[Albion] Paul Barber on Albion match day ticket prices

[Captain Sensible]

The real enemy here is modern day football where you have TV money, 25k fans paying up to £42 for a seat yet we still need a chairman to put in £1million a month to compete

Football has lost its mind and we are all paying the price

True but the club do have wiggle room to get more bums on seats. Top of the league, a good chance of winning tomorrow and thousands of empty seats because its £42 quid to watch a game against Charlton Athletic.

 

[Bozza]

The club have a clear strategy regarding pricing that they won't or don't seem to want to deviate from. I pay 45 quid a month via direct debit if I hadn't made that commitment I genuinely don't think I could justify 42 quid for a home game with a young family to support. With the direct debit I know where I stand financially.

Agreed, and in the spirit of transparency I said the very same in my email response to PB: "I'll confess to having looked at £42 tickets myself and considered how unlikely I would be to pay that if I were not fortunate enough to have both the time and money to justify season tickets for my daughter and myself."

My season ticket price works out at c£23 per game and includes travel that I would have to pay over £7 per game for if it were not included (I appreciate not everyone gets the same level of benefit). £16 for my WSU seat per match, payable by interest free instalments, is very, very good value.

 

[Hotchilidog]

My personal opinion is that £42 is too much for a championship fixture (and certainly for a game against Charlton!) As a STH I would not object to a reduction of the differential between my pro-rata price and the matchday price, IF that meant more bums on seats at the games. I really enjoyed seeing the Amex back to its old self last week and if a targeted offer was behind that then I am all in favour.

The way the pricing is at the Amex I would say to anyone wanting to attend 10 or more fixtures buy a season ticket and share it with others, it is superb value compared to a match by match price. Sadly because the football was terrible last year we lost around 3000 STH and the clubs strategy is now proving problematic for them. I'd be surprised if we did much better than 23000 tomorrow, which is a shame as this team deserves the support.

If we go up this will all be moot though as people will be fighting over tickets.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Hard to argue with PB's reasoning on this one. Still a bit of a hefty off-putting price tho eh? The forty notes barrier may well be a major psychological hurdle for many people, especially with two consecutive home games in the run up to Xmas. And that's for two Saturday games. If one of those was a midweek game the uptake would be much worse. Was interesting to note at the Albion Roar gig last night that various academics (including our own [MENTION=31]El Presidente[/MENTION]?) have worked out that the Premier League could actually afford to give away match tickets for free just to add a bit of local colour to 'the product'. They have so much money sloshing around that they don't actually need to rely on bums on seats any more.

sickening and an absolute show of contempt for football fans across the country, so fundamentally wrong
regards
DR

 

[Captain Sensible]

But as stated in Barbers comments we only get apercentage of that catering spend so it would take more than that to make up that £6 deficit

Yes but most people spend on a program, half time drink and food and also are more likely to purchase in the shop. Only the food and drink is percentage profit. Also if they paid £36 quid for a seat instead of not buying, thats gotta be a profit above the current situation.

 

[StonehamPark]

Keep season ticket prices as they are.

Reduce ALL remaining empty seats/tickets to £20.00 - ON THE GATE ONLY - on the day of the match.

Therefore, BHA will sell more tickets (which DON'T include travel) and make more money.

STH's won't give up their tickets because the above deal isn't any better than what they get.

I'd (plus maybe 1000-2000 others) would turn up if and when I feel like it on a Saturday afternoon and take whatever seats are available.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

The club are just cutting their cloth according to the financial restraints of FFP and non Prem footy, and even with the maximising of revenue streams still find themselves having to rely heavily on TB to keep the club running. If people want to pick and choose then they should expect to pay a premium, there is a club to run and outside of Sky money it is obviously an extremely difficult thing to do. I'd take this over the BHAFC of the 90s or the Bolton of the teens. I bet these non STs wouldn't have been moaning this time last year, they wouldn't have been anywhere near the Amex as we struggled to keep above the relegation zone.

Keep up the good work TB and staff!

 

[knocky1]

I've had an email from someone stating categorically that they do not agree with this price strategy. Can't name him for obvious reasons.
On a brighter note, next year we can all benefit from reduced prices as the Premiership dollars come good.

