Season Tickets

[Mr.Blue]

Have the club ever considered buying over the Norseman and the units underneath that? That would be ideal for some sort of hospitality/ matchday bar, club restaurant or function room. Could also have a club shop there as well as what we have at smiths

[TRVMP]

Thanks for the input guys. My question was not about replica kit etc., but really about the impact of increased ST sales on overall attendances. We model the finances of the club each year based on stuff like the average number of points required for a certain position in the league which then drives win bonuses, prize money, etc. To some degree, we can see historically the impact of challenging for the league versus mid table versus trying to avoid relegation on attendances. What is difficult to get my head around is what impact will increased ST sales have on home attendances..

 

With regard to the Aberdeen fan incentive model, we are looking at it but if there are other bright ideas, news the time.

 

Onwards and hopefully upwards!

 

NICK

 

With respect, without seeing the modeling you're using, how is one supposed to know the impact of the variable you're asking for, even if one could come up with it?

[Madton]

How many have we sold to date Nick?

[TaunTon]

Thanks for the input guys. My question was not about replica kit etc., but really about the impact of increased ST sales on overall attendances. We model the finances of the club each year based on stuff like the average number of points required for a certain position in the league which then drives win bonuses, prize money, etc. To some degree, we can see historically the impact of challenging for the league versus mid table versus trying to avoid relegation on attendances. What is difficult to get my head around is what impact will increased ST sales have on home attendances..

 

With regard to the Aberdeen fan incentive model, we are looking at it but if there are other bright ideas, news the time.

 

Onwards and hopefully upwards!

 

NICK

 

it's almost impossible to determine with any exactness what the impact will be. Much will depend on how the team performs on the park and whether the club can continue it's good work in reigniting interest. Hopefully a good start to the league campaign will encourage some of the lost souls to come back.

[El gofer]

A wee question for the panel to assist in financial modelling. We have sold around 400 more season tickets than last year. Given a number of those were pay at the gate regulars last season, to what extent will this affect the number of home pay at the gate customers for the coming season? Will they be an equivalent 400 less, 200 less or what? Will there be a “bring a friend” effect? Would some form of “bring a friend” discount or other reward scheme for ST holders work?

 

We obviously have our own views but I would be interested in what posters here think!

 

Nick

I think I went to 8 or 9 home games last season, taking my 3-4 year old to all of them.

I bought a season ticket and plan to attend most games. Even if I don't the early bird offer and positive intentions from the club meant I wanted to support with up front money. Even if I only attend 8 or 9 games I feel I have contributed.

Also, when I take my 4 year old, he collects programmes and also spend 50/50 ticket etc.

[irnbru]

With respect, without seeing the modeling you're using, how is one supposed to know the impact of the variable you're asking for, even if one could come up with it?

I think he's asking the casual fan if they bought one since it was a good deal or will continue to pay on the day. It's a small group here but should be able to give a good indication.

[TRVMP]

I think he's asking the casual fan if they bought one since it was a good deal or will continue to pay on the day. It's a small group here but should be able to give a good indication.

Fair enough. I hope that we have a database of ST holders who can be asked too (and, as Toby says, bullied into renewing.)

[irnbru]

Fair enough. I hope that we have a database of ST holders who can be asked too (and, as Toby says, bullied into renewing.)

I spoke to Warren about a direct debit thing for something and the club have databases they use for collecting and chasing up foaled payments so I'd like to think this is something they'll do.

 

I said it last season but there was loads of work to do and I'm confident the guys in charge will do it but it will take time to get everything right.

[TONofmemories]

I spoke to Warren about a direct debit thing for something and the club have databases they use for collecting and chasing up foaled payments so I'd like to think this is something they'll do.

 

I said it last season but there was loads of work to do and I'm confident the guys in charge will do it but it will take time to get everything right.

Speaking to warren is fruitless. Tells you what you want to hear. Q&A a prime example.

 

Nick, perhaps you could give us an update as to when we're going to receive updates promised in Jan?

 

The merch stuff has been discussed, but it really needs sorted. Smith's, IMO, regularly pull a fast one over Morton. Every single time I go in, our stuff is all over the shop. Barely visible either. Yet every time Morton announce an event in smiths it's front and centre. Either give us a dedicated space 360 odd days of the year, or we take it into our own hands surely?

 

A further question Nick - do we have a database of season ticket holder details. Emails addresses etc that we can provide regularly media content too? Newsletters and the like. Offers etc? Comes back to Tobys point about retention. A good database can go along way to targeting those 400 extra tickets.

