I have an adult ST for the SS. I used the auto renewal option when it was first rolled out. My ST now costs me £165 for 13 matches working out at £12.69/match. When you consider the free admission to academy, reserve and women's matches, discounts on cup/play off/magic tickets/Wigan TV and at the club shop and the possibility of taking advantage of the scrum ticket deal I would say it is very good value.

Website shows adult renewal price for 2023 is £212, early bird £265 and full price £295.

There is also an auto renewal price I believe
Based on the price you quoted my 3 would be 567 and I dont think I paid that (ill check tomorrow). In fact wife's just looked and it was 478 so roughly 80 cheaper for 3 tickets than renewal price, so wouldn't be surprised if what the gentleman says is correct.
Renewal means someone deciding to renew but it isn't automatically taken and you initiate the renewal.
Early bird is for new ST before X date.
Full price is as you say any new ST taken after the early bird date.

Hence why I said earlier its a much more complicated situation than the OP of saying that our cheapest ricket is the dearest cheapest ticket
It may be, by a few quid. But the rest of the offerings from Wigan are as good or better IMO for most clubs

Free till 8, don't think anyone else does that
Young adult prices to 24, not many if any do that
Seniors start at 60 (very few do this).
Juniors up to 18, most clubs only go up to 16 before going into another band
The junior prices like for like are very favourable, something like 45 for auto renewal up to 18!!!! In both stands. The east stand equivalent of this 15 plus years ago was 145 each, I know because I used to pay that for my 2 when they were 8& 6 and it was one of my complaints back then.
Now theyd pay about 90 for 2!!!!
Simplified prices I.e. sideline view or behind post view, not different grades of prices.
The Hull prices you quote and say 4/6 games free are very misleading in the brochure

Okay - now at those prices it becomes an absolute no-brainer as you can afford to miss 3-4 of the 13 home fixtures and still be getting a decent deal.

That said, the prices for anyone thinking of buying a 2023 season ticket are too high IMHO for the reasons Ive already stated. Too many of the 13 games will not take place on the stated day/time and missing 2 games makes it unviable. At that point, the potential ST holder decides to pay game to game and if the weather looks bad, or its on TV then they sack that game off too. At the end of the season, they only attended 4 of the 13 games..

this is basically what i have been saying in my previous comments.

As a lapsed ST holder, i know there are 6 (poss 7) games i wont make this year due to commitments so financially not worth me purchasing a ST at full price. If i was on a renewal I would probably accept it as a one off, and accept that i wouldnt be saving that much. However, at approx 50 per match (if i got a ST), its too much, so i'm just going to go pay on the day for the games i can attend

I have said that maybe as a one off there should have been a "Covid" amnesty of some sort i.e. anyone having one say up to 5 years ago could get a Renewal price ST now?

But it's difficult to reduce Full price ST's too much - bearing in mind if people do want a New ST then can get one at the early bird price - as the whole reason for the incentive/cheaper price is to get people to pay earlier/up front etc.
Also game day price - I do agree that maybe 30 is a tad too much - but if you reduce too far there's less incentive for ST's

As I said previously - Judging Wigan on the Cheapest Full price ticket is unfair
People have the early bird reductions chance
The other price categories for U7's - Juniors/ And Junior up to 18 as opposed to 16/ Young Adult options & Seniors starting at 60

So there are multiple facets to the structure and we compare favourably

Said it before and will continue to say it - reducing tickets to 10/15 like some want isn;t the answer as it will drive revenues down in other areas and no way will we recouple that through new ST holders etc ad walk up extras

i've no issues with Wigans pricing, and for a professional sport it is good value
my issue is a personal one, in that this season i know i will miss at least 6 games, so it doesnt make financial sense for me to purchase a ST

one thing i may have missed / misinterpreted is the early bird. Was that not only for ST holders or does it apply to everyone. I was always of the impression it was ST holders to retain their seat. If its not and i've got it wrong, then i will look at it for next season without doubt

i have had the benefit of the junior ticket previously when my daughter had one for approx 25 for the South Stand and also got a free ticket for the away matches

Quote: The pieman "i've no issues with Wigans pricing, and for a professional sport it is good value my issue is a personal one, in that this season i know i will miss at least 6 games, so it doesnt make financial sense for me to purchase a ST one thing i may have missed / misinterpreted is the early bird. Was that not only for ST holders or does it apply to everyone. I was always of the impression it was ST holders to retain their seat. If its not and i've got it wrong, then i will look at it for next season without doubt i have had the benefit of the junior ticket previously when my daughter had one for approx 25 for the South Stand and also got a free ticket for the away matches'" Early Bird prices are for new season ticket holders or existing that miss the renewal deadline. https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/09/ ... s-on-sale/

