2018 Season Ticket Thread

[JayH]

If someone were to tell the team that they would have an average of 16k season ticket holders for all remaining seasons until the boost of a SSS, they would take that without hesitation. Given all of the (legitimate) issues cited above, among others, a plateau of around 16k is not bad at all. Exclude year 1 for the shiny new toy effect and inflated numbers, and it seems that we have been in the same ballpark (sorry, that's a bad one). That's the best we are going to do for now in less than optimal circumstances. The question is whether they can keep it around that number for the time being. My greatest concern regarding season tickets is that there is no incentive to invest in season tickets given the availability of seats for any/every game, and a disincentive for the investment given the lack of resale value. That's not fixable, and probably is the leading reason for dropped season tickets and the lack of new ones.

I think that the marketing has improved in many respects. And in my experience they definitely are hitting the 'burbs. I was actually surprised how many logos I have seen in Westchester. It turns out the team affiliates with my town (and several towns) and gives away lots of tickets to youth players, runs promotions etc. All the kids know about the team. Unfortunately most of the issues we have can't be resolved easily, and it's going to be a matter of doing the best we can to patch holes until we see the big return.

 

[Mkdaman1818]

I think the combination of widespread ticket availability and the transient nature of nyc soccer fans accounts for the majority of the season ticket decline. I know a lot of fellow season ticket holders for nycfc that are moving out of state, and just can’t attend matches regularly. I also think nycfc has flooded the market with such a large number of tickets, that people can cherry pick the games they want and pay LESS than STHs. The problem is nycfc knows they’ll still make money off ticket sales with the large number of seats, so they don’t really care. The majority of us keep our tickets for the new stadium, but if this shit happens once we move into a new building and they can’t promise us the brick and other stuff, they’ll see a much larger decline. They need to cut more seats, match prices with the secondary market, and most of all, get a plan for the new stadium to ignite interest.

 

[roxfontaine]

Then they just started adding partial ticket plans to inflate the numbers.

I definitely bought a 1 game "season ticket" for my wife to lock in the lower rate for the 2nd season. That was at my request though.

 

[Jon]

All good points brought up in the last few posts. Do you think capping tickets at say 24k would solve resale problems for season ticket holders?

 

[Mkdaman1818]

All good points brought up in the last few posts. Do you think capping tickets at say 24k would solve resale problems for season ticket holders?

I’d be a fan of making it 20k, with ability to ramp it to 25 or 30 max if necessary. The temptation to increase capacity even more for the bigger matches needs to be squashed if nycfc wants their tickets to be worth something. There’s a reason why Knicks playoff games start at $150, while Yankee playoff games can be had for $50. If you know you need to be a STH if you want to attend the Derby or playoff matches for a reasonable price, a lot of fans will consider getting season tickets. That’s why when I see nycfc open the 400 Level for the Derby, it drives me mad. If fans know they can get Red Bull tickets the night before for $30, it takes away a huge market for season tickets.

 

[Jon]

I’d be a fan of making it 20k, with ability to ramp it to 25 or 30 max if necessary. The temptation to increase capacity even more for the bigger matches needs to be squashed if nycfc wants their tickets to be worth something. There’s a reason why Knicks playoff games start at $150, while Yankee playoff games can be had for $50. If you know you need to be a STH if you want to attend the Derby or playoff matches for a reasonable price, a lot of fans will consider getting season tickets. That’s why when I see nycfc open the 400 Level for the Derby, it drives me mad. If fans know they can get Red Bull tickets the night before for $30, it takes away a huge market for season tickets.

Totally agree. You could probably close off the right field bleachers (they're never that full) but it would probably look worse than it already does on TV. I'd even close off sections blocked by foul poles. Though I'm sure some on the forums would say they don't even notice the poles.


Talk about a goddamn eye sore...

Now compare...


Which looks like professional soccer to the casual fan?

 

[Mkdaman1818]

Totally agree. You could probably close off the right field bleachers (they're never that full) but it would probably look worse than it already does on TV. I'd even close off sections blocked by foul poles. Though I'm sure some on the forums would say they don't even notice the poles.

Another idea is just to close down certain rows of sections. So for the 100s behind the goal (such as 114), close the last 5-6 rows or something. That might be a good way of limiting seats while still allowing fans to have their desired viewpoints around the stadium

 

[413Blue]

Totally agree. You could probably close off the right field bleachers (they're never that full) but it would probably look worse than it already does on TV. I'd even close off sections blocked by foul poles. Though I'm sure some on the forums would say they don't even notice the poles.

View attachment 7887
Talk about a goddamn eye sore...

Now compare...
View attachment 7888

Which looks like professional soccer to the casual fan?

Did you watch any Orlando matches last season?

 

[Jon]

Did you watch any Orlando matches last season?

I didn't pick Orlando for any other reason other than the fact that the stadium is legit. Could've picked SKC or LA.

Just saying that if you closed off the right field bleachers it would look even worse than it already does on TV.

