Season tickets | Page 6 | Vital Football

Season tickets

Good to hear the two lots of stories this week that are of interest to me. The kit news and the stadium naming news. Both involving fans. Brilliant.
I know one or two won't be arsed but great news for some of us.
 
In the middle part of the Prem years we used to have posters advertising season tickets in St Helens but not seen any in years.

But to be fair it is a much harder sell in L1 or the Championship without all the big name opposition and teams.

I don't think the issue is awareness of season tickets being available, it's trying to generate a reason to make new people want to come to just one match and see if they like it. It's very hard to do that in general.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
In the middle part of the Prem years we used to have posters advertising season tickets in St Helens but not seen any in years.

But to be fair it is a much harder sell in L1 or the Championship without all the big name opposition and teams.

I don't think the issue is awareness of season tickets being available, it's trying to generate a reason to make new people want to come to just one match and see if they like it. It's very hard to do that in general.
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Which to be fair it is a difficult job to sell anything under the present economic crisis in the aftermath of Covid.
However Preston and Bolton have both had a roaring success from their ticket campaigns.
 
jeffs right said:
Which to be fair it is a difficult job to sell anything under the present economic crisis in the aftermath of Covid.
However Preston and Bolton have both had a roaring success from their ticket campaigns.
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I'm not suggesting we don't try to promote and advertise to attract fans. But I think compared to some other clubs our ability to drive up sales is quite limited unfortunately as there seems to be a lot of football fans in Wigan for whatever reason just don't want to support their local team.

I think targeting the kids who's parents don't care about football or are armchair fans of big Prem clubs has worked well in the past. It probably doesn't increase season ticket sales much now so is maybe is not as appealing an investment in the short term but in the future will pay off. The old kids club on match days seemed to be a great success as there were so many young boys and girls in the stands but more recently I've not heard of us doing as much and I've not seen as many kids.

Another thing I've not seen any club do but could be a interesting concept is there are probably loads of parents with young kids who are able to put their kids into nursery on weekdays if they work, but don't have that option if they want to go to a match on a Saturday. I know a few football fans who had to give up their season ticket due to lack of childcare options at the weekend. If clubs worked with local nurseries to run some type of creche option on match days say 2pm to 5pm (possibly within the stadium) for kids under 3 or 4 that could potentially allow parents who previously can't attend to come back. Then when the kids are old enough bring them to the match with them. Maybe logistically something like this isn't possible but I am suprised no one seems to have anything like that.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
I'm not suggesting we don't try to promote and advertise to attract fans. But I think compared to some other clubs our ability to drive up sales is quite limited unfortunately as there seems to be a lot of football fans in Wigan for whatever reason just don't want to support their local team.

I think targeting the kids who's parents don't care about football or are armchair fans of big Prem clubs has worked well in the past. It probably doesn't increase season ticket sales much now so is maybe is not as appealing an investment in the short term but in the future will pay off. The old kids club on match days seemed to be a great success as there were so many young boys and girls in the stands but more recently I've not heard of us doing as much and I've not seen as many kids.

Another thing I've not seen any club do but could be a interesting concept is there are probably loads of parents with young kids who are able to put their kids into nursery on weekdays if they work, but don't have that option if they want to go to a match on a Saturday. I know a few football fans who had to give up their season ticket due to lack of childcare options at the weekend. If clubs worked with local nurseries to run some type of creche option on match days say 2pm to 5pm (possibly within the stadium) for kids under 3 or 4 that could potentially allow parents who previously can't attend to come back. Then when the kids are old enough bring them to the match with them. Maybe logistically something like this isn't possible but I am suprised no one seems to have anything like that.
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I don't reckon many would miss a match for a child care situation. You just take your child to the match.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
I'm not suggesting we don't try to promote and advertise to attract fans. But I think compared to some other clubs our ability to drive up sales is quite limited unfortunately as there seems to be a lot of football fans in Wigan for whatever reason just don't want to support their local team.

I think targeting the kids who's parents don't care about football or are armchair fans of big Prem clubs has worked well in the past. It probably doesn't increase season ticket sales much now so is maybe is not as appealing an investment in the short term but in the future will pay off. The old kids club on match days seemed to be a great success as there were so many young boys and girls in the stands but more recently I've not heard of us doing as much and I've not seen as many kids.

Another thing I've not seen any club do but could be a interesting concept is there are probably loads of parents with young kids who are able to put their kids into nursery on weekdays if they work, but don't have that option if they want to go to a match on a Saturday. I know a few football fans who had to give up their season ticket due to lack of childcare options at the weekend. If clubs worked with local nurseries to run some type of creche option on match days say 2pm to 5pm (possibly within the stadium) for kids under 3 or 4 that could potentially allow parents who previously can't attend to come back. Then when the kids are old enough bring them to the match with them. Maybe logistically something like this isn't possible but I am suprised no one seems to have anything like that.
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A good out of the box idea King. Space too under the east. Be interesting to know what the demand would be for such a scheme. Would probably have cause to use myself on occasion if the wife is working and can’t source alternate child care. Kids being kids it wouldn’t be long before they asked to actually attend the match instead so effectively it would be catering to future supporters.

