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Match day programme price increase

daored

By daored
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pillred

pillred

Posted
Posted

the problem is the dearer they get the less they sell, it's like a dog chasing it's tail, the buses are the same they think the solution to not making money is to increase fares, it's better to have 40 people paying £2 each than 25 paying £2.50, they can't see it though.

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Monkeh

Monkeh

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, pillred said:

the problem is the dearer they get the less they sell, it's like a dog chasing it's tail, the buses are the same they think the solution to not making money is to increase fares, it's better to have 40 people paying £2 each than 25 paying £2.50, they can't see it though.

the problem is the cost of actually producing them selling the for £2 when it costs £3 to produce no one wins

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Undy English

Undy English

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13 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

the problem is the cost of actually producing them selling the for £2 when it costs £3 to produce no one wins

Is there no way they could do a 'cheaper' smaller version though? Personally all I'd be interested in seeing in the programme is our team for the day, a bit about the opposition (i.e. players to watch, form etc.) and then maybe a small page of club news, all in, 5-6 pages.

At the moment we have some big glossy looking magazine packed with features. Take it back to grass roots like the non-league teams who produce billy-basic programmes that supporters actually buy.

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Monkeh

Monkeh

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3 minutes ago, Undy English said:

Is there no way they could do a 'cheaper' smaller version though? Personally all I'd be interested in seeing in the programme is our team for the day, a bit about the opposition (i.e. players to watch, form etc.) and then maybe a small page of club news, all in, 5-6 pages.

At the moment we have some big glossy looking magazine packed with features. Take it back to grass roots like the non-league teams who produce billy-basic programmes that supporters actually buy.

it's not just us, its the entire football league,

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pillred

pillred

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14 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

the problem is the cost of actually producing them selling the for £2 when it costs £3 to produce no one wins

don't know what the answer is but putting up the price of anything is usually counterproductive, if the cost of making a programme is £3 then obviously they need to charge at least that, maybe we have got to the point where programmes are no longer financially viable.

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handsofclay

handsofclay

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6 minutes ago, Undy English said:

Is there no way they could do a 'cheaper' smaller version though? Personally all I'd be interested in seeing in the programme is our team for the day, a bit about the opposition (i.e. players to watch, form etc.) and then maybe a small page of club news, all in, 5-6 pages.

At the moment we have some big glossy looking magazine packed with features. Take it back to grass roots like the non-league teams who produce billy-basic programmes that supporters actually buy.

At non-league level though programmes are also in decline and more and more clubs are not producing printed versions anymore. 

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Monkeh

Monkeh

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1 minute ago, pillred said:

don't know what the answer is but putting up the price of anything is usually counterproductive, if the cost of making a programme is £3 then obviously they need to charge at least that, maybe we have got to the point where programmes are no longer financially viable.

the answer is to stop producing them, I suspect we will by next season

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devoncider

devoncider

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Just now, handsofclay said:

At non-league level though programmes are also in decline and more and more clubs are not producing printed versions anymore. 

same with the egg chasers - Championship side Jersey have just announced they will not be producing programmes - all online now

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BRISTOL86

BRISTOL86

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34 minutes ago, pillred said:

the problem is the dearer they get the less they sell, it's like a dog chasing it's tail, the buses are the same they think the solution to not making money is to increase fares, it's better to have 40 people paying £2 each than 25 paying £2.50, they can't see it though.

I’m sure they can see it, and know what the demand is for the product, as well as knowing the cost and the margins involved. 

I’d wager that people that buy a programme will do so whether it’s £2, £3, £3.50 or whatever, whereas the amount of people who would buy them at £2 but not £3 is tiny. 

Likewise the bus being £1 cheaper isn’t going to get thousands more using the bus. 

The target market for printed media is rapidly shrinking, but like most things, getting more expensive to produce. It’s a one way ticket unfortunately. 

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phantom

phantom

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Used to buy one every game I went to but literally ran out of space to store them all

City seemed to have this fascination of producting them in a stupid size, surely it is all about fitting in your pocket?

As for the increase in costs - surely the number of adverts within a programme cover the majority of costs, hopefully those sponsoring have seen a likewise increase?

