Category A

[Caleyuntiltheend]

What has happened to cheaper tickets in the family section? Was told today by the club that is £25 and £10 for any seat in the north stand!! Think it was £44 for two adults and two children last season.....£70 is very steep, then there's food, programmes, car park and petrol on top off that. No wonder we can't get decent crowds!!! Not sure if I'm going now 

 

[+old caley girl]

14 minutes ago, Caleyuntiltheend said:

What has happened to cheaper tickets in the family section? Was told today by the club that is £25 and £10 for any seat in the north stand!! Think it was £44 for two adults and two children last season.....£70 is very steep, then there's food, programmes, car park and petrol on top off that. No wonder we can't get decent crowds!!! Not sure if I'm going now 

 

It was changed to allow folk to have free u12 STs anywhere in north stand. Doesnt please everyone but I think the club does well by our kids as free ST includes a kids club membership. 

[+standbydave]

I have had a season ticket the last 2 seasons, but due to being at sea for 6 months out of the year I get limited games. But I still see it as supporting the club.Next April I retire from rolling around the North Sea and am looking foward to getting to every game. Someone said about not hearing snecky voices at games, does it matter that much. I have a 70 mile round trip for home games and guys in my place always take the rag with me saying they hear more sneckies at Old Firm games or the Sheep shed, so I believe let the young anes in for free, they are the future for ICT

[Caleyuntiltheend]

8 hours ago, old caley girl said:

It was changed to allow folk to have free u12 STs anywhere in north stand. Doesnt please everyone but I think the club does well by our kids as free ST includes a kids club membership. 

That's all well giving out u12 STs but if your not able to go to every game then that's not so good....I was taking a 7 and 9 year old tomorrow so they are both eligible for free u12 STs but I don't see that been fair as they would lie in a drawer for 6 or 7 games a season!!

[Bridge_Ender]

Free season tickets for u12's are a great idea, but clearly this doesn't meet the demands of fans like Cakeytiltheend. Not everyone can commit to a season ticket, either financially or just planning wise. Why not just extend it to u12's go free for all pre bought tickets, including match day sales? More chance of on the day/last minute decisions to go, parents taking a kids friend along as well, and so on. 

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The more kids we attract the better. It makes up for the thousands lost post-merger.

[CaleyD]

12 hours ago, Caleyuntiltheend said:

That's all well giving out u12 STs but if your not able to go to every game then that's not so good....I was taking a 7 and 9 year old tomorrow so they are both eligible for free u12 STs but I don't see that been fair as they would lie in a drawer for 6 or 7 games a season!!

2 Adult + 2 Kids = £60/ £70 per game.

2 Adult + 2 Kids Season Tickets = £660 or £34.74 per game.

So long as you can make 10 games over the season then you're saving money....or looking at it another way, you're getting 9 games for free.

Not a kick in the butt off half price football!!

[Kingsmills]

4 minutes ago, CaleyD said:

2 Adult + 2 Kids = £60/ £70 per game.

2 Adult + 2 Kids Season Tickets = £660 or £34.74 per game.

So long as you can make 10 games over the season then you're saving money....or looking at it another way, you're getting 9 games for free.

Not a kick in the butt off half price football!!

Which doesn't help the family who might have been able to take their kids to half a dozen games in past seasons who might only be able to afford half of those games this. The kids who have season tickets are already on the way to being committed fans. It's the ones who are taken along for only a few games per seasons we need to attract along on a more regular basis but the new pricing structure makes that less likely especially for families on limited budgets.

[Alex MacLeod]

Many people seem to get awfully worked up by not knowing how many season ticket holders there are. I ask this. What would a figure actually tell you? Any club can put out a figure but its actually meaningless. Are they all full paying tickets? Are they concession or frees? Its the same with crowd numbers at game. How many are little kids? How many are actually watching and understanding the game? 

[TopSix]

Looking forward to my first (and probably only) home match this season. Paying £50 for two tickets was tough to take. I'm hopeful that our other matches against Ross County will be moved to the Friday evening slots. 

[CaleyD]

10 hours ago, Bridge_Ender said:

Free season tickets for u12's are a great idea, but clearly this doesn't meet the demands of fans like Cakeytiltheend. Not everyone can commit to a season ticket, either financially or just planning wise. Why not just extend it to u12's go free for all pre bought tickets, including match day sales? More chance of on the day/last minute decisions to go, parents taking a kids friend along as well, and so on. 

The cheaper per match tickets were being heavily abused...and also carried a higher administration cost than a season ticket.

As already highlighted, there was also demand for U12 prices/free ST to be made available across the whole stand.

