Ticket prices and attendances....

Given the seeming success of this weekends Groupon offer, the old chestnut of ticket prices has reared its ugly head over on the official forum.

Quite a few folks seem to believe that if we reduce the ticket prices substantially, then attendances will shoot up. If only it were so simple. Here are the figures I use in my counter argument (with a couple of additional notations):

Charging £6 per game would not automatically double attendances.

Lets take £11 as the 'average' ticket price paid at the Dome, and 1000 as the average attendance.

1000 attendees equates to £11,000 revenue per game (although a significant proportion of this is paid 'upfront' by ST holders).

If we drop tickets to an average of £6 (a reduction of 54%), then just to reach the same income level as before, the attendance needs to be 1834, an increase of 83%. Just to match the previous revenues.

And attendances would not jump this much overnight. Any increase would be gradual. Indeed, even if the club increases attendances to 1500 (a 50% rise), the club would actually be worse off financially. And I doubt any increase in sponsors revenue (which would be difficult to secure) would cover the difference.

Worse yet, if the attendance only rose by say, 10-15% then the club would find itself in a deep financial hole once more.

Of course, this is all hypothetical, as the club is highly unlikely to drop ticket prices any time soon. Its not as if the Metros, who charge £6 or do to get in are exactly turning them away at the doors either. Lower prices guarantee nothing except lower revenues in the short to mid term at minimum. The only way to increase attendance is to market the club more (hence the Groupon deal). And remember, if we get a retention rate of 5% (which is the upper limit most would expect), then thats an additional 50 bodies returning for more.

From tiny acorns.....