Ticket Questions

[shoeless.db]

1. If a GM wants to increase revenue through season ticket sales, is it better to increase or decrease the price of season tickets?
2. How does market size, loyalty, and fan interest affect this decision?
3. Does the raising/lowering of ticket prices affect fan interest? If yes, should this be taken into account when altering season ticket prices?

[jleddy]

1. Yes and no. Too high of a price and you may not sell the optimal amount and will have to rely on regular "day of" ticket sales. Too low and yes, you are filling your stadium but you could be taking a hit in optimal revenue.
2. Pretty sure price and those attributes you mention all go into the formula for ticket sales.
3. This I'm not sure of and I don't think it does, it just hurts your volume of sales if too high.

[RonCo]

Good questions, of course. It seems logical there's some supply and demand optimization point that makes a difference. The right measure is revenue, of course. If you drop prices, you'll gain sales, but at what point those increased sales result in too much revenue loss is an interesting question.

Another thing that makes the game theory interesting is that I think you keep 100% of your Season Ticket Sales, but pass on 40% of your gate receipts to the visiting team. So that means if my regular season tickets are $10 per seat, I can afford to drop them to $6 per seat for Season Tickets and make the same $/ticket. (Or better said, if I drop them to $8, then I make more selling a Season Ticket than selling a walk-up ticket.

My general view is that market size, loyalty, and fan interest combine with current winning rates and stadium size to make this a multi-dimensional game that has no single right answer for every team. It would not surprise me if fan interest has some tie to the size of ticket price changes. I have no idea if that's how it works, but it would make sense to me that if a team cranks its prices a ton, fans will get pissed off, and if they suddenly drop them a ton, fans would get more interested.

[HoosierVic]

See, this is way too complicated for me - which is why I set it at $19 every year and then try to ignore that page for the rest of the season ...

[RonCo]

I would give strong consideration to adding seats sometime.

[jleddy]

See, this is way too complicated for me - which is why I set it at $19 every year and then try to ignore that page for the rest of the season ...

And you ended 2045 1st in season ticket sales, 4th in capacity %, and 6th in gate revenue. Me thinks you are doing it right, Vic!!

[jleddy]

I have no idea if that's how it works, but it would make sense to me that if a team cranks its prices a ton, fans will get pissed off, and if they suddenly drop them a ton, fans would get more interested.

We appreciate you being the guinea pig and setting your prices this off-season at $60 so we can see what happens.

[RonCo]

See, this is way too complicated for me - which is why I set it at $19 every year and then try to ignore that page for the rest of the season ...

Chicago's combined ST/Gate Revenue the past five years:

$52,630,915
$57,393,240
$60,603,233
$67,442,808
$73,258,258

Looks like something's going right. It's probably the addictive narcotics Vinnie's slipping into the stadium water.

[shoeless.db]

Thank you for the information, gentlemen.

I'm going to approach my decision with the idea that Sacramento will have another mediocre season (and, possibly, a step down as my young pitchers gain experience and I await some outfield prospects), resulting in lower single game ticket sales over the long haul. Therefore, I should maximize the sale of season tickets to raise the floor of ticket revenue gained. I believe I can accomplish this by lowering the season ticket sale price far below my targeted single game ticket price -- $17.55 -> $15.00 (or lower)...

[RonCo]

I have no idea if that's how it works, but it would make sense to me that if a team cranks its prices a ton, fans will get pissed off, and if they suddenly drop them a ton, fans would get more interested.

We appreciate you being the guinea pig and setting your prices this off-season at $60 so we can see what happens.

Check the write-up between 2036 and 2037: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=34765&p=194698

[RonCo]

Also, I mis-read your stadium size. I'd still probably add to it, but at 55K you're not in bad space.

[StormZ_23]

This is an interesting subject because at some point last season, my market size became astronomical. I think it was above average beforehand. So, while my fan interest was in the high 50s and low 60s, my average attendance nearly doubled from the previous season to around 37,000 per game (about 67% capacity), despite only having a 74-88 record. I've always equated fluctuating ticket price to how you expect to perform during the season, which is why I've slightly lowered ticket prices over the years. I may have to raise ticket price this year to see if I increase revenue despite unlikely playoff aspirations.

[HoosierVic]

See, this is way too complicated for me - which is why I set it at $19 every year and then try to ignore that page for the rest of the season ...

Chicago's combined ST/Gate Revenue the past five years:

$52,630,915
$57,393,240
$60,603,233
$67,442,808
$73,258,258

Looks like something's going right. It's probably the addictive narcotics Vinnie's slipping into the stadium water.

It’s the power of $19, Ron ...

[crobillard]

Yeah, my market size became astronomical last season too. I think it was once I clinched the division. Same sim.

I am pretty certain ticket price affects fan interest. I've been playing with it a lot the last couple seasons, but you're not going to gain/lose 10 in a single sim or anything. It's gradual. Sometimes I did lose a point when I increased the price though. It happens often enough to make me think that any time I increase it I'll lose a point of FI and any time I decrease it I'll gain a point of FI.

I'm not sure where market size in loyalty come into play, but I think it's probably related to price and ticket purchases in some way. Not sure of that calculation though. I always give a big discount on season tickets and then jack the price up during the season, I'll play with the price until I can get tickets consistently sold out or playing around that line and then I'll steadily increase it through the season if I am doing well. I should note I only operate between $1.00-$1.50 difference between the season ticket price and my price at the end of the season though. Other teams, for sure, have a much bigger variance than I do.

[GoldenOne]

This is an interesting subject because at some point last season, my market size became astronomical. I think it was above average beforehand. So, while my fan interest was in the high 50s and low 60s, my average attendance nearly doubled from the previous season to around 37,000 per game (about 67% capacity), despite only having a 74-88 record. I've always equated fluctuating ticket price to how you expect to perform during the season, which is why I've slightly lowered ticket prices over the years. I may have to raise ticket price this year to see if I increase revenue despite unlikely playoff aspirations.

I think my market size went to astronomical around the same time. My attendance was almost cut in half and I was lowering tickets prices by about $1 or so. Seemed like a lot was tied to how the team was performing at the time.

[Lane]

I believe Matt equalized all market sizes at astronomical at some point last season.

[CTBrewCrew]

See, this is way too complicated for me - which is why I set it at $19 every year and then try to ignore that page for the rest of the season ...

Lmao

[CTBrewCrew]

Before my horrible august id play around with my ticket prices every few sims. Up / down to see where i could get it to where id be maxed out. I was able to get my capacity at around 97% is for a good 2+ months. But as soon as i tanked in aug - my game attendance crapped out going from 39k a game to like 23k per game. I kept on playing with it seeing if i lower my prices by x i need to increase my game attendance by Y just to break even - but shooting for more. It seems to help as my revenue went up by 8m from hr previous season.

[CTBrewCrew]

By season's end i was able to get my attendance back up to about ~33k per game for final homestand vs LOU.

[Jwalk100]

I try to keep an eye on the fan interest on Stats+. When it goes up I add a dollar in game then look at the accounting page. If projected gate goes up, I will add another dollar. If the gate drops, then it set it back to where it increased. I think it works but it may just be a coincidence. And I'm and idiot too.