We currently have some of the highest-priced matchday tickets in the Championship.

The cheapest are in the lower Sir Bobby Robson Stand and South Stand. Both start at £25 (Category C) to £28 (Category A), increasing on matchdays to £27.50 (Category C) to £30.50 (Category A). Except I do not recall a Category C league game this season. Prices elsewhere in the ground start at £30 (£32.50 on matchdays).

We undoubtedly have sold fewer season tickets for next season than in 2010/11 and this means lower matchday revenue for the club.

The season ticket £10 offers which have been run this season and indeed the Arsenal game at £25 showed that there are fans that want to go to matches and get tickets on a match by match basis.

I have always made a point of talking to new faces who appear at home matches once a season and also as many fans outside of the ground as possible. The story is fairly consistent. These fans cannot afford to go to more than a couple of games a season or are unwilling to because they object to paying such high matchday ticket prices.

Now the club need to maximise ticket revenue, their argument has consistently been that the way to do this is to increase ticket prices, so they maximise revenue from each individual ticket.

This may make sense to some accountants but flies in the face of good business sense. If prices go up, many matchday fans will be less likely to go to matches as a result.

You price a product based on costs and taking into account the price the customer is willing to pay for the product. Whilst success on the pitch, it is argued, brings back the fans, it is clearly only continued success, a run of ten wins maybe, which does this. We have had no such success for several seasons since the reign of Joe Royle. No one can guarantee such success next season.

So, it boils down to numbers. If the club sell 3,000 tickets per game at an average of £30 per ticket, what is the price that the average ticket needs to be to sell 5,000 or even 10,000 match day tickets? The first scenario brings in £90,000 per game. At what price point will fans be attracted back to Portman Road? £25, £22 or £20 average ticket price?

If they sell 5,000 at £20 then that is still £10,000 more income than they would have had (oh, and if you look at away attendances at Portman Road, which have plummeted this season, it is clear that having the second-highest away match prices has had a major negative effect so dropping them would probably add 500 to 1,000 away fans).

The club need to seriously look at ticket pricing, they need to do some serious market research, not of season ticket holders, that is not the issue, but reach out to the fans who are now 'priced out' of Portman Road and find out what the price point at which they will return is. They can keep the categories, just make the lowest category this price point and the highest the one they would charge for West Ham etc.

If you can get attendances up over 20,000 each week, the players will benefit, the club gets more income and the fans are happier as well.

This is not rocket science it is business. Ask Lord Sugar, Theo Paphitis in fact any businessman who has run a football club. Top-notch prices only work with a top-notch product, we cannot offer the latter, it makes no sense to price it at the former.

Bluejake added 11:49 - May 12 Good post, makes commercial sense to attract higher attendances and in addition to the extra revenue more bums on seats would provide, there should also be a much better atmosphere in the ground.
0

Blueknight85 added 12:15 - May 12 we also have some of the biggest overheads in the championship with our land rent soaring
0

Superfrans added 12:28 - May 12 Makes a lot of sense. of course, the biggest obstacle to cutting matchday prices is that it encourages fewer people to buy season tickets. I would suggest some kind of half-way house - how about a tickt bundle - £80 for four matches (in the SBR Lower), to be selected by the customer as the season runs through. A season ticket works out at about £17 a match in the SBRLower, a matchday ticket is £25, so that would be a significant saving. The problem, though, is that there is no-one actively marketing the club at possible customers. there is no director or head of marketing, which is crazy for a business of this size.

0

6fish added 12:38 - May 12 I'm one of the people you describe. I stopped actually going to matches a few years ago. I don't find myself in Suffolk very often but when I'm there I should be attending games but the cost is just too high I'm afraid. The last time I went I paid £30 to watch my team lose 3-1 in a bad game. I decided I wasn't getting value for money and haven't been since. Personally the most I would pay for a game now would be £20, £15 would guarantee my attendance where possible.

0

Reuser31 added 13:12 - May 12 Good post. Just hope some of the top dogs at Portman Road are reading this, bigger attendances mean more noise, we all saw what the atmosphere can be like at the Arsenal game.
0

Greybritain added 13:19 - May 12 Good blog. Our prices are way too high. If there must be 3 categories of games, then some of the games should fall into category C as well. High ticket prices certainly keep me away from regular games. Our away prices are a farce too - the Cobbold is an old, cramped and uncomfortable stand. We have been in this league for a long time now, and if a club has already been here, I doubt that fans will return to this poorly connected part of England, to drink in one away pub and sit in an overpriced and small seat.

0

Larry72 added 13:53 - May 12 Very true, i cant make all the games because of work, its 150 mile round trip and i take my daughter too,sometimes we go down on the day so prices increase add fuel costs, tickets programmes,food and drink its getting near the £100 per match (for very unattractive negative football under keane) also why do they charge ridiculous prices inside for food if you look outside at the thousands of people eating before they get inside the ground anybody can see the amount of extra revenue to be had if the prices were even close to being reasonable i would certainly pay a little over the odds and see the club get the profits but not the extortionate prices they charge,just another way the real fans get ripped off, let the prawn sandwich brigade and the corporates pay the extra at least they can claim it back!!!!!

