Price of Football BBC survey

[PL2 3DQ]

This survey is published every year and the agenda is to shock the readers. It's unfair to compare clubs in League One and Two with Premier League clubs who could even allow free entry due to their mammoth TV deals.

If the survey dug a bit deeper it would see the excellent ticket deals Argyle give to families and the several awards for Family Club of the Year.
It's not all about the adult season ticket quoted in the survey.

 

[Knarf Reprah]

Exactly......nothing to see here....

 

[mervyn]

I just can't make up my mind about the Bradford model. It has so many attractions, but if I were managing the club I would be nervous about experimenting and only finding out it didn't get more bums on seats after you've pre-sold all season tickets at half Price!

I think there is a better solution to building support. My son and Grand-sons support Bromma FC in Stockholm. Every spring all seven year olds, girls and boys, enrol on a training programme explained during an open day, when about 500 kids from local schools turn up at the club. Thereafter training is weekly through a huge club pyramid system, where the training is taken by teenagers who are themselves still learning how to play and manage. Regardless of whether they sign up for the course, and stick with it through to their teens, all children are given a full kit and a ball for themselves. Even those who drop out through preferred other interests, remain Bromma fans for the rest of their lives.

Like letting in kids for free, which I also favour, this is a very slow build of the fan base over a generation or two, but it seems to me a good long term bet, whatever the team's fortunes on the pitch.

 

[Dalton Is God]

I just can't make up my mind about the Bradford model. It has so many attractions, but if I were managing the club I would be nervous about experimenting and only finding out it didn't get more bums on seats after you've pre-sold all season tickets at half Price!

I think there is a better solution to building support. My son and Grand-sons support Bromma FC in Stockholm. Every spring all seven year olds, girls and boys, enrol on a training programme explained during an open day, when about 500 kids from local schools turn up at the club. Thereafter training is weekly through a huge club pyramid system, where the training is taken by teenagers who are themselves still learning how to play and manage. Regardless of whether they sign up for the course, and stick with it through to their teens, all children are given a full kit and a ball for themselves. Even those who drop out through preferred other interests, remain Bromma fans for the rest of their lives.

Like letting in kids for free, which I also favour, this is a very slow build of the fan base over a generation or two, but it seems to me a good long term bet, whatever the team's fortunes on the pitch.

I think there's a wider issue with how to attract the youth of today to spend their income on attending football matches. In the past there weren't so many "distractions" whereas today Argyle are competing with numerous other channels.

Today you need to communicate in a different way to stoke the enthusiasm and this is where many football clubs are lacking (Man City is a great example of how to do it with their 'Cityzens' model ironically)

 

[landons forehead]

There's a chronic absence of signage around the city. Albion manage to get signs up advertising their next game, there's one on the A388 out near Hatt I believe. And Argyle can't?

 

[NorfolkGreen]

I wonder what proportion of revenue comes from ticket sales for a Prem club, the assumption is not very much. I think Arsenal is £1m a game, but expect that is dwarfed by TV and commercial income.

 

[Ave IT]

This survey is published every year and the agenda is to shock the readers. It's unfair to compare clubs in League One and Two with Premier League clubs who could even allow free entry due to their mammoth TV deals.

If the survey dug a bit deeper it would see the excellent ticket deals Argyle give to families and the several awards for Family Club of the Year.
It's not all about the adult season ticket quoted in the survey.

Agreed but that’s not to say we couldn’t learn a thing or two from others. Bradford are an interesting example of an imaginative approach – it clearly works for them.

On a very personal note one of the great pleasures of my life is going to HP with my son. It’s a special time we spend together complete with little pre-match rituals (like the all-day breakfast at the American diner on the drive down). It’s a shared passion and that has given us some great memories (even the bad bits) that will last a lifetime. I first took him a couple of days after his fifth birthday (he actually asked for a Man United shirt for his Birthday :furious: ) – Rory Fallon scored after about three minutes & I literally threw him up in the air and from that moment he was hooked..... no more mention of ManUre. A teenager now he’s a manic Argyle fan and although constantly embarrassed by his old man at all other times he badgers me to take him to games – which is a great excuse to give the wife :wink:

 

[X Isle]

There's a chronic absence of signage around the city. Albion manage to get signs up advertising their next game, there's one on the A388 out near Hatt I believe. And Argyle can't?

Argyle have been in the city since 1886, if they don't know about Argyle already it's because they're not interested.

And with virtually universal access to the internet now, if there was any interest in going then fixtures are not difficult to find.

Much like the 'real world' logical economic case for not slashing prices, spend thousands on billboards or radio/TV advertisements and you won't get thousands in to recoup the cost.

