2018 Season Ticket Thread

[Mkdaman1818]

So you're suggesting the team should leave money on the table so we can have a better resale market?

It’s not just the resale market, it’s the overall value of the tickets. If I know tickets are basically infinite and reasonably priced without needing to commit for an entire season, why should I give them cash upfront for season tickets? Staying disciplined and controlling the supply will increase the demand, which allows them to charge more for them in the long run. And yes, it’ll help us resell if we need to as well.

FYI, fifa does this for their World Cup tickets and it works wonders. They artificially control the supply which ratchets up the demand, which allows them to charge a higher price for them. If they have discipline, this is by far the smarter business move for the long term.

 

[FredMertz]

If they capped at 24k you think they'd be leaving money on the table? Didn't we average 22+k last season?

They had a number of games with attendance above 24k. But if you're working under the assumption that they didn't, how would it help resale?

 

[FredMertz]

It’s not just the resale market, it’s the overall value of the tickets. If I know tickets are basically infinite and reasonably priced without needing to commit for an entire season, why should I give them cash upfront for season tickets? Staying disciplined and controlling the supply will increase the demand, which allows them to charge more for them in the long run. And yes, it’ll help us resell if we need to as well.

FYI, fifa does this for their World Cup tickets and it works wonders. They artificially control the supply which ratchets up the demand, which allows them to charge a higher price for them. If they have discipline, this is by far the smarter business move for the long term.

Can you give me a single example in any professional sport across the globe of a team that restricts tickets sales for reasons other than embarrassing empty sections?

How does FIFA control the supply? They offer every seat in every World Cup Stadium and then some with temporary seating in some venues.

 

[Mkdaman1818]

Can you give me a single example in any professional sport across the globe of a team that restricts tickets sales for reasons other than embarrassing empty sections?

How does FIFA control the supply? They offer every seat in every World Cup Stadium and then some with temporary seating in some venues.

The problem is exactly that though - in our current stadium we don’t fill every seat, so we restrict sales appropriately. The issue is that we STILL don’t have enough demand to justify the supply. One way to drum up demand is to make it the hottest ticket in town by setting the appropriate number of seats.

Think of how acts book concert venues. There’s a reason why only big acts like U2 or Eminem can fill up MetLife Stadium, while Fetty Wap books the Highline Ballroom. Yes, Fetty Wap could book MetLife to get the maximum amount of revenue, but it makes far more sense for him not to.

As for the fifa point, you’ve clearly never applied for tickets to a World Cup. Fifa does it’s ticketing process in stages - they do a lottery phase, the first come first serve, then a 2nd lottery, then a second FCFS, before a free for all FCFS at the end called the “last minute phase”. In the lotteries and fcfs phases, they restrict the supply a ton just to make applicants sweat and raise the demand. The result is people madly dashing to the websites when they announce new tickets, and buying whatever they can get regardless of the price. While I wouldn’t endorse what they do, it’s an example of how restricting the supply can prove just as fruitful if you have the right balance.

 

[Christopher Jee]

NYC population is from my understanding is growing or at worst staying the same, but not shrinking. So, for every every person who leaves for school/work/personal reasons, they are replaced by someone (or 1.05+ people to account for growth). For a person to leave there is a random chance he was a STH, and for a person to come in there is a random chance they will become a STH. I would think this effect only reduces the founding member numbers due to churn, but have no effect on actual STH #s. Unless you have found a correlation with STH to a persons propensity to leave NYC, which I doubt.

It's a pretty well established rule of thumb, to my understanding, that retaining customers is far easier than finding new ones.

To me, "random" is shorthand for "we don't understand this deterministically or probabilistically". The likelihood of somebody leaving being an STH is not 0 or 100%, but it is not random. Ditto for people entering the city and becoming STHs. Actually the likelihood of there being no margin at all is impossibly small to my reckoning.

 

[engine46]

What they really should have are removable seats that fit on top of the bleachers. Only use them for soccer matches. And then charge much more for them as season ticket options.

Charge much more for supporter's section season tickets?

 

[adam]

Charge much more for supporter's section season tickets?

No. The Right Field bleacher behind the benches. Best seats in the house if they were actually seats.

 

[gbservis]

I would be interested to see the number of member accounts each year, rather than the number of tickets.

I believe there are likely many current members who carry fewer tickets this year than they did in the first season, so I'd bet the decline in accounts is much smaller than the decline in seats as there were surely some speculators who overbought in year 1/2 and have adjusted accordingly.

