Fans forum my view

[bobjimwilly]

Unbelievable Jeff!

RTR and others have even pointed out the Swansea match wasn't about lowering prices (that low) or even making a profit on the day, but unfortunately due to the clubs short-sightedness that's what they put it down to  :S

The Swansea game clearly demonstrated what a bit of decent, planned marketing can do alongside ticket price reductions - we bloody filled the place!

Even if the tickets were £15 and £8, or £18 and £10 etc, as long as the marketing is thought out and utilised in good time we can increase match attendences.

[timdrfc]

Season tickets in the West stand work out about £19 per game  , which i thinks a bargain & the club should be commended on these prices. At Leeds it's way more & they get over 25 thou paying it week in week out. therefore generating more income for their club.We should be grateful f what the board are doing to bring better football to us the Rovers fans.

[bobjimwilly]

timdrfc wrote:

Season tickets in the West stand work out about £19 per game  , which i thinks a bargain & the club should be commended on these prices. At Leeds it's way more & they get over 25 thou paying it week in week out. therefore generating more income for their club.We should be grateful f what the board are doing to bring better football to us the Rovers fans.

Again Tim, no one would dispute it isn't a bargain, especially those of us who are STH's and have seen the wonderful stuff we can play. The issue however is, in the current climate, is isn't affordable. And remember, that £19 per game is only for STH's, the fans we already \"have\". DRFC needs to appeal to floating fans, which it won't, and indeed doesn't, do at over £20 per game.

Also, Leeds are simply following supply & demand economics re their season ticket prices. If they had the same level of support as we do, they wouldn't be charging the prices they do. They certainly aren't charging those prices for the quality of football they play!

[PDX_Rover]

Yes it's up to fans to fly the flag for Rovers but the club also needs to make an effort. Morris is deluded.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

Rigoglioso wrote:

The argument about attendances being down this season is a national problem and not just a problem isolated to Doncaster Rovers.

Rovers average attendance 2009/2010
       10.992

Rovers average attendance 2010/2011  
   10.354

I was quite surprised when I looked that we are only 600 odd down (roughly -5%) on last years average.

Obviously that's 600 too many, but considering the economic situation it's not too bad.

[Filo]

Snods Shinpad 2 wrote:

Rigoglioso wrote:

The argument about attendances being down this season is a national problem and not just a problem isolated to Doncaster Rovers.

Rovers average attendance 2009/2010
       10.992

Rovers average attendance 2010/2011  
   10.354

I was quite surprised when I looked that we are only 600 odd down (roughly -5%) on last years average.

Obviously that's 600 too many, but considering the economic situation it's not too bad.

Very surprising and still time to up that average with the correct promotion

[DonnyBazR0ver]

This is the issue.

Whilst attendances appear to be falling, DM & Co will be reasonably happy as they infer the revenue is stable and potentially better by charging £28 etc for the high profile games.

Now, we have not had the privilege of looking at the books, so we are at a huge disadvantage. However, the board approving the strategy are playing Russian Roulette with our emotional attachment to the club, knowing that some folk will just not pay £28 etc and will stay away.
 
At the moment revenue is everything and as long as the extra revenue from the Cat 1 games outweighs the proportionate revenue from Cat 3 games then they are winning.

In the long term, it may be more risky as it doesn't do much  for growing the fan base. They will take the view that there is little point in 'marketing' matches where much effort delivers a smaller revenue, so they will put more effort in to the Cat 1 games where attracting 1 more fan is nearly double the value of a Cat 3 game.

The down side of course is we will still have the disappointments of a half empty stadium, lacking atmosphere, and the 'add ons' that higher attendances bring. Now if Rovers had a slice of the cake from the bars and concourses, then it may be a whole different ball game. It would also result in more revenue on lottery sales and The Rovers Alliance for example.

Should we get a sniff of the play-offs then with the anticipated rise in attendances their strategy will be totally vindicated.

Having said all this I still believe the club should be better in many areas of promoting particularly in encouraging habitual attendance through ST sales and reaching the masses more effectively.

DM is the Brain Clough of CEO's. We discuss it for 5 minutes, then we decide I was right.

So, as said on other threads, the only way we can gain more influence is by strengthening our VSC membership. The whole objective is to share and promote common goals !!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Filo wrote:

Snods Shinpad 2 wrote:

Rigoglioso wrote:

The argument about attendances being down this season is a national problem and not just a problem isolated to Doncaster Rovers.

Rovers average attendance 2009/2010
       10.992

Rovers average attendance 2010/2011  
   10.354

I was quite surprised when I looked that we are only 600 odd down (roughly -5%) on last years average.

Obviously that's 600 too many, but considering the economic situation it's not too bad.

Very surprising and still time to up that average with the correct promotion

I think those numbers are a tad deceiving. We've already had pretty much all of our big away support home matches this season. From here on in (certainly after next Tuesday), we'll not see many if any away followings above 1000. Possibly QPR I guess, just maybe Cardiff if the race is looking interesting.

But those apart, we'll need to average 10,500+ home fans per game if the season's average attendance is going to match last years. More likely I'd have thought that we end up pottering around in mid-table and the floaters (the ones that Morris is happy to see cut their ties to the club and pick and choose the matches that they attend) will see little point in forking out £28 to watch us against Crystal Palace.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a crowd drop below 7,000 before the season is out, and our season average crowd to end up below 9,000.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Exactly. A gamble they are willing to take.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

The fixture list threw a spanner in the works with the new categories system in that we drew Forest, Leeds, Hull and Blades all early on in the season. If these games had been spread out a bit more, then it wouldn't have been such a shock to the system. Instead the £28/£25 prices were probably assumed to be the norm for the floating fan and the word soon spread that it cost £28 to watch a game. Had the first few games been category 3 games for example, the opposite may have happened; word gets round that games are cheap and more people are likely to go to games.

The club should have seen this problem early and made a couple of these games category 2 at least. Also the membership scheme should have been advertised better.

As we stand though you are right BST. The average could and probably will drop further.

Results will be key though.