Sheffield Wednesday Away

[handbags_harris]

Quick bit of research on Wednesday's website shows that they've categorised our match as category C, prices for adults are £10 for home fans. Quick call earlier to their ticket office to ask if that price will apply to away fans, answer was yes it will. Fair play to Wednesday for that...

[SPARTA]

Fair play indeed. Take note RFC. Bargain, and a good home crowd on the back of that!

[Royal Ginger]

Fair play indeed. Take note RFC. Bargain, and a good home crowd on the back of that!

But pissing away a massive amount of money. RFC have decent top of middle third attendances. Nice way of getting a couple of extra people in, but a very expensive way of doing a bit of PR.

[Simon's Church]

Yeah, id hate to see us have cheap tickets too

[Royal Ginger]

I'm not saying i wouldn't like a cheap seat, just that it's a very expensive thing to do. I'd also like them to give me a couple of grand, doesn't mean it's a good thing for the club to do.

[handbags_harris]

Not really a massive amount of money though is it. Wednesday get, what, 21k - 24k at home most weeks, I'd say at least 90% of those will be season ticket holders. So really if you charge £28 a game flat and you get around 3000 people paying that's £80k ish. Drop the price by a two thirds and I fully anticipate 8k - 10k extra on the gate. Bang, there's your money back, and then you have revenue for merchandise, refreshments, programmes etc on top of that. They'll have done their figures, and if it doesn't balance out then it'll be dropped next season you can be sure of that.

[Royal Ginger]

If it's such a great idea why isn't everyone doing it?

Plus I'm not sure where you're getting your 90% from, but assuming you're right, in your scenario you're still 10k short.

I market tickets for a living and giant discounts are the last resort for a desperately underselling show. if someone wants to see something, £10 or £30 won't usually make a vast difference. The profit margin is built into the ticket price and they already have a decent gate as a big club. As you say they must have done their sums and they must have their reasons, so I'll cede that point, but I maintain that it's quite a costly bit of marketing and not one that I'd expect many cubs being going for.

[Simon's Church]

Not allclubs do it becuase they want to squeeze every penny they possibly can out of the fans

[Royal Ginger]

That's what i was suggesting, and agreeing with as a principal.

[peterroyal76]

Trains booked IN!

[P!ssed Off]

If it's such a great idea why isn't everyone doing it?

Plus I'm not sure where you're getting your 90% from, but assuming you're right, in your scenario you're still 10k short.

I market tickets for a living and giant discounts are the last resort for a desperately underselling show. if someone wants to see something, £10 or £30 won't usually make a vast difference. The profit margin is built into the ticket price and they already have a decent gate as a big club. As you say they must have done their sums and they must have their reasons, so I'll cede that point, but I maintain that it's quite a costly bit of marketing and not one that I'd expect many cubs being going for.

Football matches are not one-offs, like the shows you market though, are they.
People might come and pay £10 for a category C match and enjoy themselves so much that they decide to come back and pay £28-£32 for the Category A match in 2 weeks time.

It''s all about turning peripheral fans into core fans. Given the city of Sheffield has a population of 500,000 and Wednesday used to be a massive club, I would imagine they have a massive peripheral fan base to tap into. This peripheral fan base can easily be accommodated due to the massive stadium.

Plenty of clubs wouldn't go down this route for obvious reasons. Clubs like Reading do not have a broad dormant fan base to tap into. Even if they had such a fanbase, they might not have a stadium big enough to accommodate them.

[Royal Ginger]

Those are fair points. I still have my doubts about the conversion rate to core fans vs those who come once and revenue loss, and why it doesn't happen more often, but as mentioned, i'm sure their sums add up.

[Mr Optimist]

Plus they have between 15,000 and 18,000 empty seats to fill at their home matches with a capacity of just under 40,000.

That is a lot of empty seats to fill.

[dizzynewheights]

Fair play indeed. Take note RFC. Bargain, and a good home crowd on the back of that!

But pissing away a massive amount of money. RFC have decent top of middle third attendances. Nice way of getting a couple of extra people in, but a very expensive way of doing a bit of PR.

Jesus Christ. Some people will moan about absolutely anything

[Zana Badawi]

Jesus Christ. Some people will moan about absolutely anything

+1 to that.

[bobby1413]

Very tempted by this.

Trains looks quite good too, direct from Reading and taking 3 hours, for £60ish return (2x single tickets).

Enjoyed Sheffield Wednesday when I went last... the game clashes with a friends leaving doo but I'd rather go to footie

[Royal Ginger]

Fair play indeed. Take note RFC. Bargain, and a good home crowd on the back of that!

But pissing away a massive amount of money. RFC have decent top of middle third attendances. Nice way of getting a couple of extra people in, but a very expensive way of doing a bit of PR.

Jesus Christ. Some people will moan about absolutely anything

Not a moan, expressing my scepticism in the value of such an offer to a club in response to the assertion that RFC should do the same. To moan would be to complain about it as a personal affront. Your statement is inaccurate.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

In for this....hoping it's a better offering than the 5-2 from last season though.

[bobby1413]

Are many people planning on getting the train?

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Are many people planning on getting the train?

Too expensive so I'll be on the coach. National rail said £63

Although I think 53 if you do the Reading to Banbury trick.