Decisions Decisions

[Scott1]

Leicester Tigers are premium brand in the rugby market and cannot be compared with other sports as it does not generate the same levels of income as football, boxing etc. and does not have the number of viewers.

Still a business that needs to maximise its profits. I don't think it does a good enough job of this, but that's my opinion. It's not a knock on the club

[Tigerbeat]

Leicester Tigers are premium brand in the rugby market and cannot be compared with other sports as it does not generate the same levels of income as football, boxing etc. and does not have the number of viewers.

Still a business that needs to maximise its profits. I don't think it does a good enough job of this, but that's my opinion. It's not a knock on the club

Was not inferring that it was a knock on the club just that Tigers are a premium brand in the rugby world. There is plenty more that can be done - I agree.

[johnthegriff]

I am a season ticket holder, when the game is announced as a season ticket holder I have a limited time to secure my seat at a discounted price which I am pleased to do. At the end of this limited time the tickets go on general sale at a price in line with matches of this standing. Not all tickets sell, well that can happen at many events whether sporting or theatre but I tell you now if I were to find that having paid the princely sum of £37 for my ticket in the Crumbie level with the 22 line the person sitting next to me had paid only £30 their seat I would not be pleased and would probably never buy early again, in fact I may have to consider whether the benefits of being a season ticket holder were worth while,
Fortunately I have every reason to think that the club will not go down that path in as it would drastically reduce profits for the future. We have a Premiership semi-final coming up I am certain the club will come up with sensible prices and most will purchase tickets but others will complain and come out with silly comments like " it should be on the season ticket " if you want to go to the game and are prepared to pay great, if you don't want to go or prefer to do something else at the time then that is fine, if you cannot afford it then ok, few of us can afford everything we want to do and have to prioritise spending but there is no need go on about it. If you never intended to be at the game anyway, its got nothing to do with you!

[Rugbygramps]

I am a season ticket holder, when the game is announced as a season ticket holder I have a limited time to secure my seat at a discounted price which I am pleased to do. At the end of this limited time the tickets go on general sale at a price in line with matches of this standing. Not all tickets sell, well that can happen at many events whether sporting or theatre but I tell you now if I were to find that having paid the princely sum of £37 for my ticket in the Crumbie level with the 22 line the person sitting next to me had paid only £30 their seat I would not be pleased and would probably never buy early again, in fact I may have to consider whether the benefits of being a season ticket holder were worth while,
Fortunately I have every reason to think that the club will not go down that path in as it would drastically reduce profits for the future. We have a Premiership semi-final coming up I am certain the club will come up with sensible prices and most will purchase tickets but others will complain and come out with silly comments like " it should be on the season ticket " if you want to go to the game and are prepared to pay great, if you don't want to go or prefer to do something else at the time then that is fine, if you cannot afford it then ok, few of us can afford everything we want to do and have to prioritise spending but there is no need go on about it. If you never intended to be at the game anyway, its got nothing to do with you!

Hugely sensible post IMHO. The point raised re the premiership semi final and hopefully final afterwards are key. Supporters do have prioritise and having to pay for those 2 extra seats so they can continue to follow this season’s journey may well come first.
Wait until people realise the cost of a trip to Twickenham and wait for the uproar.
It is then you have to realise the strength of supporters such as JTG, who I know used to make the trip to HQ annually during the glory years. 9 finals on the bounce was it.

[Tiglon]

Leicester Tigers is a premium brand.

Anyone saying "just lower prices and you'll make more money" has clearly never managed a premium brand. It really isn't that simple, and the arguments for being cheaper are based on some very big assumptions and ignore some very complex considerations.

Have you?! The “premium brand” nonsense doesn’t wash. There are many football clubs bigger than ours that do deals and comp tickets,”premium” fights in Vegas that comp tickets,Anthony Joshua is a “premium” boxer who has had fights that have comped tickets and done deals to attain full capacity. Sorry but you’re wrong. BTW I’m not saying discount ticket prices from day one,all I’m saying is more of a marketing effort needs to be made once the club knows they are not going to reach capacity. Do they even try? Have they ever tried? (Not knocking the club just genuine questions)

Apparently when you block someone you still get notifications when they quote you, so I suppose I'll bite this time.

Firstly, yes, I do manage a premium brand. The idea of not discounting is not nonsense. Go into your local Porsche dealer (if they'll let you in) and start asking about discounts.