Those who want to go and can go, go already. Those who don't won't, or at least not in sufficient numbers to make it a worthwhile venture. I am afraid we are stuck with the status quo in Plymouth, the only way to get extra bums on seats is to virtually guarantee a win and an attractive win to boot.

To do that we're going to need someone to heavily bankroll the squad here. Bradford have a football literate region to draw from and pricing can tap into that innate culture and get it through it's gates, we can't. Plymouth, the wider Plymouth, not us, needs the cart put before the horse before it will be motivated. Argyle need to make them feel like they're missing out on something special if they don't go. We know it's special but they don't see they're missing out on anything.The potential is most definitely there, just look how they crawled out of the woodwork for the Liverpool game, Home Park was suddenly the place to be.

A gazillionaire ain't out there though and certainly at the moment the football isn't going to entice anyone to break their mindset over attending football matches in Plymouth, it's attritional.

The current pricing policy, plus the attempts to bring in additional revenue through the redevelopment is, sadly, the best they can make of things given the general apathy that exists. Cut prices or spend big on advertising and you'll lose money, lose money and the team gets worse, and a cycle of decline creeps back in.

Many don't like to hear it but that is the sober truth of it. We would need a sugar daddy if we are ever going to make it big in the football world. Until then forget it, we are what we are and we are WHERE we are.

 

[Ollieargyle9]

It would be interesting to see the average price of season tickets granted. But I would seriously doubt we would be among the cheapest in any event.

What I'm more interested in is seeing whether if the price dropped to say £250 whether the drop in revenue would be offset by increased season ticket sales along with increased match day retail profits.

The bonus being larger attendances and a potentially better noisier more hostile atmosphere at Fortress Home Park.

Financial implications aside I don't think this is true, if anything it gets quieter when the day trippers turn up.

 

[Lancastergreen]

There are die hard fans at every club, they will pay whatever the cost. In the main there are many other fans like myself that will not pay through the nose for a football game. It's a personal choice of course and as much as i would love to watch my team play it isn't going to happen. Back in my day as a youngster it was £2.50 to get in, i was working and paid for me and three others to get in. Now though you don't get in for that tenner, its all far too expensive for young and old.

 

[lyndhurst green]

Pieface got some publicity out of it tho. Is he still banned from home games? If so, funny how that’s not mentioned...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/4 ... h-plymouth

 

[metroace]

I was told he was in the Grandstand at a recent match.

 

[Bermudian Green]

I was told he was in the Grandstand at a recent match.

At least we can be sure that the stand is still structurally sound then.

 

[foreigner]

There's a chronic absence of signage around the city. Albion manage to get signs up advertising their next game, there's one on the A388 out near Hatt I believe. And Argyle can't?

Argyle have been in the city since 1886, if they don't know about Argyle already it's because they're not interested.

And with virtually universal access to the internet now, if there was any interest in going then fixtures are not difficult to find.

Much like the 'real world' logical economic case for not slashing prices, spend thousands on billboards or radio/TV advertisements and you won't get thousands in to recoup the cost.

Those who want to go and can go, go already. Those who don't won't, or at least not in sufficient numbers to make it a worthwhile venture. I am afraid we are stuck with the status quo in Plymouth, the only way to get extra bums on seats is to virtually guarantee a win and an attractive win to boot.

To do that we're going to need someone to heavily bankroll the squad here. Bradford have a football literate region to draw from and pricing can tap into that innate culture and get it through it's gates, we can't. Plymouth, the wider Plymouth, not us, needs the cart put before the horse before it will be motivated. Argyle need to make them feel like they're missing out on something special if they don't go. We know it's special but they don't see they're missing out on anything.The potential is most definitely there, just look how they crawled out of the woodwork for the Liverpool game, Home Park was suddenly the place to be.

A gazillionaire ain't out there though and certainly at the moment the football isn't going to entice anyone to break their mindset over attending football matches in Plymouth, it's attritional.

The current pricing policy, plus the attempts to bring in additional revenue through the redevelopment is, sadly, the best they can make of things given the general apathy that exists. Cut prices or spend big on advertising and you'll lose money, lose money and the team gets worse, and a cycle of decline creeps back in.

Many don't like to hear it but that is the sober truth of it. We would need a sugar daddy if we are ever going to make it big in the football world. Until then forget it, we are what we are and we are WHERE we are.

I'm glad you're not the Marketing Manager!
We're fudged now the Marketing expert's left the Board.

 

[ChepstowGreen]

Yep I've never read more defeatist baloney in all my life. X Isle I'm sorry but you sound like the HMV boss who insisted to his board that their customers will forever want to buy physical CDs so downloads weren't something they should bother about.

There are numerous ways to increase crowds. Of course winning football is a massive factor. But ticket prices, advertising, positive PR, quality of matchday experience and fresh initiatives all makes a difference, and frankly for you to insist otherwise leaves me quite bewildered.