if everyone jumps on the 1 month option in case we employ croft juniors u11 as our first 11 neither club nor EFL can plan properly
It's a possibility of course but I don't think everyone would jump on a rolling monthly. It's a higher premium than all other tiers and would cost the fan 600 for twelve months. It's designed in part to be a taster or for the occasional fan. Where they might commit to a few random months;
Consumer buys, Sept, Nov, Jan, March aka 4 x monthly packages and gets 12 matches but the club has made 200 gross income.
Each month they'd get a reminder that their current plan will auto renew unless cancelled or they will be offered the chance to upgrade
Which is why I was suggesting it was all contracted - you still leave a proportion to buy match by match, but change Season Tickets and bundles to a monthly subscription with e a determined contract length. Revert the spend to continual and make it habitual and tricky to stop. You can even add in renewal periods (can't remember, but I think an auto renew is possible with a get out period).
In effect this is a similar approach to what I was loosely suggesting, leaving traditional purchase routes open for walk ups.
For me it's all about the marketing hook that makes the purchase habitual, much like Amazon Prime/Disney+/Sky/Zoom/Beer52/Laithwaites/Pasta Evangelists and so on. For many, they don't ever make full use of the benefits and bundled extras included. For lots it's just a disposable amount that goes out each month. Without exposing fans, there would be several who would purchase say a 6month contract and only be able to go/make it maybe a few months
1. I see where you are going with this and I know it is rough. But the club would bleed money under that format.
You would effectively be giving away all the things the club make money on for less than people currently pay for season tickets.
2. Plus cup ticket revenue has to be shared between clubs, so you wouldn’t be able to include those tickets.
3. The reality is the way to get bums on seats is through winning games and climbing leagues. If you have a good product people will pay for all of the things the club want them to.
1. I see your point but I don't think it would bleed money. It's only at the Six Month Plan where any significant type of benefit kicks in. The fan is effectively buying a half season ticket for about the going rate (if we say a full ST is c400) plus 20 quid. They take up the half price shirt option, in a clever marketeer sense the consumer has already paid for half nearly with the 20 quid, so you're actively encouraging them to spend another 25/30 to get a shirt. Ergo, they effectively end up buying the shirt for full price. It's just packaged to look like they have got a bargain. If they don't then the club has effectively made an additional 20 per Six Month Plan. I think the pricing in my rough proposal comes in line with a Twelve Month Plan costing about the same as a current ST
2. I understand the difficulties of including an offer like Cup Tix but the club gives away several matchday and cup tickets via several initiatives. Maybe these could be balloted then upto a maximum number of tickets per tournament for Six Month Plans and upwards? Say 100 tix and if you previously won, you can't win on the next occasion. I mean we're talking STFC here so the current risk analysis on losing money for a few hundred or even a thousand cup tickets is probably less risk than not obtaining the revenue from elusive cup runs
Plus, if it's only the First Rnd then getting a freebie/priority is more likely to encourage them to purchase for the Second Rnd; if Town do the incredible and get through. Revenue in an exciting First Rnd FA Cup clash vs a team like Hayes and Yeading probably isn't going to be that significant anyway. Whilst I get what you're saying, I don't think it would be as negatively impacting or bleeding as you initially suggest
3. I totally agree that the best strategy to sell any form of match ticket/sub etc is via positive results on the pitch. But, the product doesn't always have to be that good in order for people to pay; whilst it bloody helps, it's still more about the hook/draw/illusion that a consumer is getting something for nothing or at least VFM. After all, lots of people like something if it's free or seemingly costs less. Eg, Co-op send out regular marketing campaigns to get you through the door via money off vouchers. A chunk of people will use those vouchers and never shop there again until more vouchers turn up but Co-op has still hit their target in obtaining a consumer, even if temporary. The reality is, I might still go and do my weekly shop at Lidl too but knowing I have 4quid off a 12 quid spend on Co-op means I'll end up going there. That's 8 quid the Co-op gain and that I probably wasn't going to spend anyway. Some will be more careful about that but many more will be quite carefree with this.
I guess what I'm saying in the final point is that sometimes the product/service doesn't even have to be on your initial radar for you to still end up purchasing, if STFC were to package/market and sell in the right way, it too would have people purchasing as part of a B2C who wouldn't normally be doing so - obviously positive results help drive these sales and there's no better marketing than word of mouth/direct recommendation.
The full subscription model may be a bridge too far...
Yeah much like RobT, I also wasn't proposing a fully subscriber only system but have enough hooks in there to get people interested in buying and commiting for the longer term with the habitual element of just paying out each month. Especially when you're in a FTC much like a phone contract. Yeah you can exchange tariff, but you're still tied in somewhat or you can get out early but it's a buyout. Most people avoid this and continue to pay as they lose more/can't afford purchasing the buyout than if they just stay put for the term.
But yes, you'd still have some traditional streams open in terms of walk ups and casuals. The hardest sell is converting the walk ups to commit longer term, those who would purchase Six Months or more are your more sticky revenue. Because they are likely to be repeat customers each year, this can also be easier to convince them to upgrade too. Offer a Six Monther the Twelve Month Plan at the current seasons price before the next seasons Twelve Month Plan goes up and people will likely take that kind of deal
In the main though, it's only a loose proposal that I thought and wrote about in around 30mins. I suppose my main thought was, if one person can come up with something relatively plausible then a professional marketing team employed by the club could certainly come up with something even better