Think it was mentioned earlier in this thread but I had a flyer through the mail box from knob end advertising their season ticket prices. Went straight in the bin but direct marketing still has a place. Haven’t really seen any marketing campaigns and initiatives from the club which is a tad disappointing, especially if we’ve employed a new marketing manager. Perhaps he/she is concentrating on selling hospitality but it’ll be a missed opportunity on the back of a promotion if we don’t exceed last seasons sales (even accounting for the fact many of them were emotional purchases given the club almost ceased to exist).
 
Made in Wigan said:
A good out of the box idea King. Space too under the east. Be interesting to know what the demand would be for such a scheme. Would probably have cause to use myself on occasion if the wife is working and can’t source alternate child care. Kids being kids it wouldn’t be long before they asked to actually attend the match instead so effectively it would be catering to future supporters.

Think it was mentioned earlier in this thread but I had a flyer through the mail box from knob end advertising their season ticket prices. Went straight in the bin but direct marketing still has a place. Haven’t really seen any marketing campaigns and initiatives from the club which is a tad disappointing, especially if we’ve employed a new marketing manager. Perhaps he/she is concentrating on selling hospitality but it’ll be a missed opportunity on the back of a promotion if we don’t exceed last seasons sales (even accounting for the fact many of them were emotional purchases given the club almost ceased to exist).
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Blackburn announced yesterday sales are up on last year and are keeping early bird offers on longer.
Sharpey just announced record season ticket sales at Mansfield.
 
jeffs right said:
I don't reckon many would miss a match for a child care situation. You just take your child to the match.
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Most babies and young toddlers are very demanding and cant sit still for 2 minutes let alone 90. It's hard enough managing them at home where you've got all their toys, cots and stuff in an environment they are familiar with - so trying to manage them in your seat at the DW is near impossible for most parents. It also probably wouldn't be fair on fellow fans to be potentially exposed to screaming toddlers throwing tantrums in the seats next to them as they go through the 'terrible twos'.

I've got a vouple of under 3s, I knpw from personal experience i've got zero chance of being able to take them to a match and see any of it. I'm fortunate enough that I can still go to home games as we've got enough support within the family but many folks simply won't. As I said I know at least 2 people who have had to give up the season tickets due to lack of childcare options on match days.
 
Made in Wigan said:
A good out of the box idea King. Space too under the east. Be interesting to know what the demand would be for such a scheme. Would probably have cause to use myself on occasion if the wife is working and can’t source alternate child care. Kids being kids it wouldn’t be long before they asked to actually attend the match instead so effectively it would be catering to future supporters.

Think it was mentioned earlier in this thread but I had a flyer through the mail box from knob end advertising their season ticket prices. Went straight in the bin but direct marketing still has a place. Haven’t really seen any marketing campaigns and initiatives from the club which is a tad disappointing, especially if we’ve employed a new marketing manager. Perhaps he/she is concentrating on selling hospitality but it’ll be a missed opportunity on the back of a promotion if we don’t exceed last seasons sales (even accounting for the fact many of them were emotional purchases given the club almost ceased to exist).
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For match day childcare maybe the logistics and demand mean it's not cost effective but it might be something that has never been explored at all. I've certainly never heard of anything like that attempted at any club.

The effort we put into trying to sell Fans Fund with personal phone calls seemed to really help boost numbers, I think maybe something similar with fans from the database who haven't renewed or attended a decent number of games without a season ticket could be a good idea. I think someone may have already mentioned something similar earlier in the thread.

It obviously costs money and could be time intensive but if we felt it was effective for Fans Fund memberships which were cheaper than season tickets annually then it would make sense to try targeted season ticket sales in a similar way.

I think we've tried all sorts over the years and always struggled to significantly increase our core fan base so the more creative we can be the better.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
For match day childcare maybe the logistics and demand mean it's not cost effective but it might be something that has never been explored at all. I've certainly never heard of anything like that attempted at any club.

The effort we put into trying to sell Fans Fund with personal phone calls seemed to really help boost numbers, I think maybe something similar with fans from the database who haven't renewed or attended a decent number of games without a season ticket could be a good idea. I think someone may have already mentioned something similar earlier in the thread.

It obviously costs money and could be time intensive but if we felt it was effective for Fans Fund memberships which were cheaper than season tickets annually then it would make sense to try targeted season ticket sales in a similar way.

I think we've tried all sorts over the years and always struggled to significantly increase our core fan base so the more creative we can be the better.
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Mate it is a great idea.
 
jeffs right said:
Still silence over sales and pay on the day prices. Do we actually have a marketing department?
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Just infer the blindingly obvious from the silence, sales disappointing, probably no more than last season, almost certainly less than last season due to the increased ST price during a cost of living crisis and a near static (in size) and apathetic fanbase. After seeing near neighbours / bitter rivals reporting incredible sales why on earth would we advertise the fact that yet again the Wigan public are not interested in supporting their local football team. It would just open us up to yet more ridicule from all an sundry. Just let it go and move on.
 
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