[Archived] 1000 Free Tickets - Vs Big Club

[SamTheShrew]

I hope people haven't taken four just for the sake of it, and only plan to use two of them.

I tried to get through all day today only to finally get through around midday to find out they had all just gone

[Hughesy]

I cant speak for all the 1000 but of the 18 that I know of, none of them planned on going to the game prior to this deal..and otehrs have been mentioned on here...im sure there must be a good % who wouldnt normally go who will be going!

Lets just trust the club eh, they have hardly failed us in the past with Season tickets etc..

[only2garners]

If we go down the club will need to increase prices at some point. I'll be very interested in the arguement; you can watch the supposed best league in the world for £200 / £250 but as we don't play in that league anymore we'll charge you £350 / 400 to watch an inferior product. Doesn't work in my book.

I'm not sure what the answer is but longer term I can see the pricing issue coming back to bite us. I work in industry famed for it's low prices, our company charges top dollar and always has done. Most of our competitors have closed. When we have problems moving volume we have ways of moving it, three for two always works well and we maintain our price as a result. If we drop the price we don't sell any more, even if we drop it by 33%. In hindsight, wonderful I know, Rovers might well have been better offering three years STs for the price of two, etc. Maintaining price is crucial.

I think the reality is that should we go down we will rapidly revert to the size of club that Preston currently is and Burnley were (and will probably be again next year), with gates about half what we are currently enjoying. the difference between football fans and plants is that price is not the only factor for many of us - there are enough fans who will pay whatever it costs (up to a certain limit) to support the team we have followed all our lives to allow us to survive in the same way that Preston do - difficult and hand to mouth and very hard to get promoted again but still around.

[london-rover]

i think its a great deal by the club!

like people are saying if they enjoy the experience and come back then great!

these deals and offers can only be good for the club in respect for getting bums on seats and getting Ewood as full as possible for games less appealing where we would get a poorer attendance!

short term = Getting Ewood as full as poss for less appealing (week night games)

long term = Possibility of these tight arse stay aways coming back to pay for a another game/s and maybe even buying a season ticket next year!

‘How many walk-ons do you think we get per match? 500? 1000? I think this coming match we'll end up with about 100 walk-ons on top of the free tickets.’

Above quote by El T,

id say we get about 2,000 walk ons on average every game!

but with this being a mid week game against an average Birmingham side with us virtually safe I wouldn’t see many of these 2,000 walk ons coming to this game anyway!

so therefore for this game the club have pretty much made sure the attendance will still be pretty decent; 18,000 season ticket holders + say 3/4000 away fans + 1,000 (deal) + 500 walk ons = around 23,000 attendance pretty decent for a midweek non appealing game

WELL DONE ROVERS!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Paul's post sums up perfectly why this short term thinking is not the answer.

Exaclty.This move is only profitable to the club if this lot come back on a regular basis.

Tickets are cheap enough at Ewood....come and support the club instead of take,take,take!

As stated before I just hope these tickets are in the hands of people who genuinely CANT afford it

[LeChuck]

As stated before I just hope these tickets are in the hands of people who genuinely CANT afford it

I bet Rovers aren't hoping the same because there is very little hope of getting there again in the future.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I cant speak for all the 1000 but of the 18 that I know of, none of them planned on going to the game prior to this deal..and otehrs have been mentioned on here...im sure there must be a good % who wouldnt normally go who will be going!

HELLO,EARTH TO HUGHESY!!(whispers).....THERE ONLY GOING BECAUSE ITS FREE,TOP SUPPORT!!!

HELLO!

[cletus]

What Rovers NEED to do now is release details of next seasons season ticket prices.

Every fan who walks through the gate for the Brum game (including the 1000 newbies) should get a flyer shoved in their hands telling them....

1...what a great friendly family club we are

2...we`re amongst the cheapest around

3...next season`s ST prices

4...re-new early (earlybird scheme) & get 10% off a home shirt (or something else at the club shop)

5...introduce a friend to a ST & get a 10% off voucher (or something like that)

The club have given 1000 seats up for free. They`ll have a captive audience. It`s a GREAT opportunity to promote next seasons STs. You never know out the 1000 freebies, you might get a few converts

[Hughesy]

What Rovers NEED to do now is release details of next seasons season ticket prices.

Until the safety of our premiership safety is gauranteed there is very little chance that we would announce our prices surely?!