0

CambridgeBlue added 15:48 - May 12 I'm an accountant, and I've long been arguing as you have above. Very good post, which sums up my own frustrations of going to games. I no longer live in Ipswich and simply can't justify £100+ on match tickets and associated expenses for 90 minutes of what may or may not be appalling football. Frankly more often than not over the last 5 years or so, it's been awful, so I have pretty much stopped going except for special occasions. If the tickets were priced at £20, I'd be going much more regularly - it's not that the tenner for one game is an enormous difference, but over the course of 20 games in a season, that's a fair old whack. On the other hand, 10 lots of my theoretical £20 to them is worth a lot more than the current 1 or 2 x £30 they're getting. And I'm not the only one. They'd have to be a bit careful not to annoy people who had bought season tickets at full price, but I think now is the time to sort it out. Close season, not everyone has bought season tickets, and it's easy enough to organise small refunds if they did decide to put the price down. None of that will happen though, I'm assuming they think a half empty stadium at crazy prices with no atmosphere is better than a full one with lots of noise at more sensible ones.

0

Fatboy added 17:13 - May 12 I'm very much in the same boat as 6fish and CambridgeBlue (and I'm also an accountant). The 150 mile round trip to home games plus other commitments at weekends means that I'm never going to be able to attend more than 10 home games a season, so a season ticket is not a viable option for me. However, the high price of matchday tickets puts me off going more often than not and this season I did not attend a single home match for the first time in over 20 years. It's not that I can't afford the tickets, it's just that I feel that £30 odd is too much to pay to watch a game of football. I also resent the £2.50 increase if you buy your ticket on the day - all this does is puts people off going if they weren't able to commit to a match, e.g. people who weren't sure they would be able to get out of work in time for an evening match. And what about new fans? Surely lower matchday ticket prices would encourage more people, perhaps new to the area, to come down to Portman Road and maybe in time become season ticket holders themselves?

0

Premiertown added 18:31 - May 12 Absolutely agree, get real Ipswich. Then I and others will come back.
0

CaughtInTheBrambles added 18:36 - May 12 So if two accountants (even ones not yearning for the excitement of lion-taming or entrepreneurship) agree that this argument makes sense, there must be a good accounting basis for it. It does need wider debate though, if as was stated there is now no marketing input into ITFC how are the club to judge if this notion is indeed viable. Perhaps Phil can do a poll. Just as a start, just to see if it actually has enough support. Of course in this instance the views of Season Ticket holders is actually of less importance than those of the occassional or used to be season ticket holder, but if they too can reflect the views of their mates who are in this position their vote would still be valid.

0

RegencyBlue added 21:00 - May 12 More than enough fans have voted with their feet over the last few seasons to show there is a problem. Big rethink needed at the top at Portman Road over this and many other issues.
0

OrkneyBlue added 21:22 - May 12 Without a doubt the thing for me that i just can't understand about ITFC. For me personally, i get down twice maybe three times a season taking in four to nine games depending on how the fixtures fall, so maybe I don't meet the criteria of the pay on match day fan(although i have paid up to £90 extra on top of airfares etc for tickets in a trip) but it is simple maths. To have 25,000 crowd a game for 23 games at an average £22 each is £12.6m per season, 17,000 crowd at an average £28 for 23 games is £10.9m per season and that doesn't take into account the food, drinks and of course the club shop. But, although the financial side is important it would also give one hell of an atmosphere at PR and maybe give the players a little extra and maybe then they may go on the kind of run mentioned in the blog.

0

Blue_Fred added 21:51 - May 12 excellent blog - (nail;head;WHACK) this must be a very big boat we are all in together, I'm not sure of the mileage but i live in Watford and have for the past 2 seasons been put off the idea of taking my boy to Ipswich home games due only to the entry price. I simply don't think the product jusifies the price. I want atmoshpere and entertainment, not empty seats and moaning. I also want to wake up on a saturday and think ' i know lets have a day in Ipswich' without being finacially penalised for being spontaneous.

0

B1TFC added 21:59 - May 12 Must be a reason for this, I tend to go more to away games now, as it's a 350 mile round trip for me to go to home games, and I like all the above don't want to pay that kind of money week in and out to see what we do, and the advantage of away games, better atmospheres mostly, and new sights!!! Also don't understand the extra cash for match day prices!!! I also could make some games at last minute, when the boss is in a good mood and let's me go early!!! Great posts all round and good article!!

0

TheBoyBlue added 09:23 - May 13 It increases if - like me - you go as part of a couple. The difference between £20 and £30 becomes the difference between £40 and £60. We're not exactly poor, but at the same time we're in a position where we have to justify every expense, so £20 can make a difference, even more so £40 or £60 difference if you wanted to go to two or three games. Success would make that expenditure easier to justify, but at the end of the day, no matter what I have more important things to spend that amount of money on, like paying the bills or eating for a couple of weeks.

