Why so few tickets sold V Charlton?

[LamieRobertson]

I'll be there on Saturday...first game for a few weeks . Did we play well against MKD and Brum? Will I be suitably impressed or bored silly?

Read match day threads they should give u a clue

 

[edna krabappel]

Charlton also dont travel well. I reckon 1000 at best.

Think one of the Charlton fans on here said they'd sold about 900 as of yesterday: he expected with walk ups it might reach 1200- 1500 on the day? They're pretty disillusioned with life currently.

 

[Dirk Lehmann's Python]

Unfortunately the club are complacent. In their mind if an away team is London it's a category A game because the away fan won't bulk at a 32 quid cost. Sadly they don't realise that Sussex folk don't want to pay that much to watch even a successful Brighton team. 28 quid tops

 

[Guinness Boy]

Another factor for Charlton is that the game is category A - Cardiff and Brum were both Category B.
.

And that's ridiculous.

I don't know who sets these categories or when they are set but that is just plain wrong and based only on Charlton's geographic proximity to the Amex. Cardiff and Brum are both known to travel in numbers when they're doing well, have a small but obvious minority of trouble makers and are doing well on the pitch. In fact the latter had the best away record in the division prior to our game.

Charlton, on the other hand, are a place about relegation with dwindling numbers travelling and, historically, the two sets of fans have got on well to the point of a love-in.

I'm not necessarily arguing for Cardiff and Birmingham games to be upgraded. I'm saying if they are Cat B then so should Charlton be,

 

[Man of Harveys]

And that's ridiculous.

I don't know who sets these categories or when they are set but that is just plain wrong and based only on Charlton's geographic proximity to the Amex. Cardiff and Brum are both known to travel in numbers when they're doing well, have a small but obvious minority of trouble makers and are doing well on the pitch. In fact the latter had the best away record in the division prior to our game.

Charlton, on the other hand, are a place about relegation with dwindling numbers travelling and, historically, the two sets of fans have got on well to the point of a love-in.

I'm not necessarily arguing for Cardiff and Birmingham games to be upgraded. I'm saying if they are Cat B then so should Charlton be,

Very well said. I really, really HATE those stupid, Premiership-15-years-ago match categories anyway - they stink to high heaven of a kind of Chelsea-or Spurs-lite fan exploitation. Dodgy as hell. I'll decide how attractive the opposition is thanks, not some David Brent-soundalike gimp.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

I'm a long time season ticket holder but have brought another ticket in the WSU for a friend for the Charlton game. With booking fee it's £37.50. That's just too much

 

[SAC]

Making different categories for tickets is almost understandable if the ground was in danger of selling out but I suspect that this isn't going to be the case until either the FA Cup against a big draw of a team (Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Spurs or Palace) or March/April. Match day tickets are just too expensive.

However making a loss of £10 million a year something has to give.

 

[Official Old Man]

Go to www.brightoncentre.co.uk and check the prices of the artists doing shows there, most well over the price for the Amex. Also the Ice Show in January ranges from £30 to £60 plus travel & parking.

 

[Paul Reids Sock]

Heading down for the game with a mate who is a Chelsea fan. He has moved to Brighton and when I mentioned it was £33 a ticket he didn't bat an eyelid - 'cheaper than the bridge' was his response.

I do think it is a little steep but no more than a lot of the big clubs that people will happily go from Brighton to see

 

[Hotchilidog]

The matchday prices are too high, its as simple as that. This is not an issue when you have 23,000 STH and 2,000 aways fans and 5,000 tickets to sell tops, but when you lose 3,000 STH and are left with around 10,000 tickets to shift per game it becomes a big problem.

Charlton being a category A game is also ridiculous, for the occasional fan they are not a big draw so to charge top whack seems pretty bad business.

Still on the upside I'd like to think that a strong uptake of Half Season Tickets (which conversely are tremendous value) will reduce the number of ticket the club have to sell in the second half of the season.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Come on then let's have a count up so we can have a countdown!

 

[Ernest]

2 matches in a week, Christmas around the corner and they make Charlton Cat A and charge top whack, Barber OUT

 

[Peter Grummit]

I think there are probably a few factors going on here. Perhaps the biggest one is, as alluded to by [MENTION=28546]Gary1[/MENTION], the lack of a promotional ticket offer. If you look at the number of "home" tickets we have sold for each of our games so far this season (ie total tickets sold minus away tickets), it is very noticeable that the two largest sellers are Cardiff (when the club did the two mates for a tenner each deal) and Birmingham (when there was the adult plus child for ₤15 deal).

