Band Ticket Prices Idea..

[Goodlads_Gloves]

After the recent discussions about ticket prices I thought of a potential idea that may help. If I remember correctly Norman was puzzled why the likes of Wolves and Coventry gave us some of our biggest gates in recent years. Obviously there's the fact that they bought a decent away following but also they are 'big name' clubs. many fans who pay on the day would be quite happy to pay £22 to see the Vale play these sort of teams but would they be also happy to pay teams like Rochdale, Scunthorpe etc. From a business point of view if a product is selling well ie tickets for the 'larger' games it would be foolish to reduce the prices. Therefore why not band the teams in the league and charge for them accordingly. For instance the teams who got relegate from the championship and a few others potentially Sheff United, Posh and Bristol City may be band A, and lower reputation teams/promoted from league 2 could be band D. Furthermore if a team is travelling a fair distance like Leyton Orient etc could this be an opening to potentially lower the prices so more away fans would be interested?

[robf]

I think that's the sort of thought-provoking question that OVF is designed for, to be honest. Thanks for posting it!

 

OVF is a lot of things (especially to our critics) but one thing it can do is give a snapshot of what a proportion of the fanbase think.

 

I reckon this thread should be used for fans to say whether they would attend more matches if games were placed in bands.

 

Then if the majority view is "yes" and the club are reading this (as they do) then it may give them an idea of whether banding games would work or not.

 

So, as I think this is a perfect thread for an idea where OVF can give the club a rough indicator of whether something may be worth trying - what do you lot think, would banding games encourage more fans to attend? Yes or no?

[bertiepee]

Not sure I would put yoeval in band A , but I see where your coming from

[Fosse69]

Leicester had a similar scheme last season, 10 games band a, 10 band b, 3 at £10. I would expect Norman to be aware of it. The price diff was about £5. A few other clubs have similar schemes. I think it started out at Leicester to cover the extra policing cost of Midland Derbies.

[Goodlads_Gloves]

Not sure I would put yoeval in band A , but I see where your coming from

 

As daft as it seems the championship relegated sides are the first teams I look out for on our fixture list when the fixtures come out, I'm sure others do the same? As for Yeovil its a bit of a strange one as they could potentially fall into a band where it encourages away fans to travel as well?

[Aussie Rules]

I think that's the sort of thought-provoking question that OVF is designed for, to be honest. Thanks for posting it!

 

OVF is a lot of things (especially to our critics) but one thing it can do is give a snapshot of what a proportion of the fanbase think.

 

I reckon this thread should be used for fans to say whether they would attend more matches if games were placed in bands.

 

Then if the majority view is "yes" and the club are reading this (as they do) then it may give them an idea of whether banding games would work or not.

 

So, as I think this is a perfect thread for an idea where OVF can give the club a rough indicator of whether something may be worth trying - what do you lot think, would banding games encourage more fans to attend? Yes or no?

 

Hi Rob, would a poll be useful for this thread? :)

[cheshirevaliant]

Don't think there are enough "big" teams for this sort of thing to work outside the top 2 divisions.

[tisdeano]

Its my view that simply reducing ticket prices alone will not increase crowds at Vale and Im not convinced that the price is the main reason people are not attending.

 

One of the very few things that V2001 got right [ish ] was the Target 5000 campaign and the marketing behind this. I think if we are to offer any kind of reduction it has to be tied in with marketing, Smurfs honest rants on Twitter this weekend whilst welcome as it offers the truth were again a PR nightmare.

 

The simple facts are that even in the Championship we saw some pretty poor gates at Vale with less than 5000 home fans through the turnstiles. Obviously we need to increase the fan base as the playing budget will depend on this, this is where I think Smurf needs help as simply dropping the price will not work without a marketing strategy behind any potential offers/incentives.

[robf]

Hi Rob, would a poll be useful for this thread? :)

 

Good spot Mr Edge. A poll has been added and this thread is pinned. Thanks!

[Goodlads_Gloves]

Its my view that simply reducing ticket prices alone will not increase crowds at Vale and Im not convinced that the price is the main reason people are not attending.

 

One of the very few things that V2001 got right [ish ] was the Target 5000 campaign and the marketing behind this. I think if we are to offer any kind of reduction it has to be tied in with marketing, Smurfs honest rants on Twitter this weekend whilst welcome as it offers the truth were again a PR nightmare.

 

The simple facts are that even in the Championship we saw some pretty poor gates at Vale with less than 5000 home fans through the turnstiles. Obviously we need to increase the fan base as the playing budget will depend on this, this is where I think Smurf needs help as simply dropping the price will not work without a marketing strategy behind any potential offers/incentives.

 

I agree the marketing aspect of Port Vale FC are missing a few tricks here. Someone I sit next to at games regularly comments that their son's school often have activities to do with Stoke City, ticketing, players meet and greet, football training etc. Its very rare that Vale do this. If the right advertising happened for ticketing offers at least a month in advance this will help and potentially increase interest in the club.

[pjg1876]

Not really sure that Vale fans would be happy if we were relegated back to Division 2 and then classed as Category A opposition meaning that we would have to pay more at some grounds than other teams fans so why should we think it is OK for us to do it on other teams. Not a good idea in my book.

[Tosh]

Don't think there are enough "big" teams for this sort of thing to work outside the top 2 divisions.

 

I'd have to agree with this at the moment, there's not much to differentiate between clubs in our league, some are bigger than others but none are much more of an attraction in my view, I think it's more about how our club perform than who the opposition is for now.

 

Also how would banding affect St prices?

[TheSage]

I think any realistic ideas might be worth thinking about.

 

Clearly we'll get a bigger gate against the likes of Crewe, Coventry than we would against Yeovil on a cold, wet evening in winter with Real Madrid on the tv.

 

Maybe, a closer look at the fixture list, to identify possible games when attendances might be low, for the reasons I've mentioned, would also have mileage.

 

I don't know how you try and balance it but I've always believed that it's better to let kids in for a quid than have rows of empty seats, but it takes a few months to get them hooked and needs to be continued for longer than one odd game.

[carpetman123]

Price all the games the same but look at when there are two games together ding a 2for 1 offer maybe...concentrate on getting a winning squad together when we win and keep winning Fans will come whatever the price!!

[TeenValiant]

I don't think there is any particularly 'big' teams this season in our league, coventry, Sutd, and Pne are the biggest clubs really, so I don't think banding would make much difference, and I don't think it would if we were to get promoted either, the problem is IMO the fan base, about 4k loyal fans is not enough, it needs increasing, unless we want to spend the rest of our lives watching the vale play Shrewsbury, Burton and crwho in local 'derbies' in the 3rd and 4th tiers.

 

Its probably a crap idea, but what about if your ticket from the last game gave you a discount for the next game, so say you spent £22 to watch the vale kept the ticket stub and this entitles you to £3 off for the next game or something like that, and it could accumulate until you're only paying £15 if you keep your tickets for the last 3 home games or whatever,

 

And then when it comes to half season tickets, each game you've been to could entitle you to £5 off of your Season ticket, so basically loyalty is being rewarded, and possibly throw in some buy a ticket child goes free offers.

 

 

Or, alternatively, you could sell tickets for games in blocks, so say you buy a ticket for 3 games, and you get it for £50, or 5 games for £80 or around there,

 

Because at the moment enticing new fans is going to be difficult, so fans need to be rewarded for attending games, just a thought