Lots of good points made so far. Adding to FredMertz member account numbers idea it would also be interesting (thought I know we never will) to see stats on the % games each season ticket holder sells per year. Not only do I agree that a considerable number of fans that still have season tickets at one time held more for resale or speculation but I also think a meaningful chunk of season tickets in the early seasons were held solely for the purpose of secondary market resale by scalpers. At this point any of us that hold tickets are well aware that even breaking even on the secondary market is near impossible so you have to assume anyone secondary sale holders are long gone.

I've also not seen any discussion of a Lampard drop. It could have just been my section but a good number of people that sat around me year 1 were die hard Chelsea fans there to see Lampard. They stuck it out for seasons 1 and 2 and were gone as soon as he was done. I think a sizable chunk of the year 2 to year 3 drop can be tagged to Lamps and I think it's possible the Pirlo drop will be even more substantial.

 

[FredMertz]

The problem is exactly that though - in our current stadium we don’t fill every seat, so we restrict sales appropriately. The issue is that we STILL don’t have enough demand to justify the supply. One way to drum up demand is to make it the hottest ticket in town by setting the appropriate number of seats.

Think of how acts book concert venues. There’s a reason why only big acts like U2 or Eminem can fill up MetLife Stadium, while Fetty Wap books the Highline Ballroom. Yes, Fetty Wap could book MetLife to get the maximum amount of revenue, but it makes far more sense for him not to.

As for the fifa point, you’ve clearly never applied for tickets to a World Cup. Fifa does it’s ticketing process in stages - they do a lottery phase, the first come first serve, then a 2nd lottery, then a second FCFS, before a free for all FCFS at the end called the “last minute phase”. In the lotteries and fcfs phases, they restrict the supply a ton just to make applicants sweat and raise the demand. The result is people madly dashing to the websites when they announce new tickets, and buying whatever they can get regardless of the price. While I wouldn’t endorse what they do, it’s an example of how restricting the supply can prove just as fruitful if you have the right balance.

I really don’t understand the points you’re trying to make.

What does, “we don’t fill every seat, so we restrict sales appropriately,” mean?

Fetty Wap doesn’t play Met Life because the total gate won’t justify the rent. Very simple. If he sells outa run of shows at the highline, he plays Hammerstein the next time he comes around. Then the Beacon, then the theater at msg, then radio city, etc.

Can you explain to me in simpler terms how exactly FIFA selling a ticket to every seat in a stadium is restricting supply? Are you saying that they fool people into thinking they’re not going to sell all of the tickets? Do you think if they sold all the tickets at once they wouldn’t sell out or have to lower ticket prices? The demand for most World Cup tickets far exceeds supply, so people clamor for tickets and pay up.

 

[LeeNYCFC]

Capping tickets and keeping people out doesn't seem like a good young league young club strategy

I get the frustration that the tickets might not have great resale value (I was able to resell some the first year and gave up on trying during the second) but we already get preferential pricing, a resale marketplace, and a trade-in program if you want to re-use instead of re-sell. That's a pretty solid answer from the club as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Mkdaman1818]

I really don’t understand the points you’re trying to make.

What does, “we don’t fill every seat, so we restrict sales appropriately,” mean?

Fetty Wap doesn’t play Met Life because the total gate won’t justify the rent. Very simple. If he sells outa run of shows at the highline, he plays Hammerstein the next time he comes around. Then the Beacon, then the theater at msg, then radio city, etc.

Can you explain to me in simpler terms how exactly FIFA selling a ticket to every seat in a stadium is restricting supply? Are you saying that they fool people into thinking they’re not going to sell all of the tickets? Do you think if they sold all the tickets at once they wouldn’t sell out or have to lower ticket prices? The demand for most World Cup tickets far exceeds supply, so people clamor for tickets and pay up.

Yankee stadium is 50k seats, and we already restrict half the stadium... why not just restrict it further? We don’t fill 50k seats obviously, and it’s clear we barely crack over 20k sometimes. We’re arguing over an arbitrary number nycfc has set, and that number clearly is still too ambitious in most cases. And the rent is the same regardless of whether they open 5k or 50k, so why not focus on selling out a smaller number and building yourself as a hot ticket in this city?

And to your fifa question, yes they would not sell all of the tickets if they did not do it this way. In South Africa in 2010, there were tickets available for the final the day before, on fifas website. Demand for the World Cup isn’t what you think, especially with their prices. Even in Brazil last year, many matches had tons of seats available by the end. The market for fifa is not as strong as you think!

What I’m suggesting is pretty unorthodox, especially if you think about revenues. But I think at the end of the day the revenue they leave on the table will be a drop in the bucket compared to what they can charge for tickets down the road, if they can increase the value and demand of tickets.

