Season Tickets 26/27 massive price increase

[kivo1889]

I remember when my daughter was taking figure skating at Ice Sheffield about 10 or 11 years ago. One of the coaches told us that electricity cost £250k per ice pad per year. Leccy prices have roughly doubled since then, so costs are certainly ramping up.

[ginger]

I remember when my daughter was taking figure skating at Ice Sheffield about 10 or 11 years ago. One of the coaches told us that electricity cost £250k per ice pad per year. Leccy prices have roughly doubled since then, so costs are certainly ramping up.

I dread to think what it costs - we have certain equipment at my workplace that is energy intensive and has to always be running and the cost to do so is phenomenal.

Then the fact that housing, cars, players equipment has all been steadily increasing for some time, it's a hell of a lot of money.

Brought a newbie on Sunday and they asked me about cost of equipment. We got on to what the stick budget would be for a season - I made a rough guess at 20 sticks min. Per skater per season, so probably around 400 - 500 sticks in total for the year, at probably £150 per stick (given most likely all are custom sticks but with bulk order discounts). It's just a guess but somewhere in the region of £50k. Just on sticks.

It is rubbish to have price increases, especially for families but I also see an expensive to run sport with unfortunately relatively low fan numbers which limits TV and sponsorship possibilities. Unfortunately it's going to be fans and local/mid sized sponsers who have to foot the bill

[Keith Sheppard]

And this is where they fall down, they don't even attempt to explain why they needed to do this, particularly the charge for 2yr olds who don't even get a an actual seat. Then again the organisations relationship with it's supporters has always been sit down, shut up and pay, unless of course you are one of the chosen ones. The lack of even an attempt to justify this massive price increase speaks volumes about their attitude to the supporters.

I was wondering if they had chosen today to release the ST information to coincide with the ST event at the arena this evening? I’m sure there will be lots of questions to be answered if they give the fans the opportunity to ask them at some point.

[Nathan]

Well I'm not renewing.

The whole match night experience is awful. Same old crap music every single night through a PA system well past its best with a mouthpiece insisting on bellowing at the top of his voice isn't really my idea of fun.
The hockey isn't value for money as far as I'm concerned and it's starting to become a bit of a grind getting through games and these Sunday games get in the way of watching the NFL when it's football season.

All this for an extra 25%? No thanks.

Also the car park ST has more than doubled over 3 years.

Yes things are costing more, electricity, fuel, rent, potatoes etc but there's one thing that isn't increasing, my wages.

I'm out.

[Doom]

It's a difficult one this, without knowing the reasoning behind this decision.

I was always an advocate of making it cheaper to attract more spectators.

My reasoning was that 6,000 paying £7 would generate the same as 3,000 paying £14, but you would end up with more secondary spend and just as importantly, a part full arena creates a much better match night experience than an empty arena.

Obviously there are other considerations, like additional costs in policing a larger crowd, but you get the gist of it.

I think Tony and his family have done a fabulous job in increasing attendances. For me it makes a much better match night experience entering a full arena, compared with the days of 3,000 under Norton Lea.

The issue they have now is that they can't increase attendances by much more, because they're currently at 90% of capacity. Therefore if costs go up(minimum wage, NI, utilities etc), they can't cover that by increased crowds, so the only option is ticket increases.

It does seem steep at 24%, especially when other costs have been going up faster than wages, but it might be the only way.

I still enjoy my hockey on a Saturday night, so I'm still in, but if crowds drop substantially I might have a re-think. I love the hockey, but I also still enjoy the match night atmosphere (something I didn't under Lea).

Regards

Doom

[Bryan]

The couple in front of us in 104 have just had their second child. So they face 25% more for their tickets and another huge amount for two babes in arms. Just a feeling they might not renew. Will this put to bed the nonsense of holding babes in the air every game?

[ekt]

If this rise had been Gas, Electric, Mobile, TV, Broadband I would have switched suppliers by the end of the month.
You can't do that with a sports team, especially one you have supported for knocking on 30 years.

Unless Tony Smith comes out with a plausible explanation for it, it looks very much to me like opportunism.
The club may have big crowds now, but a lot of them are transients, just passing through until something else catches their eye.
My loyalty to club has now gone out of the window with the size of this increase.
I'll probably go on a 50/50 boycott to recover the increased cost.
Never win anyway.

[smbmetal]

I’ll keep my observations brief…..

If Tony is expecting an average of around 8,000+ a game like the last couple of seasons, I’d be surprised if this will be so with these pricing increases.

Wonder if both the single game match night tickets and stream pricing will also increase?

[Bryan]

I’ll keep my observations brief…..

If Tony is expecting an average of around 8,000+ a game like the last couple of seasons, I’d be surprised if this will be so with these pricing increases.

Wonder if both the single game match night tickets and stream pricing will also increase?

I really hope that Tony knows what he is doing. I have to believe he does. He has been by a country mile our best owner and I admire what he has achieved. We need to see that his success continues.

[NinjaBreadMark]

Having looked back at last years season ticket info, I've done a bit of quick spreadsheet to show some info regarding the season tickets (hopefully this will line up properly on here!)

Code: Select all

					25/26		26/27		Increase
SEASON TICKETS			
Season Ticket Price (Early Bird)	£520.00		£620.00		£100.00
Season Ticket (Full Price)		£545.00		£645.00		£100.00
			
ST Cost Per Game (EB)			£16.25		£19.38		£3.13
ST Cost Per Game (FP)			£17.03		£20.16		£3.13
			
NON SEASON TICKET			
Ticket Price				£20.00		£24.00		£4.00
Fees					£3.50		£3.50		£0.00
Non-ST Cost Per Game			£23.50		£27.50		£4.00
Non-ST Cost for Season			£752.00		£880.00		£128.00

A couple of points
* I can't 100% remember the price for last years non-early bird tickets
* the Cost per game for 26/27 is estimated based upon the fact that it says we get the equivalent of 8 free games with the ST.
* this is assuming Service/Venue fees stay the same

So it looks like the price-per-game for ST holders will increase by around £3, the price for standard tickets will increase by around £4.

I'll try and remember to keep the spreadsheet for when this comes up next year!

It's a chunky increase, but on a per game basis it sounds more reasonable. But in all honesty, I don't think they'll see a major drop off in people buying their season tickets, would be interesting to know though.

Now the car park....

Last year I was lucky enough to get one of the early bird tickets for around £250, so it does feel like a crazy increase this year to £350, but going on last years standard price which was around £320, that makes it a £30 increase there, so a pound per game-ish. We've still got it this year as we like the convenience of it and the knowledge that we know we'll always get parked.