Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang
Nobody is suggesting that $20 for everyone is the best way forward. But the $100 and $89 price points have been flatly rejected by thousands. To suggest that Spruce Meadows is effectively reserving them for a new class of supporter that may or may not emerge in the coming years is... odd. Alienate people before they come supporters so you don't have to alienate them later with a price hike?
If people were actually willing to pay $100 a game, right now, then we wouldn't be talking about pricing. Not in 5 years, but now. Empty seats right now are doing nothing for revenue. Someone paying $50 is better than an empty seat that someone didn't pay $100 for. That $50 ticket will also pay for parking, food, beer, merch, etc. and that empty seat is... empty. If demand is higher than supply, then increase prices.
A successful pricing strategy should result in near-capacity of supporters paying what the market will pay. Rows of empty seats or being fully sold out at $20 for the entire year are both failures.
Anyway - derby day! A win today will really put Cavalry in the drivers seat.
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If CanPL takes off, centre field tickets are going to be north of $50. I think it’s a reality that a pro league in Canada isn’t going to last long term with the average ticket price under $50 and any level of quality presentation. Full stadiums that don’t pay the bills can lead to a folded club. There’s also no guarantee that people who buy the cheapest seat options are buying enough at the game to justify the discounted ticket. Of course, you don’t want empty either, so it’s a balance. There’s two strategies to get there:
1. You start off low, and keep upping prices. This can alienate your base that aren’t willing to see 10-20% increases in tickets each year and bail when their price point is maxed out. This is what happened to the Storm/Mustangs (coupled with an ill-guided move to McMahon) The hope here is that enough $20 weekend fans like it and sees value in paying double or triple later. I suspect a few of the teams are trying this method out.
2. You set your price and hope your product will justify it to enough people that you grow on word of mouth and success. The issue here is that the sport and team aren’t established yet and people don’t think they should be paying North American pro prices for a glorified div 2. Fair enough, but it’ll never be more if fans in Calgary refuse to support it like one.
Method 2 seems to be the cavalry attitude, and I didn’t love it at first either, but as a STH, at least it looks like they won’t be getting more expensive any time soon either, and they tossed in a couple jerseys.
I really think the Cavs are committed to 2-3k of cheap accessible tickets, but the rest of us have to put our money where our mouths are if we want to see this team grow into something bigger. As much as we all scoff at officers club, with the roughly 200 people there at $200 a shot, they’re effectively the gate revenue of 1000-2000 fans. Tough to argue with that sort of revenue stream ability for a year 1 club.