 

[Ernest]

I'm glad he has debunked the MYTH that giving away tickets FREE makes the club money from Pies and Pints, it doesn't and never has does. All it does is make people try and get free or cheap tickets for other matches instead of wanting to pay the going rate and also devalues season tickets

 

[Sheebo]

Surely the match day tickets could be reduced by x% (say 10%) and still be more expensive than season tickets if you went to every game. If there's effectively '5-7 free games' (which we all know Is a sales line!) we're talking hundreds of £s. If you reduced match day tickets by £2 for example then that's only £46 less per season and the ST is still 'better' value.

Ps - I really like Barber and appreciate his comments and what he does but I do think match by matches are too high as a whole..

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The real enemy here is modern day football where you have TV money, 25k fans paying up to £42 for a seat yet we still need a chairman to put in £1million a month to compete

Football has lost its mind and we are all paying the price

The biggest problem is player's salaries.

 

[Captain Sensible]

The club are just cutting their cloth according to the financial restraints of FFP and non Prem footy, and even with the maximising of revenue streams still find themselves having to rely heavily on TB to keep the club running. If people want to pick and choose then they should expect to pay a premium, there is a club to run and outside of Sky money it is obviously an extremely difficult thing to do. I'd take this over the BHAFC of the 90s or the Bolton of the teens. I bet these non STs wouldn't have been moaning this time last year, they wouldn't have been anywhere near the Amex as we struggled to keep above the relegation zone.

Keep up the good work TB and staff!

Reducing the Match day ticket by a few quid won't bankrupt us.

 

[Sheebo]

My personal opinion is that £42 is too much for a championship fixture (and certainly for a game against Charlton!) As a STH I would not object to a reduction of the differential between my pro-rata price and the matchday price, IF that meant more bums on seats at the games. I really enjoyed seeing the Amex back to its old self last week and if a targeted offer was behind that then I am all in favour.

The way the pricing is at the Amex I would say to anyone wanting to attend 10 or more fixtures buy a season ticket and share it with others, it is superb value compared to a match by match price. Sadly because the football was terrible last year we lost around 3000 STH and the clubs strategy is now proving problematic for them. I'd be surprised if we did much better than 23000 tomorrow, which is a shame as this team deserves the support.

If we go up this will all be moot though as people will be fighting over tickets.

Yep completely agree with this. I'd even go as far as saying I'd happily let people in for every match at a cheaper/same pro rata rate than my ST if it meant full houses and less empty seats, but that's just cos I like to see as many Albion fans as possible. Also havin the kids in the shelf vs Brum with all their flags and scarfs chanting 'brighton' was just brilliant. Great from the club to give them these gifts at knock down prices. It will pay (financially) in the long run and the Albion know that...!

 

[Titanic]

Is that good or bad
regards
DR

It seems to be working pretty well for the vast majority of fans and for the club (as long as Tony Bloom keeps putting £1,000,000 a month into the club).

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Reducing the Match day ticket by a few quid won't bankrupt us.

I didn't say it would, but we aren't a charity for the pick and choose brigade either.

 

[stss30]

To be fair, you can't fault a lot of Barber's logic there. I just think we will struggle to ever get close to a capacity crowd in this division charging over £40 for tickets in some areas of the ground. Which is why I think they should be reduced slightly.

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

I see Huddersfield have slashed season ticket prices for next season same as Bradford did.It will be interesting to see how many other teams follow this lead.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

It seems to be working pretty well for the vast majority of fans and for the club (as long as Tony Bloom keeps putting £1,000,000 a month into the club).

poncing off tony bloom attitude, enough said about you
regards
DR

 

[Return of the Rev]

PB has been in touch with me as he received an email from an Albion fan which seems to mirror discussions on here regarding match day ticket prices. His response to the fan endeavours to explain this complex area and, aware that discussion has been taking place on NSC, he thought it might be useful to post here which I am happy to do.

(Note: I do not know who the fan who emailed him was, nor if he is an NSCer as PB quite rightly redacted that information)


Unfortunately, setting ticket prices for matches is not quite as simple as you suggest – or a comparison with the Theatre Royal!

Please let me explain why – and also de-bunk a few myths!

The most important point to keep in mind is that football clubs in the Championship rely on ticket revenue (alongside hospitality revenue and sponsorship) as one of their key sources of income. As such, ticketing income has a significant effect on our footballing budget in any give season.

