Fans forum

[NickD]

Missed it last night due to a prior commitment.  Anything we should know about?  

[Therein73]

Season Tickets will be £200 adults - 10% early bird offer before end of year (I think)

South Stand will be open for most league games

£20 Adult entry in 2024 - North or South Stand

Happy with retaining a lot of last year's squad and aiming to build a team rather than buy one - which would add to club's losses

MS not a fan of IMG & their 'grading' system

Boxing Day is a 12:12 kick off .........other friendlies away to Fev and at home to Huddersfield Giants (21st Jan if I recall correctly)

Andy Gabriel has, sadly, retired from the game following another injury

James Chapman taking on the 'conditioning & fitness' role as well as Assistant Coach

New sponsors on board for 2024 alongside established long-term sponsors 

Meet the players & Kit Launch night on 8th Dec @ 7:30pm in Royal Suite

Think that covers most of it .............

[Wakefield Ram]

Thanks for the update. Sad news about Andy Gabriel, it must be another bad injury. Has been a great player for us and a hat trick on his comeback was pretty special. 

[NickD]

On 25/11/2023 at 16:48, Therein73 said:

Season Tickets will be £200 adults - 10% early bird offer before end of year (I think)

South Stand will be open for most league games

£20 Adult entry in 2024 - North or South Stand

Happy with retaining a lot of last year's squad and aiming to build a team rather than buy one - which would add to club's losses

MS not a fan of IMG & their 'grading' system

Boxing Day is a 12:12 kick off .........other friendlies away to Fev and at home to Huddersfield Giants (21st Jan if I recall correctly)

Andy Gabriel has, sadly, retired from the game following another injury

James Chapman taking on the 'conditioning & fitness' role as well as Assistant Coach

New sponsors on board for 2024 alongside established long-term sponsors 

Meet the players & Kit Launch night on 8th Dec @ 7:30pm in Royal Suite

Think that covers most of it .............

Great stuff, thanks.

Mark not a fan if IMG.LOL.....He's in a group of thousands...Bet all the lower league chairmen are chuffed to bits they didn't vote against the proposals ...

Slightly worried by the season ticket price.  Bought three last year, that won't be happening this time around.  Any idea if the club plan to market these before Xmas?  Nowt on social media or the club website and not long until Crimbo now...

[graham fisher]

3 hours ago, NickD said:

Great stuff, thanks.

Mark not 

Slightly worried by the season ticket price.  Bought three last year, that won't be happening this time around.  Any idea if the club plan to market these before Xmas?  Nowt on social media or the club website and not long until Crimbo now...

As far as I'm aware the season tickets are on sale now. Early bird £180 until end of December then rising to £200.

[Blind side johnny]

12 hours ago, NickD said:

Great stuff, thanks.

Mark not a fan if IMG.LOL.....He's in a group of thousands...Bet all the lower league chairmen are chuffed to bits they didn't vote against the proposals ...

Slightly worried by the season ticket price.  Bought three last year, that won't be happening this time around.  Any idea if the club plan to market these before Xmas?  Nowt on social media or the club website and not long until Crimbo now...

Many people complain about RL being the poor relation of soccer then criticise (not you Nick) being asked to pay £15 per match for a season ticket.

What would be your Goldilocks scenario?

[NickD]

10 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

Many people complain about RL being the poor relation of soccer then criticise (not you Nick) being asked to pay £15 per match for a season ticket.

What would be your Goldilocks scenario?

Thats a fair point BSJ but RL is a different world and DRLFC is in a different world again.  Leeds Utd season tickets start at £22 per game, £7 a game more than us but they have thousands of people on a waiting list so we know they could charge a lot, lot more and still sell them, but don't.    We have no such issues and from where I sit I think the more season tickets we can sell the better it is.  More people in the ground, more people buying add ons etc etc.   Now I agree that £200 (£180 early bird) isn't way too much, but again I think that one difference between footy and us is that we are more family orientated so families like ours are looking at buying three.   Now £600 is a fair bit, especially these days when things are tight.  

A £200 season ticket and  £20 single entrance fee also mean that its not worth buying one if you risk missing just three games.  No problem in the glory days of winter rugby but easily done when you're playing games in summer.

All that said I guess the bottom line and something that MS will be very aware of is that you could charge £100 and the good folk of Dewsbury might still not buy em so overall you lose.  Not easy and I don't have the answer............

Do like the offer of £100 for those aged up to 22 mind.   Thats good thinking.   I'd also offer all those on the new estate opposite a 2024 season ticket for a much reduced fee too.   Post a voucher through the door, season ticket for £75 maybe?  Try and get em hooked early.

[Ramification]

I have to admit that I am quite surprised at how high the ST prices are. A ST at Huddersfield Town works out at £10.82 per match. I'll still get one anyway but I can't see that price enticing any new season tickets being sold.

[Hugh Jarce]

Just out of interest, how successful was the pricing at our near neighbours last year?

 

They had a very good season the year before with lots of press coverage and interest from fans, but did that increase home support? And of course revenue/profit? (I'm saying profit with tongue in cheek!)

