How We Could Sell More Tickets?

[Barrs Court Red]

Obviously this is just a thread on a forum, no need to get overexcited and start rowing with each other, but anyways, I digress;

From my point of view, the price is the main reason why I have found it hard to get mates to come along this season. Over the last 5 years I can think of about 20 people who I have got to go to games, some more than others granted.

This season I've managed to get the grand total of 1 person (someone from work, who's a Preston fan) down, the West Brom game. Against this, 10 of us did the England under 21's game, and many more fancied it yet for various reasons couldn't make it. Again, price was the main factor in this, £10 for a good standard of football, even if it was a friendly.

Now I go to every game, it made sense to get a season ticket and the value for money on that purchase is outstanding. £16 a match I think it works out at. Brilliant.

Against this, to sit next to me on a match by match basis is £28 (nearer £30 if its bought over the phone ect) which is double the price! Yes I believe season ticket holders should ALWAYS get the best deal, but to sting the occasional fan is disappointing, and has backfired seemingly this season.

What do I think?

Personally I think a membership scheme needs to be instigated. It may not have been worthwhile in League 1, but I really do think a membership scheme offering real discounts off of tickets would be interesting. Lets just say £15 for a season, and maybe £4/5 off a ticket? It still works out cheaper to get a season ticket, but it may well be an encouraging prospect for those who can only make Tuesdays, or who just couldn't make enough games to justify a season ticket, but bulk at the normal match day price.

Another scheme I think may work, is to have group rates in terms of ticket sales. 5, 10 ect booking in a group get varying discounts? Not exactly rocket science to administer but might just make the difference to a group of lads looking for something to do for a birthday or something. Might not attract thousands in terms of take up, but it's still something.

I've often wondered what type of success would a partnership with First might achieve? They run the show in terms of transport all over the greater Bristol area. Maybe a mutual arrangement where a match and buss/train ticket could be purchased, or even if the two companies advertise each others product. Think how many thousands of commuters would see adverts offering transport to a city game in some sort of scheme. Who knows what sort of impact that would have. Could be zero, could capture the imagination. I have no idea.

I'm sure plenty of people have ideas. Lets see them.

[Henry]

Top class post and they are great ideas.

Would you be prepared to send an email/letter to the club about this?

Also most major shops and business eg cinema/food offer some sort of discount card. Things like Tesco and Cineworld certainly do

[WhistleHappy]

...Some good ideas there,

(dunno why highly paid officials like CS & co cant seem to grasp or come up with anything better than 'beach (don't bring a bucket-don't bring a spade) days'... surely imaginative marketing should be a part of the job remit?.)

Couple some of your ideas with opening a properly stewarded/policed East End at a reasonable POTD price & bingo... watch the crowds increase, ..... discounted ticket revenue would be offset to a fair degree with extra sales of programs/food/drink/& (if they'd open it at the right times & offer 'service with a smile'- n.b. the Club Shop could do rather well also with additional 'passing trade')

[midland red]

I watch a lot of rugby league and i know it"s not everybodys cup of tea, but a few weeks ago when Wigan played Bradford Bulls in a crucial play off elimination game i noted the ticket prices and the one that stuck out was a family ticket priced £25 for two adults and two kids, thought what a great idea to get people into the ground.

yours midland red.

[Redhyde]

I'd be a big fan of a 5 game ticket

Adults £100, Seniors £60, Kiddies £30, Students £1 (ok ok £60)

Pick and choose your games, all you need is to phone the free number, confirm you'd like a ticket for said match and the ever helpful ticket staff would reserve your ticket in a seat that you'd pick which you could pick up when you arrived at the game.

That way the club would still know how many tickets they had left to sell before the match, it'd be worse value than the season ticket but much better than the POD price.

[rossjonesuk]

I'd be a big fan of a 5 game ticket

Adults £100, Seniors £60, Kiddies £30, Students £1 (ok ok £60)

Pick and choose your games, all you need is to phone the free number, confirm you'd like a ticket for said match and the ever helpful ticket staff would reserve your ticket in a seat that you'd pick which you could pick up when you arrived at the game.

That way the club would still know how many tickets they had left to sell before the match, it'd be worse value than the season ticket but much better than the POD price.

Brilliant idea. If anyone is up there on Wednesday why not bring it up for Lansdown? Even if it was a 'next 5 home games' ticket rather than pick and choose - it will still get the money in up front and if we had Charlton, Southampton and Preston at home - with say Colchester and Hull sandwiched in between - then it would boost ticket sales for the less high profile matches as well as people get the 5 game ticket to cover the 3 higher profile teams.

[Guest]

I'd be a big fan of a 5 game ticket

Adults £100, Seniors £60, Kiddies £30, Students £1 (ok ok £60)

Pick and choose your games, all you need is to phone the free number, confirm you'd like a ticket for said match and the ever helpful ticket staff would reserve your ticket in a seat that you'd pick which you could pick up when you arrived at the game.