Sooner we have that, quicker we can get things sorted

SG194 - Like I said before I know of 2 that are going that are buying ST's next season....im sure others might be considering it too! This is a perfect opportunity to test it, especially if you have a kid your thinking of taking next season.

[thenodrog]

Well done to the club on this.

Have booked 2 of these and an asian fella at work (who claims to be a Man U fan) got 4 for him and his children.

A great way of attracting new support.

More like a great way to attract freeloaders and hack off regulars in one easy move.

Any fool should be able to see that enticements like this should be offered to ST holders first! I've said before that we have 15000 sales reps and should utilise that fact, well now we'll have 15000 disgruntled ones.

What's great about this initiative is that those who REALLY can't afford to get to Ewood, unemployed, single parents, elderly, even at the current prices will get to see Rovers play a competitive home match

Can't afford? So and sorry to sound mercenary but whats the point of bothering trying to attract them?

[Ben-2000]

More like a great way to attract freeloaders and hack off regulars in one easy move.

Any fool should be able to see that enticements like this should be offered to ST holders first! I've said before that we have 15000 sales reps and should utilise that fact, well now we'll have 15000 disgruntled ones.

Well i'm not a disgrunted ST holder and from reading other comments on here others arn't either! but I suppose there's always one

What difference does it make if they are offered to ST holders or not? The aim is to get new people through the turnstiles and there was nothing wrong in teaming up with the local council to do it. Yes some people will get hold of tickets who have been before instead of paying, but wouldn't we all do the same? Either way it's better than an empty seat!

[thenodrog]

I agree that it's going to be very difficult if not impossible to go back to the prices we were charging just a few years ago, but whilst we are in the Premier League I don't think we will need to.

Bloody site easier than it will be if we get relegated! Make no mistake this cheap ticket policy could seriously hole the club below the waterline should we go down.

[T4E]

I've said before that we have 15000 sales reps

Perfectly put Gord, thats exactly what we've got. Problem with giving the freebies to ST holders to bring along a newbie is them being able to sit together. Although I'm sure there's a way round that.

[1864roverite]

I think its a great idea.

1000 extra fans on the night.

If Rovers sell an extra 500 pints - its an extra £ in the coffers.

If Rovers sell an extra 500 pies - its an extra £ in the coffers.

If Rovers sell an extra 300 programmes its an extra £ in the coffers.

Add that to the potential for other food and drink sales PLUS merchandise sales you could easily add another £ in the coffers.

Add that the potential for further ticket sales for the upcoming manure, Arsenal and Everton games and you have potential for more Rovers fans to take the bait. wavering fans, fans from other local clubs might like what they see and knowing they can see Premiership football for £200 quid they may sign on for next season.

Rovers are in a win win situation. Its about attracting more support and they have achieved the first part of the so called gimmick. Lets hope the club rallies for them and puts on a decent fare to entice them back.

Rovers are to be applauded.

[DP]

Nice gesture, and it's all part of JW's long term plan in increasing Rovers core support which has to be done. If and when we are relegated (which will happen some day) we need to have increased that core group of supporters who will still buy STs, no matter what. These are the risks we have to take to achieve it, but what other option does the club have?

[bellamy11]

I think its a great idea.

1000 extra fans on the night.

If Rovers sell an extra 500 pints - its an extra £ in the coffers.

If Rovers sell an extra 500 pies - its an extra £ in the coffers.

If Rovers sell an extra 300 programmes its an extra £ in the coffers.

Add that to the potential for other food and drink sales PLUS merchandise sales you could easily add another £ in the coffers.

Add that the potential for further ticket sales for the upcoming manure, Arsenal and Everton games and you have potential for more Rovers fans to take the bait. wavering fans, fans from other local clubs might like what they see and knowing they can see Premiership football for £200 quid they may sign on for next season.

Rovers are in a win win situation. Its about attracting more support and they have achieved the first part of the so called gimmick. Lets hope the club rallies for them and puts on a decent fare to entice them back.

Rovers are to be applauded.

They're not all going to be extra though are they? I bet a good 20-30% minimum would have gone anyway at walk-on prices.

There are two common misconceptions around here:

1) Revenue from scarves, pies, programmes etc offsets the money lost on ticket discounting. People always say this. It doesn't. It isn't even close. When Rovers run kids for a quid deals and the like there is a double digit deficit on revenue with normal pricing. Back when we did it for Sky games the main motivation was so that it didn't seem like we had an empty ground on TV. Rovers LOSE money when this happens, regardless of chicken balti pie sales.

