Membership, crowd numbers and revenue managament

[since1967]

After Saturday nights terrible crowd i thought it would be a good time to bring up something that has been on my mind for a while regarding our attendance numbers and membership.

The seats at the stadium i feel need to be re-looked at by the club and managed much like a hotel manages it's room stock or an airline manages it's seats and that is demand based.

There are a couple of questions this will pose for the club which i will get to at the end.

In essence the seating should be priced according to demand. There are already different levels of pricing (better seats in peter burns or ET are more expensive than concourse etc) but the prices are fixed. I would like to see the club change the pricing as demand increases but start off a lower base.

An example starting point might be

General Admission - $7
Concourse Seats - $12
Peter Burns and Southern Stand - $17
Et - $22

Even lower might be a better starting point. If there is no demand drop them. As tickets are sold though prices go up and up until they are all sold, meaning we have a near full house each game. This also allows the club to be better prepared when it comes to catering staff because they are going to have a lot better idea of attendance prior to game day.

The questions this will pose though is what does this do to membership and prices for membership? Maybe there needs to be more offered to members for what they are paying? Maybe Membership prices need to be re-looked at in a similar view in that we are not full so drop the prices?

More people = more merchandise, more atmosphere, better exposure for our sponsors and a culture that the kids of the shire can grow up wanting to be a part of the club because more families could afford to attend games more often.

Open to hear everyones thoughts on the first thread i have created!

 

[Jigsaw]

Living in QLD and mostly going to Broncos and titans games. I personally think the pricing for tickets at Shark park is fucin amazing!!!!!!!

 

[Mark^Bastard]

What happens when you lower the prices and still only get 6,500? Means you've just cost yourself some money and a lot of the game day costs aren't based on crowd number, meaning that you're losing money and not making any profit on the day.

There are smarter people than yourself handling these decisions for the club.

 

[since1967]

What happens when you lower the prices and still only get 6,500? Means you've just cost yourself some money and a lot of the game day costs aren't based on crowd number, meaning that you're losing money and not making any profit on the day.

There are smarter people than yourself handling these decisions for the club.

Wow didn't take long for someone to have a go. It's just a suggestion and i am not having a go at anyone about how its currently run. If we lower the prices and can't get more than 6500 then i am sorry we shouldn't have a team in the comp. That's pretty simple.

Oh and with the smarter people at the club blah blah, i used to be the General Manager of a hotel and i know how to manage revenue in the way i am suggesting.

 

[Capital_Shark]

A hotel stay or a plane flight is generally a bit more pre-planned than going to the footy though and hence requires reservations.

 

[A.Snowden]

Living in QLD and mostly going to Broncos and titans games. I personally think the pricing for tickets at Shark park is fucin amazing!!!!!!!

This. Also i found the drink prices not too bad either when i was down. People just need to support the club and get to the games.

 

[since1967]

A hotel stay or a plane flight is generally a bit more pre-planned than going to the footy though and hence requires reservations.

That depends on the reason for the trip if its a holiday then yes it is planned a longer way in advance. For business though it could be a 12 hour turn around from purchase to experience even less so a lot like a footy game

 

[Tank]

Dont think the admission prices are all that bad. Had to take out a second mortgage to but some Red Rooster though !!

 

[Beejay]

Yeah I don't think the price of the tickets is a main deterrence of the shire locals that fail to turn up to games. I would hazard a guess to say that the two main deterrents are the chilly weather and the success (or lack thereof) of the Sharks.

Interesting idea though.

 

[stevekneen10]

What happens when you lower the prices and still only get 6,500? Means you've just cost yourself some money and a lot of the game day costs aren't based on crowd number, meaning that you're losing money and not making any profit on the day.

There are smarter people than yourself handling these decisions for the club.

Well, you did ask for people's thoughts 67, so be prepared to cop some criticism. Good to see people thinking about ways to improve the club though.

 

[Jigsaw]

Dont think the admission prices are all that bad. Had to take out a second mortgage to but some Red Rooster though !!

Skilled Park is the worst for food.

 

[Gards]

So if it's based around Hotels shouldn't the seating be based around star ratings? So ET stand is five star and the hill 1 star?

