Tinkler will slash the price of family tickets

[adamkungl]

I've never understood why clubs/stadiums charge $28 for a GA ticket (using roosters/SFS as an example) when sometimes they are not even quarter filling the stadium.

 

[BDGS]

This is the management mindset I've always dreamed about.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...ewcastle-knights/story-e6frep5x-1226022141020

NATHAN Tinkler will slash the price of family tickets to home games in Newcastle to as little as $15 if he takes ownership of the Knights at the end of the month. The mining magnate is poised to unveil a new ticketing structure for home games at Ausgrid Stadium within the next few weeks which could save families more than $200 a season - a major selling point of his bid to buy the club.
Currently, pre-purchase ticket prices for Knights matches range from $55 up to $112 per family per game.
A general admission family season pass for two adults and two children costs $380 or $660 for a season pass which guarantees the family low category grandstand seats.
Under the Tinkler plan, families would pay as little as $180.Tinkler Sports Group executive chairman Ken Edwards confirmed yesterday the new ticketing plan would come into effect immediately if Tinkler gained control of the Knights at an extraordinary general meeting of club members on March 31.


"Nathan is very firm in his belief that it's too expensive for families to regularly go to games," Edwards said.
"It is the same with memberships. I think the Knights currently have around 6000 to 7000 members. He can see no reason why that number can't be swelled to 20,000.

"It's about connecting with the people of the Hunter in a meaningful way and part of that is making it more affordable to watch their team play at home. Nathan doesn't want empty seats at the stadium simply because people who would love to be there supporting the team can't because they can't afford it."
Tinkler rolled out a similar structure when he took over A-League's Newcastle Jets.

Tinkler Sports Group spokesman Richard Fisk said no existing season ticket holder would be disadvantaged.

I see no negative to this, great news.

 

[Perth Red]

I've never understood why clubs/stadiums charge $28 for a GA ticket (using roosters/SFS as an example) when sometimes they are not even quarter filling the stadium.

again maybe the research shows that cutting the cost to under $20 doesn't equate to an increase in numbers sufficient to make it financially viable to do so?

 

[adamkungl]

Would you really double your crowd if you cut admission by half?
If not then it isn't a financially viable thing to do.

Probably not immediately. However if you're getting an average of 25k rather than 16k with cheaper tickets, you might be able to make up the difference with more food and beer sales, increased advertising value, and eventual further crowd growth.

 

[Perth Red]

I don't disagree it is possible but is it likely? If you are motivated to get off your chair, out the house, on the bus/train and get to the ground to watch a live game is $5-10 going to make a difference to if you go or not?

It may do but I would love to see if any research has been conducted with RL fans who claim to love the game but never attend one as to the real reasons why they don't go.

 

[Lambretta]

Has there ever been any research done on if this is in fact true? I'd love to know how many people don't go to live games because they consider it too expensive and how many would actually go if you cut the price by, say, 50%. Would you really double your crowd if you cut admission by half?
If not then it isn't a financially viable thing to do.

I do agree though that $660 for a family ticket is ridiculous.

It doesn't work that way.
You have a range of prices, which includes the best seats for the big bucks and tapering off so seats that wouldn't normally be filled are filled by clients paying a vastly reduced entry price.

Sure you lose a certain percentage in ticket revenue, but the seats between the 30 metre lines still charge the same amount and the people that want the best views will still pay the standard pricing. From the 30 yard line to behind the goals you get a boost in numbers in people that are happy to be there as long as the price is right.

With stadiums banning drinks being brought in you get an increased revenue in food and grog sales (well your percentage after the stadium owners and catering companies take their bit) and you generate goodwill so people will buy a t-shirt or a flag or whatever.

Overall the club gains, PLUS when families come they bring impressionable kids that very soon will have their own disposable incomes and in future years will most likely be filling the premium seating and drinking 5 or 6 schooners a game etc.

Do everything you can to cater to everyone.

In previous years I bought reduced attendance tickets or didnt bother going at all, but with a cheap season pass for $95 I will go to more games and buy more food and take more visitors along for the ride.

