Buying tickets for the RLWC

[GUBRATS]

You are not undervaluing or overvaluing anything , you are setting a value , the earlier you buy , the better value you will get 

Isn't that what we want ?

[Scubby]

3 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Have all the tickets at the same price , which area's will sell out first ?

You are not the first person to say this about RL events. I'm not 100% sure on the strategy but it would be interesting to trial it at one event to see how it went.

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

You know this for a fact ? 

Or maybe we sell out 4 months in advance 

See below, if you sell at a level that will sell out, say £20 going by lowest common denominator, you're writing off hundreds of thousands if not millions in ticket revenue.

And that is assuming it is a sellout...

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Exactly.

And we move our baseline level that people expect to get decent seats at our major events *even lower*.

But we increase demand earlier , removing any need or requirement to discount 

[Dave T]

26 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Exactly what I will be doing. I will back my chances to pick up the tickets I want a couple of weeks out from the tournament. I think there's a fair chance they will be discounted tickets but, if not, what have I missed out on because the strategy isn't driving me to think I miss out. 

Back at the old Wembley I believe the best seats used to sell out first. That seems to happen in other sports too. We either don't have that demographic any longer or the ability to create that scarcity. 

I do think we still tend to sell the more expensive seats at Wembley first, those making a weekend seem happy to spend the decent money. Since we changed the pricing strategy for Wembley, we basically don't sell the cheap seats in the Gods.

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

What price?

Because to make this worthwhile, you have to make sure you sell enough tickets that you can cope with 90% of what would be category D/E going unsold. 

If you say £50 a pop, that's too cheap for some seats, yet still too expensive for some people/families etc. We have different price points because they aren't of the same value but also allow different budgets in.

If you say £20, you potentially are writing off over half a million in income (20,000 x £30). Can the RLWC afford to do that?

So you do it at £ 35 , you are paying to watch a RL game , it's the same game for everybody , with an incentive to purchase early , simple 

[Dave T]

10 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

So, if you undervalue good seats then you drive down the value of the product overall. This is problematic as you'll need to find sponsorship, TV deals and other add-ons to cover the loss of income those seats should deliver. Plus, you've now set the level your audience expects to pay.

OTOH, if you overvalue bad seats because you want to charge a proper price for the decent ones then the bad seats won't look so appealing and take up will be low.

This isn't an issue in smaller single tier stadiums - except for, say, specific deluxe/premium areas should they exist.

To an extent we will see if inflating the prices of seats will work this year, as that is what they have done. For the WC semis, if you want to sit in the lower tier, you pay between £55 and £110.

[Scubby]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I do think we still tend to sell the more expensive seats at Wembley first, those making a weekend seem happy to spend the decent money. Since we changed the pricing strategy for Wembley, we basically don't sell the cheap seats in the Gods.

I am fearful of some half way line seats being unsold for high profile WC games. That would be very disappointing and so unnecessary

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

To an extent we will see if inflating the prices of seats will work this year, as that is what they have done. For the WC semis, if you want to sit in the lower tier, you pay between £55 and £110.

My person view is that many of RLWC prices are too high and, in some cases, inexplicably expensive.

The Emirates semi final is a good example of that.

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

See below, if you sell at a level that will sell out, say £20 going by lowest common denominator, you're writing off hundreds of thousands if not millions in ticket revenue.

And that is assuming it is a sellout...

So you essentially split the price to give you the same income on your projected attendance 

It isn't rocket surgery 

[Tommygilf]

Just now, GUBRATS said:

So you essentially split the price to give you the same income on your projected attendance 

It isn't rocket surgery 

*only if you sell out, otherwise you are losing money by comparison

[GUBRATS]

7 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

See below, if you sell at a level that will sell out, say £20 going by lowest common denominator, you're writing off hundreds of thousands if not millions in ticket revenue.

And that is assuming it is a sellout...

That applies to all games , price too expensive , don't sell enough , price too cheap , don't make enough 

But by having one price with the incentive of the best view first you've created demand instantly 

[GUBRATS]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

*only if you sell out, otherwise you are losing money by comparison

Not if you reach your projected attendance 

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, Scubby said:

I am fearful of some half way line seats being unsold for high profile WC games. That would be very disappointing and so unnecessary

But sortable 

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

So you essentially split the price to give you the same income on your projected attendance 

It isn't rocket surgery 

I'm not against the idea in principle, although I think it's better done as an early bird offer for a few months and then we revert to normal pricing - but I'm interested in why you think flat pricing would drive higher crowds? If we look at the empty upper tier, the pricing for those seats is £20 and £30. So unless your flat price was way under £20 it isn;t going to make any difference. Price clearly isn't stopping people sitting in those seats.

