Attendances 2019

[Ezeikial]

But that is literally the whole idea behind season tickets. Get people committed up front and their money in the bank early. Rather than risk them making fewer fixtures if results are bad, they get busy at work, have weddings etc to go to etc etc. Season Tickets also enable better financial planning than just waiting to see how many pay in for each fixture.

Yep, that's a reasonable summary of the rationale behind why clubs offer a discounted season ticket. There are other benefits including potentially a greater matchday spend and a spin-off for cup and european ticket sales

But my comments related to the risky nature of the initiative of the sizable reduction in adult unreserved season tickets from €210 to €180. It was already reasonably priced and a reduction in price was hardly needed to get existing ST holders to renew. It could easily result in a significant reduction in the overall revenue well beyond the normal discounts provided in exchange for the benefits to the club you outline.

I don't know the exact numbers involved, but if there are an existing 1000 who renew at the reduced price that's a chopping off €30,000 straight away from people who are likely to renew anyway at €210. Then there is the massive €120 gap between reserved and unreserved seats - if it only influences 100 supporters to switch to the lower cost ST that means starting off down €42,000.

That's all before you examine where the new buyers are likely to come from. It's probably impossible to measure how many matches the new season ticket buyer would otherwise attend. Even if that average number was as low as 10 league matches and the club succeeded in selling 200 season tickets as a direct result of the discount, the gain is as low as €6,000.

Discounted season tickets make sense for any club once the discount is not too large or disproportionate . Large discounts though will always be popular with existing fans

Spending the money on attracting new customers to try to fill the spare capacity might be a more worthwhile investment

[marinobohs]

But that is literally the whole idea behind season tickets. Get people committed up front and their money in the bank early. Rather than risk them making fewer fixtures if results are bad, they get busy at work, have weddings etc to go to etc etc. Season Tickets also enable better financial planning than just waiting to see how many pay in for each fixture.

The point is by having a hefty decrease in price you need a significant update in numbers sold to break even. It’s a fair point.

Great initiative by shams and with plenty of spare capacity I can see it bearing fruit. Match atmosphere is almost as much a draw on potential support as team success, bigger crowds usually lead to even bigger crowds 😁

[Nesta99]

Ye would like to think that the decision was based on some potential market research rather than a hopeful punt. Some LoI clubs are getting to grips with becoming more appealing to their community beyond what silverware generates. Hopefully the great value offered by Rovers' season tickets do the job!

[Ezeikial]

Shamrock Rovers director Mark Lynch on Rovers season ticket pricing initiative

Those regular season ticket prices for Tallaght Stadium represent a €30 drop in price from last season and are part of an initiative the club has committed to in order to try to increase attendances and attract new fans who will stay for the long-term.

“The drop is part of the strategic plan to increase attendances,” says board director Mark Lynch. “Two years ago we introduced kids go free so on buying an adult season ticket you got up to three kids to go free. The idea was to get children into going to live games as early as possible and that was very successful. Not only did we sell more tickets than before, obviously you’re giving away up to three kids tickets with an adult, but we also increased the value in revenue from them. It wasn’t just that we sold more physical tickets, we sold more money’s worth of tickets.

“That initiative was to incentivise and encourage young families to come to Tallaght Stadium. We’ve obviously got a fantastic stadium which is very family friendly. We’ve got all the facilities of a modern stadium as well as parking, the Luas on our doorstep, bus routes as well so no blocks for a family to enjoy a night out. So for an adult and three kids at that price of €210 you’re in effect paying roughly €15 for four people to go to a live game, per match. That showed us that there is a marketplace if the price is right.”

Last season Rovers had around 2,000 season tickets in circulation and although a portion of those are given out for free to players, academy players and partner clubs, the figures are still significant. With the introduction of the south stand, Tallaght Stadium now has a capacity of 8,000 and Rovers came close to filling it last season for the Dublin derby when 7,021 turned out to watch Stephen Bradley’s side end their losing run against rivals Bohemians.



Lynch says that dropping prices still presents quite a risk for the Tallaght club. Indeed Rovers made losses of just under €100,000 in the year to the end of last November, as reported in The Irish Times last month.


“We kind of broke even last year, the season 2019, but the previous year The Irish Times reported on losses so it’s not like we’re sitting on a gold mine in the bank and sell things cheaper than we would otherwise,” Lynch says.

“We’re just trying to build on it and building on it is building more people, not putting the price up. More people at a lower price is better than the same people at a higher price if you get it right. If you drop it, as we have by €30, and you get enough extra people, which is doable considering the season we had, we’ll have beaten where we’ve started. We’ve gone with a strategy that is a risk because we’ve dropped the price. So if we get the same people buying season tickets this year as last year then we’ve lost a lot of money but we’re taking the risk that we’re going to get more people and that many more that it will still make more money than if we kept the price the same or increased it a little bit.”