My season pass is worth $300 but I paid $95 for it. But I sure as sh*t will be spending far more this season at the SFS than I have in previous years because all my entrance fees are already paid for!

 

[Lambretta]

I don't disagree it is possible but is it likely? If you are motivated to get off your chair, out the house, on the bus/train and get to the ground to watch a live game is $5-10 going to make a difference to if you go or not?

It may do but I would love to see if any research has been conducted with RL fans who claim to love the game but never attend one as to the real reasons why they don't go.

It will if people are taking a family
If a family of four can go for $40 as opposed to $120 then that's a massive difference, especially in a City that is as price sensitive as Newcastle

 

[Perth Red]

yep I totally agree re families and I think family ticket prices def need to be as cheap as possible along with kids prices. If your running a family household then $120 may not be easily available where as $40 may be.

I have to still question though if you reduce your $25 cheapest seats to $15 will you get a big difference in attendance in the cheap seats. Has any club tried it and found it succesful or a failure? I guess the other issue is supply and demand. If you've got 20k+ spare seats every game then you have little to lose making some of them dirt cheap. If your ground is 80% full then you may be more reluctant to discount.

 

[yakstorm]

A lower cost does make it a lot easier to convince people to go to a game that they may not have gone to previously. Using the Roosters per game cost as an example, whilst a lot of people will consider $28 a reasonable cost to watch the Roosters play say the Dragons on ANZAC Day at the SFS, far less consider it worthwhile to pay that amount to watch say the Roosters take on the Cowboys on Monday night.

Of course there are other factors and so on that affect that, ie being able to get there, other entertainment options and so on, but there is no doubt that every time a club does a 'cheaper' ticket option or membership solution it does lead to a spike in sales, ie. when GCU and Storm did free tickets, and I'm sure the Rabbitohs will get a spike tomorrow when they do their discounted ticket promotion for Sunday's match on Facebook.

Lower membership prices are the real key here. As raised by many before, if it is cheap to sign up as a member, you're more inclined to go to more games, and of course you would most likely spend more on food/drink/merch at the game than you would if you had to pay for your ticket at that individual game.

Clubs like the Bulldogs have done research on these types of things, hence why they continue to keep their prices low, and why clubs like the Roosters and Sea Eagles are now following suite. Great to see the Knights do the same.

 

[roarr]

Seems like a nicely timed little propaganda boost by the tinkler group. I'd imagine quite a few of the members who will be voting wouldn't know the details of the takeover 100% and this little bit of watercooler talk could be the sort of thing to balance it in his favour for those that aren't interested in all the technical details.

Still, if it all comes to fruition it can only be a good thing. The only problem with giving away massive amounts of free tickets (like some posters have suggested as a good business strategy) is that people get used to never paying to go to the footy, and then when they dont have a free ticket they might find it a little harder to justify paying 30,40,50$ for a seat to the game. I dunno... pros and cons obviously

 

[Teddyboy]

It's always been quite ridiculous that some clubs charge more than people are willing to pay. If you look at it in a simple demand/supply scenario the supply of seats is way beyond the demand for them. The only way to achieve equilibrium is to lower prices. When I used to go to Knights games as a kid when they got 20,000 plus virtually every game, despite the facilities being poor, it cost $10 for adults and $4 for kids of school age (which is why even when I was seven I still didn't go to school according to my dad). Bring on cheaper tickets and a more local Knights team and we'll see the club get back to where it should be.

Thats something i can not work out with the NRL as there have been a number of clubs like Penrith who have had upgrades and have increased the capacity yet seem to get less fans.
If clubs like the Gold Coast etc want games 75%-full thentickets need to be dirt cheap and if not then they need to reduce capacity.
Always thought South Sydney had a good idea of upgrading Redfern to a 16000 seater ground and playing out of there and playing the big games at the SFS/SCG.

 

[1 Eyed TEZZA]

I think we should hold off drastically changing the price of tickets until we see the benefits of our push for memberships.