The only practical way to open up cheaper/free options across whole stand for kids without increasing opportunity for system to be abused further was to restrict it to free U12 season tickets.

As with any system it won't suit everyone and, without individually means testing everyone wishing to obtain tickets then, you'll never find a perfect solution.

Not only do the books need to be balanced, you need to ensure you maintain season ticket value. Every time you incentivise individual ticket sales or reduce the price, you devalue the season ticket.

We all like to believe ST holders don't care and buy their ST to support the.club regardless....but that doesn't play out in reality.

More moans and complaints come about from ST holders about individual ticket offers than anything else....and ST holder offers to bring friends for a fiver etc. are little used.

So, what to do?

Make Season Tickets as attractive as possible and try to make them worthwhile to those who may miss a few games over the season.

Also, when the club do individual ticket offers, you hope those attracted along who end up wanting to come again seriously consider the value in the ST option and are properly "hooked".

[Bridge_Ender]

Thanks for the answer CaleyD, a good explanation of ST policy. Didn't appreciate that abuse of u12 tickets was such an issue and the free ST was in response. Also agree that you can't please everyone!

[wynthank15]

When I was in full time employment I was a season ticket holder. Now that I am retired on a very small pension decisions have to be made, do you renew your GC membership, your fishing ticket or a season ticket, my choice was the latter had to go, with the first two I can choose my times and weather, not the case with the football. Ideally, I would like to turn up to individual games pay at the gate and stand throughout the match at a barrier, being forced to sit in the cold for 90 minutes is not pleasant for anyone with joint problems. I found the experience of watching ICT in the lower leagues when you could stand very enjoyable and reasonably priced I also enjoyed having a chat with the regulars who turned up at the same spot each week, the experience in the stands was not the same and you can't choose you neighbours. I appreciate the club must balance their books but I would rather pay £25 for a days fishing or a days golf. If the club introduced a standing area at a reasonable price I would be interested.Currently I pick and choose matches usually away and weather dependent.I also agree with previous posters that the standard of the Scottish game is incredibly poor, anyone who shows some ability is off to the English lower leagues before you can spell ICT.

[givmeaccccc]

Attended my first game this season and found it a very depressing experience. Not because of the standard of play and the result, but because my 'buddy' to my left who has been a season ticket holder like myself since the stadium opened, has given up his ticket. Then I looked to my right and the bloke who has held that season ticket for the past decade or so has also given up his ticket.

At half time I stopped to chat to an old school friend who is also a season ticket holder, or rather was. He too has given up his ticket and has decided to pick and choose his games. All in all a very sad day.

 

 

[TopSix]

Have to say I didn't enjoy my first and only home match of the season. We were dire to watch and the ground was devoid of any atmosphere at all.

[ictfcsince94]

9 hours ago, TopSix said:

the ground was devoid of any atmosphere at all.

ironically, that will be one of the loudest/roudiest home supports of the season!

apart from the low crowds, and the high percentage of sweetie rustlers, the TCS doesnt really lend itself to a fantastic atmosphere....

[dougal]

Well ICT's ticket costs directly had an influence on yesterday's attendance, I think I heard the official attendance was given as 4k + but it certainly didn't look that much to me anyway

Both home and away supports very sparse, think it's time that the commercial  side sit down and rethink 

Would be interesting to see all the attendances at Highland derbies over the last 20+ years to see how yesterday's compares

Pity Sneckboy wasn't still about or banned as he would have these figures at hand

Dougal

 

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

2 hours ago, dougal said:

Well ICT's ticket costs directly had an influence on yesterday's attendance, I think I heard the official attendance was given as 4k + but it certainly didn't look that much to me anyway

I'm surprised you could see anything from under the bridge. 

[ictfcsince94]

2 hours ago, dougal said:

Well ICT's ticket costs directly had an influence on yesterday's attendance, I think I heard the official attendance was given as 4k + but it certainly didn't look that much to me anyway

Both home and away supports very sparse, think it's time that the commercial  side sit down and rethink 

Would be interesting to see all the attendances at Highland derbies over the last 20+ years to see how yesterday's compares

Pity Sneckboy wasn't still about or banned as he would have these figures at hand

Dougal

 

back of envelope maths:

looking at the avg attendance being about 3k, i would assume ST holders to number about 1500...? Just a stab in the dark.

Assuming that every other person at the game yesterday was a paying adult sitting in either the North or South Stands...

4200 - 1500 = 2700 x £25ea = £67,500 in ticket sales

If the ticket prices were reduced, there is very little increase in attendance, but we'll say the prices were cut to what, £20...

