Pricing

[proudjag]

I was covering the U21 game last night for St Mirren official website and it got me thinking about pricing once again. £30 last night for 20 kids and five adults - perfect for groups of school kids/football teams. £8 for a parent and kid last night to watch international football albeit at U21 level. Surely the time has to come when we start considering the future of our game and the punters. Let's give it a go for a season and I'm sure we will see the difference - make it £10/5 across the board in the first division, obviously the kids price wouldn't apply in our case but make it more affordable for adults to bring their kids along for free - £17 to watch the standard of football that we serve up, I don't call that value for money do you?

 

Finally, the SPL have to take a look at themselves. I was at a loose end last wednesday night and was considering nipping along to Parkhead to watch Celtic v Dunfermline - £23 for an adult!? I mean that's just ridiculous for what was always going to be a one sided stroll for Celtic. £15/5 in the SPL because let's be honest the quality certainly isn't what it was in what is supposed to be our top league.

 

Thoughts?

[redhulk44]

Like yourself i was gonna go to the Celtic v Dunfermline game with my son as i was told the tickets had been reduced when i got to the ticket office at Parkhead and found out that it would cost about 31 quid i walked away and kept my money, The ticket prices for old firm teams are over-priced,for Celtic games prices are about 26-27 pounds and 16 pounds for kids, Rangers are a little cheaper 10 pounds for kids but thats for a seat in the family stand, Celtic and Rangers are robbers and they will never reduce the price for kids as they know parents will still take there kids to the games and pay full price, they are a business they don't give a toss, they will never let kids in for free!

A lot of people now just can't afford to go to take their kids to a football match, it really is a expensive day out, with tickets, travel fares, programme, food and drinks, etc you can spend easily about 60 pounds maybe more,

17 pounds for a ticket to see Partick Thistle does not seem that bad when you look at the prices for some SPL teams and kids go free, but if your going to see the Jags without kids and you pay 17 pounds and watch a crap game you might feel a little bit cheated, .

I wish more people in Glasgow would take their kids to Firhill instead some fools are easily parted with their cash and would rather spend a fortune watching Rangers and Celtic playing against SPL diddy teams, when you watch the English Leagues the quality of football , stadiums etc Scottish football really is a joke and the ticket prices are too high, we are all finding it hard.

Like you say 15/5 for SPL would be great but that will never happen.

[proudjag]

Agree with everything you have said there. You said it will never happen and I agree and that is the sad thing. But what may happen is they may be forced into a humiliating retreat when the punters simply stop going. Also, agree with you about football being an expensive day out when it comes to food, programmes etc and another thing the prices for food and refreshments at football is overpriced too for the standard of products served up but that is the same everywhere right now.

 

Yeah, 17 quid is fine if your taking the kids but as you said if you go yourself its a right killer and more clubs should look at the example set by some clubs down south, Bradford game at the weekend there they set the entry at one pound all round just as an experiment and the ground sold out, obviously not the answer for everyone but something like that would be a cracking little piece of PR in this difficult financial climate. Say we tried that in one of the meaningless home games towards the end of the season, a pound or two pound all round, I think we would get 3-400, I may be wrong tho.

 

Finally, The old firm are a disgrace, as you said they don't give a hoot because they knw that have the parents trapped because the culture in West of Scotland in a way forces parents to take their kids every week at some effort and cost. But look what's happening at Ibrox at the moment so they are suffering for all their mistakes but to round off hopefully the SFA's pricing yesterday may make some chairman and clubs in the country stand up and take notice and a big well done to the 6003 that turned up last night to send a message to the powers that be that if you price football accordingly, they will come along.

[redhulk44]

I remember when i was young my Dad used to take me to Junior football games and they were always packed, the admission prices were really cheap, so were the pies, bovril, crisps etc, it was a great day out and the players on the park were playing for the badge, team , players for Celtic , Rangers are playing for the huge ammounts of money they earn each week for kicking a ball, Rangers deserve everything thats coming to them.

 

 

You are right the prices for food at matches, even at Firhill its a joke, if i take my son and daughter 3 scotch pies, 3 cokes, nearly 12 quid, outside you can buy 3 pies at greggs 80p each and 3 cans of coke at Farmfoods for 1 pound, 3.40 total big difference compared to what they charge us at Football games, they really are taking us for fools, programmes are overpriced, scarfs, football shirts etc,

Watching a Football game really isnt value for money, we sit in the cold, eat crap food, go home feeling worse when the team lose and with a empty wallet and i used to think a trip with the kids to the cinema was expensive, at least its warm with comfortable seats!

[proudjag]

Well said that man. I have a young one now and I'm actually dreading the day he wants to start going to the football with the cost involved these days. It's funny you should mention the Juniors, terrific value to be had on a Saturday afternoon at Petershill Juniors, you can get a pint in the bar inside the complex before the game and at Half time I am led to believe. Entry is 4/5 quid for an adult and 2 quid I think for a kid and certainly when I was younger you could run on the park at half time and play about with the subs etc, happy days. Also, yeah the food is dirt cheap at these games and the atmosphere can be decent, good old fashioned football banter watching players who are playing for the jersey and fighting for every ball.