[Sir Jekyll Stocking]

3 hours ago, Hugh Jarce said:

Just out of interest, how successful was the pricing at our near neighbours last year?

 

They had a very good season the year before with lots of press coverage and interest from fans, but did that increase home support? And of course revenue/profit? (I'm saying profit with tongue in cheek!)

Kevin posted on the 'Dogs website.

Average attendance was up on previous season, but didn't offset the loss in entrance money.

I gather there was increased sales of food and drink and some additional sponsorship, but still not enough to cover reduced entrance.

[graham fisher]

On 29/11/2023 at 15:43, Ramification said:

I have to admit that I am quite surprised at how high the ST prices are. A ST at Huddersfield Town works out at £10.82 per match. I'll still get one anyway but I can't see that price enticing any new season tickets being sold.

From what I’ve seen our season ticket prices compare with majority of other clubs,baring in mind Keighley and Oldham are in league one. Some complaints about no concessions,but when around 70% of our fan base are concession you can understand the thinking behind it.

[NickD]

On 01/12/2023 at 20:20, graham fisher said:

From what I’ve seen our season ticket prices compare with majority of other clubs,baring in mind Keighley and Oldham are in league one. Some complaints about no concessions,but when around 70% of our fan base are concession you can understand the thinking behind it.

I guess I started the discussion on cost Graham and I wasn't suggesting that we were charging too much in comparison to other RL clubs, just pondering that £200 wouldn't be attractive to the non committed (I will be buying one less this season for instance).   Guess Im thinking of how we might get the half interested to come to more games.  From what we read about Batley's attempts, courtesy of Sir Jekyll, it sounds like it doesn't make sense to offer cut price tickets anyhow...

Edited December 2, 2023 by NickD

[graham fisher]

1 hour ago, NickD said:

I guess I started the discussion on cost Graham and I wasn't suggesting that we were charging too much in comparison to other RL clubs, just pondering that £200 wouldn't be attractive to the non committed (I will be buying one less this season for instance).   Guess Im thinking of how we might get the half interested to come to more games.  From what we read about Bartley's attempts, courtesy of Sir Jekyll, it sounds like it doesn't make sense to offer cut price tickets anyhow...

I can see where you’re coming from mate but I don’t think no matter what we do we’ll not getting them coming in droves. If we offered season tickets at buy one get one free some of our supporters would want the free one

[Blind side johnny]

On 29/11/2023 at 10:07, NickD said:

Thats a fair point BSJ but RL is a different world and DRLFC is in a different world again.  Leeds Utd season tickets start at £22 per game, £7 a game more than us but they have thousands of people on a waiting list so we know they could charge a lot, lot more and still sell them, but don't.    We have no such issues and from where I sit I think the more season tickets we can sell the better it is.  More people in the ground, more people buying add ons etc etc.   Now I agree that £200 (£180 early bird) isn't way too much, but again I think that one difference between footy and us is that we are more family orientated so families like ours are looking at buying three.   Now £600 is a fair bit, especially these days when things are tight.  

A £200 season ticket and  £20 single entrance fee also mean that its not worth buying one if you risk missing just three games.  No problem in the glory days of winter rugby but easily done when you're playing games in summer.

All that said I guess the bottom line and something that MS will be very aware of is that you could charge £100 and the good folk of Dewsbury might still not buy em so overall you lose.  Not easy and I don't have the answer............

Do like the offer of £100 for those aged up to 22 mind.   Thats good thinking.   I'd also offer all those on the new estate opposite a 2024 season ticket for a much reduced fee too.   Post a voucher through the door, season ticket for £75 maybe?  Try and get em hooked early.

I also think we should target the housing developments around the ground, maybe even trying to persuade the developers to offer a free season ticket with each house purchase.

[creditwhereitsdews]

5 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

I also think we should target the housing developments around the ground, maybe even trying to persuade the developers to offer a free season ticket with each house purchase.

Or the other way round.

[Wakefield Ram]

The benefit this season is there will be some bumper derby matches. As Batley has shown, cutting admission might be popular but it's not a silver bullet. Half the cost means you have to nearly double your attendance assuming you sell more beer/food to some. Realistically that will never happen. You've got a hard core who will attend and a smaller group of floating supporters. 

It needs the day to be more than just the match, but that takes a lot of seed money and months to build and it will still rely on a level of success on the field.

Toronto did a good job, on TV it looked like a craft beer festival with a very successful team playing rugby.  How that formula would have worked with a struggling team in SL would have been interesting to see. 

[Hugh Jarce]

On 01/12/2023 at 13:51, Sir Jekyll Stocking said:

Kevin posted on the 'Dogs website.

Average attendance was up on previous season, but didn't offset the loss in entrance money.

I gather there was increased sales of food and drink and some additional sponsorship, but still not enough to cover reduced entrance.

Thank you for the info.

 

It looks like cheap tickets just don't work, and unfortunately we don't make anything out of additional food sales, only drinks at the bar. So we would find it even tougher.

 

After everything Kev and the team has put into the club over the last few seasons its a shame.