Christies child arena

[Keith]

How many times have you not gone to an away match because its £2 more than you would like to pay? - none

How many extra away fans go to Moss Rose because its cheap to get in and they don't rip you off for a programme? -none

Charge the market rate - you don't get any thanks, extra points or extra revenue by not charging the market rate -a bit of goodwill maybe but thats not what we are moving for!.

I'm sure the board want the club to stand on it's own two feet and not to need the support of a generous benefactor - charging £13 to watch league football in a brand new stadium wouldn't seem like good business sense to me - this is not a charity - the club needs more revenue from ALL income streams - wake up that means all of us!

So you now know that some people do indeed avoid going to certain grounds because they rip fans off, and as I've said, if I've been charged more to get in than home fans, I don't buy a programme or anything else. Not go because they charge an extra £2? Well a family of four may consider £8 extra to be too much. What if it was £3 more? That family may decide that £12 has swung it. I agree that we should maximise our income, I disagree that this is best done by ripping people off.

Re the programme/pie/pint issue. To be honest Keith that sounds a bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face. In 40 years of watching football games I have bought a programme for every game and still have them stached in various old suitcases.

Not at all, I can survive an hour and a half without eating, find a pub for a pint before/after and while you are a programme collector, for me it is simply something to read at half time or on the way home before they finally end up in the bin. If everyone did this at grounds that rip the away fans off, they would stop ripping away fans off! Perhaps that should be a coordinated campaign next time or even something that becomes a campaign that involves all fans next season. If every visiting fan refused to buy a Rochdale or Bradford programme, they may reconsider.

[broadwayshrimp]

Another option might be to grade matches as A, B and maybe even C depending on who we are playing and charge a price accordingly. Often seen this done in the premier league.

Or why not determine the admission price based on how the team are doing. eg if we were in the top 3 or 4 for a sustained period during the season is it unreasonable to increase the admission price ? (don't know if the club is allowed to this though)

Or why not base admission on an all inclusive package where the price includes entry, programme and free raffle ticket.

[Caged Lion]

Or why not base admission on an all inclusive package where the price includes entry, programme and free raffle ticket.

Incentive concepts works well, partiuclarly if the lottery is based on number of fans through the turnstiles i.e. a gate of 2,500 could generate a substantial prize if 50p were used to cover admin/ticket printing costs, the balance going to the winner.

Purchasing an early season ticket is a perfect incentive example, based on this season's prices it costs approximately £10 to go in the North Stand.

Walk on fans presently pay their dosh and only receive entertainment, even disappointment, as a prize.

[Posh]

What's refreshing about the plans for the new stadium is the emphasis on Morecambe FC as a business.

For clubs like Rochdale and Wycombe Wanderers they are millions in debt and beyond someone coming along and paying it off for reasons unknown they are going to be stuck with it for years to come. That's why Wycombe are probably coming down and why, in my view, Rochdale won't last long in League 1.

If we can make money all year round from function suites, bars and pitch hire it provides us with new revenues that supports the clubs ambitions on the pitch. By selling naming rights, putting in corporate boxes and offering pre-match meals creates more opportunities to make money.

However match day revenues in all its guises will still be crucial. We've got OK crowds for League 2 but we cannot afford that to fall in the new stadium and the reality is that we need to grow crowds up to the 3,000 average at least. We can do that through improved marketing, providing services like a creche, a good standard of football is obviously crucial but the constant factor will be price.

Like everyone else I hope and am certain the club will be sensible over pricing as we can't afford to alienate people, particularly in a recession where money is tight. My hope is that the club will look at more progressive ideas like making season tickets even more attractive to purchase relative to ground costs; more innovation on family tickets; package deals for away fans, including B&B, pre-match meal etc.

What is good is that we've a blank canvas to work on. This is Morecambe FC's opportunity to be at the cutting edge of innovative football club management and I hope we'll seize it.

[heysham_mfc]

Another option might be to grade matches as A, B and maybe even C depending on who we are playing and charge a price accordingly. Often seen this done in the premier league.

Or why not determine the admission price based on how the team are doing. eg if we were in the top 3 or 4 for a sustained period during the season is it unreasonable to increase the admission price ? (don't know if the club is allowed to this though)

Or why not base admission on an all inclusive package where the price includes entry, programme and free raffle ticket.

Might hack season ticket holder off though if at the end of the season it works out that you have not saved anything or even payed more by buying a season ticket and not paying on a match by mach basis.
On the other hand the graded games could work though if you set out a system you could have the relegated teams from L1 and the top 12 that didn't gain promotion as grade A then teams who finished mid table grade B then finally the team who finished at the bottom of the table plus the 2 promoted Conference teams as grade C.

[james456]

I wonder how much difference the corporate facilities etc at the new stadium will make. I read on the football forum that one club (can't remember who - might have been Burton or Aldershot...) makes 70% of their total revenue on non match days which sounds great. Would we be looking at something similar?