A ticketing idea until the end of the season?

[Alan Southstand]

Surely winning 7 on the bounce makes people sit up and take notice and, for example, if they’ve been floating supporters, they’ll be giving the last 2 home games some serious consideration, anyway. It’s not like there’s another twenty still to attend!

Considering how dire things have been for a few seasons now, I can understand anybody being in two minds about coming back. But, there’s no doubting the amazing turnaround at the Club and it’s running through the infrastructure, from top to bottom. My only wish was if only it had happened sooner!

Regardless of how we end up this season, it’s already exciting to think what we could have next season. Supporters will return eventually, it’s going to take time.

[Nudga]

I think some people are forgetting that we are in division 4. Young people and kids especially want to be associated with so called big clubs or clubs who are winning regular.
We won't see a real uptick in attendances in league games until we're challenging at the right end of league one.
Signing players like TLT and Haks will definitely draw the young uns in though because these types of players are exciting.
Maybe a £10 adult ticket with a free kids ticket might work a bit better for the club but definitely not £1 or £2 tickets

[pib]

Need to play Wrexham more regularly. That brought 2.5k out of the woodwork last week!

[silent majority]

I don’t see how we’re losing out even if people only come for one game if it’s cheap. The alternative is empty seats and less people spending in the stadium.Obviously it would be better if they became regulars but I don’t think we need to be picky, it’s not like seats are at a premium, there’s thousands free every game.

I'm not sure where I said the club would be losing out.

What I did say is that cheapening the product doesn't work either short or long term.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

If folk are genuinely interested, they will come.

Two friends of mine, who used to come more regularly, came on Tuesday. The pride of the ticket wasn't an issue. Their shift patterns and commitments to their young families however, have been a limiting factor.

I have other friends who used to come more often, and again, it's not the cost of the ticket that stops them coming, it's just they're not that fussed. In fact, they perhaps fall into the category where football in general isn't what it was and they're not even that bothered when England are playing. Perhaps too much easy to access football on tv??

I'm fully behind encouraging the next generation, but not trying to attract those who simply aren't bothered.

[Padge_DRFC]

Need to play Wrexham more regularly. That brought 2.5k out of the woodwork last week!

Save them all an episode to watch next year won't it.

[drfcsteve]

I don’t see how we’re losing out even if people only come for one game if it’s cheap. The alternative is empty seats and less people spending in the stadium.Obviously it would be better if they became regulars but I don’t think we need to be picky, it’s not like seats are at a premium, there’s thousands free every game.

I'm not sure where I said the club would be losing out.

What I did say is that cheapening the product doesn't work either short or long term.

Define doesn’t work? I thought your point was it doesn’t build the fan base long term?

But what’s being discussed is trying to boost the crowd and give the team a boost for a few crucial matches.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I don’t see how we’re losing out even if people only come for one game if it’s cheap. The alternative is empty seats and less people spending in the stadium.Obviously it would be better if they became regulars but I don’t think we need to be picky, it’s not like seats are at a premium, there’s thousands free every game.

I'm not sure where I said the club would be losing out.

What I did say is that cheapening the product doesn't work either short or long term.

Define doesn’t work? I thought your point was it doesn’t build the fan base long term?

But what’s being discussed is trying to boost the crowd and give the team a boost for a few crucial matches.

But that's on the assumption there's alot of people out there who want to come but are restricted due to cost.

Anyone who's remotely interested in football, will know Rovers are on a good run at the mo. Those that did come to the Wrexham game, those who came to the Everton cup match etc. 'Existing' occasional fans are out there in sufficient numbers to fill the stadium even without trying to appeal to new fans.

TB is community focused and that’s why we have one of the lowest ST prices and match prices. Just my opinion but I don't think we should be reducing prices even further to artificially boost attendances.

I would prefer some kind of offers at the beginning of the season to try to entice folk back for the full season with memberships and multi tickets.

Hold our nerve and let's see just how interested the Donny public are for the remaining games.

[Chris Black come back]

It is also for the reasons cited earlier in the chain, not just something that can be decided at a few day’s notice. This is aside from the questionable financial logic, primarily of largely subsidising people who were likely to come anyway and pay full price, the cost of which would likely outweigh incremental revenue from accretive customers.

[sf9944]

I've always thought Rovers have a very high ratio of fans who don't actually attend games.  If the 92 league clubs were ranked according to this ratio I suspect we'd be close to the bottom.

Be interesting if someone could do some research to a) verify if this is true and b) understand the reasons for it.

[CantleyRed]

I've always thought Rovers have a very high ratio of fans who don't actually attend games.  If the 92 league clubs were ranked according to this ratio I suspect we'd be close to the bottom.

Be interesting if someone could do some research to a) verify if this is true and b) understand the reasons for it.

We don't need to sell any more tickets but just try and fill the Family Stand with people who are already STHs but rarely attend.

[DRFC-Hanksie]

Would season ticket holders be very happy about that especially Cat A ?

It's not like they're giving them away for free like they did at that Crystal Palace home game, 2011ish?

[silent majority]

I've spoken to the club.

There are no plans to do a specific price reduction for this Saturday, but there are numerous plans in place to boost attendance. The Academy are having their day this Saturday so all the players and their parents and families will be there. The work within the community has been ongoing as usual and this Saturday all the 1st year students from the Foundation will be in attendance with their parents. There are one or two other promotions in place as well with regard to the clubs commercial activities. The hospitality area is also heavily subscribed for this weekend too.

These are focussed activities that historically has a high success rate in turning parents and extended families into season ticket holders. We've agreed that we can chat about the extra numbers early next week so that we can reflect on how successful these activities have been.

We also chatted about the cost of price reduction promotions. On average (and these are my rough figures) we have a walk up gate of about 1,000 on any given home game. After VAT the take averages out at about £12, that netts the club about £12k but a reduction to a £1, less VAT, netts the club about £800. If we cap the figure at £5, once VAT is removed the club would nett about £3.8k, which would be a loss close to £8.5k. To break even we would need to attract another 1700 supporters just to stand still financially.

Its clear that financially the argument doesn't stack up to make massive reductions in ticket pricing. And history shows us that these types of reductions have no immediate impact nor a long term one either.

I hope that helps!

[drfchound]

That all makes sense to me.
I said after the game last Tuesday that we should be getting quite a lot more home fans in this coming Saturday and I still feel that it will happen.
The news articles since Tuesday were all very  complementary about us and I have spoken with some of my colleagues at my two walking football clubs who don’t usually go to games but are thinking about going on Saturday.

[silent majority]

PS - the club haven't ruled everything out though. It does depend on a result tomorrow as much as anything.

[Padge_DRFC]

Really don't think it's needed. Good chance to make some money for the first time in a long time we're winning a lot and the football is decent to watch. Get them funds in for Adelakun and TLT

[Chris Black come back]

Who knows really not least as there is still some chance we could be in League One next season, but most likely outcome now is that we don’t see either of them come pre-season.

[Bills view]

It's possible to do targeted marketing to boost numbers rather than a blanket offer.

Those who get five or ten tickets packages who have used them up for the season could be offered a ticket at the price their package works out so £15 if they had the ten pack. These sort of things could incentivise them, reward them, maybe even encourage them to take the next step of being a season ticket holder.

There will be various things like this the club could look at.