This includes initiatives such as the Natch Bar - try to encourage people to come to the ground before 2.55pm and get them spending money on the club. Another solution to maximising your revenue is to close the contract with Lindley catering. Employ your own BCFC kitchen staff (perhaps a couple of people on a full-time basis, then supplemented with match-day staff). This way, EVERY PENNY you make on food goes into BCFC's coffers, not a small portion that the Lindley contract allows. At present, we are simply chucking money away - for every couple of quid someone spends on a burger, City probably only see a quarter of that cash (if that!)

So - sell cheap. Get more people at the Gate. Encourage / entice people to get there early with good value food / drink availability and take every penny of the profit yourself.

Anyways - probably won't happen and we'll get a 7% decrease and more gimmicks.

[Bristol Rob]

I feel we should seriously consider the "sell 'em cheap stack 'em high" policy.

According to the Annual Accounts, our ST Revenue for 2011/12 season was £2m. We sold around 10,000 ST's that season if I recall. Out total turnover was £11.8m, so the ST revenue contributed only 16.88% of the total incomings. No matter what we all wish to believe about the fans still paying the players wages, it isn't strictly true just in relation to the ST price. That £2m was probably paid to about 4 of our players (assume 4 of them are on £10k per week = approx £500k per annum = £2m for 4 of them).

If you consider it this way - the fans season tickets paid the wages of Stead, Skuse, Fontaine and Davies. The rest of them were paid by other means.

So, although we must try to maximise revenue to make sure we can pay for better players, the Season Ticket sales are not the be all and end all of the incoming revenue.

How about this year we actively encourage fans to turn up and pack the stadium as best we can. Make it affordable for all to buy a ST, but also by having reduced ST prices means the POTD price can be realistic.

How about something like :

East End £207 (= £9 per game)

Atyeo £230 (= £10 per game)

Williams £253 (= £11 per game)

Dolman £276 (= £12 per game)

1 Under 10 goes free with any ST purchased, then any subsequent u-10 costs an additional £25 for the season. So a dad + his 2 kids can go in the Dolman for a total of £301.

This seems very cheap, but surely we would sell more tickets at these prices (with a positive and wide reaching advertising campaign)

With these prices, you can then offer realistic POTD prices. Basically add a few quid to the average game price, so something like £12 EE, £13 Atyeo, £14 Williams, £15 Dolman.

Some very conservative and rudimentary maths suggests :

Sell 1000 Adult tickets on the EE and you're incomings are £207k

Sell 1500 in the Atyeo and you've got £345k

A further 1500 in the Williams and you've taken £380k

Then add around 2000 in the Dolman = £550k

That's 6,000 adult tickets and your revenue is already at £1.5m (that can pay for 10 players on £3k per week). Surely we'd sell more than that if it was cheap enough for people to make the ST purchase.

I think there is a real opportunity for the club to engage with it's fan base here. Give something back. Sell 'em cheap and stack 'em high. Get people WANTING to come to the Gate and say what a bloody bargain it is. Get fans enjoying the football again and not feeling as if they've been ripped off. If you're paying on average £10 per game then you surely can't fail to be entertained!!

Once you've got the numbers in through the doors (remember the ST price was only 16.88% of turnover), then you can get people spending more money on matchdays in order to maximise the revenue. This includes initiatives such as the Natch Bar - try to encourage people to come to the ground before 2.55pm and get them spending money on the club. Another solution to maximising your revenue is to close the contract with Lindley catering. Employ your own BCFC kitchen staff (perhaps a couple of people on a full-time basis, then supplemented with match-day staff). This way, EVERY PENNY you make on food goes into BCFC's coffers, not a small portion that the Lindley contract allows. At present, we are simply chucking money away - for every couple of quid someone spends on a burger, City probably only see a quarter of that cash (if that!)

So - sell cheap. Get more people at the Gate. Encourage / entice people to get there early with good value food / drink availability and take every penny of the profit yourself.

Anyways - probably won't happen and we'll get a 7% decrease and more gimmicks.

Interesting mate - but if season ticket sales were only 17% of turnover, what percentage were pay on the day?

[Bristol Rob]

The other thing to be mindful of, is (I think) a 3 million quid loss in television revenue.

That is going to have a massive effect on turnover, one of the few positives - not that it's a positive as such - is the fact that none of last seasons relegated clubs have bounced back, so the share of the distributed parachute payments that get distributed when this occurs won't happen.

