On the gate ticket prices (3 Viewers)

[sb84]

I have been to all the home games so far this season and I have come away with this feeling of being ripped off totally to watch div 2 football.
I take my 13 year old son and 17 year old (son in law to be maybe) and obviously I am the one paying so today cost me £51 and we even had to argue with the woman on the turnstiles as she was adamant that a 17 year old should be paying £25, she had to come outside and look at the sign above the door before she charged us correctly, obviously her
first day in the job.
As a comparison I have just looked at the top of the league and who played at home today to see the prices, cheapest available on the gate prices are ...Adult/Under 17/18

Exeter £15-£5
Luton £18-£6
Carlisle £19-£7
Accrington £15-10

My friend and his son did not go today as he said he couldn't afford it. I thought the attendance figure was disappointing considering league position and previous winning feeling, maybe price will be a factor for some but I don't expect sisu to change this at all any time soon. They still think the good folk of Coventry will just suck it up and hand over the cash no matter what.

 

---

[Nick]

I have been to all the home games so far this season and I have come away with this feeling of being ripped off totally to watch div 2 football.
I take my 13 year old son and 17 year old (son in law to be maybe) and obviously I am the one paying so today cost me £51 and we even had to argue with the woman on the turnstiles as she was adamant that a 17 year old should be paying £25, she had to come outside and look at the sign above the door before she charged us correctly, obviously her
first day in the job.
As a comparison I have just looked at the top of the league and who played at home today to see the prices, cheapest available on the gate prices are ...Adult/Under 17/18

Exeter £15-£5
Luton £18-£6
Carlisle £19-£7
Accrington £15-10

My friend and his son did not go today as he said he couldn't afford it. I thought the attendance figure was disappointing considering league position and previous winning feeling, maybe price will be a factor for some but I don't expect sisu to change this at all any time soon. They still think the good folk of Coventry will just suck it up and hand over the cash no matter what.

Why not get match packages?

Is 13 too old for jsb? Shouldn't be 51, I think it's only fiver for kids under 16 then free under 12 or 13

 

[ccfcway]

I thought the attendance figure was disappointing considering league position and previous winning feeling, maybe price will be a factor for some but I don't expect sisu to change this at all any time soon.

why would they, we need the revenues.

They still think the good folk of Coventry will just suck it up and hand over the cash no matter what.

you only have to look at decline in attendances in last 10 years to realise this isn't the case.

£51 wouldn't get you one concert ticket these days, so to get 3 of you in is good value. You didn't comment about this on the 1st home game when we won, so I suspect its because we lost.

Not having a go at you at all, as I am with you when attending home games and we lose, it just doesn't feel value for money, hence away games only for me

 

[M&B Stand]

No league 2 level should be over £15 imo

 

[Ashdown]

The great football rip off and wages bonanza to players has come down the pyramid. I was grateful for a nice afternoon and a corporate ticket today but in reality wouldn't want to pay more than £15 for a bog standard ticket and it shouldn't be more than a fiver for under 16's ! Charging those prices come November with mixed results and they can sadly look forward to 6000 crowds !

 

[pusbccfc]

Said this many a time over the past week. It will be the reason we struggle to get above 10k again this season.

It's too much of a hassle to buy tickets in advance and too expensive on the gate.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

I paid 18.50 today.I got the 6 match package for £111 with booking fee and used one today wish I hadn't bothered what a pile of shite that was today.

 

[Adge]

I paid 18.50 today.I got the 6 match package for £111 with booking fee and used one today wish I hadn't bothered what a pile of shite that was today.

It certainly was-glad I had a freebie.

 

[ccfcway]

Said this many a time over the past week. It will be the reason we struggle to get above 10k again this season.

It's too much of a hassle to buy tickets in advance and too expensive on the gate.

i'm pretty sure begin in league two is the reason. The rest is white noise

 

[pusbccfc]

i'm pretty sure begin in league two is the reason. The rest is white noise

I'm basing it on being towards the top of the league.

 

[ccfcway]

I'm basing it on being towards the top of the league.

safe to assume no ccfc fan should base anything on us being towards the top of any league

 

[pusbccfc]

safe to assume no ccfc fan should base anything on us being towards the top of any league

Of course, but in the context of today. Had the tickets been easier to get or 20 quid on the gate there would have been 10k there.

