Are we trying to entice fans or drive them away?

Columnist

By Tony Tannous, 21 Apr 2010 Tony Tannous is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, Clive Palmer, football, Gold Coast United

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Nine or so months ago, during the most recent pre-season, I wrote an article on The Roar about how Gold Coast United had missed a golden opportunity to build goodwill among the local community ahead of their A-League debut by essentially ripping off potential fans for a pre-season friendly against Fulham.

More than 10,000 turned out for that game, and the reports, including those from the knowledgeable Roar readers at the game, is that is was a decent night out, but at a hefty price.

My argument was that Gold Coast could have attracted some instant buy-in from fans by offering a fairer price.

Instead, the perception created by the Clive Palmer and his hierarchy by the pricing of their first match was “we’re exclusive, expensive and after your money”.

The message really should have been, “here’s our team, here’s a reasonable price, come along, check us out and get on board for the A-League. We want you, we need you.”

We all know what transpired throughout their first season, largely, I feel, due to a lack of respect for their fans and lack of willingness to engage the Gold Coast community.

So it was with much disappointment I read on Monday that the lowest price for Kevin Muscat’s testimonial game, at Melbourne’s new rectangular bubble-dome stadium on May 14 will be $31.40.

The next category is priced at $47.40, while top price is $60.40. At that price, you’d think the first choice Socceroos were coming to town.

While the stadium looks an absolute peach, and I, for one, can’t wait to venture south next season to check it out, administrators and these “pricing analysts”, as Clayton described them in the comments on my Gold Coast piece, mustn’t forget what they’re selling here.

It’s ultimately just a friendly kick-about between Melbourne Victory and the Young Socceroos, partly to pay respect to the Victory’s skipper, partly to show off the new stadium.

Muscat will be hoping the fans show him more respect than he showed the Asian Champions League last week.

I certainly hope the Victory pull a gate, but feel their chances would have been better if the cheapest tickets were around the $15 to $20 mark.

Especially when you consider adults can get into any number of AFL games in Melbourne, that weekend, for around the $20 mark.

For another comparison, $30 can get you into Anzac rugby league test on May 7, the first match at the new stadium.

Melbourne Heart, when they eventually get their chance to entice an audience, would do well to learn from the mistakes of others, like the Gold Coast, by offering affordable football.

This whole issue of ticket prices has been a bug-bear of mine since the A-League’s inception.

I still remember the conversation I had with then Sydney FC chairman Walter Bugno at the club’s first training session.

Surveying the impressive SFS arena, I suggested the only way to the fill it, apart from dishing up a decent product on the pitch, was to keep ticket prices reasonable, with an entry point of $20 or less.

He nodded, no doubt appreciating the fine balancing act between keeping the turnstiles ticking and keeping the balance sheet flowing.

We all know that Sydney FC, in season one, fell into a big financial hole that put an end to Bugno and his management team, but the reality is that Sydney offered some wonderful value that season.

Ticket prices started in the $15 to $20 range, with a saving for those who pre-purchased, while often you would find two-for-one offers in the club’s then partner newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald.

With expensive stadium deals all over the place, it’s a difficult balancing act for administrators to keep everyone happy, but they must always remember the first priority remains the fans.

Follow Tony on Twitter @TonyTannousTRBA

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The Crowd Says (32) | Page 1 of Comments

MV Dave said | April 21st 2010 @ 6:39am | Report comment

Excellent work Tony…the Socceroos v NZ game is also in Melbourne around that time. Would be interested to see what the break even point is for a game at the new stadium is. Surely the first game, as a thank you to the loyal fans could have been $20 for all tickets. Anyway have my invite from MV to tour the ground this Saturday so will see it first hand soon enough.

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Towser said | April 21st 2010 @ 8:12am | Report comment

Wrote an article yesterday about the Roar turning itself around. The main theme being related to ticket prices whats on the park & value for money.
Applies right across the board.
I remember when Australia played against Qatar in a WC qualifier they bumped up the top ticket adult price from $90 to $120.
I wrote to the FFA saying it was ridiculous. Brisbane was not a well enough estabilished football market to do this in.
Same for the Gold Coast ,no football tradition yet GCU have the highest ticket prices in the A-League I believe.
Same as testimonials. No tradition in Australia unlike Europe. So ticket prices have to be reasonable.
Hoping the lure of the new stadium will pull in the punters isnt good enough if there been treated like mugs regarding tiicket prices.

