Ticket Prices

[Corky]

And that's the premise of the argument, season tickets not needing to be resold or exchanged because they represent much better value for money than buying on a per match basis.

If I'm already £200 up, I'm not going to be bothered about taking £40 hits against Brighton or Burnley at home on a Wednesday night, there is less motivation to recoup for those who might be able to afford it.

There is a fundamental problem at City that isn't really replicated anywhere else other than Arsenal, people can afford to leave their seat vacant.

Perhaps there is an economic correlation?

Arsenal fans pay the highest prices and the majority still afford it, the higher cost of living.

City fans pay some of the lowest prices and they also can afford to leave it empty.

Arsenal is cheaper than City for the cat B and C games. Our most expensive away was Burnley's cheapest before the cap.

 

[BLUE PEANUT]

The other answer is to limit season ticket holders across three stands.

Keep one for individual match purposes only.

Appreciate the need for match day sales to be available, and fully behind the need to bring young fans in, but limit 3 stands to season ticket holders?
I have been lucky enough to have tickets in North stand lev 1 for 10 years with my kids who are now 17 and 15 - City mad and our next generation, but why should we be penalised and forced to relocate?
Surely the issue is what are generally unaffordable ticket prices regardless of where in the ground they are?
I'm a firm believer that prices could be reduced bearing in mind the relatively small contribution to revenue that these sort of tickets cover, but the club is between a rock and a hard place as by making season tickets cheaper, will exacerbate the problem of no shows, and Wednesday night games vs Brighton struggling to shift matchday sales as people can now pick and choose which games they wish to attend without having to commit to a season ticket.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

The seats may be rmpty but they are usually sold and can't be resold unless put on the exchange or transferred to friends.

a lot of the seats are not sold. There are literally rows of seats that the club keep back/ give to corporate packages that don’t sell. They are unavailable to the public

 

[Beaker]

a lot of the seats are not sold. There are literally rows of seats that the club keep back/ give to corporate packages that don’t sell. They are unavailable to the public

They’ve dumped 100+ extra tickets on sale today that have clearly been held back for some sort of corporate package or given to an agency that haven’t sold. It’s almost as though they want empty seats.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I've aired my views on this before, and the club knows them, but some interesting points being raised so I'll give a detailed response.

I don't think anyone expects to watch games for free or for minimal amounts. The club, after all, is a commercial business that has to report a level of profit (or loss) within the requirements of FFP. But, my god, have they lost their way on ticketing & prcing in the last few years. I know from my work, where I deal with major IT implementations and business change, that tinkering often leads to more problems than it solves. And we've tinkered.

We're at a unique moment in our history, where we've been catapulted from a yo-yo club, sometimes facing existential financial crises, but with a remarkably and steadfastly loyal fanbase, to one of the biggest, most successful clubs on the planet. Football itself has changed. Instead of games mostly being at 3pm on a Saturday, with the occasional midweek one, you can watch a game pretty well every day of the week these days.

And people are more mobile, as we moved further away for work and other reasons. They don't roll out of the factory gates, hop on a bus or two and go to a game. I started working in London just before the takeover and we alway had plenty of fans down there, many of whom travelled to games regularly. Now we're global and you'll usually see fans who've travelled thousands of miles to see one game at the Etihad. Yet we still think about tickets the same way as we did in the 1970's.

As much as I have a lot of time for Garry Cook, he started the trend of consistently higher prices. Maybe the owner tasked him with doing this and he had little choice, but that trend has carried on. My understanding is that, a few years ago maybe 4 or 5, the board decided ticket prices were high enough but they were somehow overruled and the increases continued. The majority of our season card holders are over 50 and most of us will be gone as matchgoing regulars in 25-30 years, there's an ideal opportunity to take a step back and look strategically at what we want as a club regarding our fanbase and where we want to be over the next 10/20/30 years.

We have an unparalelled opportunity to capture a new set of fans. One of my colleagues is a Sheffield United fan and was telling me his son has decided he's a City fan. The colleague I work most closely with, her teenage daughter idolises players like Phil Foden & Raheem Sterling. You hear this story time and time again. We are big box office these days and I guess many of us started watching City on an occasional basis with our families.

There's plenty of empitrical evidence that the earlier you get kids coming to games (of any sport) the more chance you have of them becoming regulars. Yet if you want to bring kids to a Category A game, like the one on Saturday, it'd cost a nuclear family of mum, dad and two kids over £200. It wouldn't be that much less to watch a team like Burnley, Brighton or Southampton at the Etihad. That's absolute nonsense. Yet we sell virtually all our tickets (according to the figures we've been given). One issue we're starting to look at is why people who've bought tickets don't turn up and what we can do about it.

