Off Topic
Ruminations While Waiting for Nashville To Punt Us
October 6, 2061 | Forever Land | Waiting for the axe to fall is generally excruciating, but at least it’s true that time does march forward, and the pain will eventually end. Or at least subside. Such is life with the Markus Curse.
To while the time I’ve been doing some low-grade thinking about ticket prices for next year. I’m not sure what we’ll do. In both 2060 and 2061 we set prices at $12 and sold 13,127 and then 12,112. Our Fan Interest, despite winning 89 games and being in the post season, has dropped to 53. This suggests leaving things as they are, or perhaps even dropping them. Hard to call. I say that because, despite Season Ticket Revenue dropping by just over a $Million, our overall revenue from all gate receipts is up a touch. This is because for the first year, come the regular season, we decided to join the big boys and ask for more cash per ticket. (Note – perhaps this is a reason Fan Interest has not skyrocketed?).
Cutting to the chase, we’ve been sitting at $18 for most of the year, bumping a little at times, dropping a little at others. Our overall attendance hasn’t really suffered for that—though the fact is that our attendance has been pretty tepid all year. Still, it added up to a solid enough year.
Here, for reporting purposes, is our history of ticket prices vs. attendance.
I note that Nathan Egan before me had kept his ticket prices the same ($28) essentially forever. So, as the team declined, attendance cratered. When I took the team in 2057, I was in full “attract eyeballs” mode, dropping prices intensely and signing any popular player who could draw breath. That helped until v25 came and took my T-Bird away. Still, there’s an interesting view here that says despite raising prices, we gained overall attendance in 2061(though, again, ours was not good in 2060). Bottom line, our attendance jumped from 26,300 a game in 2060 to 28,346 a game in 2061. At 50K seats, we need to do better. Technically, we need more than 50K seats, but that’s a different calculus.
StatsPlus says that the average BBA ticket goes for something like $16.60, and that the upper range is in the mid-20s.
I’m not sure that that means from a strategic point of view, but it’s got me thinking.
Our average ticket price in 2060 was $13.97 (per the game’s Financial screen). I’m not sure where we’ll end up at the end of the post season, but I’m going to guess it will be in the $16-$17 range. It feels like prices should go up. So that would say maybe Season Tickets $14 and regular season games $20? On the other hand, perhaps keeping them steady might help revenue rise due simply to fan interest increases (oh, again, perchance to dream).
Where will we end up? I dunno. I’ll think about it again when the Monty’s done.
Until then, this is really just an exercise we’re toying with while we wait for the executioner to arrive. Besides, depending on what comes, it's perhaps another $200K, right?
Every little bit helps.
October 6, 2061 | Forever Land | Waiting for the axe to fall is generally excruciating, but at least it’s true that time does march forward, and the pain will eventually end. Or at least subside. Such is life with the Markus Curse.
To while the time I’ve been doing some low-grade thinking about ticket prices for next year. I’m not sure what we’ll do. In both 2060 and 2061 we set prices at $12 and sold 13,127 and then 12,112. Our Fan Interest, despite winning 89 games and being in the post season, has dropped to 53. This suggests leaving things as they are, or perhaps even dropping them. Hard to call. I say that because, despite Season Ticket Revenue dropping by just over a $Million, our overall revenue from all gate receipts is up a touch. This is because for the first year, come the regular season, we decided to join the big boys and ask for more cash per ticket. (Note – perhaps this is a reason Fan Interest has not skyrocketed?).
Cutting to the chase, we’ve been sitting at $18 for most of the year, bumping a little at times, dropping a little at others. Our overall attendance hasn’t really suffered for that—though the fact is that our attendance has been pretty tepid all year. Still, it added up to a solid enough year.
Here, for reporting purposes, is our history of ticket prices vs. attendance.
StatsPlus says that the average BBA ticket goes for something like $16.60, and that the upper range is in the mid-20s.
I’m not sure that that means from a strategic point of view, but it’s got me thinking.
Our average ticket price in 2060 was $13.97 (per the game’s Financial screen). I’m not sure where we’ll end up at the end of the post season, but I’m going to guess it will be in the $16-$17 range. It feels like prices should go up. So that would say maybe Season Tickets $14 and regular season games $20? On the other hand, perhaps keeping them steady might help revenue rise due simply to fan interest increases (oh, again, perchance to dream).
Where will we end up? I dunno. I’ll think about it again when the Monty’s done.
Until then, this is really just an exercise we’re toying with while we wait for the executioner to arrive. Besides, depending on what comes, it's perhaps another $200K, right?
Every little bit helps.
