Gazidis letter: Arsenal responds to The BSM
24 January 2013
On 9 January we wrote to Ivan Gazidis concerning ticket pricing, the ticketing review which took place at Arsenal, and calling on the club to freeze ticket prices at the very least for the 2013/14 season. You can see a copy of this letter by clicking here.
Gazidis didn't feel the need to respond personally, instead passing our letter to Angus Kinnear who is the Marketing Director at Arsenal. He responded to our letter, and this is shown below. Following this is the reply we sent back to Angus and to Ivan Gazidis today.
Response from Arsenal:
On 9 January we wrote to Ivan Gazidis concerning ticket pricing, the ticketing review which took place at Arsenal, and calling on the club to freeze ticket prices at the very least for the 2013/14 season. You can see a copy of this letter by clicking here.
Gazidis didn't feel the need to respond personally, instead passing our letter to Angus Kinnear who is the Marketing Director at Arsenal. He responded to our letter, and this is shown below. Following this is the reply we sent back to Angus and to Ivan Gazidis today.
Response from Arsenal:
Many thanks for your recent email and letter to Ivan Gazidis. He has asked me to respond to you on his behalf as I am responsible for many of the areas you have raised for discussion.
We fully recognise the concerns of fans in the current economic environment and this was central to our thinking when we introduced the new match categories at this season. Our primary aim was to create more tickets at cheaper prices for our supporters, while not reducing our ticket revenue. This was a delicate balance to strike and we worked with AISA and the AST to find a way forwards which resulted in 90,000 cheaper tickets being available for Premier League matches this season. That is in addition to the low prices we offered for Capital One Cup games. I can assure you it did not result in an increase in ticket revenue.
While we understand the debate around the higher price level which was created for A category matches, we are confident that our overall approach is working. We are selling out all matches more quickly this season than previously and the fact we quickly sold the tickets returned by Manchester City within a few days shows the continued strong appetite to watch our games. I would also point to the fact that while we never want to see any empty seats, the actual occupancy of the stadium has been higher this year than last.
With regard to your question about the Swansea FA Cup replay being a category B game when the league match was C, you raise an important point and this is something that we will look at for future seasons. Your point with regard to our motives is unfair. Our ambition is to build a successful team, capable of winning trophies to make our supporters proud. We all recognise the passions and loyalty of our supporters and this impacts our thinking on a daily basis.
We have a number of initiatives in development, in consultation with supporters’ groups, to improve the experience of our fans at home matches and will be announcing further news on this in the coming months.
Best Regards
Angus
We fully recognise the concerns of fans in the current economic environment and this was central to our thinking when we introduced the new match categories at this season. Our primary aim was to create more tickets at cheaper prices for our supporters, while not reducing our ticket revenue. This was a delicate balance to strike and we worked with AISA and the AST to find a way forwards which resulted in 90,000 cheaper tickets being available for Premier League matches this season. That is in addition to the low prices we offered for Capital One Cup games. I can assure you it did not result in an increase in ticket revenue.
While we understand the debate around the higher price level which was created for A category matches, we are confident that our overall approach is working. We are selling out all matches more quickly this season than previously and the fact we quickly sold the tickets returned by Manchester City within a few days shows the continued strong appetite to watch our games. I would also point to the fact that while we never want to see any empty seats, the actual occupancy of the stadium has been higher this year than last.
With regard to your question about the Swansea FA Cup replay being a category B game when the league match was C, you raise an important point and this is something that we will look at for future seasons. Your point with regard to our motives is unfair. Our ambition is to build a successful team, capable of winning trophies to make our supporters proud. We all recognise the passions and loyalty of our supporters and this impacts our thinking on a daily basis.
We have a number of initiatives in development, in consultation with supporters’ groups, to improve the experience of our fans at home matches and will be announcing further news on this in the coming months.
Best Regards
Angus
Our reply today, 24 January 2013:
Dear Angus,
Thanks for your response, following our letter to Ivan Gazidis.
In terms of the ticketing review and pricing structure, we appreciate there was a balance to be struck and that it was important there was no loss in revenue from general admission ticket sales. Even more so following last season where it became apparent the club was having difficulty in maintaining executive box sales, employing a somewhat scattergun approach (we were passed a copy of a sales pitch sent to a London taxi driver). With corporate interest no doubt on the slide, of course it’s even more important that the general admission revenue is kept on a level at the very least.
You state that your talks with AISA and AST resulted in 90,000 cheaper seats and I've seen this line used by the club elsewhere, however the flip side (not mentioned elsewhere) is that these talks also resulted in 90,000 more expensive seats. We’re not sure this can be considered such a great success for football fans; yes the low demand games you can watch for less, but prices for the games people really want to see are pushed to extortionate levels. While the club is no doubt satisfied with the result, we question any supporters group genuinely happy with that outcome.