From a revenue point of view, we underperform Liverpool, the club who are closest to us in terms of stadium capacity and location outsdie London. We think we know whay; they have far fewer season ticket holders than us (25k v 40k) so sell more matchday tickets, which command a premium. They also charge a single price per block or group of blocks regardless of opposition. Over a season, if you bought tickets on a match-by-match basis, you'd pay more at Liverpool (& united, who have the same pricing approach) than at City. Their range of season ticket prices is a lot narrower than ours.

But would anyone seriously want to reduce the number of season tickets, or get rid of the cheapest ones? I know quite a few who can only afford to come because they pay £325.

There's lots of other questions we can ask about ticketing and ticket prices. We currently have three different prices in many blocks, depending on which row you sit on. I hate that personally but some benefit from it. We have category pricing but Category B games, like Burnley, Brighton or Southampton, are too expensive at £53. We could do what Arsenal do, and charge top whack for Cat A games but significantly less (think it's about £38/28 for Cat B/C games).

There's a huge inconsistency between the relative matchday & season ticket prices across blocks, with some areas attracting a large discount for season tickets whereas some don't appear to. There's the whole question (which I've brought up before) of whether you should actually pay a small premium for a season ticket. , Economic theory would argue that you should, as a season ticket confers various benefits on the owner, that a matchday ticket buyer doesn't get.

We should also be looking at the whole notion of season tickets in this modern round-the-clock-football era. Should they be done on a right-to-buy basis where, instead of the club assuming you will turn up unless you tell them otherwise, they assume you won't be coming unless you confirm you are. So you pay a small sum to reserve your seat and pay a balance before the relevant game. We know that many people simply can't make midweek games and this might solve that issue. Or we could have midweek and weekend season tickets for some seats.

We had the £95 kids' season ticket, which was successful (from a fan point of view). I doubt the club would ressurect that but why not a tenner for kids, matching Liverpool's £9 (although I think there are a limited numbers of tickets for that). As someone said, introduce a family ticket where kids were effectively getting in free. Offer a bundle of 5 tickets - one Cat A, 2 Cat B and two Cat C for reduced price. Have a block or blocks that don't have any season tickets in, where people can get 3 or 4 seats together on a match-by-match basis.

Whatever we do, I want the club to stop tinkering round the edges and think long term, without any preconceived notions or sacred cows. Stop jacking up prices by a few percent, merely because we're playing great football and winning things. Because one day that might not be the case and they'll be wondering where all the fans have gone.

 

[Marvin]

You can't add to City's supporter base by bringing match-day tickets down in price because there wouldn't be any available.

 

[Beaker]

I've aired my views on this before, and the club knows them, but some interesting points being raised so I'll give a detailed response.

I don't think anyone expects to watch games for free or for minimal amounts. The club, after all, is a commercial business that has to report a level of profit (or loss) within the requirements of FFP. But, my god, have they lost their way on ticketing & prcing in the last few years. I know from my work, where I deal with major IT implementations and business change, that tinkering often leads to more problems than it solves. And we've tinkered.

We're at a unique moment in our history, where we've been catapulted from a yo-yo club, sometimes facing existential financial crises, but with a remarkably and steadfastly loyal fanbase, to one of the biggest, most successful clubs on the planet. Football itself has changed. Instead of games mostly being at 3pm on a Saturday, with the occasional midweek one, you can watch a game pretty well every day of the week these days.

And people are more mobile, as we moved further away for work and other reasons. They don't roll out of the factory gates, hop on a bus or two and go to a game. I started working in London just before the takeover and we alway had plenty of fans down there, many of whom travelled to games regularly. Now we're global and you'll usually see fans who've travelled thousands of miles to see one game at the Etihad. Yet we still think about tickets the same way as we did in the 1970's.

As much as I have a lot of time for Garry Cook, he started the trend of consistently higher prices. Maybe the owner tasked him with doing this and he had little choice, but that trend has carried on. My understanding is that, a few years ago maybe 4 or 5, the board decided ticket prices were high enough but they were somehow overruled and the increases continued. The majority of our season card holders are over 50 and most of us will be gone as matchgoing regulars in 25-30 years, there's an ideal opportunity to take a step back and look strategically at what we want as a club regarding our fanbase and where we want to be over the next 10/20/30 years.

We have an unparalelled opportunity to capture a new set of fans. One of my colleagues is a Sheffield United fan and was telling me his son has decided he's a City fan. The colleague I work most closely with, her teenage daughter idolises players like Phil Foden & Raheem Sterling. You hear this story time and time again. We are big box office these days and I guess many of us started watching City on an occasional basis with our families.

