Pricing for Frendlies

[Goozay]

The attendance on Tuesday clearly points to the SFA getting the price of the ticket wrong. I'm aware that the Portugal game in October is sold out, so it seems like the pricing for the Nations League games are fine.

But the price of a friendly at Hampden needs to be rethought. 

[LoganRoy]

Utter nonsense.  

The pricing is excellent compared to SPFL pricing.  Too many cheapskates, big game fans and glory hunters is the problem.  The England friendly sold out, and if Tuesday was a France it would have too. 

[Goozay]

Easy Logan, because you are a multi-millionaire Chief Executive of a publicly traded media conglomerate, you are not the typical football punter.

17,000 folk decide not to go to a football game. Aye, sure – they’re solely to blame.

Also, you’re wrong. Top prices at both Fir Park and Pittodrie for this coming Saturday are £26 each.

 

[ceudmilefailte]

Don’t think the prices are too bad. I think the problem was that tickets for all five matches came out together. 
Scotland v Portugal or Scotland v Northern Ireland. You choose. 

[LoganRoy]

12 minutes ago, Goozay said:

Easy Logan, because you are a multi-millionaire Chief Executive of a publicly traded media conglomerate, you are not the typical football punter.

17,000 folk decide not to go to a football game. Aye, sure – they’re solely to blame.

Also, you’re wrong. Top prices at both Fir Park and Pittodrie for this coming Saturday are £26 each.

 

The England friendly was more expensive and it sold out, £35 for a non-member iisn't expensive for International Football.  

I think the biggest factor is people saving for Germany and the game being on BBC on a Tuesday evening.  

[Goozay]

27 minutes ago, LoganRoy said:

 

The England friendly was more expensive and it sold out, £35 for a non-member iisn't expensive for International Football.  

I think the biggest factor is people saving for Germany and the game being on BBC on a Tuesday evening.  

Your second sentence contradicts your first. Folk are saving for Germany, and they can watch the game in their house, which means folk need an extra incentive to got to the game.

I wonder what incentive that might be? 🤔

[LoganRoy]

1 hour ago, Goozay said:

Your second sentence contradicts your first. Folk are saving for Germany, and they can watch the game in their house, which means folk need an extra incentive to got to the game.

I wonder what incentive that might be? 🤔

No it doesn't.  A number of people didn't want to fork out travel, food (drink if applicable), days leave from work - its not just your match ticket pal. 

[Goozay]

So you think it's fine that a home friendly before a major tournament wasn't a sell out and there is literally nothing the SFA could done to shift more tickets?

[N4Footsoldier]

Bit of a nothing thread this- probably to be lumped into the "people not being happy unless they are moaning about the SFA" bucket.

Looking at the scenario in isolation: midweek friendly, uninspiring opposition. An attendance of over 30k (from memory) is a good outcome.

For the past 20+ years I've followed Scotland the average attendance at home friendlies rarely exceeded 20-25k, save for an England game for example. The attendance from last Tuesday night might suggest then that the pricing for friendlies is still as expected based on historical turnout. The notion that we should generally expect to sell out friendlies is ludicrous.

Another factor, these friendlies are sold in the match packages. I know quite a few people who didn't go and didn't manage to find someone to take their ticket, but safe in the knowledge that their seats for the remaining games are guaranteed. From the SFA's perspective, those seats are sold, but they don't maintain responsibility for turnout rates on the night, nor should they.

[Barney Rubble]

4 hours ago, N4Footsoldier said:

Another factor, these friendlies are sold in the match packages. I know quite a few people who didn't go and didn't manage to find someone to take their ticket, but safe in the knowledge that their seats for the remaining games are guaranteed. From the SFA's perspective, those seats are sold, but they don't maintain responsibility for turnout rates on the night, nor should they.

Apologies for the selective quoting, however the bolded part is exactly why friendlies should not be part of any match packages. From the membership's perspective, their inclusion is not only sharp practice by the SFA, it is morally indefensible as a means of artificially boosting sales for fixtures that would otherwise be unattractive for many to attend purely for distance reasons alone, especially on midweek evenings.

Match packages should consist of competitive fixtures only. Anything else is taking advantage of members' loyalty.

Edited March 30 by Barney Rubble

[Orraloon]

3 minutes ago, Barney Rubble said:

Apologies for the selective quoting, however the bolded part is exactly why friendlies should not be part of any match packages. From the membership's perspective, their inclusion is not only sharp practice by the SFA, it is morally indefensible as a means of artificially boosting sales for fixtures that would otherwise be unattractive for many to attend purely for distance reasons alone, especially on midweek evenings.

Match packages should consist of competitive fixtures only. Anything else is taking advantage of members' loyalty.

I agree with that to a certain extent, but you don't have to buy the match package if you don't want to go to friendlies. Just buy tickets for the games you want.

[N4Footsoldier]

7 minutes ago, Barney Rubble said:

Apologies for the selective quoting, however the bolded part is exactly why friendlies should not be part of any match packages. From the membership's perspective, their inclusion is not only sharp practice by the SFA, it is morally indefensible as a means of artificially boosting sales for fixtures that would otherwise be unattractive for many to attend purely for distance reasons alone, especially on midweek evenings.

Match packages should consist of competitive fixtures only. Anything else is taking advantage of members' loyalty.

I do tend to agree with that. I sold my ticket on for £25 because I couldn't justify charging my mate £35 for the pro-rated cost for this one game, being a friendly against a shit team. I know that's ironic because we lost.

I don't think it was actually any cheaper for individual ticket purchases. Perhaps one to think about on tournament/nations league years in terms of fan experience that can go into the yearly feedback form. A ticket package for a full qualification campaign at competitive match pricing is easier to do and more acceptable buying a match ticket for 5 competitive home games at £35 a pop for example.

I'd probably expect the turnout to be more like 40-45k for the Finland game being a Friday night and seeing that it's the send off game. It may be a bit much to expect a full house as mentioned previously a week before the tournament I'd imagine quite a few living outside the central belt wouldn't be too keen on spending money on travel/digs etc that they will be hoping to keep back to spunk in Germany.

[Orraloon]

2 minutes ago, N4Footsoldier said:

I do tend to agree with that. I sold my ticket on for £25 because I couldn't justify charging my mate £35 for the pro-rated cost for this one game, being a friendly against a shit team. I know that's ironic because we lost.

I don't think it was actually any cheaper for individual ticket purchases. Perhaps one to think about on tournament/nations league years in terms of fan experience that can go into the yearly feedback form. A ticket package for a full qualification campaign at competitive match pricing is easier to do and more acceptable buying a match ticket for 5 competitive home games at £35 a pop for example.

I'd probably expect the turnout to be more like 40-45k for the Finland game being a Friday night and seeing that it's the send off game. It may be a bit much to expect a full house as mentioned previously a week before the tournament I'd imagine quite a few living outside the central belt wouldn't be too keen on spending money on travel/digs etc that they will be hoping to keep back to spunk in Germany.

Changed days. Back in 1978 30,000 turned up just to watch the squad tour round the running track on an open top bus.

[ceudmilefailte]

4 hours ago, Orraloon said:

I agree with that to a certain extent, but you don't have to buy the match package if you don't want to go to friendlies. Just buy tickets for the games you want.

And miss out on a loyalty point or two!

Pretty obvious why the SFA are keen on selling tickets months in advance. 

[N4Footsoldier]

18 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

And miss out on a loyalty point or two!

Pretty obvious why the SFA are keen on selling tickets months in advance. 

I've said all along it is pretty much Business 101 from the SSC these days. Not that they will ever make everyone happy all the time - and some folk will never be happy, but still very astute they are.