[Harry]

Interesting mate - but if season ticket sales were only 17% of turnover, what percentage were pay on the day?

Not sure as the Accounts don't go into that detail (from what I could be bothered to read anyway!!)

What is does suggest is that "Matchday Revenue" was £1.36m, 11.5% of the turnover.

Again, some rudimentary maths would suggest £1.36m across 23 games is circa £59k per game. With average attendances of around 14000 I think for that season, this means every person spent £4.22 at each game.

Matchday revenue is not far behind ST revenue - so get more people down there and entice them earlier and money can be made!

[WolfOfWestStreet]

I feel we should seriously consider the "sell 'em cheap stack 'em high" policy.

According to the Annual Accounts, our ST Revenue for 2011/12 season was £2m. We sold around 10,000 ST's that season if I recall. Out total turnover was £11.8m, so the ST revenue contributed only 16.88% of the total incomings. No matter what we all wish to believe about the fans still paying the players wages, it isn't strictly true just in relation to the ST price. That £2m was probably paid to about 4 of our players (assume 4 of them are on £10k per week = approx £500k per annum = £2m for 4 of them).

If you consider it this way - the fans season tickets paid the wages of Stead, Skuse, Fontaine and Davies. The rest of them were paid by other means.

So, although we must try to maximise revenue to make sure we can pay for better players, the Season Ticket sales are not the be all and end all of the incoming revenue.

How about this year we actively encourage fans to turn up and pack the stadium as best we can. Make it affordable for all to buy a ST, but also by having reduced ST prices means the POTD price can be realistic.

How about something like :

East End £207 (= £9 per game)

Atyeo £230 (= £10 per game)

Williams £253 (= £11 per game)

Dolman £276 (= £12 per game)

1 Under 10 goes free with any ST purchased, then any subsequent u-10 costs an additional £25 for the season. So a dad + his 2 kids can go in the Dolman for a total of £301.

This seems very cheap, but surely we would sell more tickets at these prices (with a positive and wide reaching advertising campaign)

With these prices, you can then offer realistic POTD prices. Basically add a few quid to the average game price, so something like £12 EE, £13 Atyeo, £14 Williams, £15 Dolman.

Some very conservative and rudimentary maths suggests :

Sell 1000 Adult tickets on the EE and you're incomings are £207k

Sell 1500 in the Atyeo and you've got £345k

A further 1500 in the Williams and you've taken £380k

Then add around 2000 in the Dolman = £550k

That's 6,000 adult tickets and your revenue is already at £1.5m (that can pay for 10 players on £3k per week). Surely we'd sell more than that if it was cheap enough for people to make the ST purchase.

I think there is a real opportunity for the club to engage with it's fan base here. Give something back. Sell 'em cheap and stack 'em high. Get people WANTING to come to the Gate and say what a bloody bargain it is. Get fans enjoying the football again and not feeling as if they've been ripped off. If you're paying on average £10 per game then you surely can't fail to be entertained!!

Once you've got the numbers in through the doors (remember the ST price was only 16.88% of turnover), then you can get people spending more money on matchdays in order to maximise the revenue. This includes initiatives such as the Natch Bar - try to encourage people to come to the ground before 2.55pm and get them spending money on the club. Another solution to maximising your revenue is to close the contract with Lindley catering. Employ your own BCFC kitchen staff (perhaps a couple of people on a full-time basis, then supplemented with match-day staff). This way, EVERY PENNY you make on food goes into BCFC's coffers, not a small portion that the Lindley contract allows. At present, we are simply chucking money away - for every couple of quid someone spends on a burger, City probably only see a quarter of that cash (if that!)

So - sell cheap. Get more people at the Gate. Encourage / entice people to get there early with good value food / drink availability and take every penny of the profit yourself.

Anyways - probably won't happen and we'll get a 7% decrease and more gimmicks.

Great post. Well thought out and makes a lot of sense.

It woul be amazing if BC could set some kind of president in this regard.

Would get people talking/interested in the club again.

[WolfOfWestStreet]

Bradford City been doing this since 2008 hence getting over 13,500 attendance in their first season in L2 (same as us last season in the championship) - now down to 10,300 due to poor seasons but still good for L2.

Probably not the only ones.

Didn't know that hopefully we can mirror this model