2) It's great because these guys will become fans/season ticket in the future. Undoubtedly a few might. But if opening our doors for free/letting kids in for a quid was the magic bullet then the ground would be full by now! It isn't like we haven't done deals in the past.

As I've said before, I expect a net positive result from this move in that there are probably more positives than negatives, so the club has to be applauded. I'm certainly happy that we go out of our way to make football more accessable than anybody else in our league. And unlike some others I'm not in any way annoyed about people without season tickets getting additional unexpected benefits because I'm personally very happy with my season ticket deal. However, a very good point about product devaluation has been made and people seem to be tripping up over themselves to praise the club and overlooking it. When the time inevitably comes where prices have to go up to what a few seasons ago were NORMAL prices there is going to be a MASSIVE loss of season ticket renewals.

[eddiecolne]

If the support of an extra thousand fans cheer the team on to the three points that will, almost surely give us Premier League football next season, -- Job one!

[Blueboy Downunder]

would be not impressed if the club where actually distributing free tickets and 19,000 season ticket holders were still paying every month.....however, we don't know if a payment has not been made to rovers by the council, because after all it is the council that are distributing the free tickets, not rovers.

[Paul]

I think its a great idea.

1000 extra fans on the night.

If Rovers sell an extra 500 pints - its an extra £ in the coffers.

If Rovers sell an extra 500 pies - its an extra £ in the coffers.

If Rovers sell an extra 300 programmes its an extra £ in the coffers.

As I said I'm not fussed if Rovers give away 10,00o seats but the trouble with the arguement above is the spend per customer on a matchday used to average £1.13. That's a couple of years old now so perhaps it's £2.50 now. Hardly important in the scheme of things.

would be not impressed if the club where actually distributing free tickets and 19,000 season ticket holders were still paying every month.....however, we don't know if a payment has not been made to rovers by the council, because after all it is the council that are distributing the free tickets, not rovers.

If the council was paying for this I think we can be sure of two things:

1.It would be publicised as such

2. There would be uproar from some quarters

[TimmyJimmy]

If these newbies turn up and feel the vibe of a large positive crowd they'll want to come back for more, so that's goodness in my book.

The rest of us will get an improved experience because of the larger crowd and noise, as will the team, so hopefully we will end up with a better result on the day, again goodness.

As an ST holder this promotion doesn't bother me one bit as long as it's in the spirit of 'try before you buy'.

Therein lays the potential downside a] make sure the tickets go to those who weren't coming already b] hope that the recipients can afford a regular outlay for tickets next season c] try to make sure it isn't converted into an scheme to give our WAGS a free day out 'cos they'll be back off shopping next week and not at the match.

On balance yet another good initiative from the board, they aren't all going to work and all have obvious downsides as well as upside but at least JW and co are thinking outside the box so credit where it's due.

[Hughesy]

however, we don't know if a payment has not been made to rovers by the council, because after all it is the council that are distributing the free tickets, not rovers.

Very true and something which I wondered too...as for announcing, the council wouldnt as it would get slated by local moaners!

As I said I'm not fussed if Rovers give away 10,00o seats but the trouble with the arguement above is the spend per customer on a matchday used to average £1.13. That's a couple of years old now so perhaps it's £2.50 now. Hardly important in the scheme of things.

£2.50 x 1000 = £2,500 compared to 0. And possibly a better atmosphere which may contribute to 3 points, and which could effect our final place, even if only by 1 place and to the tune of £800k - allowing better signings in the summer, and a bigger lure to come back next season, to watch better players!! See it all snowballs

[SAS]

If the council was paying for this I think we can be sure of two things:

1.It would be publicised as such

2. There would be uproar from some quarters

Exactly why they wouldnt publicise it.

I think the council will have paid a small amount, as its linked in with the beez thing they have going on, and is a great PR stunt for them.

Also Rovers would MUCH prefer it to have done it themselves if it was free. They would have got a lot of market research from it.

[Ben-2000]

It will be funded from the budget of the "sport, leisure and cultural" department (or whatever it's called) within the council. It's March remember so they probably need to use their budget or lose it!

[only2garners]

It will be funded from the budget of the "sport, leisure and cultural" department (or whatever it's called) within the council. It's March remember so they probably need to use their budget or lose it!

It seems surprising therefore that they did not restrict applications to Blackburn and Darwen residents.

[leemet]

fairplay rovers, nothing wrong with giving 1000 free tickets! gets the atmosphere going lets get 3 points and then should be safe!