http://www.livingstonfc.co.uk/newsdet.php?...4&type_id=3

top idea imo should bump up the crowds and get some lapsed fans back. given massone's recent comments(suggested he wants to lower prices to a flat rate of a fiver but his hands are kind of tied this season due to people having paid full whack for season tickets.) i think it is a sign of things to come and the first step to changing the scandalous price of footy in scotland.

kudos

Hope it's well advertised too, is it in this weeks courier?

Good idea, but it's only a viable option for a club like Livingston (no disrespect). If Dundee were to implement such an idea, they would lose money.

dunno don't get the courier round my way!

Do Livi fans think slashing ticket prices to £5 will attract enough extra bodies to make up for the loss in revenue? I like the idea, but it really doesn't seem feasible.

Massone aka Mr Soundbite.

i think we would have to increase our PATG crowds by about 200-300ish which is do-able to make up for loss and thats not counting extra revenue from pies,drinks,programmes,carling italia etc. i think the italians are prepared to take a hit short term if needed in order to make the club more profitable long term(eg. long term crowd increase)

That's all well and good, but you'd be relying on your rich vein of form to continue.

A couple of poor performances and the newbies, as well as those who've lost patience with the club in the past, would disappear, leaving you to face the 'hit' created by the discounts.

Risky.

personally i feel its a worthwhile risk but i take your point

What loss in revenue are you talking about Nizzy, it's for a spacific area, South stand behind the goals, so it's doubtful the PATG Livi fans that already go will want to sit there, away fans obv can't, so it can only increase revenue by however many fans come down to the game that weren't already coming, ie. new fans, that's my thoughts anyway.

I don't think it's doubtful for them, if they are saving a lot of money.

It's only viable if existing fans that PATG don't go round to the south stand to get in cheaper, or if they do we attract enough extra ones to make up the loss, i personaly don't thin they'll move from the West stand where their mates that are season ticket holders are, plus better view and the DBM for atmosphere, i know i wouldn't, when they had the South stand open to season tickets it was £100 cheaper but i never concidered it as i prefer the West stand. I see this more as a way to attract fans that aren't already going, so even though it's £5 a game, it's still extra dosh that wasn't coming in before.

You got in before i replied to you it also says on the website that our main sponsors are making this possible, from that i took it they were sticking in money to cover any shortfall.

edit for typos.

How many season ticket fans do Livi have?

Ahh, Ok.

Not actually sure, at a guess roughly 800, awaits being mocked.

...and how many Thistle supporters would you say were at the game last week?

Just curious.

prob about 800

That's quite impressive.

Yip, Partick took a good crowd, biggest away support that's come to ours this season, we took about 800 to Dunfermline earlier, which is more impressive concidering we only had about 1200 fans at home games, it's close to Livingston right enough and they were letting under 16's in for a quid too which might've been another reason so many went.

I'm not talking about the offer covering the next two home games, I'm talking about Massone's comments on slashing ticket prices to £5.

So, I'm guessing, Livi's sponsors are subsidising approxamitely £7060 pounds for this discounted offer. That is based on 80% of PATG fans switching their allegiance to the other stand where the offer is only valid. I don't know how likely that is, but I would certainly opt for the discounted offer if it meant me saving £10 over two games. Adults would save, £14 which is quite substantial considering it is only over two games.

In order to re-coup this money back, Livi would need an extra 1121 supporters over the next 2 matches. Is that feasible?

in the short term we arent losing out as the sponsors are making up the dif by the sounds of things. in the long run we have a potentially massive support base and the more people we can get to get into the ground to see the team(especially when we are playing well) then the more the support will grow if they come back(also they might bring a mate along etc.) basically it will snowball if things go well.


dont think i explained that too well!

I dont think Livingston will ever have a massive support.

what lapsed fans

The 3000 that was there for our first SPL season i'm guessing, or even the 1000 that's disappeared from a season or 2 ago.

Muggy, that's taking that the 400 or so PATG will all go into the cheaper seats, i don't think they will, certainly not everyone of them anyway, you get what you pay for, i'd rather watch the game from the centre of the park than behind the goals. Don't think we'll ever have a massive support either, but 3 or 4 thousand isn't impossible to aim for.

That's true, and I agree but I don't think Livi can ever maintain that sort of crowd. surely people who usually sit in the centre of the park wont mind moving for a couple of games if it means saving a decent amount?

He doesn't mention slashing them for more than those 2 games, not sure what he plans to do after that though, suppose we'll just have to wait and see how successful this offer will be..

Who knows, i know i wouldn't move though, might be tight gits who would.

We had around 3000 for a couple of years, when we were 3rd in the SPL it peaked to 4000 but gradually it dropped off as our success waned, so your prob right, got to try though.

Be interesting to hear what the season ticket holders view on this is.