 

[LeeNYCFC]

Yankee stadium is 50k seats, and we already restrict half the stadium... why not just restrict it further? We don’t fill 50k seats obviously, and it’s clear we barely crack over 20k sometimes. We’re arguing over an arbitrary number nycfc has set, and that number clearly is still too ambitious in most cases. And the rent is the same regardless of whether they open 5k or 50k, so why not focus on selling out a smaller number and building yourself as a hot ticket in this city?

And to your fifa question, yes they would not sell all of the tickets if they did not do it this way. In South Africa in 2010, there were tickets available for the final the day before, on fifas website. Demand for the World Cup isn’t what you think, especially with their prices. Even in Brazil last year, many matches had tons of seats available by the end. The market for fifa is not as strong as you think!

What I’m suggesting is pretty unorthodox, especially if you think about revenues. But I think at the end of the day the revenue they leave on the table will be a drop in the bucket compared to what they can charge for tickets down the road, if they can increase the value and demand of tickets.

This is asking them to restrict the supply to increase resale value of tickets they’ve already sold at a discount. Basically that’s asking them to undercharge and leave value on the table so we can have it.
If demand goes higher for hot matches, why wouldn’t they just reopen sections to capture more revenue themselves instead of creating a market for us. For its long term viability the team needs to be creating fans from casual up to season ticket holder. I don’t think a scheme to keep people out of the stadium to fix a resale problem that isn’t the club’s problem is the answer. I’m sure there’s also some aspect of the concessions contracts that would not see restricting attendance as a positive.

 

[ManhattanValley]

Yankee stadium is 50k seats, and we already restrict half the stadium... why not just restrict it further? We don’t fill 50k seats obviously, and it’s clear we barely crack over 20k sometimes. We’re arguing over an arbitrary number nycfc has set, and that number clearly is still too ambitious in most cases. And the rent is the same regardless of whether they open 5k or 50k, so why not focus on selling out a smaller number and building yourself as a hot ticket in this city?

I think you make a lot of sense when it comes to arguing for our own stadium to eventually be smaller. But I don't see how access to a less than half full stadium is ever going to be sold as a "hot ticket".

In our situation, the best way to encourage people to come to games is to get them in the door. If we get 28,000 watching a Red Bulls derby, I'm far more interested in the 4000 extra people who enjoyed seeing Villa fucking dominate and might want to come back, than I am by the 4000 lost chances I had to sell one of my season tickets.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I think you make a lot of sense when it comes to arguing for our own stadium to eventually be smaller. But I don't see how access to a less than half full stadium is ever going to be sold as a "hot ticket".

In our situation, the best way to encourage people to come to games is to get them in the door. If we get 28,000 watching a Red Bulls derby, I'm far more interested in the 4000 extra people who enjoyed seeing Villa fucking dominate and might want to come back, than I am by the 4000 lost chances I had to sell one of my season tickets.

Exactly -- I took my father to that game -- his first NYCFC game, and he's already talking about which games we can go to in 2018. Get people in the door and get 'em hooked, that's the key to better ticket sales. Is that the best for season ticket sales? Probably not -- but for the growth of the fanbase, you want to get every last person through the door. Let the product speak for itself.

 

[LionNYC]

All Wednesday Matches, All Saturday Matches, All Sunday Matches...Smart

https://www.nycfc.com/post/2018/01/22/new-2018-introducing-city-block-plans

 

[LostAnvil]

All Wednesday Matches, All Saturday Matches, All Sunday Matches...Smart

https://www.nycfc.com/post/2018/01/22/new-2018-introducing-city-block-plans

BRILLIANT!

 

[ZYanksRule]

All Wednesday Matches, All Saturday Matches, All Sunday Matches...Smart

https://www.nycfc.com/post/2018/01/22/new-2018-introducing-city-block-plans

They did something similar last year with five-game plans where you'd pick the games you wanted. Don't think those plans had season-ticket perks, though. Good idea -- partial plans are much more palatable to a lot of fans than full-season packages.

 

[SanBartG]

They did something similar last year with five-game plans where you'd pick the games you wanted. Don't think those plans had season-ticket perks, though. Good idea -- partial plans are much more palatable to a lot of fans than full-season packages.

We started with a 5 game package. A month later, we upgraded. Now we just renewed our season tix.

 

[Ulrich]

They did something similar last year with five-game plans where you'd pick the games you wanted. Don't think those plans had season-ticket perks, though. Good idea -- partial plans are much more palatable to a lot of fans than full-season packages.

I’m waiting for them to announce Single-match season ticket plans with full citizen perks in order to boost STH Numbers.

 

[ZYanksRule]

We started with a 5 game package. A month later, we upgraded. Now we just renewed our season tix.

I normally buy single-game tickets, and each of the last two winters they've called me to gauge my interest in a partial-season plan. I still don't have the ability to do it, but it seems catered to people like me who can't commit to 17 games a season. Good stuff by the team here.