 

On gates, there are probably too many variables for you to be 100% accurate. A winning team on the park and sensible pricing should help attract further support

[TRVMP]

I spoke to Warren about a direct debit thing for something and the club have databases they use for collecting and chasing up foaled payments so I'd like to think this is something they'll do.

 

I said it last season but there was loads of work to do and I'm confident the guys in charge will do it but it will take time to get everything right.

Unless people have opted in for it (or in some older cases chosen not to opt out) you can't use debit card account information to upsell. GDPR changed some of this but most of it has been in place for years. A proper customer database isn't optional anymore.

 

Edit: although presumably the club knows this.

[irnbru]

Speaking to warren is fruitless. Tells you what you want to hear.

I've got to say that's not the case in my experience but I get your point since it's well documented.

[TONofmemories]

Talks a good game. I remain unconvinced and his treatment of fans last season leaves a bad taste.

[Jamie_M]

A wee question for the panel to assist in financial modelling. We have sold around 400 more season tickets than last year. Given a number of those were pay at the gate regulars last season, to what extent will this affect the number of home pay at the gate customers for the coming season? Will they be an equivalent 400 less, 200 less or what? Will there be a “bring a friend” effect? Would some form of “bring a friend” discount or other reward scheme for ST holders work?

 

We obviously have our own views but I would be interested in what posters here think!

 

Nick

Without proper insight into who the season tickets were purchased by, it's hard to say.

 

Look at Falkirk ( https://twitter.com/falkirkbairns/status/1014829589942689793) right now. When they publish their season ticket numbers, they list 'season tickets sold', 'renewals', 'number of new subscribers' and 'number still to renew'. So they know that they're just 100 shy of last season's total, but they have 500 still to renew and they've achieved 400 new season ticket holders. With that sort of insight, they can make a better guess at the impact on pay at the gate.

 

Do we have that sort of insight? We've sold 400 more than previously, but if we've also lost say 200 previous subscribers then the impact could be even larger on pay at the gate, 600 not 400. 

 

On the flip side, a large portion of the 400 might have come from people being reengaged by the offer and signing up to come back, so they weren't pay at the gate customers last season anyway.

 

As for bring a friend, i'm not sure pay at the gate customers converted to season ticket holders will have any effect with regards to bring a friend (assuming they attended every week anyway, their friends probably did too). If they only attended occasionally but have now signed up for the whole season then yeah, they might convince their friends who also only attended regularly to come more often.

 

Those that have been reengaged by the offer and signed up to come back would most certainly be worth targeting to bring a friend as you'd imagine they'd have friends who had also stopped going who might be tempted back.

 

 

As others have said, getting a legitimate database of both season ticket holders, and the wider fan base, should be paramount to be used for marketing. There's a sign up box on the homepage to sign up for the newsletter. Is there a newsletter? I certainly don't get much bar an advert every few months. This should be used more effectively.

 

Also, when it comes to renewals of season tickets, there should most certainly be a focus on renewals. You've sold more season tickets this year than in previous years. You should be contacting each and every one of them at the end of the season, thanking them for their support and inviting them to renew rather than just starting afresh posting season ticket details on the website.

[EanieMeany]

I had a season ticket for about 10 years in a row until 4/5 years ago and I think I received about 3/4 emails from the club in that time in addition to the odd one about hospitality, all of which came from accounts under an employee's name rather than from Greenock Morton or whatever. As such, it's possible more emails went straight to the junk folder; either way, it's plain unprofessional by any standards and I'm also fairly sure I wasn't asked for an email address when I bought my ticket for this year.

 

It's unforgivable not to have a mailing list in this day and age though, it's such a basic thing. I don't doubt some stuff is happening behind the scenes, but it's hard to fully buy in to it when the basics aren't being addressed. Hawke has had, frankly, more than enough time in charge to get the customer-facing elements sorted and still hasn't done so, and until such times as that does happen there's going to be a decent amount of cynicism about anything else. There's a lot going right on the pitch which is, admittedly, the main thing but away from that there's still the sense that everything's a bit disjointed. Maybe it isn't, but how is anybody to know?

 

If x, y and z is being done, then send out regular email updates and let people know about it; otherwise it just seems like bluff and bluster. I get that some things might be sensitive and not everything can be shared but that doesn't mean you can't give some kind of overview on a weekly/fortnightly basis, coupled with a few squad features and the like. The SFA's SSC newsletter is a decent example.

