Interesting reading:- www.loverugbyleague.com/news_106 ... erres.html Looks like a wake-up call for teams not getting the punters in like London, and clubs like ourselves with poor facilities.

Interesting reading:- www.loverugbyleague.com/news_106 ... erres.html Looks like a wake-up call for teams not getting the punters in like London, and clubs like ourselves with poor facilities.

Interesting point about the crowds although its a bit of a 'chicken and egg' argument. ie. Did the large crowds result in increased revenue which led to success on the field, or did success on the field prompt large crowds to turn up and watch?

Speaking from a Cas point of view it's quite clear that crowds dropped off last season as a result of our poor form on the field. From recollection I believe this is the first time our average attendance has been below 7000 since we returned from the lower leagues.

Large crowds aren't necessarily consistent with high revenue in any event, Bradford being the obvious example with their cut price season ticket deals. Rather than harping on about crowd size it would be more relevant to hear the actual matchday income generated by the various clubs. This is something that is readily referred to by premierleague football clubs.

if Cas put the price down to the level of Waky & Bradford, we might get up to 8 or 9 thou, for a match day, folk argue we would sell more beer & burgers, but when you go to the bars at half time, you cant get near the bar without missing 10 Min's of the game, same with the refreshments, you can cue for the full interval and still not get to the counter, and to be honest, 3 clubs have reduced the entry price, two have gone bust and the third has decided its not working, it will be interesting to see how many tickets the giants sell this year now the price has gone up

Which 2 of the 3 clubs have gone bust "while" selling reduced season tickets?

Bulls are obviously one. Don't know who the other could be.

the wording might have been a bit premature, but cheep season tickets are not the way to go, how long will Mr Glover be able to keep the prices low, im not sure how many tickets are friends over the common have sold at present, but will all the newbies still buy when the price doubles, i hope that most stay but thats the risk you take, in money terms for every one we sell they have to sell two. It has been made clear to us that we need as much brass as possible and the prices show the differences in the clubs, were not debt free,

The difficult thing about reduced STs is that it looks good on paper in terms of attendances but in terms of revenues and incomes it isn't good. It also doesn't help in terms of spending the cap.

Sooner or later the deals are going to have to be flipped to a more higher price.

All this should be looked at by the RFL, like you say it looks good on the terraces but the books don't add up, unless the money is subsidized buy a rich benefactor, its a recopy for disaster,

where is the word[u WHILE[/u in my post, it says three clubs have reduced there price, Waky, Bulls, Giants and 2 have gone bust

It depends in what context you look at it. If like us you still maintain an healthy pay on the day support the plan is very feasible. Last season we had around 50/50 ratio of season tickets to pay on the gates. I don't know the exact numbers but my guess is that the income generated from crowds of 8k average (with the cheap STs) will be more than 6K average with without (2011 average). If we have maximised our income it certainly looks better in real life than on paper. Glover has managed to attract an extra 2k through the gates and into the game at no extra cost, something that he should be credited for don't you think?

No doubt Glovers agenda is to slowly increase the price of a season ticket, while at the same time bring along as many as possible. A 25% increase in price while beating last years sales is great a achievement and shouldn't be looked down on.

Im not looking down at Mr Glover, he has taken the club forward with no help from the RFL, unlike another club, but he will need very deep pockets to keep the price so low, we have fans who think we should be given big discounts because of last years debacle on the field, but the club has got to come first and last year has gone, and prices have been set to allow are club to go forward. What worries me is when the prices start to rise, the new people who have been brought in with the cheep season tickets fall away, and the numbers go down, hopefully the majority will stay but thats the gamble

The discount on the season tickets are not coming from Glovers pocket. He introduced a pricing policy that maximizes our income. Please re read my post.

I don't think that anyone is criticising what Glover has done or for what reason he has done it for. The simple fact was that, at the time he took over, you were looking down and out and needed to secure as many of the licence criteria as possible. One of those was the crowd figures and to breed a positive atmosphere at the club.

The difficult thing is that the pricing policy clearly isn't sustainable and I disagree - he isn't maximising income, at least through ST sales. The income you've got from 4000 ST holders paying £125 is equivalent (assuming they're adults) to 2500 paying £200.00. Compared to ST sales 4/5 years ago that, fair enough, is a considerable increase. But do you really believe that as a club if the price was increased you wouldn't achieve 2500?

Sooner or later, the deal is going to have to be increased/flipped (possibly £150 next season). I'd be surprised if the average ST price across SL is not £200.00, though. It will certainly be interesting to see if this can be sustained/maintained. With a loss of £1.2m in first season, though, I think this is - returning back to topic - what SF is highlighting. Clubs in general cannot rely on benefactors, making substantial losses and not spending what they earn. Criteria of licensing, permitting it remains, should be about sustainability and much more stringent financial policing. Perhaps something like the Financial Fair Play system in the lower leagues in football wouldn't go amiss?

Good post Fully. ATEOTD if the cheap season ticket offer was the best route to go down why is only one SL club doing it at the present time ?

Something like the Financial Fair Play system would be a fantastic way of getting the game back on its feet.

Why is it clearly not suitable? As an overhaul long term pricing statagey it is. Previously we could of not expected to sell more than 2k season tickets at full price. Now at [imore[/i than half price ST sales have increased at more than 100%. At the same time the clubs still getting another 4k paying customers in over the year. Without the current discounts we could expect 2k STs and 4k paying fans. The numbers work out better, even more so when you consider match day revenues will also increase.



You don't say...can't you see whats happening? £100 last year £125 next do you not see the pattern here with the 25% increase. One thing for certain, Glover isn't making up any losses out of his pocket for these cheaper ST and it's certainly not got anything to do with £1.2m loss.

I hope your not going to hang on SF every word like you did with RW! SF will say whats best for the situation he finds himself in. Of course the game needs rich benefactors at least initially to get the clubs in strong position, look at Saints and Wires they didn't get to be were they are by building from a weak base. These clubs owners splashed the cash the starts signed and success eventually followed along with the fans. It's from this position that clubs can start to look to run self sufficient. How else are clubs like us ever going to get into the elite..only on way initial investment and a business plan to sustain it. If we didn't have the rich benefactors the salary cap would have to be lowered (there's positives to that but it's another argument) and a lot of the top players would drift of to Union.The games elite clubs are too powerful for that to happen.

The selling of cheap season tickets can be considered to be a gamble. A gamble we all saw backfire at Bradford Bulls. This doesn’t mean it will backfire at Wakey though. To be honest - it looks like it is working and only time will tell. Factors for its success are keeping the punters entertained on match days and obviously having a decent home winning record.
Bottom line is – we at Tigers cannot afford to do it. I’m sure SF and the B.O.D would love to but we don’t have a benefactor willing to take the gamble and potentially lose more money.

I might be wrong here but I'm sure about 80% of Bradfords average gate were ST holders. They lost a large amount of vital income through the season (and had a full salary cap to pay) and seemed over reliant on the Sky money to get along. With us maintaining a decent walk up support I think we may have the balance right.

Only time will tell, there comes a point when the fans start to think about the price going up, if it gradually or not, some people drop off, it all depends on how many fans decide not to renew, hopefully not many, with are club we have had fans complaining about the price of the membership, you get 2 games for a bronze at £50 on interest free credit for people who cant attend many games, with that you get 10% off merchandise, restaurants, and lots of other things, it just shows for some its all about the price.