More detail about seats at a sporting event... Seats are perishable items, once the event is over, all those empty seats are gone, you've lost your chance to sell them so you want to sell as many as possible. HOWEVER, there are a number of potential long term downsides to offering a discount to try to sell more/all of the seats.

1) because every event is unique you can never be sure of the price elasticity. You simply don't know how much a discount will influence higher sales and therefore you might simply dilute the revenue from the sales you would have made anyway at the higher price.

2) late discounting to sell more tickets to this event will influence customers behaviour at future events. If I buy a ticket for Leinster on the terrace at £35, and then see that same ticket available for £25 a week later, what am I going to do next time I want to buy a ticket? I'm going to wait for the discount, even though I was perfectly happy to pay full price.

Now let's say Tigers don't plan on doing the discount next time, it was a one off for Leinster because of low demand. Ok, but now for the next match we're all waiting for a discount a week before kick off, so two weeks out ticket sales are far far lower than expected. So Tigers are now desperate and they have to discount again.

This self-inflicted spiral continues, to the point where they have to start discounting league matches too. Then it's cheaper to buy individual tickets, if you leave it late, than a season ticket, so you sell fewer season tickets.

Lower business on books at any given point only weakens the club further from a pricing point of view.

3) lower prices risks changing your demographic. Rather than fans keen to support their team, do you get more lads out on the lash who, for a tenner, might as well drop in for a few hours but have little interest in the match? Poor behaviour puts off traditional existing fans who would have paid more for a ticket, so you can't get the full price again. Result, you're stuck discounting.

To summarise.

Once you start discounting, it only goes one way... more discounting. There are countless examples from car manufacturers, restaurants, supermarkets etc etc. Ticket pricing is not only about maximising revenue from one fixture, it needs to be part of a long term strategy.

And yes, I know that this I'd wasted on you, you'll probably ignore 99% of it, pick on one tiny element to argue about and then call me "a weapon".



P.s. if no one is complaining that you're too expensive, the chances are you're too cheap.

[chewbacca]

2009 was expensive. Cardiff euro semi, Edinburgh euro final, HQ prem final. Loved it. Well apart from loosing in Edinburgh. Was working then and could afford it. Would be beyond my finances these days but I still want to see us in those matches.

[Scott1]

I am a season ticket holder, when the game is announced as a season ticket holder I have a limited time to secure my seat at a discounted price which I am pleased to do. At the end of this limited time the tickets go on general sale at a price in line with matches of this standing. Not all tickets sell, well that can happen at many events whether sporting or theatre but I tell you now if I were to find that having paid the princely sum of £37 for my ticket in the Crumbie level with the 22 line the person sitting next to me had paid only £30 their seat I would not be pleased and would probably never buy early again, in fact I may have to consider whether the benefits of being a season ticket holder were worth while,
Fortunately I have every reason to think that the club will not go down that path in as it would drastically reduce profits for the future. We have a Premiership semi-final coming up I am certain the club will come up with sensible prices and most will purchase tickets but others will complain and come out with silly comments like " it should be on the season ticket " if you want to go to the game and are prepared to pay great, if you don't want to go or prefer to do something else at the time then that is fine, if you cannot afford it then ok, few of us can afford everything we want to do and have to prioritise spending but there is no need go on about it. If you never intended to be at the game anyway, its got nothing to do with you!

Personally that's a poor attitude to have! So you would rather an empty seat than the club have someone new in it ,spending money on beer,pies and potentially merchandise. Wow!

[jgriffin]

Alas, no ST for us this coming season. Having to pay for the collapsing ancient conservatory to be rebuilt as a room has stuffed that, what we me being a pensioner (albeit with part-time work) and Mrs G being COVID/CFS (she once collapsed on the terrace AND we lost the game ). The ticket office lady sent a lovely personal email when we told them, kudos!
I suspect some may find themselves in worse situations yet.

[Rugbygramps]

Possibly a good time to point out that Scott is not currently a season ticket holder nor does he have a BT subscription on which to watch the games. I wonder if either of these was a financial based decision

[Scott1]

Possibly a good time to point out that Scott is not currently a season ticket holder nor does he have a BT subscription on which to watch the games. I wonder if either of these was a financial based decision

Not at all no! There's a tad of elitism creeping in with posters on here and I don't like that! I had 3 ST ,myself, Son and Father. Father got older Son went to University and Japan and i had work commitments. Used to give my ST away if anyone couldn't make it and NEVER asked for a penny for them. I'd rather someone in there enjoying the game and having a beer or 3 and a burger, but that's just me!
As for BT ,I've got Sky Sports instead, better deal and I enjoy a variety of sports.

