[A Sea of Red]

Flames see increase in ticket sales and Flames Club membership in advance of 2018 season

http://www.aseaofred.com/flames-see-inc ... 18-season/

[Sly Fox]

Very encouraging numbers. 2019 sales could have a dizzying increase as long as the team does its part this fall.

[Ewglenn]

Very encouraging numbers. 2019 sales could have a dizzying increase as long as the team does its part this fall.

The ODU numbers are impressive.

[R i]

Because of this article, I got my stuff in gear and purchased my season tickets for the upcoming season. Here some some observations.

Ian was absolutely right. There are ticket options for anyone and everyone. If you want cheap seats to get you in the door, its 65$ for the season. If you want indoor club access and covered seat with chair back its much more. But there are so many options in between. I landed at the 90$ per ticket East Side Bench Backs.

There is a row A on East Side that is in front of the walk way. The first row you can see in most of the pictures above the walk way is row B. I believe the west is laid out this way as well.

With games starting at 6, and the sun setting in the fall around 7:30. The sun will be a factor on the Easy Side for the first quarter at least.

Parking in the grass across from the hockey arena will be free and probably in super high demand due to the new main entrance facing that direction.

Troy and ODU are both really good games. Troy should be ranked top 80 and ODU is 103 currently. You can buy two game package at pretty good price.

Getting season tickets in the mail is more exciting than Christmas morning for me. #GoFlames

[ballcoach15]

I believe the west side will be all reserved seating, and all general admission will be on east side.

[Cider Jim]

I think Ballcoach speaks the truth, but you can get reserved seating on the Baptist side without being members of the Flames Club.

[R i]

All GA will be the East Side according to maps Im seeing. Are they allowing people to sit on the berm ? I read somewhere that it was steeper than they anticipated.

[Jonathan Carone]

What's the goal for season ticket sales? What should it be?

App State - who led the Sun Belt in attendance last year - has a capacity of 30,000. Their season ticket goal for 2018 is 7500 season tickets. That would be 25% of their stadium.

Last year we had roughly 15% of the capacity filled with season tickets. That same percentage for the new stadium (if capacity is 25,000) would be 3713 season tickets. According to the numbers in this article, it looks like we're on pace to beat that 15% for this year (which is great!).

How do we grow to the level of App with season tickets? Comparably speaking, we'd have to grow to 6250 season tickets to get to that mark.

[jcmanson]

I read an article that said ODU has already sold over 11,000 season tickets for this year.

[Jonathan Carone]

Their stadium is 30k, right?

So that’d be 33+% in season tickets.

I did some other looking and Marshall is usually around right around 33% as well.

From what I’m reading, that 30-30% range looks to be the goal we should be trying to get to.

[R i]

From what I’m reading, that 30-30% range looks to be the goal we should be trying to get to.

So 30% ? haha

[Jonathan Carone]

Ha! I made that original post because I don't trust Liberty PR. I know they know how to spin everything to look like it's covered in gold. So I was trying to figure out if the numbers we're at are actually good or if they're just a pig with lipstick. The good piece is they're growing. The bad piece is we've got another 10-15% capacity to grow. We're going to have to almost triple the number of season tickets we had last year to get to where we are in line with the other schools we're trying to be on par with.

[R i]

Preface the below comments with, I understand that season ticket sales add a ton of value to a program, and are important.

I really like that we outsourced the ticket sales and some of that marketing. I think we all know that the Lynchburg community does not support LU athletics in general. I am not sure that 25% is realistic for our program.

I also do not think with the make up of our fanbase that season ticket sales is the correct barometer. I would look more at a number like average attendance on the season. We have a much higher ratio of fans that travel long distances than locals for games than any of the programs you mentioned I would assume.

Season tickets numbers get counted in the overall attendance already. Seems logical that instead of basing how well attended our games are on season ticket sales , we should look at a number like sell outs or average attendance.

[Jonathan Carone]

The problem with that line of thinking is that you're basing your attendance projections on individual games from week to week. If we had a bad week last week, we have no clue how many people will show up this week. With season ticket numbers, you can better accurately forecast what you're going to have at the game. If you can’t sell a significant number of season tickets you’re hamstrung by what actually happens on the field and the weekly perception of your program.

