Brentford Football Club – ‘Pay What You Can’ Ticket Initiative – Mark Devlin
September 12, 2013
Brentford Football Club is once again giving supporters the chance to Pay What They Can for the game at Griffin Park on Saturday October 26 against Shrewsbury Town. All tickets (seats and terrace) in home areas of the stadium will be available, at the minimum price of just £1. The Club has once again partnered with the charity, Sport Relief. The charity will benefit when supporters pay more than £5 for a ticket. Half of the excess paid over £5, less VAT, will be handed over to Sport Relief. Last season raised nearly £3,300 for the charity. Tickets have to be bought in advance of the match day and tickets in the away stand will be priced at normal prices.
The Club selects a game which is forecasted to achieve one of the lowest financial returns of the season. This takes much of the financial gamble out of the initiative. If you add in the increase in secondary spend at bars, kiosks and in the Club Shop, the Club will realise a financial gain from the day, whilst also enjoying a full stadium, which in turn benefits the players. Last season, ticket revenue alone, for the original, postponed game, was several thousand pounds ahead of the forecasted figure.
Last season the Club sold out the home areas of the stadium (over 10,500). However, non-stop rain in the preceding 48 hours led to the postponement of the match. The game was eventually played on a Tuesday evening in front of a very healthy attendance of over 7,000.
Brentford recognises the financial pressures that many of its supporters and community are dealing with and the Club fully understands that it needs to adopt a creative response to building and rewarding its fan base, especially as the Club plans to move into a new 20,000 stadium in July 2016. The Club benefits from the additional data it receives as part of the advance ticket booking process and this allows the Club to market future games and offers to those fans, which includes many ‘floating’, returning and new supporters. From last season’s initiative the Club has been able to directly identify at least 10 new season tickets holders for the current season.
The initiative most definitely generates goodwill amongst its own supporters and media – both local and national media were keen to talk about the initiative. The Club was portrayed In a very positive light and in turn this has a hugely positive effect on the relationship that Brentford enjoys with its local authority. By launching the initiative earlier this season, approximately six weeks before the game itself, it is anticipated that we will sell out earlier, allowing the Club to plan further family orientated entertainment both before the game and at half time. The key is to provide a smooth advance sales process, a great match day experience and, most importantly, following up on the data generated with pre agreed promotional offers aimed at getting people back time after time and developing a new wave of Bees fans.
Mark Devlin has been the Chief Executive of Brentford Football Club since July 2011. Reporting to the Owner, Chairman and the Board, Mark aims to position and sustain the Club within the top two divisions of English football.
Before Brentford, Mark was the Commercial and Marketing Director at Notts County Football Club and has held CEO positions at QPR, Swindon Town FC, Westway Sports Centre and Win Tennis.
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