Crowds still a big let down - Ryan

[DonnyBazR0ver]

They dodn't have to Mush.

Typical scenario. Floater says might come with you to see X game. How much to sit near you ?

£28, but if you sit in a completely different part of the ground you only need to pay £25 !

I'll stay at home !

Same floater came to watch a game last year, went to ticket office to get cat A seat. Saw him at half time. Where are you ? Sat down there with the f**cking ball boy !!

[NigelJ]

DonnyBazR0ver wrote:

3. I disagree. Derby, for instance, will still bring a big following, justifying it being Cat 2. However, we will undoubtably have Cat 3 midweek games in the future (Burnley, Coventry, Preston)

If the Hull game is anything to go by (although as you said without a crystal ball difficulty to know how many more would have turned up at cheaper rates. We only would have needed 1300 more at Cat 2 prices), midweek games are more difficult for certain people to attend, exiles, work, school nights etc, so do you:-

a) Think the Derby game will be a sell out ? (given Derby's attendances are down anyway, fewer fans are likely to travel IMHO)

b) Is it more likely more will turn up at Cat 3 prices than Cat 2 ?

I think people will set it as 'about time. Common sense has prevailed' and are more likely to come.

Of course, unless the club do something we will never know what could be achieved.

To answer both a) and b):

No, the game won't sell out, but the reasoning behind the pricing, like in any business is to maximise revenue.

I do think that the total revenue generated by the game being Cat 2 will be more than if the game were to be Cat 3, as the increase in attendance (at £15) would need to outweigh the loss of amount paid by those prepared to pay Cat 2,(ie £25-£15=£10) to get in a higher total revenue.

[NigelJ]

DonnyBazR0ver wrote:

They dodn't have to Mush.

Typical scenario. Floater says might come with you to see X game. How much to sit near you ?

£28, but if you sit in a completely different part of the ground you only need to pay £25 !

I'll stay at home !

Same floater came to watch a game last year, went to ticket office to get cat A seat. Saw him at half time. Where are you ? Sat down there with the f**cking ball boy !!

Presuming you are a STH, you can swap seats beforehand at the ticket office for another seat in the cheaper area, and sit with the 'floater'.....

And then you could keep an eye on him, so he doesn't try to groom the ballboys.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

What ! Give up my hard earned prime seat !!

[DonnyBazR0ver]

No, the game won't sell out, but the reasoning behind the pricing, like in any business is to maximise revenue.

I do think that the total revenue generated by the game being Cat 2 will be more than if the game were to be Cat 3, as the increase in attendance (at £15) would need to outweigh the loss of amount paid by those prepared to pay Cat 2,(ie £25-£15=£10) to get in a higher total revenue.

For Cat 1 games. I think we'd generate more revenue from Cat  2 prices. I'm convinced the 1300 are so more would have turned up for the Hull game.

Cat 2 to 3 mmmm, less convinced BUT, the more we get back in to the habit of coming, the more likely we are to get back to trying to grow the fan base. As we are it's shrinking.

As I've remarked before, the club seem to be chasing the extra £3 rather than gain the £22 that they would get from the stay aways.

[NigelJ]

DonnyBazR0ver wrote:

No, the game won't sell out, but the reasoning behind the pricing, like in any business is to maximise revenue.

I do think that the total revenue generated by the game being Cat 2 will be more than if the game were to be Cat 3, as the increase in attendance (at £15) would need to outweigh the loss of amount paid by those prepared to pay Cat 2,(ie £25-£15=£10) to get in a higher total revenue.

For Cat 1 games. I think we'd generate more revenue from Cat  2 prices. I'm convinced the 1300 are so more would have turned up for the Hull game.

Cat 2 to 3 mmmm, less convinced BUT, the more we get back in to the habit of coming, the more likely we are to get back to trying to grow the fan base. As we are it's shrinking.

As I've remarked before, the club seem to be chasing the extra £3 rather than gain the £22 that they would get from the stay aways.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the potential Hull crowd, had it been category 2. However, I'm sure you'll agree, it was always going to be a strong candidate for being category 1, being a local derby against a side just down from the premier league.

I agree that the current pricing may shrink the fan base slightly, but the club seem to have taken the view that maximising revenues is more important at the moment. I agree, not too encouraging for the long-term, and unless the economy picks up very soon, we may well regret it.

[Wellred]

Being devils advocate here but have any of you given any thought to the facts as to why the club have Cat A and Cat B games etc.
Don't forget if we offer a cheaper price we also have to charge the lower rate for away fans.
If we are looking at 3,000 away fans for a Cat A game that is 3,000 fans paying the top price.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Yes, we know it's to exploit away fans for local derbies.

How many local derbies will we have that the away end will sell out ? Ones gone and it didn't sell out. I think ONE - Leeds.

How many other games do we have left that you think the away end will not sell out ? TWENTY ONE ??

How many more Rovers fans will be going to Watford because it's £10 - would you say more than 10% ?

Looking at the Norwich game where sales are looking sad at the moment.

Norwich game Ticket Sales 6855 + 161 = 7016
Less 5919 ST holders = 1097 paying customers.

1097 x £22 = £24,134 plus 161 x £3 = £24,617

£24,617/£15 = 1641 = 544 more customers required. = 7.75 % of total attendance (to date)

Hull game = 1300 more required on 11100 =  11.71%

So who believes that and average 10% plus would turn up at the lower price bracket ?

I reckon offering batches of tickets at discounted rates
would alone improve non ST sales by more than 10%.

This means we could keep that match day prices as they are, encourage the sales of batches of tickets at discounted rates WITHOUT undermining the value of a full Season ticket.

[Superspy]

buy 1 match ticket get one half price at christmas anyone? lol