Should we have A + B styled ticketing?

[ancientnloyal]

Catalans, Huddersfield, Harlequins and now Wrexham.

The North stand seems very cold when these teams come to town unless it's Community Day (Heinz). I understand that it would be pointless to open the North stand for 20 fans due to paying stewards, electricity costs within the stand, pay for refreshment staff etc etc...

Most non-season ticket holders who go to the odd Wigan game miss out on lower key fixtures like the ones above. Hence why we get lower crowds for these teams and we will see Friday night, it wont be great. Perhaps we should introduce football-styled ticketing on grading fixtures.

eg South stand is £16 or so... could drop it to £13 for lower graded teams and raise it back to £16 when the North is open.

A Grade £16:
St helens
Warrington
Hull FC
Hull KR
Leeds
Bradford

B Grade £14:
Castleford
Salford
Wakefield

C Grade £13:
Wrexham
Harlequins
Catalans
Huddersfield

or so... would raise attendance up a bit

[First Try Tickle]

They should give free tickets out for the Cats/Quins/Crusaders matches to local children. Give them out in schools and local sports clubs. All the children will take a paying parent with them, and if the tickets are all for the North stand they will be able to see the effect of it.

I know alot of kids now have season tickets in the South, but by keeping this to just the 3 matches, people won't feel ripepd off by the free tickets.

Be good to see the North full of youngsters as well, a real family stand.

For some reason the free ticket scheme seems to have stopped and any club wanting to get involved in the warriors days is asked to sell a certain amount of tickets before they are allowed to get involved.

The kids i coach have been told if they want to run out with the team they have to sell tickets for the match, even though most of our players are season ticket holders already.

[cpwigan]

I think free tickets is much more complex than people think and you can only have a limited number of Heinz / Big One days. The children's season ticket is cheap. I am guessing we already do something but I think those children whose family income is below a threshold should receive free season tickets.

[cpwigan]

Just to add I dislike the empty stand. Maybe open it up to Wigan fans v those teams?

[ancientnloyal]

Im not a fan of free tickets to amateur clubs or schools. If we drop the price of the south stand by £3, for potentially 4 matches a year then thats upto 4,000 more customers or upto 1,000 more at the game... which is quite a lot more than say most teams following's. North stand open to wiganers is a good idea maybe if you have a south stand ticket you could use either.

Drop the price of east stand tickets by £2 or £3 for seats on the edges thats an extra 300-400 people.

We already have The Big One (saints or warrington I guess), another 'Heinz' day so why not?

[Fujiman]

I think this was brought in by football so they could raise the price of tickets for certain games not make it cheaper for other games. Subtle difference

[cpwigan]

Wouldn't it be good if say one of these teams, spectators were allowed to change ends etc at half time. Traditional RL.

[mave the rave]

Good idea for grading tickets well thought out. CPs idea to means test families is a definite no no . Warrington have already reduced tickets for their match with Crudaders to £10.00 and £5.00 consessions so they will get more people travelling Warrington not to far from Wrexham.Wigan has a well known name in rugby league and is an excellent selling factor they need to push it more (build the games up like they did for the leeds match) isn"t that what they went to America for ?

[ancientnloyal]

Got an email from Mick Hogan and asked the same question, had this reply:

Many thanks for your email.



The issue of free/discounted tickets is an interesting one. Just dropping the price alone does little to get extra people in. You still have to tell people the game is on and give them a reason to come.



We do use specifically targeted promotions on one off games that do seem to work. Examples are



· The Big One - £10 tickets sold via season ticket holders, community groups and a big advertising campaign

· Festival of Rugby – Attract junior, womens, girls, masters, touch and disability teams to a big community festival and then onto the game

· Family Vouchers – One adult/One child tickets offered at discount prices to support the schools work we do

· Groups packages – For schools, businesses, rugby clubs, youth groups at selected games



In a way the above do offer some sort of ‘graded ticket’. However each offer is targeted and not available all the time to everyone. This way the investment made by season ticket holders is protected.



I could go on for hours on the dynamics of ticket pricing. If you wish to discuss further please ring me on 01942 770405



Regards



Mick