There's plenty of empitrical evidence that the earlier you get kids coming to games (of any sport) the more chance you have of them becoming regulars. Yet if you want to bring kids to a Category A game, like the one on Saturday, it'd cost a nuclear family of mum, dad and two kids over £200. It wouldn't be that much less to watch a team like Burnley, Brighton or Southampton at the Etihad. That's absolute nonsense. Yet we sell virtually all our tickets (according to the figures we've been given). One issue we're starting to look at is why people who've bought tickets don't turn up and what we can do about it.

From a revenue point of view, we underperform Liverpool, the club who are closest to us in terms of stadium capacity and location outsdie London. We think we know whay; they have far fewer season ticket holders than us (25k v 40k) so sell more matchday tickets, which command a premium. They also charge a single price per block or group of blocks regardless of opposition. Over a season, if you bought tickets on a match-by-match basis, you'd pay more at Liverpool (& united, who have the same pricing approach) than at City. Their range of season ticket prices is a lot narrower than ours.

But would anyone seriously want to reduce the number of season tickets, or get rid of the cheapest ones? I know quite a few who can only afford to come because they pay £325.

There's lots of other questions we can ask about ticketing and ticket prices. We currently have three different prices in many blocks, depending on which row you sit on. I hate that personally but some benefit from it. We have category pricing but Category B games, like Burnley, Brighton or Southampton, are too expensive at £53. We could do what Arsenal do, and charge top whack for Cat A games but significantly less (think it's about £38/28 for Cat B/C games).

There's a huge inconsistency between the relative matchday & season ticket prices across blocks, with some areas attracting a large discount for season tickets whereas some don't appear to. There's the whole question (which I've brought up before) of whether you should actually pay a small premium for a season ticket. , Economic theory would argue that you should, as a season ticket confers various benefits on the owner, that a matchday ticket buyer doesn't get.

We should also be looking at the whole notion of season tickets in this modern round-the-clock-football era. Should they be done on a right-to-buy basis where, instead of the club assuming you will turn up unless you tell them otherwise, they assume you won't be coming unless you confirm you are. So you pay a small sum to reserve your seat and pay a balance before the relevant game. We know that many people simply can't make midweek games and this might solve that issue. Or we could have midweek and weekend season tickets for some seats.

We had the £95 kids' season ticket, which was successful (from a fan point of view). I doubt the club would ressurect that but why not a tenner for kids, matching Liverpool's £9 (although I think there are a limited numbers of tickets for that). As someone said, introduce a family ticket where kids were effectively getting in free. Offer a bundle of 5 tickets - one Cat A, 2 Cat B and two Cat C for reduced price. Have a block or blocks that don't have any season tickets in, where people can get 3 or 4 seats together on a match-by-match basis.

Whatever we do, I want the club to stop tinkering round the edges and think long term, without any preconceived notions or sacred cows. Stop jacking up prices by a few percent, merely because we're playing great football and winning things. Because one day that might not be the case and they'll be wondering where all the fans have gone.

Any sign whatsoever that the club are prepared to take any of these suggestions on board or will it be business as usual as we move into next season?

 

[KS55]

I've aired my views on this before, and the club knows them, but some interesting points being raised so I'll give a detailed response.

I don't think anyone expects to watch games for free or for minimal amounts. The club, after all, is a commercial business that has to report a level of profit (or loss) within the requirements of FFP. But, my god, have they lost their way on ticketing & prcing in the last few years. I know from my work, where I deal with major IT implementations and business change, that tinkering often leads to more problems than it solves. And we've tinkered.

We're at a unique moment in our history, where we've been catapulted from a yo-yo club, sometimes facing existential financial crises, but with a remarkably and steadfastly loyal fanbase, to one of the biggest, most successful clubs on the planet. Football itself has changed. Instead of games mostly being at 3pm on a Saturday, with the occasional midweek one, you can watch a game pretty well every day of the week these days.

And people are more mobile, as we moved further away for work and other reasons. They don't roll out of the factory gates, hop on a bus or two and go to a game. I started working in London just before the takeover and we alway had plenty of fans down there, many of whom travelled to games regularly. Now we're global and you'll usually see fans who've travelled thousands of miles to see one game at the Etihad. Yet we still think about tickets the same way as we did in the 1970's.

As much as I have a lot of time for Garry Cook, he started the trend of consistently higher prices. Maybe the owner tasked him with doing this and he had little choice, but that trend has carried on. My understanding is that, a few years ago maybe 4 or 5, the board decided ticket prices were high enough but they were somehow overruled and the increases continued. The majority of our season card holders are over 50 and most of us will be gone as matchgoing regulars in 25-30 years, there's an ideal opportunity to take a step back and look strategically at what we want as a club regarding our fanbase and where we want to be over the next 10/20/30 years.

We have an unparalelled opportunity to capture a new set of fans. One of my colleagues is a Sheffield United fan and was telling me his son has decided he's a City fan. The colleague I work most closely with, her teenage daughter idolises players like Phil Foden & Raheem Sterling. You hear this story time and time again. We are big box office these days and I guess many of us started watching City on an occasional basis with our families.