 

[LionNYC]

Totally agree. You could probably close off the right field bleachers (they're never that full) but it would probably look worse than it already does on TV. I'd even close off sections blocked by foul poles. Though I'm sure some on the forums would say they don't even notice the poles.

View attachment 7887
Talk about a goddamn eye sore...

Now compare...
View attachment 7888

Which looks like professional soccer to the casual fan?

Casual soccer fan?

MLS is fucking trash. Liverpool vs. Man City in any stadium is better than watching MLS on its best day.

 

[Jon]

Casual soccer fan?

MLS is fucking trash. Liverpool vs. Man City in any stadium is better than watching MLS on its best day.

Again just picked a picture of Google Images that was from the camera perspective and show some part of right field. If you closed it off it would look like a ghost town half the time on TV.

 

[Mkdaman1818]

If they close the RF bleachers, they would have to tarp it off so it’s not just a pit of empty seats. But I can’t imagine they’d close off sideline seats. I’d rather they close the back rows of the 100s on the first base line.

Again just picked a picture of Google Images that was from the camera perspective and show some part of right field. If you closed it off it would look like a ghost town half the time on TV.

 

[Jon]

If they close the RF bleachers, they would have to tarp it off so it’s not just a pit of empty seats. But I can’t imagine they’d close off sideline seats. I’d rather they close the back rows of the 100s on the first base line.

All in all, it's a pretty shitty situation at this point. Any small changes, like closing sections behind home plate, is like putting lipstick on a pig. I'm convinced that even a run at MLS Cup isn't going to bring in many new fans.

 

[413Blue]

I didn't pick Orlando for any other reason other than the fact that the stadium is legit. Could've picked SKC or LA.

Just saying that if you closed off the right field bleachers it would look even worse than it already does on TV.

I know. I was just poking fun at Orlando, because they were awful last season.

 

[Rimil]

I think the combination of widespread ticket availability and the transient nature of nyc soccer fans accounts for the majority of the season ticket decline.

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.

I think whatever is causing the drop in STH is a universal effect, nothing to due with NYC in particular. One being regression to the true base, as any new team will have large initial membership that trickles away. And the second being a general malaise in the true STH base as they are faced with realities that are below expectations.

Currently I would say our lofty expectation was SSS within 3 years. As our expectation is not being fulfilled so people leave. And if they don't leave they list tickets below face value, which deters new membership as you said they can cherry pick the games to go to. I, for one, would leave if not for the founding membership discounts (which is foolish cause who knows how long they will honor that once the stadium gets built and they get fervent demand back, but I digress); so I am in the hold but sell camp.

When the stadium gets build the STH will spike. Then it'll regress back to base, then it'll trickle some more as whatever new goal is not met, be that a championship or signing some marquee player. And you just rinse and repeat until conversion becomes 'when will NYCFC build their new stadium circa 2050 and if they don't they will say the 2050 STH membership is declining YoY because of it'.

Once the new shin wears off you just see the ebbs and flows of a particular teams fan base sentiment through STH as long as there are more seats then the true STH base. Either artificially create sellout by lowering the seats below the STH # or you grow the base to where there is a wait list for seats and no one can see the cancellations. A new stadium would definitely bump the base some, so would a championship. A marquee player would also bump it till his contract runs out. Think how many would cancel their season tickets if our roster was what it is now ex-villa; and now do the opposite by having 3 Villas-esque DPs, surely higher STH #s there.

Basically the STH #s are doing what I would expect them to do given the state of the team vs what was put on paper 4 years ago. We have no stadium, we bombed out of the playoffs twice in spectacular fashion, and we have 1 aging marquee player when you would have though NYC would be fielding a dream team. If we were the only game in town yeah I'd say 16k is disappointing, but remember we are horning in on claimed territory and if not for their ineptitude of setting up shop in jersey or branding themselves after a consumer good I would already be a STH elsewhere. As a soccer fan who happens to resides in NYC, I should already have been claimed.

(Whoa, I really veered off at the end. I just wanted to make the point that NYC's mobile population isn't a negative to the STH #s, but fuck the RBs piss me off.)

 

[adam]

If they close the RF bleachers, they would have to tarp it off so it’s not just a pit of empty seats. But I can’t imagine they’d close off sideline seats. I’d rather they close the back rows of the 100s on the first base line.

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.

Then you close off other sections that have poor sight lines.

 

[FredMertz]

I don't work in the corporate, sports, or entertainment world but if I walked into my marketing and sales departments and said our year over year numbers were flat or down I sure as hell would want to know why and how they were going to change it.

What have we seen that is different from previous years? That's a serious question I'm asking. Cutting the number of seats in the stadium and allowing us to trade in a couple more games is not a solution.

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.

 

[FredMertz]

All good points brought up in the last few posts. Do you think capping tickets at say 24k would solve resale problems for season ticket holders?

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

 

[Jon]

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.

Then you close off other sections that have poor sight lines.

 

[Jon]

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

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