2700 x £20 = £54,000 the difference being £13,500

To make up this difference, the attendance would need to increase by £13,500 / £20 = 675 people, just to return the same through-the-gates income as the club would have received yesterday.

That's an additional 25% of those that turned up, making a total attendance of 4875.

Obviously, the more you cut the prices, the more people need to turn up... if the prices were cut to £18 for example, you would need 1050 additional people attending to make the difference.  These aren't massive numbers but as a %age of our normal attendance, it's a lot of people. And i really don't think a fiver is making that much of a difference to a thousand people...

 

[rocky1]

1 hour ago, ictfcsince94 said:

back of envelope maths:

looking at the avg attendance being about 3k, i would assume ST holders to number about 1500...? Just a stab in the dark.

Assuming that every other person at the game yesterday was a paying adult sitting in either the North or South Stands...

4200 - 1500 = 2700 x £25ea = £67,500 in ticket sales

If the ticket prices were reduced, there is very little increase in attendance, but we'll say the prices were cut to what, £20...

2700 x £20 = £54,000 the difference being £13,500

To make up this difference, the attendance would need to increase by £13,500 / £20 = 675 people, just to return the same through-the-gates income as the club would have received yesterday.

That's an additional 25% of those that turned up, making a total attendance of 4875.

Obviously, the more you cut the prices, the more people need to turn up... if the prices were cut to £18 for example, you would need 1050 additional people attending to make the difference.  These aren't massive numbers but as a %age of our normal attendance, it's a lot of people. And i really don't think a fiver is making that much of a difference to a thousand people...

 

It wasn't the home support that lowered the attendance!!!

club have no control of away supporters and I understand the ticket price was discussed between the 2 chairmen

[CaleyD]

Leaving aside the new year match which always attracts a bigger crowd, you have to go back to March 2013 to find a larger crowd for a home league game against County than we had yesterday.

Does that mean raising prices is attracting more people along? (yes, that's sarcasm)

[ictfcsince94]

5 hours ago, rocky1 said:

It wasn't the home support that lowered the attendance!!!

club have no control of away supporters and I understand the ticket price was discussed between the 2 chairmen

I never specified home support! in fact i referred to TOTAL attendance!  Was trying to make the point that the prices had very little detrimental affect on the attendance. From either half of the support 

[TopSix]

A lot of the wee team fans were put off by the ticket prices http://www.overthebridge.info/showthread.php?tid=1937

[Alex MacLeod]

23 hours ago, dougal said:

Well ICT's ticket costs directly had an influence on yesterday's attendance, I think I heard the official attendance was given as 4k + but it certainly didn't look that much to me anyway

Both home and away supports very sparse, think it's time that the commercial  side sit down and rethink 

Would be interesting to see all the attendances at Highland derbies over the last 20+ years to see how yesterday's compares

Pity Sneckboy wasn't still about or banned as he would have these figures at hand

Dougal

 

20 minutes of research on this very informative site so Dougal heres ICT Home SPL Premiership figures:

Fri 5th Oct 2012 - 6766

Sat 16th Mar 2013 - 5750

Wed 1st Jan 2014 - 4332

Sun 5th Oct 2014 - 3741

Sat 31st Jan 2015 - 4021

Sat 2nd Jan 2016 - 5388

Two cup games during same period:

Tue 11th Dec 2012 - 4135 SCR4 Replay

Tue 27th Oct 2015 - 3004 LC QF

League Home attendances from 1994 are:

Div 3 2440, 3562, 3625, 4931, 4562, 5525

Div 1 4823, 5291, 4513, 4685, 3699, 3443, 3523, 4019

Excluding cup games average attendance v RC at home since joining Scottish Football League in 1994 is 4431

Edited August 15, 2016 by Alex MacLeod

[Charles Bannerman]

14 hours ago, ictfcsince94 said:

I never specified home support! in fact i referred to TOTAL attendance!  Was trying to make the point that the prices had very little detrimental affect on the attendance. From either half of the support 

It's all down to what economists call "elasticity of demand" which is how extremely or otherwise purchase levels respond to change in price. With some products, demand will increase rapidly as you reduce the price (elastic) and with others the change will be much less (inelastic). One of the factors influencing this will be how the quality of the product is perceived. Income = number of units sold x unit price and in order to maximise income you need to adopt the price on the elasticity of demand curve which produces most from that number x price product. It would be interesting to get detailed figure on the elasticity of demand for SPFL Premiership football, but clubs have no option but to maximise income. This is especially the case when operating costs are artificially high - such as when a player market that doesn't reflect economic reality.