That way the club would still know how many tickets they had left to sell before the match, it'd be worse value than the season ticket but much better than the POD price.

The five game S/T was suggested at the FCF at the start of thes season and I believe the club thought it was a great idea. Obviously didn't follow it through :/

[StapleHillPhil]

Contact local businesses and get them to do our advertsing for us. When I worked in Birmingham I'd often get emails that had been blanket sent to all employees offering reduced tickets if you bought via the company or mentioned company X whilst booking.

This is an easy way of catching the attention of the floating fan who doesn't go out of his way to find out when the next matches are.

[Nibor]

There's a lot of different things we could do.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to do what you can to remove or at least alleviate all the reasons people have for not going, that means good customer care - something we're absolutely shit at.

The problem the club have with this is that it's intangible, it's very hard to see in terms of figures what affect it has. The fact is though, that companies that take good care of their customers are more successful so it's undeniably good practise.

Some suggestions:

* Drop ticket prices a bit. Simple and effective and has worked wonders when tried by clubs like Blackburn, Wigan and Bolton.

* Actually do some form of marketing to back up the price drops. Local radio ads and fliers with the local free papers for example.

* Get rid of the price difference between advance and POTD. There's simply no good reason for it and it puts people off deciding to go on the day. Drop the stealth charges (booking fees and telephone line costs) completely to help make ticket buying as simple and painless as possible. Both of these make a tiny contribution to the bottom line for a big hole in goodwill, which is nonsense.

* Sort out the farcical online ticketing system so that it actually correctly reflects available seats in order that people can sit with their friends and that we can cope with bigger games without the house of cards collapsing.

* Offer family tickets, 2 adults and 2 kids for a decent saving that makes it only a somewhat expensive day out for a family instead of an extortionate one. Remove the needless restriction on where family tickets can be.

* Open the east end to POTD and steward/police it in a manner consistent with the rest of the ground. That is, catch and ban the small number of idiots relentlessly instead of treat everyone in there like a hooligan.

* Transport is a big reason for some people not to go, the parking around there is an arsehole. Work with local transport companies to sort out decent transport options, like subsidised buses from main routes around the city. Run it for a whole season to give it time to bed in even if the initial takeup isn't great, word will spread but it takes time.

* Use an incentives scheme to encourage people to promote the club and bring friends along. One way it could work, make some of the spare vouchers in the season ticket books something like £5 off a match ticket, and ST holders who hand them out and get say 10 handed back in at the office when used to buy tickets get a 5% discount next season.

There are longer term measures that can taken like ground development to give us better facilities but they're not really useful right now. I like some of the other ideas in the thread as well. To expand on the group booking one, how about actually pushing group bookings at organisations like student unions, workers clubs and other associations?

[PhatWill]

Personally I think a membership scheme needs to be instigated. It may not have been worthwhile in League 1, but I really do think a membership scheme offering real discounts off of tickets would be interesting. Lets just say £15 for a season, and maybe £4/5 off a ticket? It still works out cheaper to get a season ticket, but it may well be an encouraging prospect for those who can only make Tuesdays, or who just couldn't make enough games to justify a season ticket, but bulk at the normal match day price.

I agree, membership should return.

I'd make it more like £30 a season though. Guaranteed £5 off a ticket and all the usual benefits, free membership to CATS, couple of 10% off club shop vouchers and priority ticket sales over general public.

If you go to six home games you've got your money back...go to 15 and it's a simple, affordable way of watching City. Without the big, one-off £400+ payment for a season ticket that many can't afford.

In fact, another good idea would be to offer a 0% finance deal on season tickets payable over the season. How hard would it be for the club to arrange something with a sponsor to make that happen? Not very i shouldn't have thought.

[Geoff65]

I'd be a big fan of a 5 game ticket

Adults £100, Seniors £60, Kiddies £30, Students £1 (ok ok £60)

Pick and choose your games, all you need is to phone the free number, confirm you'd like a ticket for said match and the ever helpful ticket staff would reserve your ticket in a seat that you'd pick which you could pick up when you arrived at the game.

That way the club would still know how many tickets they had left to sell before the match, it'd be worse value than the season ticket but much better than the POD price.

I like this one and would suit me down to the ground:

A variation of this would be:

I'm talking Williams Stand or Dolman here:

Pick 5 matches for £85 from (bring a kid for an extra £15):

Category C

1. Fa Cup round 3

2. Barnsley

3. Blackpool

4. Colchester United

5. S****horpe United

6. Stoke City

Pick 5 matches for £100 from (bring a kid for an extra £35):

Category B

1. League cup round 3+

2. Burnley

3. Crystal Palace

4. Hull City

5. Preston North End

6. Queens Park Rangers

7. Sheffield Wednesday

and

Pick 5 matches for £125 from (bring a kid for an extra £65):

Category A

1. Cardiff City

2. Charlton Athletic

3. Coventry City

4. Ipswich Town

5. Leicester City

6. Norwich City

7. Plymouth Argyle

8. Sheffield United

9. Southampton

10. Watford

11. West Bromwich Albion

12. Wolverhampton Wanderers

Or a pick and mix for £100 three from category C one from category B and one from category C (b ring a kid for an extra £30)

I like this kind of deal as it staggers the matches throughout the year rather than just "the next 5 matches" - I cant do those kind of deals due to the extra travelling expenses - It also has a family approach and fills the grounds for the games with the most likely worst attendance matches.

