Could this work at Hibs?

[HH81]

The local rugby club I follow have come up with this idea.....

http://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=510442

I was thinking would this work at hibs on a slightly bigger scale ........ 17000 sold and you get it £150, 15000 for £200, 12000 for £250, 10000 £300, 7000 for £350 etc

[frazeHFC]

I think it would, yeah. Would certainly make more come back/in imo. Not that you need my answer

[Albion Hibs]

I posted an article not that long ago about how Hartlepool did the same thing and have sold out there home crowd with season tickets going for around £150 in the end. I think it is a pretty good idea, but I guess it is like all of these things, one club has to be brave enough to try it, if it goes wrong then it can have a pretty big effect in this league where finance is so tight, but it could be one of the things we need to do to help increase crowds.

[LancashireHibby]

The main issue surrounds having someone to underwrite the loss in income if the targets aren't met as well as hoped.

[HH81]

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The main issue surrounds having someone to underwrite the loss in income if the targets aren't met as well as hoped.

I guess it depends of the current season ticket numbers, if there is currently 5000 adults paying £400 start it at that price and bring it down for every 2000 extra sold........

[LancashireHibby]

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I guess it depends of the current season ticket numbers, if there is currently 5000 adults paying £400 start it at that price and bring it down for every 2000 extra sold........

To be honest though would there be a significant increase for the sake of 50-100 quid when you'd still have to fork out £300? The reason Hartlepool (and Bradford Bulls etc) have been successful in their offers is because they didn't have a significant number of season ticket holders to begin with, so they could afford to take a chance with a dirt cheap starting price, which in reality is the main attraction - I wouldn't say anything more than £200-£250 would have anything close to the same effect. Worth a go though if the maths add up (and let's be honest that's the one thing that Petrie is an expert in).

[bob12345]

Love the idea. Hypothetically if you could double the season ticket holders and half the price, you would make a lot more on food, programmes, etc as well as having a much better crowd. If we are in the same or similar downbeat situation going into next season, what better time to try it? Walk up sales at a record low so selling seasons at a cheaper than usual price could maybe convince some of them. And don't see where the gamble is? Keep prices the same until a bigger number signs up, as suggested previously.

[matty_f]

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Love the idea. Hypothetically if you could double the season ticket holders and half the price, you would make a lot more on food, programmes, etc as well as having a much better crowd. If we are in the same or similar downbeat situation going into next season, what better time to try it? Walk up sales at a record low so selling seasons at a cheaper than usual price could maybe convince some of them. And don't see where the gamble is? Keep prices the same until a bigger number signs up, as suggested previously.

I agree with you - the other thing is that it's probably worth doing for one season with the thought to the longer term, i.e. get folk into the habit of coming to the games (and crucially do everything possible to get the team putting on a good show) and it's easier to retain the fanbase, even if the next season the offer isn't quite as cheap.

[frazeHFC]

John, seems popular. I would see what the club think.

[basehibby]

This is a good idea as it rewards the fans for turning out in numbers and bringing their mates along. People are skint and clubs need to show imagination to help fans get along to games while still having the scope to increase revenue - and something like this could work very well.

They'd need to structure it right - setting some target figures and basing it around that.

I've spent a wee bit of time on it so here's a scheme that could work well IMO....

Assume average ST price now is £350 and current full ST sales = 7K - that's 2.45M PA

Set a target of knocking £100 off the average ST if the magic 10K figure is reached as follows...

first 7k @ 350 = 2.45M
up to 8 @ 325 = 2.6
to 9 @ 300 - 2.7
to 10 @ 275 = 2.75
and if we can buy more than 10k then reward us w. an average ST price of c £250 - pretty decent prices now - who knows?if it caught on then we could see some seriously good crowds and increased turnover as result.

If the whole thing was a total flop and ST sales stood still at c 7K the club would stand to lose about 180K - on the other hand if it caught on then the club could be quids in with an upsurge in happy(er) fans in the stands to cheer the team on. All in all it seems a risk worth taking - thanks to the OP for sharing this - copies of this thread to the board perhaps?

[Beefster]

It would be great if the club tried this type of pricing but I'd love them to have this sort of thinking already at the club (rather than wait for someone else to think of the ideas).

It may be a flop and/or fans may hedge their bets until they see what the numbers sold are like or.....it may be a roaring success and ST numbers rocket. If they don't try it (and it's unlikely they will), they'll never know.

