Ticket Prices

[hunsletgreenandgold]

12 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I dunno, I don't like advertising matchdays as cheaper

What's the concern/risk, Tommy? 

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I dunno, I don't like advertising matchdays as cheaper

Yeah, that doesn't work. I don't think I've ever seen people pay a premium for buying in advance (apart from when events become desperate and give them away like the 2000 World Cup final). 

At best keep the same price. I quite liked the 2013 approach of the beanie hat for early purchases, which I still wear now and still see others knocking about in. 

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

What's the concern/risk, Tommy? 

Nobody bothers buying in advance, it pees down and they stay at home, lost income. 

Operationally it is more of a challenge as ticket offices are busier or cash turnstiles struggle to cope. 

There are benefits to businesses for advance sales, hence discounted prices. 

[Dallas Mead]

Cheaper tickets are never the long term option.  Get more people interested, build bigger events and charge a higher price.

[Jughead]

1 hour ago, DoubleD said:

I disagree, those prices represent fair value for 2 hours entertainment. Any cheaper and it devalues our product

Remember, they’re the cheapest tickets which typically give the “worst” view of a game. I say worst in brackets because it’s in places like corners of stadia or behind the sticks, where the general view of the play isn’t as good as elsewhere in most stadiums and it’s subjective anyway, some like being behind the posts. £25 being the cheapest for those views seems a little much, IMO and more so when better and newer stadiums have their cheapest prices at a lower rate than some other older grounds. That’s £25 in the poorer parts of a dilapidated ground before you’ve even thought about food and drink, whether inside a stadium or not, whereas for approximately £10 extra you can visit any number of entertainment facilities (cinemas, bottomless brunches, comedy clubs etc) and have a far better whole experience with food and drink thrown in.

 

[Dave T]

43 minutes ago, Dallas Mead said:

Cheaper tickets are never the long term option.  Get more people interested, build bigger events and charge a higher price.

That's a rather simplistic view. If your price is too high, then fixing that with cheaper pricing can absolutely be an option. 

I think more sophisticated pricing models are needed too. At Wire for example we don't sell hospitality at the same price per game, but we do standard tickets at the same price. But then sometimes we do really extreme blu t price offers. The Catalans game in a week or two has adults for a fiver and kids for a quid. 

I think we as a sport have got ourselves in a bit of a middle ground, no man's land space. We are no longer the cheapest ticket in town, but we also don't offer premium stuff at the top end, so we are just selling more expensive tickets to the budget market, which imho is contributing to lower sales. 

If you're a casual sports fan you can pick and choose some very reasonable events to meet your needs. 

[HKR AWAY DAYS]

You can potentially pay £32 to watch Hull FC.

I'd rather chip in and help the Queen pay Andrew's settlement off.

[Dallas Mead]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

That's a rather simplistic view. If your price is too high, then fixing that with cheaper pricing can absolutely be an option. 

I think more sophisticated pricing models are needed too. At Wire for example we don't sell hospitality at the same price per game, but we do standard tickets at the same price. But then sometimes we do really extreme blu t price offers. The Catalans game in a week or two has adults for a fiver and kids for a quid. 

I think we as a sport have got ourselves in a bit of a middle ground, no man's land space. We are no longer the cheapest ticket in town, but we also don't offer premium stuff at the top end, so we are just selling more expensive tickets to the budget market, which imho is contributing to lower sales. 

If you're a casual sports fan you can pick and choose some very reasonable events to meet your needs. 

You’re right, I’m a wire fan so know that, but as a general rule if you keep discounting and discounting then people will always expect that (and last minute groupon deals)  which is where we are now.  It’s a cycle of ever decreasing circles and income…

[meast]

3 hours ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

Couldn't agree more! If anything matchday pricing should be cheaper not more expensive, especially when it's quite clear on said matchday you're going to say 30% below capacity. That isn't unfair to anyone in my opinion. 

Just having experience from discussing such things with the Giants, it helps the clubs with overhead costs, by encouraging people to buy tickets in advance they can predict how many people in each stand/section and therefore cover the catering/stewarding costs.