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agga78 said | April 21st 2010 @ 8:39am | Report comment

I have already replied via email to MVFC about Muscat’s match, I said I hope you enjoy this mickey mouse match, with those Mickey mouse prices, $40 dollars for a decent view and $30 dollars behind the goals for a nothing match, it concerns me greatly that the new stadium will see MVFC charge greatly inflate prices from prevoius seasons, my seat allocation at the new stadium is right in the corner flag and this is premium B the same as the middle of the ground, I will not pay premium B to sit in the corner.

There is a very good chance MVFc will lose between 5-10k members if the catergories are not change and pricing is not kept to a decent level, but the signs don’t look very good if they are charging $40 for those exact seats for a nothing match. These clubs never learn, they really don’t have a clue, people want to watch the games, but the prices are ridiculous, seats behind the goals at all matches should be $10 dollars, people like myself who are prepared to pay more to sit on the side, $30 dollars yes ok it’s pushing it, but $40 dollars no way, I really don’t want to give up my MVFC membership, this will be my 4th year, but if they try to sting us, I will only pick a handful of games to go to.

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Tadpohle said | April 21st 2010 @ 8:41am | Report comment

Nothing will get support better than “value for money”, it is what everybody experiences every time they put their hand in their pocket to pay the bill, or need to choose the commodity they are going to spend their hard earned cash on. Accountant type administrators that think that the average punter will fork out whatever the freight is for a game should have a reality check. There are a few dedicated supporters that will pay through the neck for a ticket but that really only feeds the whingers and discontent if a bad result of hoof and chase football is lost..
The other point that would worry me about this tribute game is the popularity of muscat ??????, If it was his last game, and they were playing a select group of A league players that had copped his elbow or studs in the past, I would pay double the going rate to watch the payback, bugger the football.

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md said | April 21st 2010 @ 8:49am | Report comment

Good article.

It’s hard to find the right balance, but Sydney have done pretty well with their membership pricing this year. Platinum membership on the loyalty price works out to $27.33 per game and the bronze membership works out to only $15 per game.
Sydney have also given bronze memberships to every junior member of the Macarthur District soccer clubs – which is a clever bit of work.

Would be interested to hear what the other club’s membership pricing is.

Cheers
md

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Cpaaa said | April 21st 2010 @ 9:00am | Report comment

Great piece, it does appear to be finance first and the fans know it. Even the Bris Roar smoked their fans out with the price hike. Problem with Clive was that he is loaded with cash. If he showed the love in the first few seasons, the GC fans would have been there and supported him and the club. But Clive is looking to blame everyone else except himself. i think the GC community saw that this was just another greedy Cat after some pocket change.
As for the Bubble Dome…whos responsible for the prices? Are they predicting a sell out? and if not, you have to question the starting price.

When it comes to Australian Football, the atmosphere comes from the crowd, and that reflects on the pitch. Without sellout crowds the game is always going to be competing for media space and sponsorship.

i have some suggestions:

1/ Whats better? 10,000 crowd at 30dollars a ticket “or” 20,000 at 15 a ticket.

2/ Could we have cheaper online tickets that jump in value on match day. to avoid less “on the day walk in” purchases.

3/ Special seating prices, as in happy hour on the clubs web page, same model as Virgin blue airline tickets. Cheaper tickets should be, Sit where you want, first in first serve! Sometimes even Gold Class tickets should be awarded to give the casual fan a different experience. NO ONE WINS WITH EMPTY SEATS.

4/ Family tickets should be a steal. Mum, Dad, 2kids or 5 dollars per extra child. (Here we are grooming the next generation of fans and players) The money they save could go towards merchandise.

5/ finally chillout with the security. Football crowds are really not violent just passionate people, so stop treating fans like Al Qaeda militants.

We are trying to build a football community of loyal followers, so lets see the love please and the finance will be rewarded 10fold. Cause right now the community does feel like its being fished for its dollar.