Quote: The pieman "i've no issues with Wigans pricing, and for a professional sport it is good value my issue is a personal one, in that this season i know i will miss at least 6 games, so it doesnt make financial sense for me to purchase a ST one thing i may have missed / misinterpreted is the early bird. Was that not only for ST holders or does it apply to everyone. I was always of the impression it was ST holders to retain their seat. If its not and i've got it wrong, then i will look at it for next season without doubt i have had the benefit of the junior ticket previously when my daughter had one for approx 25 for the South Stand and also got a free ticket for the away matches'" Early Bird prices are for new season ticket holders or existing that miss the renewal deadline. https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/09/ ... s-on-sale/

As Bored Wiganner says below Early Bird is a Discount for New ST requests
So the £295 quoted is 265 as an early bird - 212 if you get on the Renewal roundabout and even cheaper (I reckon 30/40 cheaper) if you auto renewal
So the 295 for 1 year may save you 1 game the year after
The 265 for an early bird may be say 2 and 1/2 games
But then the renewal at 212 will save you maybe 4 plus games after that
Whilst an Auto renewal (Which a previous poster said was £165 but I can;t confirm that) may take it up to a saving of say 6 games (Which to be honest is ridiculously cheap !!!!).

Sideline - Which I have

Renewal price: £235 - Saves you over 4 games
Early bird: £295 - Saves you 3 games ish
Full price £350 - Saves you 1 & 1/2 games approx

My Auto renewal was approx 205/210 saving me £190 on just mine - Thats a saving of over 6 games! Nearly half price

Plus the price of food, drinks ,car parking and programmes have gone up aswell

Obviously everybody's income is not the same but generally I think that the prices are good particularly for children. I got my grandson's for £35 and my granddaughters for free. Absolutely fantastic.

I agree on your "COVID amnesty" suggestion but i also think we need something for new family season tickets.
My grandson plays at Judes and he is the only ST holder out of around 20 guys in his age group. If this is representative or even closely representative I find it very very worrying. Maybe a heavily discounted first year for families and an even higher discount if say 5 or more families are from an age group at an amatuer club. Maybe the club could hold "open nights" individually with each amatuer club specifically targeting new ST sales?

You can use the membership scheme then and still save money.

What is the answer then Jukes? Any creative thinking re solutions? What could the club do differently to reverse the trend of crowds decreasing significantly over the last decade? The intend of the thread is not to criticise the club and complain that I'm not saving enough money - its to consider any adaptations or different strategies that can be taken to address the problem.

Your opinion is ST prices are fine. Fine - fair enough. I led with the ST prices in the OP as an article on the topic triggered my thoughts. I still think they could be a little cheaper but I can come round to the idea that the benefits of rewarding loyal existing fans outweigh the costs of more affordability for non ST holders. However, you still have the barriers to entry for new and returning/lapsed fans and it is those categories of fans that the club will need to appeal to in order to improve attendances (with all the benefits that will bring such as more income, sustainability, improved match day experience, optics on TV etc).

I've repeated some of my suggestions below (copied from the first post with a couple of additions). Do you have any ideas to add? Unless you feel that the club's approach is perfect in every way and instead we should blame the customer base for not buying the product? (A fatal attitude for businesses IMO).

Tweak the prices for lapsed fans. Scale match ticket prices on the sidelines so wider blocks are cheaper than central blocks. Categorise games so that lower category games against Wakefield/Salford etc are cheaper than higher category games against Saints/Warrington etc. Honest assessment of the marketing since the new marketing lead came in - has there been any noticeable improvement? Some more innovation/creativity with Wigan TV - potentially with some fan involvement/discussions. Increased benefits for ST holders who bring new/lapsed fans to a game. A fan survey to existing/lapsed/potential fans to gather views on what would attract fans to games. An email newsletter to the fan database. Invite fans to sign up for the club's social media channels in the newsletter (particularly YouTube which has a very low subscriber count of 2,300). Hand out flyers at the St Helens Good Friday game with some form of ticket bundle offer for the next few games.

Is there an offer where a ST holder can bring a friend for free (or a fiver) to certain games (ie Wakefield, Huddersfield, Catalan)? Ok, they may not be getting £30 for the seat, but they'll almost certainly buy a pie or a pint, and if they spend it in the fan zone, the club get the money.