Thoughts - Pay what you want

[Gen Man]

Afternoon,

Long time since I’ve posted on here, but just wanted to gauge people’s thoughts on a “Pay what you want” game.

I proposed this when I was in charge and at the time asked Chas Kendall’s to underwrite any potential loss but the Directors at the time decided it was a no-go.

Personally I can’t see any downside - my rationale being

A) if gate receipts are circa £15K normally on a gate of circa 1200 - surely you’d get 2,500-3,000 through the gates and there’s no way that wouldn’t bring in £15K minimum

B) Make it a family/community day, plenty of free merchandise (sponsored), but also in the run up to the match have the shop full of the usual saleable merchandise including the popular pink shirts.

C) More food outlets on the day, larger rents from them.

D) Reduced rates for Corporate for the day - sell that out easily.

Plus much much more.

[EHB]

I'm sure other clubs have tried this and must have a barometer for if it's successful.

Short term you may get a kicker but longer term would we flatline back to 1200 gates.

Also when do you pay? On your way out? Might be hard to business plan. How much would get in if you got stuffed 4nil?

I'm not saying it's a bad idea just not sure it's as simple as it sounds.

Depending on how much we depend on our gate to survive I'd give it a try but over a period of 10 games to give it a chance.

Also away fans should have a set entry fee.

[Gen Man]

Bath, Crawley plus various others

[EHB]

And did it work for them? Are they still doing it ?

[spirit of 1990]

I honestly don’t think we’d get many more on the gate Martin. I’d go so far to say the total gate takings would be down.

If it was that successful surely it’d be happening up and down the country on a regular basis.

[tictactoe]

Are clubs brave enough to do it though Ian too many might think it too big a risk - I personally would give it a go just to see and if it doesn’t work so be it we are struggling financially anyway so one more game won’t matter will it?

[rigsby68]

i think its a brilliant idea.
if anything i would market it as the clubs Christmas present and use the bt sport Salford game. the early kickoff coupled with tv coverage and rail strike will surely hit what away support we would receive. unsure on what payment we receive from bt but that's got to cover gate losses?
if they made it a minimum donation for advance tickets how many could they sell as Christmas presents in the run up to Christmas.
again the early kick off lends itself to having a family community event afterwards.

afterwards though they really need to maximise press coverage and keep the impetus going,

unfortunately ehb and others league rules dictate we are only allowed four reduced entry matches a season hence the reason it doesn't happen on a regular basis

[spirit of 1990]

I’m fairly sure BT payments are minimal. Very minimal.
If they were going to do it, I definitely think the Salford game would be the wrong one to do it on as that’ll be very well attended anyway, I think the corporates are nearly full as well.

[HenneysKnee]

You get barely anything from BT

I’ve often thought we should try this (albeit I do have concerns we wouldn’t get anywhere near the extra 1000+ people to make it worthwhile) but the two major stepping stones are we all know full well we are not much good at promoting things and do we actually want people coming to our ground for the first time these days? They are hardly likely to look at the facilities and want to come every week, if anything it’s more likely to put them off for life!

I know we haven’t got the money to do it but Accrington have (as part of their drive to raise crowds) invited every year 3 pupil in Accrington down to the ground and given them all a home shirt for the last 2 seasons to try and encourage the fans of the future

[rigsby68]

fair enough spirit,
if we don't do the a ticket deal surely a community based event after the match would be a step in the right direction.

i totally agree with henneysknee regardless of state of ground we are useless at promotion and merchandising there was some excellent work done by the trust earlier in the season to get new supporters then no follow up actions afterwards.

to put it into context i have already bought my ticket online for Solihull away on 22nd dec yet i still can't buy a ticket for the next home match,

[Gen Man]

I’m fairly sure BT payments are minimal. Very minimal.
If they were going to do it, I definitely think the Salford game would be the wrong one to do it on as that’ll be very well attended anyway, I think the corporates are nearly full as well.

Corporate is sold out definitely - met with Paul earlier today and he confirmed that

[boyliegladbach]

As a season ticket holder, if it was pay what you want then I would put nothing in as I've already paid. I think many more would do that as well.

[barrowfan_chris]

How many did we get through the gate for the free match v Telford a few years ago?

The club imo would definitely lose money on a pay what you want.

[Colin Appleton]

A couple of years ago Morecambe tried it I think they got a crowd of around 4,300. In fact it may have even been free entry. Our last free entry game was against Telford in the Setanta Shield the first game had been abandoned due to wind blowing off an advertising board. I think that match in 2009? attracted a crowd of more than two thousand which was incredible when you consider it wasn't even a league match.

[JammyBluebird]

I think gate receipts would be well down. Would see a lot of people turn up for a freebee and then never return again.