The other piece of that is without a solid season ticket holder base, your marketing department feels the pressure to drop prices on individual games because they've got to meet their numbers. So they start slashing $20 tickets down to $5 to get to the number they want. That undercuts the value of the tickets and tells people you know you can't fill the stadium. Why would they ever pay full price for a ticket if they know they can wait until the week of and get your panicky discounted tickets? You inadvertently condition people that season tickets aren't worth it.

Lastly, if people have already paid for the season ticket, they're more likely to show up even if last week's game was bad. They want the return on the investment so they feel they're wasting their money if they don't show up. Sure, we have their money, but money isn't important to us - people in the stands are.

[R i]

All very good points about the positives of season tickets.

Because of the distain Lynchburg and surrounding areas have for LU currently, I do not see that number comparing to schools like ODU and AppState. Boone bleeds Mountaineer football. We will have to rely more heavily on having good teams and attracting the traveling fanbase for a decade or so.

But when comparing to Boone or VABeach , we can look at average attendance and keep up in that category.

[Jonathan Carone]

I'd push back on the out-of-town piece of it. I can't speak for ODU, but I know a lot of App season ticket holders live in the Triad or down in Charlotte. They travel 2+ hours to each game and still get season tickets.

Our goal should be for our fans within a 100-mile radius of the school to get season tickets. There is a really large amount of alumni and fans within that radius. Within that circle is Durham, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem in North Carolina; Danville, Martinsville, Roanoke, Wytheville, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Harrisonburg in Virginia. I'd like to think we could build to 7500 season ticket holders within that circle.

One thing you are absolutely right about is the investment in ticket sales reps. That was much, much needed.

[Class of 20Something]

I'd push back on the out-of-town piece of it. I can't speak for ODU, but I know a lot of App season ticket holders live in the Triad or down in Charlotte. They travel 2+ hours to each game and still get season tickets.

Our goal should be for our fans within a 100-mile radius of the school to get season tickets. There is a really large amount of alumni and fans within that radius. Within that circle is Durham, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem in North Carolina; Danville, Martinsville, Roanoke, Wytheville, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Harrisonburg in Virginia. I'd like to think we could build to 7500 season ticket holders within that circle.

One thing you are absolutely right about is the investment in ticket sales reps. That was much, much needed.

We have alumni family in Greensboro that are single game folks, but my brother in Durham is all about season tickets. I think that 2 hour drive time is easy to accomplish in a day, especially if you extend the day with tailgating.

[BJWilliams]

I'm coming up from the 757 and in about 4 hours away

[bigsmooth]

if one cannot buy season tickets due to distance, then join the Flames Club. or you could buy season tickets by proxy and donate to boys/girls clubs etc.

[Jonathan Carone]

We have alumni family in Greensboro that are single game folks, but my brother in Durham is all about season tickets. I think that 2 hour drive time is easy to accomplish in a day, especially if you extend the day with tailgating.

The goal has to be to convert the single game folks into season ticket holders. You can make a great day trip six times a year for a really good price. But the product on the field has to be worth it.

[BJWilliams]

I concur...if not for having a new job (and two boys to find care for) I probably would try to come to all six home games

[thepostman]

I'm too far for a day trip but I intend to attempt to make the trip at least once a season until my career sends me elsewhere. If I lived within 2 hours I would be a season ticket holder. Without a doubt.

[R i]

postman if you come up alone for game this season, DM. Would enjoy meeting you and talking football.

[Cider Jim]

What hurts LU is having both UVa and Tech only an hour to an hour and a half away. Both are major ACC football programs with a long history.

[jinxy]

2 things.

Odus number is grossly inflated with tech fans buying season tickets for the vt game and then discarding. I know at least 5 here in rke that did that.

My group is up to 19 this year. From 5 3 years ago. There are people looking to go but dont know others. Its about connecting the dots. Market the churches as well. Event nights. I lnow of atleast 2 in rke doing group nights that did not do that in past.