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Midfielder said | April 21st 2010 @ 9:24am | Report comment

Could not agree more with your article.

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Banger said | April 21st 2010 @ 9:28am | Report comment

The price of A-league games is ridiculous, the way they ramped up the pricing after season one was atrocious. I stopped being a season ticket holder, it was either that or give up my foxtel subscription.

It becomes even more ridiculous when you can go and see some premier league games at Fulham for 5 pound .Albeit against some of the premier teams from the north of England. I recently went to the Fulham’s Europa cup game against Shaktar Donetsk for 10 pound, which is currently less then $20 aussie. Seems a little bit ridiculous when compared to the A league pricing. Perhaps the FFA looking at providing some flexibility in the ticketing, eg full price ticketing for big / derby games, and perhaps discounting tickets for games that won’t be as well supported. The current pricing structure is limiting the a-league and preventing the development of any true foothold for football in the Australian sporting landscape.

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- md said | April 21st 2010 @ 9:57am | Report comment
  
  Hmm – see my post above. The Sydney membership prices ranges from $15 per match to $27 per match (for a seat on the sideline near halfway). Actually pretty good value I would have thought.
  
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Australian Football said | April 21st 2010 @ 10:02am | Report comment

Tony,
I can only report in my case that I did not attend any preseason GCU FC matches on the Coast. We; my family and I, made a deliberate decision that we would only go to the HAL league matches and for go any and all the practice matches, which included Fulham. I’m glad we did so, and attended only the GCU FC home fixtures.

As an old timer, I have had my fill of overseas friendlies that go back as far as when Everton toured in the mid sixties in Sydney, at the SCG in front of a full house. I’m not suggesting for one moment they don’t have their place. But watching fair dinkum football on the Gold Coast when I thought when I left Sydney to live permanently on the Gold Coast was the end of watching any first class football for me.

I so enjoyed the HAL season on the Gold Coast. I will be watching every home game from here on end at Robina, Gold Coast, as long as it will last. However, I will have to consider very carefully any future promotional preseason fixture as I don’t get the same buzz out of them anymore. In saying that, if the GCU FC were to face Chelsea at the Skilled Stadium in Robina I would make that the only exception.
_____
AF

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- Joe FC said | April 21st 2010 @ 5:31pm | Report comment
  
  Australian Football my late father (Merseyside raised) took me to see that Everton game. My recollection is that it took place at the Showground but I could be wrong.
  Good article Tony says it all.
  
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  - Australian Football said | April 22nd 2010 @ 6:55am | Report comment
    
    Joe FC,
    I can remember that game as if it was yesterday—the first FIFA sanctured tour of Australia after Australia was allowed back into FIFA after bing bared from FIFA for poaching European Players. I was in my very late teens and Everton FC played a select NSW XI, their first match of their Australian tour and it was definitely at the SCG where Brian Smith of Canterbury/Marrickville and Pan Hellenic FC scored the opening goal of the match in the first few minutes. However, after that initial shock—Everton went onto win and put 11 goals past the NSW XI keeper Ron Lord of Sydney Prague FC. Next they went to Melbourne and over to Perth and back to Sydney to play an Australia XI with Les Scheinflug as the new Australian Captain. I’m not sure if you are thinking of that second match Everton played against an Australian XI side where they were again hammered something like 8 nil—that game I think was at the Sydney Show Ground? Everton left Australia undefeated. It was a long time ago, but that’s what my memory tells me..
    _____
    AF
    
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    - Joe FC said | April 22nd 2010 @ 9:31am | Report comment
      
      Thanks AF must have been that 2nd game as I don’t recall Everton conceding a goal that day but as you say it was a long time ago and my memory is not what it used to be.
      
      Reply
Seungmin Lee said | April 21st 2010 @ 10:50am | Report comment

Yeah, good article regarding K-League Clubs can’t attract crowd though their Season ticket price is $70.. Local province clubs like Jeonbuk Motors, the Champions last season their season ticket price is less than $40.

In that case the ticket price doesn’t matter so much. That makes some clubs like FC Seoul and Suwon priced $12 for the away section, with thought like “Away fans are the people who don’t care about how much it costs”..

Unlike that, Australia’s situation looks totally different.. Interesting story it is for me.

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