[NYHibby]

While numbers like basehibby posted look attractive, the problem is that you wouldn't see anything like them in practice. Like I've posted whenever things like this came up in the past, football tickets are inelastic. Cutting prices by 10% would see demand increase by less than 10% and total revenue from season tickets would fall.

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first 7k @ 350 = 2.45M
up to 8 @ 325 = 2.6

So to go from 7k to 8k in this example, prices would need to drop to something more like £290 and the resulting revenue would be 2.32m. This is just an illustrative example but you get the picture.

This thread is also ignoring individual game tickets and the effect on total ticket revenue.

[basehibby]

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While numbers like basehibby posted look attractive, the problem is that you wouldn't see anything like them in practice. Like I've posted whenever things like this came up in the past, football tickets are inelastic. Cutting prices by 10% would see demand increase by less than 10% and total revenue from season tickets would fall.


So to go from 7k to 8k in this example, prices would need to drop to something more like £290 and the resulting revenue would be 2.32m. This is just an illustrative example but you get the picture.

This thread is also ignoring individual game tickets and the effect on total ticket revenue.

I agree there would be a risk of making a loss.

My point is that in this recession a lot of people are being genuinely priced out of football and it's up to football clubs to try and retain their customer base. Schemes like that outlined above would give a genuine incentive to make a tangible saving by reaching a realistic target - the alternative is to pretend everything is alright and watch crowds (and revenue) continue to dwindle.

[Sammy7nil]

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Love the idea. Hypothetically if you could double the season ticket holders and half the price, you would make a lot more on food, programmes, etc as well as having a much better crowd. If we are in the same or similar downbeat situation going into next season, what better time to try it? Walk up sales at a record low so selling seasons at a cheaper than usual price could maybe convince some of them. And don't see where the gamble is? Keep prices the same until a bigger number signs up, as suggested previously.

I wrote to Fyfe Hyland a while back suggesting this based on the Hartlepool example, the risk I highlighted was if we sell 10 - 12K season tickets @ £200 and the product on the pitch is still piss poor next year you would have only 5 - 6K wanting to renew. Would they pay double back up to £400 for a poor product? That is the risk.

[bob12345]

Good point STB. At the other end of the scale we good have an amazing season and thousands more could jump on the bandwagon to drive the prices down further. It's a gamble but right now one I would welcome, as the current season ticket package doesn't remotely appeal to me or most Hibees I know. Perhaps it could work best at a SD1/2/3 club in and around Glasgow, to try and win over OF gloryhunters (with less risk like a Hartlepool etc).

[francobaresi]

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Love the idea. Hypothetically if you could double the season ticket holders and half the price, you would make a lot more on food, programmes, etc as well as having a much better crowd. If we are in the same or similar downbeat situation going into next season, what better time to try it? Walk up sales at a record low so selling seasons at a cheaper than usual price could maybe convince some of them. And don't see where the gamble is? Keep prices the same until a bigger number signs up, as suggested previously.

I'm in, where do I sign up? Seriously, this is a great idea... Can't believe they wouldn't have worked out the maths for this already...

[HH81]

Should I forward this idea to the club?

[LancashireHibby]

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Should I forward this idea to the club?

No harm in trying.

Another scheme that could be pinched from rugby league (and one I've had outlined at a Leigh supporters meeting tonight) is having a 12 month rolling Direct Debit which includes your season ticket and various other benefits, therefore meaning the club continue to have income even when there aren't any home games etc and also ensuring a fairer spread of the income rather than a lump sum during the summer and little else until renewal time 12 months later.

[fatbloke]

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I'm in, where do I sign up? Seriously, this is a great idea... Can't believe they wouldn't have worked out the maths for this already...

What he said

[matty_f]

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Should I forward this idea to the club?

I would.

IMHO, the club should look at this season's revenue from ST sales as a benchmark for next season.

If they set the figure for number of extra season tickets bought against the amount of money made from season tickets so that they were prepared to go to, say an extra 2.5k tickets sold, but for the same revenue (so say we're on 7.5k season tickets and it made c£2m for the club for argument's sake, the club should be prepared to go to 10k season tickets on the same return.).

This is about playing a long game for Hibs - we'll take a potential hit the first season, but you do enough to get the people renewing so the next year they can talk about going to 12k season tickets for the same return as they would have got for £10k full price tickets and so on.