Have a look at the Club's website and see the ticketing promotions for our upcoming home games http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/1403-press-release-ticketing-promotions. There is something there for everyone, from free tickets for volunteers at the Motherwell game to a "pay what you want" gate for St. Johnstone.This is a fantastic initiative by the club, and I hope as many people take advantage of it as possible to generate an atmosphere at TCS that matches the quality that is being shown on the pitch. Well done ICTFC, I hope you get run off your feet!

 "pay what you want"

 

 

Bold move, that one!  

 

You certainly can't fault the club for trying. The horse is being led to water.....

After having a read of the promotions, I think they are definitely a good move. By having a promotion for the highland Derby on the 31st might just get them 'boycotters' over the bridge to the game to give the Derby the atmosphere it deserves.

The St Johnstone game in January being a 'pay what you want' is absolutely a bold move but one where it's been seen before in the lower leagues in England - I don't know how successful they were but they must be if ICT is trying it. I personally think it makes great business sense to make it PWYW because it being a midweek game and nobody would really travel up from Perth but if it's a cheap night out you watch their opinion change.

Albion Rovers tried it in January for a game against Montrose. The stipulation being pay £1 for entry - or more 'if you want'.

They got over 700 instead of their 'usual' 300 and gate receipts were UP 160% on the takings from their previous home game against the same opponents.  

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/pay-what-you-can-crowd-3054068

FC United started a 'pay what you can afford' season ticket scheme two years ago. The majority of FC fans used to pay at the gate since its only £8 to get in. But since this scheme started the number of season ticket sales have almost tripled.

I believe the way it wrks is, the fans as co-owners vote on a minimum amount to pay, which this seaon was £60. Thats about £3 a game. Its then up to the individual how much they wish to pay for a season ticket, or what they 'can afford' to pay. Interestingly You would think everyone would pay £60 but infact the average for each season ticket sold was something like £135. Which works out as £6.40 a game or something.

Im delighted that ICT are trying these new ideas and i cannot fault their perserverance! So many clubs would give up after 1 or 2 failed attempts but fair play to our directors :)

Personally i also feel this is the way forward for 'smaller' clubs like ourselves. It was a success at Albion n is a continued success at FCUM.

I really hope this proves worthwhile because in 3 months time i turn 26 and will have to pay extra for tickets and frankly il be priced out the main stand for sure and may have to limit myself to one game a month. If i wish to go on an Away day, i may just have to forget about a home game...

I have been a loyal fan for 18 years and the thought that il be priced out of the club i love saddens me greatly!

If the pay what you want initiative doesn't add at least a thousand to the gate I don't know what will. Bold move for which the club should be applauded.

It'll be fascinating to see how it goes. I doubt we'll publicly hear the gate receipts but the attendance will be interesting. I'm sure other clubs will be keeping an eye on the outcome. As a 'control', the previous 4 attendances against St Johnstone are below.

 

Friday 5th April '13 (19.45pm)            3,744

Saturday 23rd November '13 (3pm)   3,255

Sunday 11th May '14 (12.15pm)        3,121

Saturday 30th September '14 (3pm)  2,770

 

Looking back, the Friday night game attracted a decent crowd. But the most recent encounter - a traditional day/time - was 1,000 down on that.

It's encouraging to see the club trying out these initiatives - it makes good business sense to acknowledge that crowds are stagnating despite the on field product, and to try to encourage more bodies into the stadium.

Very innovative. Deserves great reward.

 

If it brings a lot more fans in to see our team performing as they are then that exactly what we need to foster more enthusiasm to come on in and support the team. 

How about a Golden Ticket which is hidden in one steak pie sold at the ground per week. The ticket allows you and a friend to attend either a showcase of Greg Tansey's passing ability or to stroke Ross Draper's beard. Attendance figures would skyrocket although the pie stand queue may prompt a few complaints.

Great ideas being introduced by the club. It would be good if they could blow their own trumpet a bit more often in the likes of the ICA magazines etc.

 The local sport pages are good for reading about sport but it doesnt reach a wide enough target audience if you want to tell the general public about  healthy hearts, free tickets for schools and clubs, fans in training, hot shots, stadium tours and now even giving volunteers a free day out and thats over and above reaching our 1st cup final and being joint top of the league with Celtic.

Hope the pay what you want goes well. I hope people aren't ***** and pay like £1. I'm going to pay something decent because i enjoy watching football and the football on show right now has been excellent.

Hope the pay what you want goes well. I hope people aren't ***** and pay like £1. I'm going to pay something decent because i enjoy watching football and the football on show right now has been excellent.

Looking at the Albion Rovers 'experiment' mentioned above, although on a smaller scale, they claim to have doubled their gate and increased takings by 160%.

I assume they do mean they increased their takings by 160% and not that they're takings were 160% of what they'd normally expect.

 

e.g. If they doubled their attendance - and folk paid the 'going rate', they would increase they're takings by 100% (and have 200% of 'expected' receipts).

On a doubled-gate, if Albion Rovers got 160% of their normal takings, people would have, on average, been paying less.

But, if as they claim, they increased their takings by 160%, the punters, on average, were paying more than the standard price.

 

It's a great initiative - I'll be paying a fiver, I reckon - and getting a taxi to-and-from the game with the money saved!

(probably only joking)

Sneckboy, lets look at what you're saying in simpler terms. (All figures are made up)

 

Albion normal gate = 300 of which 250 are ST holders. Other 50 pay tenner each = £500 takings

PAYW gate = 600....same 250 ST holders. 350 extras pay average £3.71 which = £1300 takings = 160% increase

 

My example above assumes that ST's are not includer in takings each matchday.

 

So for ICT lets assume 2500 ST holders and average gate of 3200 = 700 pay average £15 = £10500 takings.

Lets say we can increase by 1000 giving us 1700 pay at gate. They would need to pay average of just over £7 to break even. The initiative to get extra fans in the gate is admirable but runs serious risk of costing the club money.

Hopefully this pay what you want will actually work and even if it did lose a little ( which I don't think it will) I would be worried if the club couldn't cover any small potential loss.

I have said for a long time that they need to try dropping the prices a bit and hope the crowds come to at least make the same with more fans or even better with more takings.

Interested to see the outcome....

Valid point , Alex. My 'back-of-an-envelope' calculation did indeed fail to account for season-ticket holders - although, I doubt Albion Rovers have too many!

It would be great to see the full 'breakdown' of money taken at the gate at the St Johnstone game - but I fully appreciate that such 'transparency' is unlikely - sensitive business figures and all that!

Very interesting initiative on the PWYW.

If the club can attract an extra 1000 fans who wouldn't have been there in the first place, then it's all a bonus and not a case of breaking even.

I wonder if the wings of the main stand and singing section could be a permanent PWYW for non high profile games?