Season tickets 2022/23

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

11 hours ago, Mike E said:

Food for thought. Last time there was a cost of living crisis, we sold 19,000 Season Tickets. Prices started at £199 (tenner a game).

Why we can't do that again (start at £230) and get folk in the ground (y'know, to buy food and drink and merch every other week), I don't know.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/4542583.blackburn-rovers-chairman-bringing-football-people/

To be fair we did have the Premiership cash cow to help fund it. Unfortunately this initiative, was a little late, as soon as the ground was finished we should have done something similar. The one thing that will always hold Rovers back is the size of the town - and the number of competing clubs in the area. On the back of winning the Premiership was the opportunity to give cheap season tickets to fill the ground and convert fans from the surrounding area. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

On 07/08/2022 at 13:14, Mattyblue said:

Yet, sensible ST pricing, coupled with the already higher looking walk-ons means it’s certainly still possible to see crowds substantially rise, especially if we carry on with the most important factor of all, winning   - alas they are being held down with the mindset of the present CEO.

I fear that the so called cost of living crisis will hit attendances - irrespective of pricing.

[Mattyblue]

Very likely.

That’s why it is so important to have as high a number of ST holders as possible already in the tent… whereas here, just 8.5k folk signed up going into these headwinds won’t give us any kind of buffer when walk ons and away support falls away.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Round and round and down and down.

Have they left yet ?

 

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

To be fair we did have the Premiership cash cow to help fund it. Unfortunately this initiative, was a little late, as soon as the ground was finished we should have done something similar. The one thing that will always hold Rovers back is the size of the town - and the number of competing clubs in the area. On the back of winning the Premiership was the opportunity to give cheap season tickets to fill the ground and convert fans from the surrounding area. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing.

They used the tv money to funnel some into subsidising the cheap STs at a time the then owners weren't really funding it.  It was all to prepare it for sale and make it look more attractive if we are being honest.

Now though we have owners pumping in anywhere between 15 and 25 million per season, you can bet some of that gets 'funnelled' elsewhere.

About time it went in the right direction and help get bums on seats again but that doesn't seem to fit the present model here.

[Mike E]

1 hour ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

To be fair we did have the Premiership cash cow to help fund it. Unfortunately this initiative, was a little late, as soon as the ground was finished we should have done something similar. The one thing that will always hold Rovers back is the size of the town - and the number of competing clubs in the area. On the back of winning the Premiership was the opportunity to give cheap season tickets to fill the ground and convert fans from the surrounding area. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing.

We wouldn't need the PL cash anyway for this. Even if we only add up to 12,000 STs at half this year's price, we only lose a relatively small amount in cash, probably made up by extra food and drink sales.

Above that we're making more money.

[Upside Down]

I think 12000 should be the minimum acceptable amount of season tickets for this club. We are still by far the biggest club in the area, yes the dingles have been in the limelight for the last few years but give them two or three years in this division and they'll soon be back in our shadow. 

This club needs people to run it who are competent and give a toss about what they are doing. 

[JHRover]

Until the people running the club start looking beyond the M65 as our catchment area and towards the wider region then we are doomed to fail. We will never get sufficient numbers attending from the town of Blackburn. Nothing wrong with that per se as long as the club recognises it and does something to maintain numbers from other towns. The usual places - Clitheroe, Ribble Valley, South Ribble, Rossendale, Hyndburn.

Sadly, either because they don't understand our fanbase (postcodes of season ticket holders would explain it), because they don't want the hassle of making the effort I have seen almost zero effort from the club over the last 10 years in those areas.

In the PL it is easy - you don't need to make the same effort as people will come from afar either way - but in the lower leagues you have to keep people going and engage them. Instead this lot seem more comfortable with a local small scale operation. They can churn out data about how many more people from minority communities are attending but when losing thousands of long standing season ticket holders from other areas it is only going one way.

[damo100]

Many fans are not willing to fork out £429 etc in the current climate, instead choosing to pick and choose games.

Many fans can't commit to 23 home matches in particular midweek games so purchasing a match ticket is a sensible option. 

4 5k did so for the QPR match.

Last seasons opening fixture against Swansea just 1k did. 

Let's see what the next few games bring and more importantly if we drop off. 

[Mattyblue]

c3k did for Swansea, as remember we only had 6,995 ST holders by KO last season.

But still, walk ons do seem to be consistently higher since the charge up the table last season… until gas bills knock that on the head in winter.

[JBiz]

 

This is a good way of improving our fanbase, and also international support if you read the comments.

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, Upside Down said:

I think 12000 should be the minimum acceptable amount of season tickets for this club. We are still by far the biggest club in the area, yes the dingles have been in the limelight for the last few years but give them two or three years in this division and they'll soon be back in our shadow. 

This club needs people to run it who are competent and give a toss about what they are doing. 

10k should be minimum ST holders and 12k should always be in the home seats that's what they should aim for.  When it goes well below that alarm bells should ring and something should be done to address it.

Their answer is to keep putting prices up instead to cover it then just pray the team does well.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

3 hours ago, Upside Down said:

This club needs people to run it who are competent and give a toss about what they are doing. 

This.

Been the Crux of our problems from day one of Venky's awful tenure and still,some twelve years on,remains our Achilles Heel.

[phili]

5 hours ago, Mike E said:

We wouldn't need the PL cash anyway for this. Even if we only add up to 12,000 STs at half this year's price, we only lose a relatively small amount in cash, probably made up by extra food and drink sales.

Above that we're making more money.

