So I have been talking about the poor attendance figures at PSL games of late and the first thing we are looking at is ticket prices and if it is in fact the barrier to attending that we think it is.
For now I will not mention names that I have spoken to, because to be quite honest nobody really wants to associate themselves with saying the wrong thing on record when it comes to ticket prices and attendance figures.
It seems, and it has been this way for about the last five years that the PSL have given PSL clubs a recommended price of R40 for tickets to league games as a guide. But everyone will notice that ticket prices fluctuate from club to club and game to game. When I asked a couple of people in the industry about this the answer came back that it is a basic supply and demand principle. That the more people that want to see a game, the more a ticket is going to cost or a club is able to ask from their supporters.
That makes sense to me, I guess for the Soweto Derby where you are always guaranteed a full stadium. But my question is why does it not work in the opposite direction. What I mean by that is that clearly at R40 fans are not coming to stadiums for the other games on offer so based on the same supply and demand theory the tickets are clearly too expensive - so can clubs drop them below the recommended R40. Possibly at R20 supporters will feel it's now good value for money and stands will start filling. When I posed this to certain individuals they all had no answers and while it clearly made sense - were not willing to go below what seems to be a hard and fast rule of R40.
It was also pointed out to me that for the most part, after the plus minus R100 000 that it costs a club to pay for a stadium on game day, the cost of the security for the event and other costs - that a club only makes about R10 to R15 on each ticket they sell.
With this in mind I would say fix the ticket at a price where you break even. If we honest PSL clubs currently - for the most part do not make money on their ticket sales - based on the info above. Their main income comes from the TV deal done by the PSL, the monthly grant, team sponsors, and winning tournaments or league titles and selling players. Ticket sales are probably the last thing that they look at in terms of making money each season. So why not bite the bullet - find the price that you get 10 000 fans to every home game and then build a better pricing structure from their.
It must be a complete nightmare for those teams without a main sponsor to try and convince a potential sponsor that they will get a return on their investment based on stadium attendance. If I'm a sponsor being asked for R40 million to put my name on the front of your jersey - the first thing I'm doing is going to watch a game at your home ground. After all that is the face of your organisation. It's where your hard work is on display. And for the most part the face of most PSL clubs on match day is more a grimace than a smile.
All you see is the bared teeth of the stadium seats. The face of South African football hardly ever fills the stands.
So again I ask South African supporters - at what price for a PSL ticket do you not miss a single game?
R20, R25, R30... please let us know below and together let's try fill South Africa's soccer stadiums.