Most clubs' walk ups are negligible and usually less than 100 in a lot of cases, so it would cost clubs more if 1,000 people suddenly rocked up on the day, in days gone by clubs would just generally order so many pies, so much beer etc but these days they can't really do that due to the costs of wastage, again, more costs for the clubs.

It's why most things are done digitally and online these days, because it doesn't cost anything, yet to issue paper tickets costs, the older generation tend to sneer at such stuff but they wouldn't be prepared to cover the cost to the clubs.

[Dave T]

34 minutes ago, Dallas Mead said:

You’re right, I’m a wire fan so know that, but as a general rule if you keep discounting and discounting then people will always expect that (and last minute groupon deals)  which is where we are now.  It’s a cycle of ever decreasing circles and income…

I think we overstate that somewhat, we don't actually use Groupon much and as we see, maybe our prices are not at the right level. 

But we also need to look at sales practices in the entertainment industry, Cineworld this Saturday have every film at 3 quid, at times the cinema is cheaper than ever but they aim to make that up with ancillary sales. 

[sweaty craiq]

Once we have a £5m per club tv deal we can go to town with ticket prices, until then how do we offer wages to attract players to play

[doc]

When I was paying £1 to get in to see Widnes(1979), I never wondered about value for money. I just wanted to see the game. 

Now, £21 and 43 years later, I still feel the same. I'm a supporter, I support my club. 

[Sports Prophet]

Wakefield obviously charging the high end of SL prices due to the added comforts of their stadium

[Josef K]

7 hours ago, Mattrhino said:

 

Yep British sport is still in the dark ages. Everyone trying frantically buy a beer in a crappy concourse bar in 15 mins at HT still only serve crappy frozen chips and microwave pies.

I’ve a few mates who have missed more tries at Saints than they’ve seen because of queuing up at the bar. When they finally get back they also complain about the ale. 

[Josef K]

8 hours ago, Dallas Mead said:

Premier league tickets are expensive (for example I’m paying £55 to sit in the main stand at anfield tonight) but the demographic has more disposable income and much more importantly there are people literally queuing around the block to pay said prices.  Supply and demand is a massive factor.  When was the last time wire, saints, or anyone actually sold out a home game?  Let alone have a waiting list!

I have a brother who works shifts which means he can’t go to every game. He’ll decide how he feels a couple of hours before KO whether he’s going to go a match or not. Luckily there is one cash turnstile at the “poor peoples end” in the West Stand, but if they decided to stop the cash turnstile he said “he wouldn’t bother going because he just couldn’t be arsed going down to Saints getting a ticket”.
Id imagine all clubs in the top tier have at least one cash turnstile, don’t they ?. 

[headtackle]

£30 a ticket is imo starting to push it a bit

in isolation ok but when I add 2 kids at 10-15 quid each starts to become an expensive evening compared to watching on sky

Have had season tickets before but the summer season means end up missing more games. 
if I changed anything I would reduce kids prices ( if accompanied by an adult).  If we make sure we hook them in the crowds of the future will remain 
 

[Dave T]

16 hours ago, Mattrhino said:

 

I don't think Man City is a fair comparison. They are desperate to be seen as one of the big boys and get better crowds and can easily subsidise any loss. 

It is still a top class form of sporting entertainment that competes with many of our clubs and is cheaper. 

Maybe The Hundred cricket then at a tenner a ticket last year. 

If I was a casual sports fan on a budget maybe I'd pick up a couple of Man City games, and if I wanted a big event the Community Sheild where it can be as low as £20/30 for a Wembley ticket, then maybe a couple of nights out at the darts. Maybe nip along to Manchester Thunder for the netball at £12 a ticket, a tenner for Elite Ice Hockey, Athletics this week starts at £13 for adults. Maybe I want to watch Man Utd women's team at Old Trafford - bargain at £6.

And so on. 