As food and drink is outsourced, we wouldn't get any additional income from more fans through the turnstiles. It's one of the reasons I think we should bring everything back in-house and run it ourselves.

Only thing we would benefit is more footfall through Rovers Store potentially.

[phili]

4 hours ago, damo100 said:

Many fans are not willing to fork out £429 etc in the current climate, instead choosing to pick and choose games.

Many fans can't commit to 23 home matches in particular midweek games so purchasing a match ticket is a sensible option. 

4 5k did so for the QPR match.

Last seasons opening fixture against Swansea just 1k did. 

Let's see what the next few games bring and more importantly if we drop off. 

If we got rid of season tickets and turned it into a £30 a month subscription instead we would get a higher take up. Paying each month of the year instead of in one go or over 8 months would ease cash flow as well.

[BigUts]

2 hours ago, phili said:

If we got rid of season tickets and turned it into a £30 a month subscription instead we would get a higher take up. Paying each month of the year instead of in one go or over 8 months would ease cash flow as well.

This is a bloody good shout!

[phili]

16 minutes ago, BigUts said:

This is a bloody good shout!

As a subscription you could also contact all local companies to offer it as a salary sacrifice benefit to their employees saving a little on tax (this bit would need to be checked with a tax advisor).

[Mike E]

11 hours ago, damo100 said:

Many fans are not willing to fork out £429 etc in the current climate, instead choosing to pick and choose games.

Many fans can't commit to 23 home matches in particular midweek games so purchasing a match ticket is a sensible option. 

4 5k did so for the QPR match.

Last seasons opening fixture against Swansea just 1k did. 

Let's see what the next few games bring and more importantly if we drop off. 

This is the issue.

At £429, I'm just waiting around for freebies and cheap tix (like the cup game tomorrow).

At £200-250, they'd have my money every season.

[Mike E]

7 hours ago, phili said:

If we got rid of season tickets and turned it into a £30 a month subscription instead we would get a higher take up. Paying each month of the year instead of in one go or over 8 months would ease cash flow as well.

YES!

[Ben Frost]

8 hours ago, phili said:

If we got rid of season tickets and turned it into a £30 a month subscription instead we would get a higher take up. Paying each month of the year instead of in one go or over 8 months would ease cash flow as well.

I like this idea and I'd probably take it up if it was an option, but there is a very simple reason why it won't ever be for a club in the Championship. 

Income completely dries up in the summer because there are no fixtures. Clubs (not just us) totally rely on ST sales to be able to pay wages and operating costs from May though to August. 

Also, finance providers like V12 take on the risk of default, so Rovers get the ST money when it's needed. If the club offered this subscription model themselves and had a crap start to the season, maybe a couple of thousand fans cancel their direct debits - that's a massive hit to projected income. 

I bank with Nat West, and they have just launched a Buy Now Pay Later virtual Mastercard, 0% interest for purchases over £50 which you can then pay off over 4 months. This is the future (it's like Klarna but respectable) so I will use that to pay for my ST next season. It's a much better option than V12 finance. 

[Mattyblue]

Hull offer it, no?

[Ben Frost]

38 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Hull offer it, no?

I don’t know Matt. If they do then they are exposed to the risks as outlined. I'll give an example to bring this to life - an esteemed former poster on this MB cancelled his standing order to V12 (or it may have been Premium Credit at the time) midway through the season a few years ago. Because the football was sh1t and he hated Venkys, etc. He proudly delivered a concourse rant at the next home game, happy as Larry that his ST card still worked. Of course it did. Next month he had default notices from whichever finance provider it was and his credit rating was trashed. Football clubs have enough problems to deal with and providing finance (with the associated risks and consequences) should not be added to the list. Hopefully more mainstream banks will follow what Nat West have done and make difficult transactions easier while we are all being screwed by escalating costs. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Ben Frost

[Oldgregg86]

10 hours ago, Ben Frost said:

I like this idea and I'd probably take it up if it was an option, but there is a very simple reason why it won't ever be for a club in the Championship. 

Income completely dries up in the summer because there are no fixtures. Clubs (not just us) totally rely on ST sales to be able to pay wages and operating costs from May though to August. 

Also, finance providers like V12 take on the risk of default, so Rovers get the ST money when it's needed. If the club offered this subscription model themselves and had a crap start to the season, maybe a couple of thousand fans cancel their direct debits - that's a massive hit to projected income. 

I bank with Nat West, and they have just launched a Buy Now Pay Later virtual Mastercard, 0% interest for purchases over £50 which you can then pay off over 4 months. This is the future (it's like Klarna but respectable) so I will use that to pay for my ST next season. It's a much better option than V12 finance. 

When you sign up to a gym membership you can’t cancel the direct debit and have to do the 12 months so cancelling after a bad a start needn’t be a problem.

I suspect your second paragraph is probably bang in the money why this idea hasn’t been floated around more.

for what it’s worth I’d definitely sign up to such an initiative and just treat it as  another monthly bill

[Mattyblue]

https://www.wearehullcity.co.uk/tickets/memberships/

[Hasta]

Hull's average attendance last year was their lowest since 1990.

If there's a month with only 1 midweek game, and you were  it precious about your seat, you would you cancel for that month. Would you bother renewing if you had something alternative the following month?

Also in those years when the season is dead by the start of February think how much the sales would fall away.

It's a good idea for the fans but surely would lead to less revenue for the club .

The way to increase season ticket sales is price them ok to start with, and then give discount for every year you've had a season ticket. If the discount was healthy enough, the churn would certainly be less. I wouldmt have given mine up last year if I was throwing away a 20% discount I'd built up over a few years.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Hasta