Pay a seat service fee and get red rooster delivered right to you. That'll bring Cuthbo back!

Ok sarcasm over, it's an intersting idea and Mark was harsh on you but seems he apologised so all good. It's not easy posting forum threads when your new especially after a heavy loss and all the forums users are edgy and disgruntled.

The idea could possibly work to sell tickets faster earlier in the week to those who were coming anyway and potentally get some extra people if they see a bargain but I think it would be artificial as we never sell out anyway and there's always some spare seats or piece of grass to stand on so the supply and demand theory would sorta go out the window unless you had a fixed sliding ticket price increase as the week goes on regardless of sales but that wouldn't go down well.

As someone already said, issue isn't pricing it's the timing, weather and lack of performance hurting crowds, but of all them performance of the team is the major one.

The $10 GA ticket they did for locky a few months back probably helped get a few more there as that's an absolute steal but it wouldn't work if you did it every week.

I do think membership should offer more though. Do members get any sort of discount on food and drink at the ground or parking?

 

[Lumpy]

This has been a battle for the club for a long time. I like the idea and think the club needs to look at the price issue. It also dosen't help when we play like we did on Saturday night. Sharks fans are fickle so if we are not playing well people won't come no matter how cheap it is. A family pass costs $50 and if you add food and drink to that you are looking at $80-$100. When we have nights like we just had some may not be keen to shell out money for that.

The Shire folk will pay to see the Sharks win and they won't care about the price. They won't pay when we lose, no matter how cheap.

 

[Gards]

We've dumped plenty of money to see this club lose at home, we want to buy new experiences with our money.

I think Lumpy's got it as harsh as it sounds. I sense Jigsaw's wrath to come down upon this thread in regards to attendance (or lack thereof)

 

[stevekneen10]

You guys say the crowds won't come if we aren't playing well, how about when we beat the Rabbits & nearly 19,000 were there....the very next game against the Raiders, just over 10,000. The question i'm asking is, are Sharks fans over night games? Thoughts..

 

[josh11223344]

There were ALOT of rabbits fans at the south sydney game which explains how big the crowd was aswell as being a sunny sunday arvo game which brought more sharkies to the ground. There should of been a bigger crowd at the raiders game and was a **** effort, but that is **** scheduling as we have so many saturday games, like a few other teams.

 

[Shark]

I run hotels. I like the analogy. Certainly worth considering, but I would worry that once people get a sniff of a lower price they'd be reluctant to pay full tick ever again.

Top marks for thinking outside the box though '67.

 

[A.Snowden]

what would be the main reason for people not turning up? Costs? You can take your own food into the ground, i.e bread rolls and such can't you? As long as it's not branded foods? So that can cut costs, admission prices compared to most are reasonable, and if you are a member that cuts out the ticket costs for each game. Is it the cold weather?

 

[josh11223344]

From my experience it isn't the price, the food price is crap but that wouldn't turn them off going to the footy they can buy maccas afterwoulds. The only reason is the cold and the saturday night games they keep giving us. If people really cared about they team they would put on a pair of jeans and a sharks jumper and go to the game though. It seriously feels like no one cares about us. Heaps of people at my school don't follow league, don't follow the sharks or think we are crap and don't show up.

Last season I didn't go to any games and watched it on TV instead but this year I don't want to miss a home game. It is an attractive option to sit at home in the warm though if you aren't a passionate supporter. And on the crowd the other night there was no way any more than 5500 were actually at the game.

 

[A.Snowden]

From my experience it isn't the price, the food price is crap but that wouldn't turn them off going to the footy they can buy maccas afterwoulds. The only reason is the cold and the saturday night games they keep giving us. If people really cared about they team they would put on a pair of jeans and a sharks jumper and go to the game though. It seriously feels like no one cares about us. Heaps of people at my school don't follow league, don't follow the sharks or think we are crap and don't show up.

Last season I didn't go to any games and watched it on TV instead but this year I don't want to miss a home game. It is an attractive option to sit at home in the warm though if you aren't a passionate supporter. And on the crowd the other night there was no way any more than 5500 were actually at the game.

yeah it's sad. Weather is all i can put it down to and people just not caring enough about the sharks. What would the cost of putting heating in and around the stadium cost? Or windbreakers?