[Bristol Boy]

Firstly, it's great to see a thread that's got the premis right:

That is:People aren't coming, what do we do about it?

So far so good and none of the "I'm a proper fan and would willingly sell my children, get divorced and go without holidays/food/beer/sex* (* =Delete as Applicable) for the rest of my life to watch City" or the "What's up with you lot , the prices are great and it's all about the juxture postn of Jupiter & Mars, not prices" mob (well, I think there's three of them) have turned up so far.

Here Goes:

• Reduce POD to £23 Dolman/Williams & £20 Atyeo.Wedlocks £20 and proper U16 pricing.
• POD & Pay In Advance the same.
• Drop the 0871 Phone line and go back to local rate.
• Drop the 5% fee.
• Bring back early bird discounts next pre-season and announce that now.
• Freeze ST Prices for another season if we're in the CCC-Prem and it only goes up 10%.League One and there'll be nobody there after the last price hike so don't even go there.

Engage with your fans-all groups-including those with whom you don't agree.People who would like to see Safe Standing, for example. Ask them what stand design they'd like as opposed to imposing what you think's best in terms of revenue.

All in All, a policy or strategy that involves throwing people IN not out at every available opportunity.Making them feel wanted as opposed to a necessary nuisance.

The TV Money is a double edged sword and punters have less disposable income these days (Source:U Switch Survey) plus a great deal more choice of what to do with that lesser amount.

So, if I'm a guy on lower income do I buy Sky and have all the sports channels for £38 a month or do I spend about half of that again and just watch City twice from The Williams or Dolman??

In brief, make it far cheaper & easier to attend not like the masons or some poncey book club.

[SyntaxtheRed]

Student ...(ok ok £60)

I wish it were that price for students , i could afford to come to most games at that price.

[Henry]

Would the supporters trust be able to copy this paste and show the club it?

[SyntaxtheRed]

I wish it were that price for students , i could afford to come to most games at that price.

Also to add , i went to Coventry and the student ticket cost me £12 + Coach £16. It was barely more expensive for me to go to an away game than it was to go down the Gate.

[East End Lad]

Quality posts here. My two ideas would be obviously firstly to drop ticket prices by maybe £4/£5 then as someone else has mentioned two special types of ticket. Maybe one adult one child for £25 or two adults two children (family ticket) for £35. Some quality other ideas mentioned as well.

[Bristol Boy]

I agree, membership should return.

I'd make it more like £30 a season though. Guaranteed £5 off a ticket and all the usual benefits, free membership to CATS, couple of 10% off club shop vouchers and priority ticket sales over general public.

If you go to six home games you've got your money back...go to 15 and it's a simple, affordable way of watching City. Without the big, one-off £400+ payment for a season ticket that many can't afford.

In fact, another good idea would be to offer a 0% finance deal on season tickets payable over the season. How hard would it be for the club to arrange something with a sponsor to make that happen? Not very i shouldn't have thought.

Membership schemes are notoriously difficult where football's concerned.Don't ask my why, but some people just fee they're a con and not VFM.PNE's was a pure fiddle against away fans and I'm glad that's been sorted.

I suggested the 0% deal, but over a whole year, a while back (Pre-Season) and with SL's financial background that would be like falling out of a tree for him to sort that.

There's a pile of things in this tread and they'd obviously need to be costed and analysed, but we can't go on losing out on selling 4,000-6,500 seats every week, surely?

At a tenner each, after VAT that's up to £1.5m a season.

[Shockwave]

Membership schemes are notoriously difficult where football's concerned.Don't ask my why, but some people just fee they're a con and not VFM.PNE's was a pure fiddle against away fans and I'm glad that's been sorted.

I suggested the 0% deal, but over a whole year, a while back (Pre-Season) and with SL's financial background that would be like falling out of a tree for him to sort that.

There's a pile of things in this tread and they'd obviously need to be costed and analysed, but we can't go on losing out on selling 4,000-6,500 seats every week, surely?

At a tenner each, after VAT that's up to £1.5m a season.

at wigan the tickets are £10 kids and £15 adult which i thinks is brill for a prem match

[thatcham red]

Would the supporters trust be able to copy this paste and show the club it?

I am taking some of these ideas to the meeting tonight as I am sure others will.

Between you and I, it's likley that someone from the club will have their eye on this though

[Henry]

I am taking some of these ideas to the meeting tonight as I am sure others will.

Between you and I, it's likley that someone from the club will have their eye on this though

Sorry didnt see the site, thanks for the comment though.