Attendance Crisis Looming. : Tue Feb 24, 2015 12:33 pm  

Time for some more doom and gloom, or just a reality check. It’s that old chestnut, Ticket prices. I have just had a quick look round our Championship 1 rivals,(I only looked at adult ground prices). I managed to get all but 2 Oldham and North Wales. Prices in general start at £10, with 3 clubs topping at £15 Barrow, Swinton and York, the average price works out at just under £13 across the board,(please feel free to correct me on this, it was only a quick look) anyone guess where I am going with this, guess who’s adult ground price is £17, yes the Cougars.
Crowds at home games, may if we are lucky may be around 500 – 600 to start with. If we get a winning run under our belts early, and are hoping the turnstiles are going to start turning, it is not going to happen at £17. I have spoken to 4 regulars from last season, who basically have said £17, is taken the p***, and they won’t be attending to watch the Cougars take on our Championship 1 rivals at that price, maybe if we were in the championship yes they would,(maybe).
I guess the club took a flyer with season tickets, when we still thought we were going to be in the championship, and then set match day prices accordingly. I bought 2 myself (mug).
If you take for example 200 ground adults at £17 give you £3400. But 300 at £14 gives you £4200, £17 just does not make any commercial sense at this level.
As much as this pains me, (because I lose out twice) we have to lower our match day prices for 2015. A route to maybe go down would be for the Club to contact all 2015 season ticket holders ask them if they would accept this, if the club has to bribe them by offering discounts on 2016 season tickets then do it. I just can’t see an alternative, and God help us if we start with a losing streak, it does not bear thinking about.

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:35 pm  

Agree with all that Shaun.

I'm a season ticket holder but would gladly accept the club lowering admittance prices to increase attendance. As you say, it would be nice to get a discount off next years season ticket in recompense for us putting our cash up front.

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Tue Feb 24, 2015 4:40 pm  

£17 for Championship 1

Maybe our glorious leader has bigger balls tham I gave him credit for .....

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:55 pm  

Dreamer wrote:

I'm a season ticket holder but would gladly accept the club lowering admittance prices to increase attendance.

I've a season ticket too. Not sure I'll even break even since I just can't come to all the games but I too would gladly accept this. Makes perfect sense. Maybe Josh could mention it to GF...

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Tue Feb 24, 2015 9:41 pm  

Likewise I'm a season ticket holder (and speak for 2 others), I'd be happy with the above suggestion. My only reservation would be knowing exactly what the price sensitivity would be of a price drop? There are risks in any price change to ensure revenues are maximised. That said £17 per adult is simply not competitive. The best thing to justify that price will be have not just a winning team, but a winning team playing really good rugby.

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Wed Feb 25, 2015 2:53 am  

Anyone know how much it is in to the game on Sunday?

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:23 am  

Should be Adult £10 v East Leeds. Then go up £1 per match for each consecutive home win till it reaches £17. After a home loss, drops back to £10.

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Wed Feb 25, 2015 12:15 pm  

Cross Hills Cougar wrote:

Should be Adult £10 v East Leeds. Then go up £1 per match for each consecutive home win till it reaches £17. After a home loss, drops back to £10.

That's crazy, but you know what I like it, Its different, which is what the Cougars used to do so well

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Wed Feb 25, 2015 1:19 pm  

I paid £17 to watch Leigh v Bradford as we didn't have a game that day.
What a game that was and far better than any game of Super League I have seen this season.
£15 is realistic if we had stayed up £17 would be the norm in that division and the crowds would have been there.
Only time will tell if this gamble pays off.
A good winning run will see people coming through the turnstiles but win one lose one week in week out and were in trouble.
I do think the fact that we let players go or they retired and never replaced them goes to show that the powers that be and the coach thought that this league would be a walk in the park.
The reality is that the 5 that went down last year plus York, Oldham and Gateshead (Newcastle), there isn't a lot to choose between them.
The team we have this year more or less will pick itself so competition for places wont have players fighting for places.
Teams around us have strengthened which brings us all into the shake up.
I too was one of the people who thought we would win that league and it could get boring.
But I think there is at least 6 teams who are more than capable of wining this league.
In past seasons mid table finishes were acceptable but this season its a win, win situation and nothing else will satisfy the fans.
Good luck to everyone that makes our club tick and lets hope we are back in the second string this time next year.

Re: Attendance Crisis Looming. : Wed Feb 25, 2015 7:08 pm  

£11.99 (or less) per MONTH gets you 8 games of televised NRL a weekend of which 6 are usually live. PVR's are very useful houshold tools if you happen to be sleeping/working etc when they are on.

It's all down to the perception of "value for money" and what you are prepared to pay for what you get which is of course subjective.