The home ticket sales for these two games were:-

Cardiff - 25,237
Brum - 25,439

The next highest figure is 23,923 for the Hull game.

We don't know exactly how many season ticket holders we have, but the lowest number of home tickets sold so far this season was for Rotherham, where the figure was 21,232. If we assume that there were not many matchday tickets sold for that game, it would suggest that the matchday take-up for Cardiff and Brum was somewhere between 4-5,000. For five other games this season (including Rotherham), the figure is less than 2,000.

Another factor for Charlton is that the game is category A - Cardiff and Brum were both Category B.

It would certainly suggest that the "normal" matchday pricing (especially for Cat A games) is sufficient to put off hundreds (thousands?) who might be persuaded to attend when there are significant promotions and discounts available.

Given all this, let's hope that many of these supporters have been, or will be, persuaded by the value offered by the half-season ticket.

This is sound analysis and further evidence of the sensitivity of casual fans to price. I am sure Barber evaluates how effective the promotional offers are and will build this into thinking.

There must be a case for a more formal forecasting model that identifies statistically the importance of different factors (eg opposition, form, seasonality, time/day of game) for individual game pricing. It wouldn't be too difficult to develop now we have a good data set over 5 seasons at the Amex.

PG

 

[Wilko]

As others have said, this highlights for definite that match day prices are too high, drop them a little and you can see the response. I do not think people are asking for huge slashes of prices but evidence shows that tickets at a fraction cheaper sell.

I do think that the south stand (whatever is left of it for each game) should be the 'Twenty's plenty' stand. Charge a little more for West and East but I want to see that South stand full each game, I hate seeing it half empty on the television.

 

[nicko31]

Fans vote with their feet, Charlton does not warrant a Cat A status. Saying my money for Ipswich game..

 

[Wilko]

Fans vote with their feet, Charlton does not warrant a Cat A status. Saying my money for Ipswich game..

Do you know what, once a few others have posted on this thread it should be sent to Paul Barber. Not as a criticism as I think he is doing a fantastic job but more to highlight the consensus. If he can see individual fans are not attending simply due to price and not sue to Christmas/opposition/performances/atmosphere etc then it may make him reconsider a few minor price adjustments here and there.

Nicko31 - If the game was 20 notes for the south stand would you go?

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Do you know what, once a few others have posted on this thread it should be sent to Paul Barber. Not as a criticism as I think he is doing a fantastic job but more to highlight the consensus. If he can see individual fans are not attending simply due to price and not sue to Christmas/opposition/performances/atmosphere etc then it may make him reconsider a few minor price adjustments here and there.

Nicko31 - If the game was 20 notes for the south stand would you go?

Threads are read, be in no doubt.
I'm surprised he doesn't post sometimes under his own name as this is the best way to communicate stuff below the importance level of a ST circular
What he may say is that we had the biggest crowd by 7,000 last weekend so stop being critical & let us continue do do the job we are paid for!?

 

[Wilko]

What he may say is that we had the biggest crowd by 7,000 last weekend so stop being critical & let us continue do do the job we are paid for!?

I totally agree, but why did we have a higher crowd? Because there were cheaper tickets. Same as the Cardiff game. Neither of these being the most attractive opposition either.

 

[Bozza]

The problem with offers and cheaper match day prices is they erode the perceived value of the season ticket and I'm sure the club are keen to hang on to as many ST holders as they can.

The differential between the prorated match price if buying a season ticket and buying individual tickets is pretty significant. When buying a season ticket you probably expect to get 3-4 games 'free' but we get a lot more than that.

My WSU season ticket is £550. Assuming an equal spread of category A, B and C games over the season and taking the category B match day price of £34 as a guide, you'd only get to 16 matches, purchasing game by game, before you'd spent over £550. So season ticket holders are getting 7 games for 'free' by making their commitment.

Bringing match day ticket prices down more broadly will see that difference shrink and some season ticket holders deciding to pay match by match instead, particularly those that struggle with midweek fixtures.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Read match day threads they should give u a clue

Nah. That is normally binfests. I never read match reports. I prefer view from long after the events...hence my question.