 

In terms of finding out about season ticket sales, then in all honesty asking a vague, open-ended question on a forum isn't a particularly great look either. Spend a bit of time and create an online survey to get the info you want, you could even send it out to your maili...oh, wait...maybe not.

[Greacen2000]

A wee question for the panel to assist in financial modelling. We have sold around 400 more season tickets than last year. Given a number of those were pay at the gate regulars last season, to what extent will this affect the number of home pay at the gate customers for the coming season? Will they be an equivalent 400 less, 200 less or what? Will there be a “bring a friend” effect? Would some form of “bring a friend” discount or other reward scheme for ST holders work?

 

We obviously have our own views but I would be interested in what posters here think!

 

Nick

All other things being equal (such as performance etc as you mentioned), I would expect attendance to increase roughly in line with the increase in season ticket sales, as opposed to it remaining static and just being a case of the same number people attending, with a shift of 400 from PATG to season tickets.

 

If I was going to build a data model to analyse and predict attendances, I would start by breaking down fans into “buckets” - for example

A - lapsed fans - may attend a couple of matches

B - part timers - will come along for big games

C - fans who attend most weeks

D - fans who come every week and pay at the gate

E - season ticket holders

 

There might be other ones I’ve missed out, but you get the idea. There might be variables out with the clubs control that influence which bucket a fan falls into (such as work commitments, affordability, geography etc), but putting them to one side, the independent variables that the club can influence would be

- on field performance

- public relations/communications

- investment in staff/players/infrastructure etc

 

Again there might be some others I’ve missed, but you get the idea.

 

If the club performs well in the above areas, the expected result would be moving fans “up” through the buckets. So if 400 have moved from buckets C and D into bucket E, I would expect them to be replaced by fans moving up from buckets A & B, with fans (new supporters and lapsed ones)who went to no games last season coming into bucket A & B to replace it

 

Hope that all makes sense and isn’t too much of a “word salad” 😂

[Jamie_M]

Thanks for the input guys. My question was not about replica kit etc., but really about the impact of increased ST sales on overall attendances. We model the finances of the club each year based on stuff like the average number of points required for a certain position in the league which then drives win bonuses, prize money, etc. To some degree, we can see historically the impact of challenging for the league versus mid table versus trying to avoid relegation on attendances. What is difficult to get my head around is what impact will increased ST sales have on home attendances..

 

With regard to the Aberdeen fan incentive model, we are looking at it but if there are other bright ideas, news the time.

 

Onwards and hopefully upwards!

 

NICK

I know the merchandise and other commercial activities conversation was a bit of a tangent, but it is actually very relevant to the season tickets conversation.

 

With hundreds of extra fans who have paid up front by buying season tickets, their day out at the football at each home game now will feel a lot cheaper to them because they are not taking £15-£20 from the cash they have in their wallet to buy a ticket.

 

The club 100% should be looking at every way possible to try to ensure they still take a fiver or a tenner out of many of these fans' pockets at home games.

 

I had a Cineworld unlimited card up until recently. Having paid up front, a trip to the cinema doesn't feel expensive as you aren't buying a ticket. To try to ensure they still get money out of you during your visit, they offer discounts on food. 10% off during your first year, 25% off thereafter (which in turn acts as a deterrent to cancelling).

 

There should not be a sense of 'great, we got their money up front, job done', there should always be attempts to get people to spend anyway.

[TONofmemories]

An exciting product on the park coupled with the feel good factor will attract fair weather fans. It's about retention there after.

 

Have we got plans in place to tackle this. Or are we going to run with the usual just renew your season ticket strategy.

[Malt]

I would like to know what we are going to do to attract younger fans to Cappielow. We need to get more kids through the gates as they are he ones who will want the full kit each season, merchandise, programmes and maybe drag their dad along to the games also.

[TONofmemories]

I would like to know what we are going to do to attract younger fans to Cappielow. We need to get more kids through the gates as they are he ones who will want the full kit each season, merchandise, programmes and maybe drag their dad along to the games also.

See some boys trying to form a sort of fanatic group. Worth getting behind. New generation

[Jamie_M]

See some boys trying to form a sort of fanatic group. Worth getting behind. New generation

They say they have spoken to the club, trying to generate more atmosphere at home games. Not against that. Do have reservations about their primary idea which seems to involve buying a drum.