Commenting on the West Ham game selling out. ""To have sold the stadium out fully five days before the fixture is a significant achievement".
Is it really Peter? Our biggest game of the season, possibly for quite a few seasons in fact and it's only just sold out. Don't get me wrong i'm pleased we've sold out but to be honest i expected us to and also in view of the fact we have ideas to extend to 31k and then possibly 40k, only just selling out for a local derby in a vitally important match isn't that significant an achievement in my book.
Maybe i'm being overly cynical though.........
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i've never been to a "sell out" at the valley when every seat has been taken, due to no shows etc.
yeah, agree, if any west hammers in the upper north better watch out for the lively headbutters, spitters and outting brigade!
Out of 27,000 seats there will ALWAYS be some "no shows". Law of averages says at least 5 people will be layed up at home with the shits for starters. Then you've got birthday/wedding/holiday commitments, cars breaking down, people falling of their perch, etc.
The fact is that a sell out is a sell out. FACT.
Our biggest game for ages and Sky didn't want it nor does Johnny Neutral.
Would we sell out in a 40k for anyone but Man Utd? I don't think so.
And nor do most foreign channels, preferring Liverpool v Sheff U.
Only foreign channel showing is ART Sport, making my job of tracking down the game even harder. grrr
its bizarre.
That's the price you pay for being a plastic! ;-)
:)
have they sold out every game this season? the bloke i sit with reckons he'd have no chance of getting a ticket so he doesn't even bother. i think thats crap though. i've watched them on sky a few times and seen tons of spare seats.
Having said that- it is actually amazing how many of their games have been on the box recently.
I thought we normally sold out the Home areas of the ground? Wigan in August last year, when plenty were away on holiday, is the only time I noticed significant numbers of empty seats in the Home areas. I think the attendance was given as 23,000 that day.
Bens involved in Target 40,000 I believe, so he's the best to comment but I imagine the plans are afoot to market the club better and reach more neutrals who will keep coming back. Marketing in the Thames Gateway development being one, getting more roots into areas of Kent would be another. You have to have an aiming point so why not 40,000? Clearly things need to progress on the pitch as well as off.
From a marketing perpective there are plenty of chimney pots in reach of the club. The main obstacles to getting more people to come would be, unfamilarily, parking, ignorance of ticket availablity, a feeling of not belonging. I'm sure there are more. People wont just come, they need to be helped.
If we went to 31,000 as a "first-stage" and made those extra 5,000 seats easily available online at reduced prices then I think people would be surprised at how much demand there would be from fans, especially if Pardew gets the team playing some attractive stuff.
You have got to be honest and say that the stuff dished up in Curbs last two seasons was woeful to watch, even if it did get us the 48 points, so its not surprising some people lost interest.
At a guess I'd say something like 14 on the bounce - but see my other fred for confirmation!
For West Ham there are also restrictions to the sales to prevent WHU getting in home areas. They are bound to be a few but if the tickets had been on open sale it would have sold out much quicker.
We are still selling more tickets as a % of our gate than nearly every other side in the Prem and our averages are higher than a few clubs with higher capacities.
This "why build, we'll never fill it" argument was around when we went to 15k, to 20k and to 27k. Of course there is a danger if we built the East Stand extension that some people will see the extra capacity to pick and choose games rather than buy a ST but others will see it as a chance to move location or get a ST for the first time as they can know get a group together. At some point you have to take the step forward to increase potential income. The promotions and aggressive marketing to schools and football clubs brings in a lot of paying customers who may not be fans but also attracts casual or lapsed fans back. You only have to read the Why Charlton thread to see how many on here are not Charlton born and breed but are now as much if not more passionate than some who won first prize in the lottery of life and were born Charlton fans.
The other big factor with the Extension is more boxes which earn much more per head than an ordinary seat and that we can move a lot of the corporate ticket holders into the are and as these are often away or neutral fans avoid issues with them.
I think this does play a part, but only a small one now. A few years ago yes, but everyone who is an occassional visitor would know roughly that there is nearly always availability.
To me, i think the bigger reason is to a lot of people in this bracket, Charlton is simply not at the forefront of their thinking. They will not go and search out fixtures, ticket prices, availability, but may think about it if a lot of these factions are put on a plate for them. The hope is that in time, some of them will get into it and become more committed, but at present there is only a small attraction, which is evidence that the heavy marketing is still necessary, there is an audience for it, and its working.
Us more committed fans may get frustrated by it, but its needed at present to maximise revenues.
Isn't this the "real" reason for the proposed East Stand extension, i.e. it's not necessarily about increasing the capacity but increasing the "earn per head". From what I've seen the actual increase in the number of seats by adding the extra tier will be fairly small - and a lot less than most people would probably think.
(By the way, am not necessarily saying that increasing the "earn per head" is good or bad - just sayingthat this is the real driving force behind this particular plan for the future.)
On the point of 40,000 of course with these huge revenues for teams that stay up there's always the possibility that ticket prices may fall, right? Making it easier to sell tickets
:)
It's one of the reasons and an important one but the boxes won't make up much of the 4,000 capacity increase. But you are right that you build a stand or extention and expect to generate more income from it so you can a. pay the mortgage and 2. generate more cash to cover player and other costs. Nothing wrong with that.
It just shows what a useless West Ham friendly shithead this MoS reporter actually is. I hope the club are making this point to them behind the scenes as well as the public statement by PV. The report is so wide of the truth it's ridculous. I'd ban their game reporter from the ground unless they print some kind of retraction or reassessment of their story!
there is always another argument that varney played him and the publicity sold out the remaining tickets...
build the east stand extension, price the season tickets right and the ground will continue to fill...its the clubs that didn't get their season ticket pricing right and created empty spaces which in turn encourages fans to go casual, and casual fans can easily drift away...a full ground encourages people back...