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Zookeeper WSM

Zookeeper WSM

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42 minutes ago, Undy English said:

Is there no way they could do a 'cheaper' smaller version though? Personally all I'd be interested in seeing in the programme is our team for the day, a bit about the opposition (i.e. players to watch, form etc.) and then maybe a small page of club news, all in, 5-6 pages.

At the moment we have some big glossy looking magazine packed with features. Take it back to grass roots like the non-league teams who produce billy-basic programmes that supporters actually buy.

Agree with this. I'd pay £2 for what you describe rather than £3.50 for the current format. I also think they should sell them in the local pubs (which would be easier with a smaller format). I want to read about the opposition before I get to the ground not after I leave or half time.

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daored

daored

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35 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I used to buy them religiously, but early part of last season I stopped.

Couple of reason’s:

  • Joe has grown out of wanting to get player autographs, and the programme was good for that putpose
  • all the content was pretty much on the OS.

Must admit I buy programmes home  and away. I personally think our programme is one of the worst in the league in terms of content and design. 

 

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Offside

Offside

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37 minutes ago, phantom said:

Used to buy one every game I went to but literally ran out of space to store them all

 

Same here. Now I only buy programmes at the couple of away games I manage to make each season. I go to every home game but rarely get one.

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phantom

phantom

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2 minutes ago, Fiale said:

The quality is good compared to programmes of the past, but they should stop doing them. Maybe just produce them for larger games where people like mementos.

But look what they did for the Manchester games last season, it was like a magazine 

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TBW

TBW

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Posted

Personally I would go the following route with programmes.

  • Make them a cheap, almost throwaway type programme. Stop trying to make them collectible and special. If people want to collect them they will regardless.
  • To go with that, cheaper paper. Think the type of paper you get in those old TV Guide magazines. It's thin but holds the ink and colour just fine.
  • Less focus on new and special articles, we know everything from the internet now anyway so what's the point?
  • More focus on easily updateable articles, stats etc.
  • More adverts. As I said above, focus on it being more a throwaway piece than collectible. Compare it more to the TV magazines of old rather than it being something special. Not every game is special.
  • With more adverts, cheaper paper and easily updated articles rather than trying to to be some sort of specialist magazine that reduces costs in every area.

Ultimately, the price needs to drop to about £1 or £1.50, if that. As a comparison, when going to Basketball and American Football games in the US, they give out programmes for free. Why? They're on cheaper paper, have lots of advertisements that cover the cost and just small articles that have been prepared months in advance. It's simple. Yes, we're compromising on what is inside but we get all this information on the internet now anyway so are these articles and time spent on them raelly giving fans any additional insight? A lot of people just get a programme as a memory of the game or to keep their collection going, this allows people to keep doing that at a much cheaper cost and with the cheaper price point it gives a much wider audience as more people will buy. A wider audience means more interested advertisers.

I don't know why it's insisted on that the programme be some sort of great piece of journalism, it really doesn't need to be. Save all that for the website. If you really wanted you could even have QR codes on certain pages so people can scan it on their phone and read a bigger version of the story on the official site.

Keep it cheap, keep it simple. There's no need to try and keep making it better and special... It's not. It's just a programme.

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ChippenhamRed

ChippenhamRed

Posted
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2 hours ago, pillred said:

the problem is the dearer they get the less they sell, it's like a dog chasing it's tail, the buses are the same they think the solution to not making money is to increase fares, it's better to have 40 people paying £2 each than 25 paying £2.50, they can't see it though.

Pretty sure they can see it but it’s not as simple as your GCSE economics would have us believe.

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Leveller

Leveller

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A printed programme is pretty pointless for an informed fan - that said I still used to buy them sometimes for information on the away team. None of the content on the home team is likely to be of use to anyone using the Internet. They’re largely an anachronism from the pre Internet age. A decent online match preview with information about the visitors would be the best option now.

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Guest

Guest

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Big % rise on a shilling (5p) could have been 1/11p though, cant remember and I am not going through the boxes in the attic to find out; can they not sort a downloadable one for those millions of mobile phone worshippers; after all its not very pc is it and a waste of paper in this day and age. ?️

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