And while it might indeed be a risk for Rovers, those sorts of risks are second nature to League of Ireland clubs as the battle against the balance sheets continues.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/national-league/pay-for-play-value-to-be-found-in-league-of-ireland-season-tickets-1.4094573?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[marinobohs]

Shamrock Rovers director Mark Lynch on Rovers season ticket pricing initiative


https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...medium=twitter

Fair dues to shams, if the league is ever to really take off it will be on the back of increased attendances and any initiative to bring crowds into grounds is to be welcomed.New fans will attend 'away' matches as well as home (so other clubs benefit) and the additional atmosphere of a decent sized crowd is often an attraction in itself. Undoubtedly there is a financial risk (they will need a big increase in take up just to maintain last years income levels) but having won the cup and with the spare capacity it probably as good a time for them to try it as any.

[sbgawa]

!00% right that bigger crowds and the atmosphere are an attraction in themselves.
The matches with Bohs this year have had such great atmospheres that they have become "events".
The sold out signs in Dalyer create the same feel around other matches (surely you can get some access to one of the other sides for 2020)

[marinobohs]

!00% right that bigger crowds and the atmosphere are an attraction in themselves.
The matches with Bohs this year have had such great atmospheres that they have become "events".
The sold out signs in Dalyer create the same feel around other matches (surely you can get some access to one of the other sides for 2020)

Don't mention the war ! Very unlikely to get any real increase in capacity this side of our return to the promised land (post Tolka). Cost of getting Connaught street side up to H&S acceptable levels (especially including access) is way beyond what DCC or Bohs would even contemplate, we are talking serious structural stuff. Unfortunate given our healthy numbers last season (and expected increases in number of members and season tickets next season) that we wont be able to push on a bit. Hopefully the opportunity will be there on our return to Dalymount.

[David BOHie]

Don't mention the war ! Very unlikely to get any real increase in capacity this side of our return to the promised land (post Tolka). Cost of getting Connaught street side up to H&S acceptable levels (especially including access) is way beyond what DCC or Bohs would even contemplate, we are talking serious structural stuff. Unfortunate given our healthy numbers last season (and expected increases in number of members and season tickets next season) that we wont be able to push on a bit. Hopefully the opportunity will be there on our return to Dalymount.

Hopefully DCC see the crowds and revise the plans back to 8000.

I know if we have a 6,000 seater stadium we'd be twice as well off as we are now, but we could host u21 games, women's games etc if we had 8k. The advantages of Dalyer is its proximity to the city. People might pop in after work and it opens up a new audience.

We won't take all the games off Tallaght but in an ideal world they'd be split to some degree. With 6k, they'll probably all be in Tallaght

[EatYerGreens]

Hopefully DCC see the crowds and revise the plans back to 8000.

I know if we have a 6,000 seater stadium we'd be twice as well off as we are now, but we could host u21 games, women's games etc if we had 8k. The advantages of Dalyer is its proximity to the city. People might pop in after work and it opens up a new audience.

We won't take all the games off Tallaght but in an ideal world they'd be split to some degree. With 6k, they'll probably all be in Tallaght

I agree with you on the 8,000 capacity making more sense. Particularly as the stadium designs that have bene floated preciously don't allow for further expansion in future (which is surely a major flaw in their design ?).

Where I'd disagree with you would be on splitting games U21s etc between Tallaght and Dalymount. They should really be being split where possible between Dublin and locations elsewhere, rather than just within Dublin. The south needs to stop being so ridiculously centralised on Dublin in every aspect of life.

[marinobohs]

I agree with you on the 8,000 capacity making more sense. Particularly as the stadium designs that have bene floated preciously don't allow for further expansion in future (which is surely a major flaw in their design ?).

Where I'd disagree with you would be on splitting games U21s etc between Tallaght and Dalymount. They should really be being split where possible between Dublin and locations elsewhere, rather than just within Dublin. The south needs to stop being so ridiculously centralised on Dublin in every aspect of life.

Apart from Cork, which "locations elsewhere" do you have in mind ? Dalymount a long way off but anywhere else will be decades.

[sbgawa]

Turners cross would be fine for under 21s

[vinnie]

I think the U21's should be rotated around the grounds to give everyone a chance to see them, not many fixtures would require a 6K+ stadium, didn't Sligo used to host a few a couple of years ago?

[Dalymountrower]

As should Galway host them/ women's and under 19's

[nigel-harps1954]

I don't think under-21 games should be moved around. Nonsense to be doing that. Young squad trying to blood them into senior football should be given a solid base to work from that is familiar to them. Tallaght has the best facilities in the league and rightly the home stadium for the under-21 and womens teams.

[EatYerGreens]

I don't think under-21 games should be moved around. Nonsense to be doing that. Young squad trying to blood them into senior football should be given a solid base to work from that is familiar to them. Tallaght has the best facilities in the league and rightly the home stadium for the under-21 and womens teams.

If a footballer can't play their A game unless it's in 'familiar' surroundings, then they won't be going very far in the game. The Spanish national teams seem to do pretty well without even having a home ground, and rotating their matches at all levels continuously.

If all U21s are to happen only in Tallaght - no debate - then what incentive does that provide for towns and clubs elsewhere to be ambitious about their stadia ? Things will never improve outside of Dublin if everything is concentrated in Dublin because it's where things are the best etc.