I mean excuse me for trying to get new people involved in our game or trying to help less well off families enjoy a great day out at WR. How dare I!

[Tigerbeat]

One thing is that forum is for all users to contribute to discussions and no individual is any less a fan than anyone else. Not all can attend games home / away maybe to health, distance to travel or affordability. Thee are no requirements for users to sign up for the forum and discuss rugby topics. Everyone is welcome and so long it will continue.
Please be kind!

[Rugbygramps]

Possibly a good time to point out that Scott is not currently a season ticket holder nor does he have a BT subscription on which to watch the games. I wonder if either of these was a financial based decision

Not at all no! There's a tad of elitism creeping in with posters on here and I don't like that! I had 3 ST ,myself,Son and Father. Father got older, Son went to University and Japan and i had work commitments. Used to give my ST away if anyone couldn't make it, and NEVER asked for a penny for them. I'd rather someone in there enjoying the game and having a beer or 3 and a burger, but that's just me!
As for BT ,I've got Sky Sports instead, better deal and I enjoy a variety of sports.

I mean excuse me for trying to get new people involved in our game or trying to help less well off families enjoy a great day out at WR. How dare I!

But would you agree that there is a certain element of irony in your criticism of people not wanting to increase the clubs profitability, when you appear to do nothing yourself.
Also you can have BT as well as sky sports through Sky and Virgin. Just fyi

[johnthegriff]

Scott 1 accuses me of a poor attitude, strange that I am writing this just after reading Scott 1's reply to a studied and sensible comment by Tiglon; me a poor attitude?
My poor attitude has me spending far more than I can sensibly afford watching Tigers over many years, I have traveled all over Europe and all the main British rugby grounds helping many other many others to do the same and I have had a lot of fun doing it. I have paid the going rate for my tickets and been pleased to do so, i would have been upset had I learned after paying for a ticket that someone had obtained theirs at a lower price just to get bums on seats, in fact I would have rather those seats go free to someone.
Tiglon explained very well about the long term consequences of cheapening your brand Scott 1 seems incapable of understanding that and therefore resorts to insulting comment, that probably says it all.

[Scott1]

Possibly a good time to point out that Scott is not currently a season ticket holder nor does he have a BT subscription on which to watch the games. I wonder if either of these was a financial based decision

Not at all no! There's a tad of elitism creeping in with posters on here and I don't like that! I had 3 ST ,myself,Son and Father. Father got older, Son went to University and Japan and i had work commitments. Used to give my ST away if anyone couldn't make it, and NEVER asked for a penny for them. I'd rather someone in there enjoying the game and having a beer or 3 and a burger, but that's just me!
As for BT ,I've got Sky Sports instead, better deal and I enjoy a variety of sports.

I mean excuse me for trying to get new people involved in our game or trying to help less well off families enjoy a great day out at WR. How dare I!

But would you agree that there is a certain element of irony in your criticism of people not wanting to increase the clubs profitability, when you appear to do nothing yourself.
Also you can have BT as well as sky sports through Sky and Virgin. Just fyi

You get BT through Sky Sports? You're joking!

[Scott1]

Scott 1 accuses me of a poor attitude, strange that I am writing this just after reading Scott 1's reply to a studied and sensible comment by Tiglon; me a poor attitude?
My poor attitude has me spending far more than I can sensibly afford watching Tigers over many years, I have traveled all over Europe and all the main British rugby grounds helping many other many others to do the same and I have had a lot of fun doing it. I have paid the going rate for my tickets and been pleased to do so, i would have been upset had I learned after paying for a ticket that someone had obtained theirs at a lower price just to get bums on seats, in fact I would have rather those seats go free to someone.
Tiglon explained very well about the long term consequences of cheapening your brand Scott 1 seems incapable of understanding that and therefore resorts to insulting comment, that probably says it all.

He just talks waffle,i could've picked the bones out of the first paragraph but I'd rather not waste my time on him! He needs his point perfectly clear with his "cheap" comment