0

gordon added 09:44 - May 13 For what you get, football tickets are awful value everywhere, and Ipswich Town FC over the last few years must be just about the worst value anywhere in English Football I would have thought. I'm not sure the economic arguments hold much water though. You merely make an assumption about how many people would come at a cheaper price by plucking a figure from the air. It certainly is an appealing argument to fans, to suggest that by reducing prices the fans and the club could both win, but almost certainly not true. The price of football is generally so high because the loyalty of fans mean demand for tickets is quite inelastic to changes in price. The club maximises revenue by raising prices to the point at which fans are not quite motivated enough to organise some mass protest/boycott against the high prices.

0

Smithy added 11:30 - May 13 I'm with 6fish on this. With costs of everthing escalating, ie petrol, food etc its just impossible to commit to paying £30+ to watch what has been for the past 6 years very poor entertainment. I feel it justs needs 1 club to be brave and take a stance on the pricing of football to bring the supporters back, and other clubs will follow. I love the club and would happily go week in week out if I could afford to but the simple fact is its just way too expensive and you can only see it getting worse. The one ticketing offer they had this season vs Palace proved that the support is there if the supporters are accomodated.

0

CambridgeBlue added 11:30 - May 13 I think that's a fair point, but I still can't see what their logic behind doing so is. As the football quality and hence the attendances have gone down, the club's response is not to admit that they have done so, and lower prices accordingly, but to raise prices to protect their revenue base. We've seen by increasingly low attendances over the last few seasons that this tactic simply hasn't worked. It's a bit like a shop getting some sub-standard goods in, not selling any, and then rather than deciding to put a sale on to clear it out and get what they can for it, doubling the prices in the hope that the few they do sell allow them to break even. Anyone ever seen any other business than football do that?

0

gordon added 11:43 - May 13 But, it's also like me paying £30 for a crap hotdog, eating it, being sick, and saying how horrible it was. Then, two weeks later, buying another one from the same dodgy bloke while saying "this one should be brilliant, I see he's bought a new sauce, and he's promising to put loads of onions on it this time!". Again, the new sauce is worse the old one, the onions taste of grease and the experience is horrific. Oh well, we say, maybe next time the hotdog will tasty, and back we come. My point is that to say that no other business does it like football, is to say that no other customers do it like football fans. If you think football is like any other business, why aren't you shopping at Carrow Road or Upton Park instead?

0

CambridgeBlue added 12:24 - May 13 Therein lies the rub. Obviously we won't shop at Carrow Road or Upton Park, but there are a significant number of us who now also won't shop at Portman Road. As you say, I think there's now a hope (perhaps I'd go as far as expectancy) that Jewell is the Messiah to return us to the Promised Land, and if he signs a couple of decent-looking players, attendances and season ticket purchases will rise. I do also get the feeling, however, that there have been quite a few messiahs over the last five or six years, and more and more people are starting to vote with their feet. No club is too big to fall if the fans stop going, surely they must know that?

0

CambridgeBlue added 12:52 - May 13 Incidentally, I'd like to add that the club falling or fans stopping going would be an utter and total disaster, and not something I would wish for our or indeed any other club. Nothing would please me more than going and watching a game for £30 and coming out feeling that I'd been given value for money and top-class entertainment. Sadly that's just not been the case for some time, and I think they're taking the piss out of us.

0

SouperJim added 14:23 - May 13 You seem to have overlooked the relationship between match-day prices and season ticket prices. If they reduce the match-day price by the 20% you're suggesting, they have to similarly reduce season ticket prices. If the fortunes of the club improve, the "casual" fans will return. That is an irrefutable fact. Until that time, the club has to maintain it's ticket income by charging an amount which the large pool of season ticket holders will accept. Match-day ticket prices fall in line with this. While we're serving up dross in mid-table, the club will continue to balance high ticket prices with season ticket holder loyalty. Like it or lump it, that is the reality of the situation and a small dip in attendances year on year do little to change things. 10 consecutive seasons of championship football and we still have an average attendance of around 20k. In short, I wouldn't hold your breath for a price drop if I were you.

0

CambridgeBlue added 15:55 - May 13 No indeed, more's the pity. Though I did say in a previous post that if they were to do a price review they'd have to take season ticket holders in to account and give a small refund if they were to drop match day prices, and that close season is the best time to do so. All complete pie-in-the-sky sadly, but I've still not really seen an economic argument to convince me that high prices across the board for poor football is the best way to fill a stadium. I still stand by the fact that 30k supporters at cheaper prices is better than 20k at more expensive ones.

0

Blue041273 added 19:30 - May 15 It's a fact that the club know that they have a hard core support that they can rely on to provide core income. OK they factor in the fact that they might lose a few every year but expect to make the numbers up with new fans locked in by parentage or location. Value for money is not a consideration these days and it is no wonder that the casual supporters, particularly those that have to travel any kind of distance, question whether it's worth the effort. The unfortunate thing for me is that the club seems to be happy with a half full stadium as running costs, insurance etc are lower. Revenue streams from other sources are more important now.

0

Blogs 295 bloggers