Thread: attendances
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Old 16-02-2008, 23:23   #8
maccawozzagod
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Re: attendances

Nobody can compete with the Premier League for the draw of big name players.

But Rovers this season tried to entice the fans with ridiculously low season ticket sales, it didn't really work. They got an extra 2000 season ticket holders by nearly halving the price. For the princely sum of £300 (£21 more than our Clayton End ticket) you have the dubious honour of sitting at the back few rows behind concrete pillars etc etc. The public have voted with their feet and the attendances have gone up by about 12% having knocked about 40% off the price. Cheaper tickets have not worked in that example.

We could advertise the fact that we have the cheapest match day tickets in the entire Football League and that may get a few more on but what would we have lost financially in doing so? We'd have to knock £3 off the price for the Clayton End to sell the 'cheapest ticket in the league' at a tenner. Average 500 people? So we would need an extra 150 people on that end EVERY week to reach break even figure on a below break even attendance. It is do-able I reckon.

IMHO there are a couple of real incentives we should offer.

1. £10 adult ticket - £5 concession keep it simple and don't try to confuse anyone with more pricing than necessary
2. Kid for a quid - every week without fail, member or not. It is too confusing for people to have to remember to go and register then collect their tickets each week. Most people can't be arsed and to say that 300 kids have registered is just nonsense and is bending statistics to suit. My kids were 'Junior Reds' this season and last but I have still not taken them to a game and neither have they received any correspondence through the post. Just charge a quid over the gate and be done with - let the FITC take care of data collating with their work in the schools.
3. Advertise the bloody prices! We know how much it costs and there is a piece in the paper at the very start of a season BUT THE REST OF THE TOWN HAS NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!! Back of buses, leaflet drops via the paper, adverts in the paper, billboards, leaflet in every carrier bag at ASDA etc. Every thousand pound spent on advertising needs only to bring 10 people to 10 games to break even. If the club won't have a marketing budget then maybe the OSC should make it their agenda?

We could put 500 people on the gate without too much effort,, but bleating about poor attendances won't do that, begging on the website or in the programme won't do that, we need to tell the people of Accrington what they are missing.

4. Season tickets - A Clayton End ticket would cost £230 for the 23 home games next season assuming we stay up and don't get promoted. Charge £230 but offer a free shirt with every ticket! and a scarf! It doesn't cost the club £40 for a shirt or £7 for a scarf so use the profit margin on that as the discount on the ticket. First rule of discount is to try to give 'goods to the value of' instead of the actual money. Advantages being more definite 'sales' on those items that might just allow us better pricing for larger amounts, and the distinction of having more people actually wearing our colours. How many of our home crowd actually wear a Stanely scarf? less than a quarter is how many, take a look around next home match and tell me I'm wrong. We need to display the colours.


So in short, a family of four can watch the Reds for £22. Maybe even bung it up to £25 for a family of four ticket but put in some sort of meal deal worked out with the vans. 4 burgers and 4 cokes (£16.80 matchday resale value but a fiver in cost value) and four match tickets for £25? I'd buy one meself but not bring em just fer t'extra grub!! You couldn't get saturday afternoon entertainment anywhere else for that kind of money.

Also, we have to bring the cost of merchandise down, it's just too expensive. Community clubs like ours can't survive by being based on a bottom line %GP. We need to rely on bulk turnover to create a net profit rather than small turnover large profit. 400 shirt sales at £40 £16k turnover)or 600 at £30 (£18k turnover)? the first one might produce a profit of £8000 and the second only £6000, but the bigger picture is not in short term figures it is in having 200 extra people wearing red and white and walking around town advertising the product. People of Accrington need to start feeling left out if they are not Stanley fans, Stanley fans need to start becoming the majority over Rovers fans and Burnley fans. Only when the branding takes place will the town of Accrington start to become a Stanley town. When it becomes a Stanley town then local businesses will back us more as it is in their interest not to back Rovers or Burnley. Also, back on the topic of pricing, most fans I have spoken to have said that they feel like they are being rippe doff by the high prices of goods but would probably buy a lot more if a) they could get in the shop on matchday and b) if the prices were more realistic. But again, advertise the products a little more. I wonder how many of the crowd never go in the club shop? hand some leaflets out with the product range on it. £150 for 10000 leaflets full colour A5 printed both sides, its hardly a fortune so push it

We need to start aggressively marketing the club, not just within but also outside of the club, but to do this successfully you need to ahve something to attract the people, something for them to spend on whilst they are here, and something to keep them here.
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