RL prices are affordable for me and good value, but we are not the budget sport we think we are. Maybe all these other competitors creeping up on us eating into our 'budget' market are impacting us more than we think. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

9 hours ago, Josef K said:

I’ve a few mates who have missed more tries at Saints than they’ve seen because of queuing up at the bar. When they finally get back they also complain about the ale. 

American sports often have people walking the stands selling drinks either from dispensers like this or cold cans. Has any RL club ever tried this? You’d still have the pre match and half time bar rush but I’m sure they’d sell plenty during the game and have higher sales overall.

 

[gingerjon]

41 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

American sports often have people walking the stands selling drinks either from dispensers like this or cold cans. Has any RL club ever tried this? You’d still have the pre match and half time bar rush but I’m sure they’d sell plenty during the game and have higher sales overall.

 

Quins RL did it a few times and Skolars may still do it - it's been a fair few years since I've been there though.

[Copa]

£18.70 for the cheapest adult match day ticket for the Canberra Raiders.

[hunsletgreenandgold]

17 hours ago, Dave T said:

Nobody bothers buying in advance, it pees down and they stay at home, lost income. 

Operationally it is more of a challenge as ticket offices are busier or cash turnstiles struggle to cope. 

There are benefits to businesses for advance sales, hence discounted prices. 

Fair points maybe for some clubs - but if I thing of most SL clubs for example. Most of their 'core' fanbase are season ticket holders these days - so the challenge for the club is to build on top of that. Now so called big games people, who are more casual fans, will still buy in advance at the higher price for fear of missing out - not necessarily on the game but the seats\section they want. That leaves your decide on the day people - who knowing they're essentially getting 'what's left' to then be told that actually costs more, smarts a bit I reckon. 

As a general point I just think ticket pricing should be more fluid - these set structures of Cat A/B/C that many clubs do and upping the price on match day has been around for a long time and I just don't see it, as a game that rarely sells out its stadiums' as the right approach. Also caveat that by saying giving away and vastly reducing the prices isn't the way to go either, as I said before. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, headtackle said:

£30 a ticket is imo starting to push it a bit

in isolation ok but when I add 2 kids at 10-15 quid each starts to become an expensive evening compared to watching on sky

Have had season tickets before but the summer season means end up missing more games. 
if I changed anything I would reduce kids prices ( if accompanied by an adult).  If we make sure we hook them in the crowds of the future will remain 
 

There's  teams in the championship like FEV  where u16's are free and FEV have also joined up with other clubs so visiting season ticket holders get in for a tenner

[theswanmcr]

3 minutes ago, POR said:

There's  teams in the championship like FEV  where u16's are free and FEV have also joined up with other clubs so visiting season ticket holders get in for a tenner

We’ll said. Kids tickets should be dirt cheap - anything from free to a £5 max at every club. You easily get that back in  added spend on food and merch.

[Dave T]

14 hours ago, sweaty craiq said:

Once we have a £5m per club tv deal we can go to town with ticket prices, until then how do we offer wages to attract players to play

That doesn't really mean anything. Nobody is suggesting making things cheap and just cutting income, the discussion is about getting the right price point to maximise crowds and income. 

If this is optimal pricing, great, I'm not sure it is. 

[Wholly Trinity]

10 hours ago, Josef K said:

I have a brother who works shifts which means he can’t go to every game. He’ll decide how he feels a couple of hours before KO whether he’s going to go a match or not. Luckily there is one cash turnstile at the “poor peoples end” in the West Stand, but if they decided to stop the cash turnstile he said “he wouldn’t bother going because he just couldn’t be arsed going down to Saints getting a ticket”.
Id imagine all clubs in the top tier have at least one cash turnstile, don’t they ?. 

Wakefield haven't had cash turnstiles for a number of years. You can either buy a ticket in advance (online or from the club shop) or in the ticket kiosk at the ground on the day. 

When MC took over from the previous owner (2015?) it became clear that income wasn't proportional to attendance. Too many freebies and a suspicion of fraud on the turnstiles. 

11 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Wakefield obviously charging the high end of SL prices due to the added comforts of their stadium

We like to maintain standards and exclusivity - keep the riff-raff out.