 

Yeah football hasn't been value for money for years now, more of a chore than anything else. I went to Old Trafford last year and whilst it cost an arm and a leg there was some value for money there. Totally different ball game down there, it's like a military operation, more of an event that a footie match and you leave feeling like you have really enjoyed yourself. Do you think that would work at Firhill just out of curiosity, pound or two entry for one game and see what happens crowd wise?

[Willjag]

The Juniors as you say is cheap, however, even they are struggling at the moment. It's not only the price that's causing the decline in attendances.

[redhulk44]

Well said that man. I have a young one now and I'm actually dreading the day he wants to start going to the football with the cost involved these days. It's funny you should mention the Juniors, terrific value to be had on a Saturday afternoon at Petershill Juniors, you can get a pint in the bar inside the complex before the game and at Half time I am led to believe. Entry is 4/5 quid for an adult and 2 quid I think for a kid and certainly when I was younger you could run on the park at half time and play about with the subs etc, happy days. Also, yeah the food is dirt cheap at these games and the atmosphere can be decent, good old fashioned football banter watching players who are playing for the jersey and fighting for every ball.

 

Yeah football hasn't been value for money for years now, more of a chore than anything else. I went to Old Trafford last year and whilst it cost an arm and a leg there was some value for money there. Totally different ball game down there, it's like a military operation, more of an event that a footie match and you leave feeling like you have really enjoyed yourself. Do you think that would work at Firhill just out of curiosity, pound or two entry for one game and see what happens crowd wise?

Yes i think it would work at Firhill, they might have to do some advertising, ie Free local newspapers, radio etc, i recently watched the rugby on Sky sports the Warriors playing at Firhill and the stadium was packed and the atmosphere looked really good, completely different and i said to myself why cant it be like that when Thistle play, packed with people, instead of empty seats, if they charged 1-2 pounds entry, im sure it would be busy, Partick Thistle really have to do more to attract new fans, Firhill should be packed with kids at every home game especially when its Kids go Free, its strange some people would rather watch Rugby or Braehead Clan ice hockey than watch Partick Thistle, they should be advertising everywhere, libraries, schools, sports centres, shopping centres, magazines, etc If St Mirren can do it why not Partick Thistle?

[Chicofan]

The pricing HAS to change....£17 is crazy but the powers that be would have to gamble that it would increase the gate by lowering the prices.

 

Surely its worth a try? In fact anything is worth a try at the moment.

[redhulk44]

The pricing HAS to change....£17 is crazy but the powers that be would have to gamble that it would increase the gate by lowering the prices.

 

Surely its worth a try? In fact anything is worth a try at the moment.

I would love to see the Jags move to Partick with a smaller stadium, a busy area in the West end of Glasgow, close to train stations, start afresh, or Firhill will just become a empty old relic.

[madcapmilkdrinker]

The football team I follow over in Australia plays in a second tier competition. We average crowds of about three and a half thousand with a salary cap of about 330,000 UKP. Whilst there are many differences in the governing structures of Australian Rules Football, no matter how well we do we can't be promoted to the top league, the main difference is in pricing.

 

For me to attend twenty games through the year it costs me about 80 UKP, a huge difference to what you guys have to pay. Even if I rock up to pay at the gate it's about 7 UKP, it makes it a lot more attractive to the floating punter.

 

We also play a huge amount of Friday night games, easily our best attended time to play.

 

Would I still go to watch a team of youngsters and past its if it was 17UKP per game? Possibly but I'd probably chose a lot more games to miss.

[Watson Towers]

The pricing HAS to change....£17 is crazy but the powers that be would have to gamble that it would increase the gate by lowering the prices.

 

Surely its worth a try? In fact anything is worth a try at the moment.

 

Increasingly agree with the bit in bold. Must say, though, that I don't think the pricing really is the main problem. Say we made it a tenner at Firhill. Would that really put 70% on the gate? If not, Thistle are out of pocket. There are, I know, a lot of people who can't afford £17 but who COULD afford £10, but there are many others for whom that is just one of many reasons why they don't go.

 

As I said above though, kinda looks like we are all doomed anyway: so let's go for -

• £10 entry
  
• standing areas
  
• booze
  
• summer football
  
• dancing girls
  

Yeh, okay: no. 2 & 3 requires regulatory change, I've never really liked the idea of no.4 and no. 5 is a bit... dodgy. But, as your man above said,

anything is worth a try!

Edited March 2, 2012 by Watson Towers

[Mr Kipling]

Sadly many of these pricing ideas, whilst good (especially the dancing girls idea), are unlikely to be ever adopted by any of the clubs as I believe that the minimum pricing for entry to games is set by the league and not the clubs. I recall a year or two back a statement in one of the tabloids mentioning that the minimum price for attendance for entry to first division games was £15. That was about 3 years ago so I would guess it's gone up now. Sadly until the powers in charge of the game take a look at how things are panning out across scottish football (i'll not hold my breath) then we will never move forward and attndances will continue to drop. Sadly clubs like Thistle who seem to have more forward thinking people in charge just now, who may be willing to take a pop at lowering prices to entice people back won't get their chance due to the leagues policies.