 

[sb84]

£51 wouldn't get you one concert ticket these days, so to get 3 of you in is good value. You didn't comment about this on the 1st home game when we won, so I suspect its because we lost.

for different reasons on the Notts county and Blackburn games I felt abused as a customer, stood in queues waiting to get in on both occasions we missed the kick off. Lack of cash turnstiles was the obvious mistake by the club but today they seemed to have learned and rectified that issue so well done.
Notts County...Queued at half time for a sausage roll for my son to be told they have no hot food as it had not arrived in time, yet all the electronic signs still displayed all hot food and prices right above each kiosk, should have known better as the other advertising around the ground was for a Robbie Williams concert from 2 months ago : /
Win, lose or Draw I would still like to feel like a valued customer.....not had this from Coventry City for quite a few years now but for some reason I keep going?

 

[ccfcway]

Notts County...Queued at half time for a sausage roll for my son to be told they have no hot food as it had not arrived in time, yet all the electronic signs still displayed all hot food and prices right above each kiosk, should have known better as the other advertising around the ground was for a Robbie Williams concert from 2 months ago : / ?

not the clubs fault, they mearly rent the space

Win, lose or Draw I would still like to feel like a valued customer.....not had this from Coventry City for quite a few years now but for some reason I keep going?

100% the clubs fault. many have voted with their feet already

 

[scubasteve]

By in advance its cheaper, get a jsb for the 13 year old and he is free.
Without sounding harsh It's not hard to work out, for you and your lad you have spent 76 quid in 2 games, you could have got 2 season tickets ( 1 adult and a jsb membership inc) for 320 quid for the season all in, after 6 games it's a free season.

 

[sb84]

By in advance its cheaper, get a jsb for the 13 year old and he is free.
Without sounding harsh It's not hard to work out, for you and your lad you have spent 76 quid in 2 games, you could have got 2 season tickets ( 1 adult and a jsb membership inc) for 320 quid for the season all in, after 6 games it's a free season.

I agree totally but once the kids go back to school and their sports seasons start our weekends become a bit more precious so we just cherry pick the games when we can, chances are we may only get to another 4 throughout the whole season and these will probably be evening games, so season ticket or package is not really worth bothering with. Even today was a last minute decision (and that turned out to be the wrong one)

 

[scubasteve]

I agree totally but once the kids go back to school and their sports seasons start our weekends become a bit more precious so we just cherry pick the games when we can, chances are we may only get to another 4 throughout the whole season and these will probably be evening games, so season ticket or package is not really worth bothering with. Even today was a last minute decision (and that turned out to be the wrong one)

Fair enough everyone has their own circumstances. I just think that some people moan about the price. When if it was a dad taking his lad 13 or under you could get 2 season tickets that worked out at less than 14 quid a game which to me is a bargain in my opinion

 

[sb84]

We have done it before when the kids were younger and it did work out to circa £10 a game per person for family season ticket. At that point and at those prices it didn't hurt to miss the odd game if we had to be somewhere else.

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

Said before prices if you want to go to 1 off games prices are too high .sb84 could have gone and seen the vile lot up the road Notts forest or Burton today cheaper.

 

[Ashdown]

Fair enough everyone has their own circumstances. I just think that some people moan about the price. When if it was a dad taking his lad 13 or under you could get 2 season tickets that worked out at less than 14 quid a game which to me is a bargain in my opinion

Not everyone wants to gamble that sort of money on a whole season in view of how utterly shite it has all been for some time now and besides for almost everyone, the match tickets are only the beginning of the days expenses once you are committed.

 

[Brylowes]

Why do people keep hitting back with 'why don't you buy a match package, why don't you buy a ST,
Why don't you go in JSB etc, football shouldn't be about that, a lot of people like to go on the spur.
Instead of keep banging on about what the fans should do, what about concentrating on what the
Club should be doing, they need the money after all, they should be making it as accessible and
Affordable as possible.
They could open the lower half of the "North stand" for POG only £20 adult, £10 concessions and
Under 16s under 13s free when accompanied by a full paying adult.
Kill 3 birds with one stand.
1, give people the freedom to go when they please, at an affordable price.
2, encourage the much needed youth to meet their mates, and have a giggle supporting their true
Local football club, and help build the foundations of a strong future fanbase.
3, remedy the ludicrous situation of having a Home team without any supporters behind any goal
Creating a more balanced atmosphere, and a much improved match day experience for everyone.
While having our team playing toward a youthful vocal support.

After a couple of seasons and the team doing ok I honestly believe we could be filling this whole
stand with POTG, and all ticket everywhere else.
Its hard enough to get people interested as it is, So it's imperative we make the passage Of entry
as painless, easy and ultimately as tempting as possible.