Our prices aren't that bad, except the Titans.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

A lower cost does make it a lot easier to convince people to go to a game that they may not have gone to previously. Using the Roosters per game cost as an example, whilst a lot of people will consider $28 a reasonable cost to watch the Roosters play say the Dragons on ANZAC Day at the SFS, far less consider it worthwhile to pay that amount to watch say the Roosters take on the Cowboys on Monday night.

Good point. Ticket prices should ideally reflect the potential popularity of the associated game. In reality this is hard to achieve.

One idea would be to:

1. Define a target ticket revenue for the game in advance
2. Define a maximum individual ticket price in advance
3. Entry to the stadium costs the price defined in 2. Entrants must hold onto their tickets.
4. A final individual ticket price is determined at say the 60 minute mark by dividing the target ticket revenue in 1. by the announced attendence figure.
5. If the final ticket price in 4. is less than the maximum ticket price in 2. the difference is paid upon receipt of the ticket stub upon exit of the stadium.

The danger is clubs will become greedy and define overly optimistic target ticket revenues. Perhaps the targets can be independantly set based on previous attendances for certain games.

Have clubs thought about selling bunches of tickets via a groupon type approach?

 

[aqua_duck]

nothing as pathetic as a desperate sounding, fat man.

With his promises - he should go into politics.

Nothing as pathetic as some nuffy who's got no idea what he's on about............

 

[Matt23]

Nothing as pathetic as some nuffy who's got no idea what he's on about............

I think you'll find rexxy was just having a troll

 

[Dragonwest]

One thing to remember is that crowds feed on themselves to produce better crowds. By improving the experience and atmosphere at the ground (maybe @ a cost) you can improve crowds further down the line to generate future profits!

Increasing the club grants at a greater percentage to the cap could help fund this after the new tv deal!

 

[Cheesie-the-Pirate]

Hmmmm

A few thoughts.

1. I find it hard to believe that ticket prices aren't already decided upon using some sort of detailed analysis of the microeconomics and finance of the situation. It's not by chance that different clubs have different pricing structures. They weren't pulled out of a hat.

2. Other than a select few clubs, all of the clubs have relatively inexpense family ticket options. Perhaps not quite in the $180 per season category, but still at a level that is demonstrably reasonable. Saints hill 12 game family membership is $340 per season or $28 per game for a family. That's a pretty cheap option compared to the alternatives. You can't take the family to the movies for that on Cheap Tuesdays.

3. Even if tickets were free, there still would be empty seats. The assumption that the price where supply = demand is greater than nil is a big one that is unlikely to stand up to scrutiny.

4. Drastic reductions in the price of your goods can do a lot of damage to your reputation. It also makes it harder to price discriminate for those customers that might want to spend more.

5. How strong is the correlation between ground attendance and merchandise sales. There's obviously some connection, but is it strong enough to make up for lost revenue in other parts.

6. I'm really not convinced that you'll make it up in beer and food sales :
a. If the value of a trip to the football for these people is so low that they require lower ticket prices, how much are they likely to spend on food priced at luxury levels?
b. Margins for food and beverage sales can't be as high as everyone assumes based upon the high sale price. Keep in mind the high costs as well.
c. I'd expect that when approaching full capacity of grounds marginal cost for supplying these items would be quite high (inventory costs, extra staffing, etc).

 

[Eels Dude]

Very good post Cheesie, hope the whingers actually bother to read what you wrote but as you say, it's not as simple as it sounds.

 

[$$Poor Boy Blues$$]

Very good post Cheesie, hope the whingers actually bother to read what you wrote but as you say, it's not as simple as it sounds.

thats it. if it were that simple, dont you think they would already have super cheap tickets.

I think they can get to a point of cheaper tickets, but it may take some time. cheesie brought up lots of good points.

 

[Perth Red]

How much of ticket pricing is set by the stadiums rather than the clubs? I guess if you rent a stadium (or own it in Sharks case) then you can set ticket price at whatever you like but what about clubs that are paid to play out of stadiums. Do the stadiums control ticket prices in these cases?