[Jaggernaut]

 

Yeah, 17 quid is fine if your taking the kids but as you said if you go yourself its a right killer and more clubs should look at the example set by some clubs down south, Bradford game at the weekend there they set the entry at one pound all round just as an experiment and the ground sold out, obviously not the answer for everyone but something like that would be a cracking little piece of PR in this difficult financial climate. Say we tried that in one of the meaningless home games towards the end of the season, a pound or two pound all round, I think we would get 3-400, I may be wrong tho.

 

 

Say we get an average gate of 2,000 at £17 each, that's income of £34,000. You're suggesting that we should aim for 3-4,000 at £1 each, giving a grand total of £4,000.

 

And the advantage of that is...?

[proudjag]

Say we get an average gate of 2,000 at £17 each, that's income of £34,000. You're suggesting that we should aim for 3-4,000 at £1 each, giving a grand total of £4,000.

 

And the advantage of that is...?

 

My suggestion was simply that, an idea. I just used the Bradford case as an example. If, when you do that maths, it would be more feasible to charge maybe £4 for adults then even that is still appealing to the punters and I wasn't suggesting it would be a regular weekly thing, just a few times a season to reward the punters for their loyalty, nice try and poopooing my idea tho.

[proudjag]

That sort of response perhaps sums up a section of our support. Simply trying to think of things that could ignite a a wider interest in the club I love. Also, there is a chance we could attract more than 4000 with those prices.

[redhulk44]

http://theovallog.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/the-price-of-modern-football/

[Jaggernaut]

I'm all for trying to attract more punters to Firhill, but if some idea is touted that means that the club loses even more money, is that what we need?

 

If there's an end-of-season, nothing-at-stake match and the club can afford a big drop in income as a thank you to the support (and don't remember, a lot of folk who would turn up would the free-loaders who in fact have done little or nothing to support the club), then I for one would be all for it. But at this stage of the season it would be nothing other than self-inflicted financial harm.

[ian_mac]

The product on the park is quite simply not worth anymore than £10, and all first division clubs must realise that. £17 is a joke for a game at Firhill.

 

The alcohol situation is one that I think could possibly change in the near future. The clubs are missing out on a huge revenue stream and I think they are all starting to realise that. This could easily have happened at the same time as England, but it's Scottish Football we're dealing with here and we are generally 10 years behind England in most aspects. The only problem could be the police objections - selling alcohol would be fine at 1st division games but as usual the OF probably couldn't be trusted.

 

Selling booze in the ground could possibly help admission prices come down, as the clubs would be tapping in to a potentially massive extra revenue stream.

[Willjag]

I'm all for trying to attract more punters to Firhill, but if some idea is touted that means that the club loses even more money, is that what we need?

 

If it's a one-off to bring new punters through the gate that might even consider coming back again at some time in the future, why not. The 2000 you mention don't all pay £17. You have to subtract ST holders, OAP's, Concessions and kids from that total.

[Phoenix]

Out of interest does anybody know if letting kids in free has seriously increased the number of kids coming to Firhill?

 

[Jaggernaut]

If it's a one-off to bring new punters through the gate that might even consider coming back again at some time in the future, why not. The 2000 you mention don't all pay £17. You have to subtract ST holders, OAP's, Concessions and kids from that total.

 

And there you have it, I reckon. Some of them might consider it at some time in the future, but probably most of them wouldn't ever bother coming back, because it's now £17, not £5 when they came along for a look.

 

I think that if Thistle announced that the match against Accies tomorrow was entirely free to everybody, Firhill would be nowhere near full.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Jaggernaut

[uberteeb]

And there you have it, I reckon. Some of them might consider it at some time in the future, but probably most of them wouldn't ever bother coming back, because it's now £17, not £5 when they came along for a look.

 

I think that if Thistle announced that the match against Accies tomorrow was entirely free to everybody, Firhill would be nowhere near full.

 

Exactly, if Thistle weren't playing tomorrow and Clyde or Queens Park were letting everyone in for a quid or even for nowt how many of us would actually go? Even if it was Hamilton or Morton who are in the same league as us I wouldn't go. If it was St Mirren, Motherwell or even the OF ("two of the biggest clubs in the world") I still wouldn't go. Why? Because what I would be going to see is pish, if it was on the telly I wouldn't watch it in my front room, if it was on in my back garden I would close the blinds, etc.

 

Reducing the admission prices by half will not double attendances or any derivative thereof, therefore we will be out of pocket. Sadly the best thing for the club to do financially is to rip off the mugs who still go.

 

Booze in the ground would make a massive difference, lets just say that everyone who drinks in the Maryhill pubs has their last pint just before kick off in Firhill and then another at half time you would make an absolute packet. Yes there is the Aitken Suite but it's crap and shuts too early. And if you're in the ground early having a pint you might want some food to go with it. If you have people drinking in the concourse pre-game you might get a cracking sing song started that would transfer into the stand. There really is no reason not to sell beer at a club like Thistle.