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

We have got loads of seats not being used each game and still we want to charge top dollar

 

[chiefdave]

Why do people keep hitting back with 'why don't you buy a match package, why don't you buy a ST,
Why don't you go in JSB etc, football shouldn't be about that, a lot of people like to go on the spur..

People point it out because there are complaints about pricing when there are cheaper ways to buy. Instead of paying £51 on the gate he could have paid £37 in advance. This isn't unusual, most things are more if you want to pitch up and pay on the gate as that creates extra costs.

They could open the lower half of the "North stand" for POG only £20 adult, £10 concessions and
Under 16s under 13s free when accompanied by a full paying adult.

Problem is we don't own the ground so if we want to open the North Stand the costs go up. Its unlikely that would generate enough extra sales to cover the cost so overall we lose out.
I'd quite happily have the whole ground open at £10 a ticket if it would fill it but in our situation it doesn't work. All the extra non-ticket revenue generated goes to Wasps and we get hit with higher costs.

 

[Brylowes]

People point it out because there are complaints about pricing when there are cheaper ways to buy. Instead of paying £51 on the gate he could have paid £37 in advance. This isn't unusual, most things are more if you want to pitch up and pay on the gate as that creates extra costs.

Problem is we don't own the ground so if we want to open the North Stand the costs go up. Its unlikely that would generate enough extra sales to cover the cost so overall we lose out.
I'd quite happily have the whole ground open at £10 a ticket if it would fill it but in our situation it doesn't work. All the extra non-ticket revenue generated goes to Wasps and we get hit with higher costs.

Well, you know best Dave.

 

[chiefdave]

Well, you know best Dave.

Not saying that at all but we've been here before. Ticket prices were slashed and sales didn't increase enough to offset the lowed prices. The net result being the club has less money coming in.

Realistically if the North Stand was opened and was £20 to get in how many people do you think it would add to the attendance?

 

[Brylowes]

Not saying that at all but we've been here before. Ticket prices were slashed and sales didn't increase enough to offset the lowed prices. The net result being the club has less money coming in.

Realistically if the North Stand was opened and was £20 to get in how many people do you think it would add to the attendance?

Thing is Dave what you and a lot of others fail to understand is....you are the hardcore, you are the
Thick and thin 'rain or shine' supporters, 1 of the 6-7000 die hards that will be there no Matter what.
I'm the same, distance and business dictate I can't attend as often as I would like, but I go whenever
I can & if I lived nearer I would have a ST for sure.
But there are thousands of people in the City that need to be coaxed, they don't decide to go the week
Before a game they decide on the day, or in the pub the night before with their mates.
Maybe their kids come home and pester to go because their mates are, maybe The Mrs wants dropping
At Tesco for a couple of hours, and so on.

For a club so desperate for revenue and customers, it's beyond belief how difficult they make it to just
Go to a game on the spur of the moment, not to mention expensive.
As a business they seem to have it all wrong, a Bank will always offer sweetners to new customers
That aren't always available to existing ones.

Customers that will be in the ground "no matter what" get a good price on tickets, potential new ones
Do not, this club can not survive at a reasonable level with existing customers only.

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

It's tickets sold on the day why put the cost of them up these up they are the very ones you want these don't go to every game but these are your possible future customers and yet we charge them more . I agree with everything Brylowes says in his last post. I noticed at Grimsby they reduce prices on matchdays perhaps we should follow at least it might be worth a go.

 

[chiefdave]

For a club so desperate for revenue and customers, it's beyond belief how difficult they make it to just
Go to a game on the spur of the moment, not to mention expensive.

How is it difficult to go to a game on the spur of the moment? You turn up and pay cash on the gate, what is the option that is easier?

You can buy online and print your ticket, there's a ticket office at the Ricoh from 11am on matchday or you can pay cash on the gate from 1:30pm.

As a business they seem to have it all wrong, a Bank will always offer sweetners to new customers
That aren't always available to existing ones.
Customers that will be in the ground "no matter what" get a good price on tickets, potential new ones
Do not, this club can not survive at a reasonable level with existing customers only.

You can't get around that though. There are regulations about discounting tickets, restricted to 4 games a season I think, and whenever we do it for a game there's little impact on the attendance and a decent chuck of season ticket holders kick off.

If, as you suggest, new customers get offers and the hardcore pay more there will be all sorts of complaints.