There's plenty of empitrical evidence that the earlier you get kids coming to games (of any sport) the more chance you have of them becoming regulars. Yet if you want to bring kids to a Category A game, like the one on Saturday, it'd cost a nuclear family of mum, dad and two kids over £200. It wouldn't be that much less to watch a team like Burnley, Brighton or Southampton at the Etihad. That's absolute nonsense. Yet we sell virtually all our tickets (according to the figures we've been given). One issue we're starting to look at is why people who've bought tickets don't turn up and what we can do about it.

From a revenue point of view, we underperform Liverpool, the club who are closest to us in terms of stadium capacity and location outsdie London. We think we know whay; they have far fewer season ticket holders than us (25k v 40k) so sell more matchday tickets, which command a premium. They also charge a single price per block or group of blocks regardless of opposition. Over a season, if you bought tickets on a match-by-match basis, you'd pay more at Liverpool (& united, who have the same pricing approach) than at City. Their range of season ticket prices is a lot narrower than ours.

But would anyone seriously want to reduce the number of season tickets, or get rid of the cheapest ones? I know quite a few who can only afford to come because they pay £325.

There's lots of other questions we can ask about ticketing and ticket prices. We currently have three different prices in many blocks, depending on which row you sit on. I hate that personally but some benefit from it. We have category pricing but Category B games, like Burnley, Brighton or Southampton, are too expensive at £53. We could do what Arsenal do, and charge top whack for Cat A games but significantly less (think it's about £38/28 for Cat B/C games).

There's a huge inconsistency between the relative matchday & season ticket prices across blocks, with some areas attracting a large discount for season tickets whereas some don't appear to. There's the whole question (which I've brought up before) of whether you should actually pay a small premium for a season ticket. , Economic theory would argue that you should, as a season ticket confers various benefits on the owner, that a matchday ticket buyer doesn't get.

We should also be looking at the whole notion of season tickets in this modern round-the-clock-football era. Should they be done on a right-to-buy basis where, instead of the club assuming you will turn up unless you tell them otherwise, they assume you won't be coming unless you confirm you are. So you pay a small sum to reserve your seat and pay a balance before the relevant game. We know that many people simply can't make midweek games and this might solve that issue. Or we could have midweek and weekend season tickets for some seats.

We had the £95 kids' season ticket, which was successful (from a fan point of view). I doubt the club would ressurect that but why not a tenner for kids, matching Liverpool's £9 (although I think there are a limited numbers of tickets for that). As someone said, introduce a family ticket where kids were effectively getting in free. Offer a bundle of 5 tickets - one Cat A, 2 Cat B and two Cat C for reduced price. Have a block or blocks that don't have any season tickets in, where people can get 3 or 4 seats together on a match-by-match basis.

Whatever we do, I want the club to stop tinkering round the edges and think long term, without any preconceived notions or sacred cows. Stop jacking up prices by a few percent, merely because we're playing great football and winning things. Because one day that might not be the case and they'll be wondering where all the fans have gone.

Spot on PB. A serious pricing structure based on consumer behaviour is a basic requirement in any retail business. Our policies are not serious: as you say, it is just fiddling round the edges. I am baffled as to why our execs who have demonstrated so much acumen have such a blind spot.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Appreciate the need for match day sales to be available, and fully behind the need to bring young fans in, but limit 3 stands to season ticket holders?
I have been lucky enough to have tickets in North stand lev 1 for 10 years with my kids who are now 17 and 15 - City mad and our next generation, but why should we be penalised and forced to relocate?
Surely the issue is what are generally unaffordable ticket prices regardless of where in the ground they are?
I'm a firm believer that prices could be reduced bearing in mind the relatively small contribution to revenue that these sort of tickets cover, but the club is between a rock and a hard place as by making season tickets cheaper, will exacerbate the problem of no shows, and Wednesday night games vs Brighton struggling to shift matchday sales as people can now pick and choose which games they wish to attend without having to commit to a season ticket.

There isn’t one issue and therefore there isn’t a single solution. Between 55k and 60k tickets (including resales) have been sold for Saturday lunchtime’s game.

For the Brentford midweek match, 50k would be a very good attendance. Ticket prices will be reduced for Brentford but it’s might not make much difference as it can be hard to give away tickets for our midweek home gamesagainst lower table opposition.

From what I’ve read on here, families don’t get forced out of the family stand even if they are “above age”.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Any sign whatsoever that the club are prepared to take any of these suggestions on board or will it be business as usual as we move into next season?

They are thinking about some of this, thinking about some of the conversations we've had. The question is, how radical are they prepared to be, or is it just going to be more tinkering.