[Tommygilf]

5 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

So you do it at £ 35 , you are paying to watch a RL game , it's the same game for everybody , with an incentive to purchase early , simple 

So to take Headingley's second RLWC game, Ireland vs Jamaica, you'd be pricing everything at the equivalent of Category B.

Do you think people will expect to pay the same for standing terracing as half way seating, or seating behind the sticks, or the currently £66 "premium seated"?

Do you also think people will pay £15 more for that terracing?

People are happy to pay more for better seats, we suffer when some seats are overpriced.

[Dave T]

8 minutes ago, Scubby said:

I am fearful of some half way line seats being unsold for high profile WC games. That would be very disappointing and so unnecessary

 

7 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

My person view is that many of RLWC prices are too high and, in some cases, inexplicably expensive.

The Emirates semi final is a good example of that.

Agreed. The halfway line pricing is silly at many of the games.

[GUBRATS]

You set your price , if it sells out ( or nearly ) then next time you up your price a bit 

If it doesn't ( to a disappointing level ) next time you reduce it slightly 

But you DONT discount EVER 

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

Not if you reach your projected attendance 

So now we're working on the basis of not selling out? I thought this was "simples".

Why bother cutting the price of half the tickets and almost doubling the price of others?

Sounds like the "simple solution" to me...

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

You set your price , if it sells out ( or nearly ) then next time you up your price a bit 

If it doesn't ( to a disappointing level ) next time you reduce it slightly 

But you DONT discount EVER 

If your point is your last line, you can do that without mucking about with pricing structures. Just tell people up front that these are the lowest prices - guaranteed.

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I'm not against the idea in principle, although I think it's better done as an early bird offer for a few months and then we revert to normal pricing - but I'm interested in why you think flat pricing would drive higher crowds? If we look at the empty upper tier, the pricing for those seats is £20 and £30. So unless your flat price was way under £20 it isn;t going to make any difference. Price clearly isn't stopping people sitting in those seats.

I suppose you could have a different price for a different tier , personally I wouldn't , those that want a side on view will pay for it , it's just up to them how early they want to commit to get it 

All this of course is for the all seater stadiums , where standing is available that could have its own price , but you'd have to segregate the side and end 

[Tommygilf]

6 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

That applies to all games , price too expensive , don't sell enough , price too cheap , don't make enough 

But by having one price with the incentive of the best view first you've created demand instantly 

We have a wealth of data that shows what RL fans, RLWC attendees, international game attendees, and general event attendees have paid in the recent past. Use that and price appropriately.

If £35 is going to magically make people prepared to pay £20 part with a 75% increase then so be it, but I doubt it.

All you're doing is massively discounting the high value tickets and overpricing the least valuable ones. Meaning you'll end up with lots of underpriced high value ticket buyers, which at an appropriate higher price point you could have gotten anyway, and less overpriced ticket buyers who think they're being conned.

[GUBRATS]

7 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I'm not against the idea in principle, although I think it's better done as an early bird offer for a few months and then we revert to normal pricing - but I'm interested in why you think flat pricing would drive higher crowds? If we look at the empty upper tier, the pricing for those seats is £20 and £30. So unless your flat price was way under £20 it isn;t going to make any difference. Price clearly isn't stopping people sitting in those seats.

First of all , throw away the piece of paper with any existing prices on it , they are of no relevance 

[graveyard johnny]

I was lucky enough to go to many of the packed grounds during kangaroo tours of the 80s and 90s - plenty of walk ups on the day and bring a couple of mates if they not doing owt at the last min - all this modern registration- emails- seating allocations and the rest of the faffing is just another modern day ball ache - put the price on the turnstile-with upgrades to seating - when the grounds full its full simple

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

First of all , throw away the piece of paper with any existing prices on it , they are of no relevance 

They are if your claim is that by repricing the 30k empty seats you will sell them out.

Because, quite frankly, you won't.