I know it'd be carnage with our lot were this to happen at Firhill

...or people who are struggling in this present day economic crisis?

Season ticket holders will still be saving in the long-run so it makes no difference to them.

It has been discussed on the Lions board for the last week or so when the chairman first mentioned it, not seen anyone say they're pissed about it, i'm a season ticket holder, a few of the guys i sit beside don't mind either, it's all about getting bums on seats and hopefully getting them to come back.
The season tickets were sold before Massone took over the club too, so next season he'll be able to set whatever prices he feels is right, if he tries to drop PATG next season then it would be entirely different kettle of fish, he'd be taking the piss then if he thought he'd get folk continueing to renew season tickets when it would be cheaper to PATG, i think this is a short term deal to try and attract fans back.

It's amazing how many dole punters have season tickets at Parkheid and Ibrox too, credit crunching doesn't seem to affect them.

Yeah i see what your saying, the way i see it though is they were PATG at £16 before, so could afford it, down to individual choice though, i def wouldn't move, even my mate who's a tight fecker didn't go for the cheap season tickets behind the goals as he prefers watching the game from where we sit, behind the away dug-out, some may sacrafice that for the savings though.

im not saying we will but there is a large catchment area and with a real effort to get local kids to grow up following livi we 'could'



ignorance

The whole priicng thing is fraught with doubts and difficulties.
It's dirt cheap for kids to get season tickets at Palmerston - largely I think as a response to what Gretna were doing in local schools. This probably makes sense in terms of investing in the future etc. but it does mean that the take on the gate might be less than the crowd size suggests.

Overall, we'd all like football to be cheaper, but unless it's going to increase the crowd to an extent which makes up for it (taking into account pies, programmes shifted, and less tangible things like how crowd boosts performance and therefore subsequent gates etc) then it's hard to justify.
Did John Boyle not get burned by trying to do the right thing at Motherwell?
Good luck to Livingston with this and recent years suggest they're capable of getting more through the gates. It's not easy to get right though.

They could always just reduce ticket prices overall instead of changing them to suit only one set of fans. No suprise hardly any away fans bother going to Almondvale.

The fallout from the freefall has yet to be realised then?

the reason they have done it like this imo is so that fans buy tickets for 2 games so that if they go and its ok but say we get beat they might not come back again but if they already have a ticket for the next home game that they have paid for they may go just to use it so in effect there is 2 chances for them to get hooked!

I think you've clearly missed my point.

I thought you would have realised after the "Mark Gilhaney" debate between yourself and I, after you stormed away, leaving a pram with toys littering the floor.

No debate - I offered my opinion on a player, you told me I was wrong.

I have a teenage son with whom to spat - I don't need a cyber spat with one in Dundee. So don't flatter yourslf son.

Edited to say - I feel your pain. I was once an arrogant teenager like you.

Another grammatical error.

Your grammar really is poor!

Edited to add: There is nothing wrong with arrogance. I am not arrogant, however.

That is called a typo. There is a difference. An educated man would have known that.

Goodnight.

Spelling is part of grammar. An educated man/woman would have known that.

Goodnight.

ok i'll assume your point is why away fans arent being let in for a fiver?i'd say this is because this would mean that they would have to let home PATG be a fiver which would negate the bennefits of having two games(see my last post). ST holders would also be more likely to be pissed off(personally i wouldnt, as with the people i sit around) if the flat admission rate was a fiver as it would mean that they had paid over the odds for their STs, whereas they are more likely to be happy with a 'gimick' such as this. As i said earlier though i would expect admission prices next year to be down significantly for home and away fans as well as ST prices.

Is there a seville calculator going on in Livi?
Im sure i heard it was 750 not so long ago...and i thought that was over-rated...

I'm sure they will next season, Flynn set this seasons prices and with the season tickets already bought it's difficult to drop prices for the rest of the season.

Right now he's more concerned about getting Livi fans to games than trying to attract away ones though.

It's actually been cleverly done/worked out, by giving this deal we don't have to make it a set price for away fans too, which reduces any deficit we may have incurred, if we'd made it a reduction for one game we'd have had to reduce the gate for everyone and the target is to try and get Livi fans back to games.

It's a great move imo. I think he has come over from Italy, realised that teams in the lower leagues in Scotland were charging more than most Serie A clubs and doesn't want to be a part of it. His thought seems to be that the fans are staying away as it's too expensive (hard to argue with that) and putting the prices down will attract more fans. Let's face it if you can take the kids along to a game on a saturday and you all get in for less than £20 it would be alot more attractive than the prices currently paid.

I've never been a fan of Livi (I'm sure you guys are used to hearing stuff like that) but I really hope this works out and other clubs take note.

Hats off to you for trying. FACT first division football is way over priced