Back on the subject of maintaining matchday revenue levels, we request that the recent commercial deal struck with Emirates is taken into account when it comes to future pricing decisions. Ivan commented previously that the shortfall in our commercial activities meant ticket pricing had to bridge the gap, however now we are hearing of great things on the way from Tom Fox and his team, surely this means the general admission punter doesn’t have to bear the brunt any longer.
You say the club is confident the approach to Category A pricing is sound. However having seen the large numbers of empty seats at games this season I’m not totally convinced that “occupancy” is higher this season that last, and seeing so many games taking a long time to sell out, the comment that “all” matches are selling out quicker this season seems debatable. Indeed, the next Category A game versus Liverpool is less than a week away and tickets are still on sale to Red members. One of the biggest fixtures in the English football calendar still hasn’t sold out, with only days left until the game takes place. The game versus Stoke a few days after that, is on general sale.
With regard to the Swansea FA Cup price categorisation, we are interested to see that this is something being looked at for future seasons. As mentioned before, the club could (and should) have adjusted season ticket prices downards rather than overcharge season ticket holders and Red / Silver members.
You also say that there are initiatives in development with supporters’ groups. You may be aware that we have presented a number of initiatives with regard to pricing and ticketing options (wholeheartedly supported by our members in the results of our recent survey) however many of these, to date, have been met with by silence from the club. We therefore await to see if any are implemented. It should be borne in mind that we are the fastest growing Arsenal supporters group, which will very soon have the largest membership of any, and we are now involved in discussions with groups from other major clubs (both in England and Europe) as well as the Football Supporters Federation. It is important that the club takes on board the views of all major supporters groups and not just those which it currently courts.
Thanks for your response, following our letter to Ivan Gazidis.
In terms of the ticketing review and pricing structure, we appreciate there was a balance to be struck and that it was important there was no loss in revenue from general admission ticket sales. Even more so following last season where it became apparent the club was having difficulty in maintaining executive box sales, employing a somewhat scattergun approach (we were passed a copy of a sales pitch sent to a London taxi driver). With corporate interest no doubt on the slide, of course it’s even more important that the general admission revenue is kept on a level at the very least.
You state that your talks with AISA and AST resulted in 90,000 cheaper seats and I've seen this line used by the club elsewhere, however the flip side (not mentioned elsewhere) is that these talks also resulted in 90,000 more expensive seats. We’re not sure this can be considered such a great success for football fans; yes the low demand games you can watch for less, but prices for the games people really want to see are pushed to extortionate levels. While the club is no doubt satisfied with the result, we question any supporters group genuinely happy with that outcome.
Back on the subject of maintaining matchday revenue levels, we request that the recent commercial deal struck with Emirates is taken into account when it comes to future pricing decisions. Ivan commented previously that the shortfall in our commercial activities meant ticket pricing had to bridge the gap, however now we are hearing of great things on the way from Tom Fox and his team, surely this means the general admission punter doesn’t have to bear the brunt any longer.
You say the club is confident the approach to Category A pricing is sound. However having seen the large numbers of empty seats at games this season I’m not totally convinced that “occupancy” is higher this season that last, and seeing so many games taking a long time to sell out, the comment that “all” matches are selling out quicker this season seems debatable. Indeed, the next Category A game versus Liverpool is less than a week away and tickets are still on sale to Red members. One of the biggest fixtures in the English football calendar still hasn’t sold out, with only days left until the game takes place. The game versus Stoke a few days after that, is on general sale.
With regard to the Swansea FA Cup price categorisation, we are interested to see that this is something being looked at for future seasons. As mentioned before, the club could (and should) have adjusted season ticket prices downards rather than overcharge season ticket holders and Red / Silver members.
You also say that there are initiatives in development with supporters’ groups. You may be aware that we have presented a number of initiatives with regard to pricing and ticketing options (wholeheartedly supported by our members in the results of our recent survey) however many of these, to date, have been met with by silence from the club. We therefore await to see if any are implemented. It should be borne in mind that we are the fastest growing Arsenal supporters group, which will very soon have the largest membership of any, and we are now involved in discussions with groups from other major clubs (both in England and Europe) as well as the Football Supporters Federation. It is important that the club takes on board the views of all major supporters groups and not just those which it currently courts.
You can see from our reply that there are areas we dispute in the response from Arsenal. The ball is most certainly in their court with regard to future pricing and initiatives for the benefit of fans, and we await the results or consultation with them over these.
Naturally if there is any further response from the club, we will publish this information.
Up The Gunners
Naturally if there is any further response from the club, we will publish this information.
Up The Gunners
