FC United of Manchester’s new season tickets
Posted by John Beech on May 19, 2009
Early in April I blogged about what I saw as a general lack of experimentation with ticket pricing, with the result that clubs were failing to revenue maximise (1).
FC United of Manchester have just announced a very interesting experiment in the pricing of their season tickets for next season (2). In a nutshell, fans can pay what they like providing it is a minimum of £90, but in the knowledge that last season’s average price of £140 left the club with a loss. This offer is potentially limited to a month as the policy will then be reviewed.
This not only ticks the financial strategy and the community boxes for me simultaneously (Q: How many times is that likely to happen? A: Precious few; it is only likely to happen at a fan-owned club), but is also a great piece of marketing.
Will it become the in thing round Gigg Lane to boast about just how much you paid for your season? I’m sure most of their fans wouldn’t want that happen, but the club’s Director of Finance I’m equally sure could live with it!
John Beech said
A report on Twitter (1) says that season ticket sales have reached £94,000. The response is described as ‘amazing’ but no indication of the number of season tickets sold is given.
John Beech said
A similar scheme has been introduced by Scarborough Athletic (1).
The trouble with new stadiums 2 « Football Management said
[...] that fans pay to get a season ticket (see 1 for a discussion of imaginative ticket pricing, and 2 for FCUM’s approach). Experimenting with different pricing strategies, such as BOGOF [...]