As with most clubs, our aim is to lock in as much ticketing income as we can by way of season ticket sales. To achieve this for a Championship club (without visits from the country’s biggest clubs to boost sales outside of the core support which most Premier League clubs of our size benefit from), season tickets need to be very keenly priced. They need to provide great value. And ours do. They effectively deliver 5-7 “free" matches per year, include the cost of local travel to and from the game, free wifi, great sight lines from all areas of the stadium, padded seats, and great legroom. In addition, we take the financial risk (and cost) of providing interest and fee free direct debit plans to spread the cost of season tickets – available to all supporters.

For those supporters who are not prepared, or unable, to commit to a season ticket for whatever reason, we do offer a range of match ticket price options. Those ticket prices are set according to our estimates of the likely popularity of any given game, our estimate of associated match costs (including policing and operational costs which will vary according to a number of factors), and a range of other matters which make up our match categories. In addition, we may well look at specific pricing promotions targeting specific or discreet parts of our community at different times, for different reasons, and for different parts of the stadium. Some of these promotions you may see or, if you are not in the group being targeted, you may not.

In addition, the club’s strategy includes offering a range of regular discounts for junior supporters (in different age bands), senior/older supporters, families, groups, and students. Combined with season ticket discounts, our other special community segment-based promotions, the substantial contribution the club makes towards supporter travel to and from the game, all of these different groups and offers take away from the average revenue we receive attending a match at the Amex – and, with that, the funds available to us for our footballing budget – the measure by which we are most often judged and which obviously has a significant impact on our competitiveness on the field.

If we were to follow your logic of cutting match day prices, we would either have to reduce season ticket prices to maintain the current differential, reduce the price differential and with it the attractiveness of someone buying a season ticket in the first place, and risk our most important source of income as explained above. We may also have to reduce or stop discounts provided to groups such as juniors (our future fan base), seniors (arguably those who have followed the club for the longest time) or special segment groups (those helping us to expand our fan base or who can’t get to our games regularly for a range of different reasons, including financial).

Either way, the combined effect of reducing or stopping these different ways of enticing people to our games on a regular basis or for the first time would be to reduce our overall income and either increase the reliance on Tony Bloom to contribute more of his own personal wealth to the club – a figure that currently stands at close to £1m per month, having already invested in excess of £200m since 2009 – or we could reduce our footballing budget and therefore risk our overall competitiveness. As Financial Fair Play rules limit what Tony can contribute from his own wealth, I’m not sure you (or other fans) would find the alternative strategy of using the cup final cash very palatable!

I do appreciate that, on occasions, when non-season ticket holding friends want to join you for a category A match the price they must pay is higher but, to be frank, so it should be. The East Upper is one of our better and more popular seating areas and they are buying a ticket only when it suits them for what we have judged to be one of our more popular fixtures! Our best prices are made available to those who make a regular commitment or for games which we don’t perceive to be as popular. This is entirely logical and has been the case in football, in various guises, for as long as I can remember (and I’ve been watching matches for over 40 years!).

Our match category differentiation is designed to ease that match day price burden for supporters that can’t commit to a season ticket or a half season ticket or a match pack of discounted prices tickets (there are plenty of ways of not having to pay the full match day price!) - where it is financially viable for the club to do so. In your area of the stadium this means tickets range from £25 to £32 for adults. In both cases, and in all of the discounted options I’ve listed (not even mentioning the specially targeted promotions) the prices include match day travel and free wifi – and, as such, are cheaper than your comparison with the Theatre Royal!

Finally, the club’s catering contract provides the club with a commission against sales. Unfortunately, as is so often incorrectly quoted, we do not receive the full price of every pint or pie sold. As such, of course, it is beneficial for us to have more people eating and drinking in the stadium – and we most certainly want this revenue - but it is far more important for us to maintain a decent level of ticket price for the reasons I have already explained. Unfortunately, as I hope this detailed note back to you demonstrates, ticket pricing is a far more complex model and process than it might first appear and, at Championship level, it affects just about everything we do, not least on the field of play.

At last a mention of the cup final cash has slipped out

 

[Captain Sensible]

I didn't say it would, but we aren't a charity for the pick and choose brigade either.

Put it this way, There are 2 seats behind me which are available to buy in the East upper. I could take my wife and her brother. But £84 for 2 tickets is just too much. If it was £70- £74 for the pair of them, I would most likely go for it. Its a given already that those seats will NOT be purchased, they have only been bought once this season. So The club are missing out on 70 odd quid plus I know my Bro in law likes a few pints. I'm sure there will be a few thousand examples of this tomorrow. its just too expensive and the club don't need to give away their seats to profit from more bums on seats.