Personally, assuming its within the rules, I'd be offering free tickets to everyone on the customer database who hasn't been for a while. What you can't do is offer it to all. If you open the North Stand at £20 a go, even ignoring the cost of opening it, what will happen? People will move from their current position to get cheaper tickets.

How confident, given the results when prices have been lowered in the past, that you'd get enough extra people in the ground every game to make up for the lower prices?

2015 / 16 every ticket was £20 or less, the average attendance was 12,570, the season before when prices were much higher the average was 9,332, last season when the prices were put back up and lets face it we were terrible the average was ‎9,111. If the attendance had shot up to 15K when they slashed the prices they would have stayed low.

 

[Brylowes]

So why not have £20 POTG after all the seats are empty anyway, as I've said they could
Do lower north stand as designated POG, tickets everywhere else.
A progressive dynamic business would always be looking at ways to utilise and benefit
From all the space and amenities available to it.
A clueless failing business would always be looking at ways to cut expenditure, by laying
Off staff and mothballing parts of the business.
Unfortunately!!!!!!

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

Just noticed if you go along to F G R with a season ticket of another club and your team are away you can get a discount to get in to their ground and under 11's can sit in 1 of their stands for free no mention of joining their club for £20 lets learn from others .Yeovil give you a discount for buying online.

 

[chiefdave]

So why not have £20 POTG after all the seats are empty anyway,

So you make it £20 POTG and season ticket value drops, anyone who potentially might miss 6 games has no reason to buy a season ticket. You'd then have virtually nobody buying in advance.

Why would anyone buy a ticket in advance if they were cheaper on the gate? Result would be that average ticket price takes a big hit. That's fine if you're getting enough extra people in to offset that but that has never happened in the past when prices have been dropped either for an individual match or the whole season.

You'd also have increased costs as you now need more cash handling staff on a matchday.

Whats different now that a drop in prices would cause a big increase in attendance to increase, or at least maintain, the level of revenue ticket sales generates?

It comes down to filling the ground v maximising revenue. Would you accept a decrease in the budget available to Mark Robins in order to have more people in the ground?

 

[singers_pore]

If we made one game completely free what would the attendance be? I doubt we'd get more than 20,000. I think the biggest factor is L2 football + success on the pitch. I doubt the majority of stayaway fans do so because of prices. Sure a few fans will be price sensitive but not the majority.

 

[singers_pore]

POTG prices are high so the club can extract more from away fans whose demand is price inelastic. Home fans who can't go very often can simply buy a 6 match package. I don't see why prices should be lowered for fans attending fewer than 6 games.

 

[Brylowes]

So you make it £20 POTG and season ticket value drops, anyone who potentially might miss 6 games has no reason to buy a season ticket. You'd then have virtually nobody buying in advance.

Why would anyone buy a ticket in advance if they were cheaper on the gate? Result would be that average ticket price takes a big hit. That's fine if you're getting enough extra people in to offset that but that has never happened in the past when prices have been dropped either for an individual match or the whole season.

You'd also have increased costs as you now need more cash handling staff on a matchday.

Whats different now that a drop in prices would cause a big increase in attendance to increase, or at least maintain, the level of revenue ticket sales generates?

It comes down to filling the ground v maximising revenue. Would you accept a decrease in the budget available to Mark Robins in order to have more people in the ground?

Presuming we go up this season.
So League 1 next season.
Exc corporate.
East And West Stands: Tickets only all standard. early bird ST £12.50 , after early bird £14.00.
Match packages 12 game £16.00 6 games £17.50, pre-paid tickets £19.00, on day tickets £20.00

North stand lower: all POG Adult £20.00, under 18 £10.00, under 13 £5.00 or free with full paying
Adult.
With team doing ok and proper communication between club and fans, honestly think we would be
Looking to open rest of North stand before long.
Better atmosphere.
Better revenue.
Better future.

 

[chiefdave]

Lets look at League 1 2015/16. Was going pretty well for a while, didn't drop out of the top 6 until March and prices were lower than you suggest:

All tickets: early bird ST £10.83 , after early bird £13.
Match packages: 12 game £13 6 games £13
Pre-paid tickets £18, on day tickets £20, concessions £13 adv £15 gate.
Juniors £6, JSB over 12 £4, JSB under 12 free.

Better atmosphere - debatable
Better revenue - revenues decreased
Better future - we got relegated the next season

Apart from games with large away followings the attendances stayed around 11K. This season after being relegated and price increases we've got over 10K for the first game and over 8K today. I don't see the basis for lower prices increasing crowds and revenues.