idea for selling tickets.

[dstebbins]

Tickets for independent shows are really easy to come by because they hardly ever sell out. Not enough people care about wrestling enough to buy tickets to a show they've never seen before and may not like.

But imagine if the tickets were free, like the Impact Zone, and instead, the promotion played radio ads out the sound system between matches, which would be edited out for DVDs. They charged the advertisers an amount proportional to the attendance (they do keep track of the number of people coming to see the show; it's not that much labor to do so), so a 75% sold out crowd will cause the ads to break even on the cost of the arena, leading concession, merchandise, and DVD sales to pay the rest.

Sure, they'd be making less per person, but they're almost guaranteed to fill at least 90% of the seats, especially in a new town they've never been in before.

Whaddaya think?

 

[czwrestler]

its a decent idea but the company would look like a cheap dump to the people that did attend the event and hardly ever come back to it.

Particually with ROH fans, this wouldn't go over at all

 

[Wordlife]

eh idk bout this, itd be a decent idea, bring in a little revenue, but many fans wouldn't care to much for the "cheap" aspected atmosphere

 

[dstebbins]

Got any better ideas to completely sell out every single arena, every single show?

 

[Montana]

That is a horrible idea. Your ASSUMING people would want to advertise for a indy wrestling organization, and ASSUMING they are going to put a lot of money in your pocket. Who says you need to sell out every show, for every arena. The goal of the company is to make money. Lets take ROH for a example. Lets say they sell 1,000 tickets at a average of 20$. Thats 20,000 dollars you are pissing away. What type of advertisers are going to give you that money for such a small amount of exposure for a few hours at the show. Or course, free tickets mean they might buy some merchandise and become a fan which is good. But it makes your organization look cheap. I just think its a bad idea. If i just opened the doors to a new indy fed, i'd maybe consider it, but not for a established one.

Its not a easy task getting fans in the seats. But crazy enough, i think ROH is doin the right thing. Give them a good show, and tell them to come back next time...and bring a friend. The more people attend, the better show we give you. Simple and easy.

 

[monkeystyle]

Got any better ideas to completely sell out every single arena, every single show?

Nope, but I can't think of any worse ones either.

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

That is a horrible idea. Your ASSUMING people would want to advertise for a indy wrestling organization, and ASSUMING they are going to put a lot of money in your pocket. Who says you need to sell out every show, for every arena. The goal of the company is to make money. Lets take ROH for a example. Lets say they sell 1,000 tickets at a average of 20$. Thats 20,000 dollars you are pissing away. What type of advertisers are going to give you that money for such a small amount of exposure for a few hours at the show. Or course, free tickets mean they might buy some merchandise and become a fan which is good. But it makes your organization look cheap. I just think its a bad idea. If i just opened the doors to a new indy fed, i'd maybe consider it, but not for a established one.

Its not a easy task getting fans in the seats. But crazy enough, i think ROH is doin the right thing. Give them a good show, and tell them to come back next time...and bring a friend. The more people attend, the better show we give you. Simple and easy.

that's exactly what I was thinking. I don't think that many people would have interest in advertising for a wrestling show nowadays, and they wouldn't make that much money anyways.

and the thing with selling tickets are that there's always a niche fanbase that will go to the shows no matter how much the tickets are. even if you advertise a free show, you still might get the same amount of fans. and TNA still runs paid house shows, even though they probably make a decent amount of money from Universal.

 

[dstebbins]

That is a horrible idea. Your ASSUMING people would want to advertise for a indy wrestling organization, and ASSUMING they are going to put a lot of money in your pocket. Who says you need to sell out every show, for every arena. The goal of the company is to make money. Lets take ROH for a example. Lets say they sell 1,000 tickets at a average of 20$. Thats 20,000 dollars you are pissing away. What type of advertisers are going to give you that money for such a small amount of exposure for a few hours at the show. Or course, free tickets mean they might buy some merchandise and become a fan which is good. But it makes your organization look cheap. I just think its a bad idea. If i just opened the doors to a new indy fed, i'd maybe consider it, but not for a established one.

Its not a easy task getting fans in the seats. But crazy enough, i think ROH is doin the right thing. Give them a good show, and tell them to come back next time...and bring a friend. The more people attend, the better show we give you. Simple and easy.

The point of selling out every single arena is the same reason that TNA gives away a lot of tickets for the PPV shows: A sold-out crowd makes you look popular. Besides, you said it yourself; saving money on tickets lets the fans have more money for merchandise and snacks. Besides, it's not like you'll be getting about 200 dollars from the ads. The amount of revenue you get is dependent entirely on the number of people attending your show, which is almost guaranteed by nature of common sense to be more than if you charged money for it.

If nothing else, if NOTHING ELSE, broadcast your show over the Internet with ads. This is more profitable than it sounds, because ROH is lucky to sell 25,000 DVDs per show, leading to revenue of $500k. If it's free, as many people as watch TNA Impact are bound to watch your show at least once to see what it's like. That's 1.4 million people. If they can make just $2 per person per show on ad revenue alone, that's 2.8 million dollars in ONE SINGLE SOLITARY WEEK! Which do you think ROH would rather have?

 

[Montana]

Your making up #'s and your losing me.

The reason TNA gives tickets away is because they are on TV. Indy's generally aren't on TV.

 

[dstebbins]

Your making up #'s and your losing me.

The reason TNA gives tickets away is because they are on TV. Indy's generally aren't on TV.

Hey, just because you can't do math doesn't prove me wrong.

Indies may not be on TV, but most of them do have Youtube channels where they show highlight videos. It's important that you make your promotion look as big as possible when you're showing clips from actual shows to advertise your product.

 

[Montana]

I understood your math, I didnt understand why the 1.4 million people are giving someone 2$ because they saw a advertisement.


This whole thread is dumb. Your title is How to sell more tickets...and your say you should give tickets away. WTF

 

[The Rated R CMStar]

Besides, you are assuming first, that people will want to advertise in your show. At most, little local companies will, but that alone will not mantain you.

Second, you are assuming people will watch your show and attend to the arenas, because after all, as you say, your advertising revenue depends on the amount of people that attends your show.

But what happens if not one person attends your show? "But it's free" you might say, but for example, I know for a fact that even for free, I wouldn't attend certain indy shows of far more fame than what yours could be.

The idea has pros and cons, however the fact that it has way too assumptions brings it down in my opinion

 

[dstebbins]

Besides, you are assuming first, that people will want to advertise in your show. At most, little local companies will, but that alone will not mantain you.

Second, you are assuming people will watch your show and attend to the arenas, because after all, as you say, your advertising revenue depends on the amount of people that attends your show.

But what happens if not one person attends your show? "But it's free" you might say, but for example, I know for a fact that even for free, I wouldn't attend certain indy shows of far more fame than what yours could be.

The idea has pros and cons, however the fact that it has way too assumptions brings it down in my opinion

It's not just assumptions. It's a matter of common sense that most people don't look a gift horse in the mouth unless they already tried it out before. I'm not saying everyone will come back again and again, I'm saying they'll be more inclined to try it out than they would if it cost them $20 just to get in the door, and more to eat. The middle class would be able to afford the luxury of a live wrestling show my way.

I don't see what's so complicated about this.

 

[The Rated R CMStar]

That's the thing I am talking about. Free or not, what makes you think people will go, even if it is only a one timer. Sure, some people will go there, but like I said, most of the people, even if it's for free, don't want to see a bunch of unknown indy wrestlers.

However, I agree with you on the fact that is more probable that someone would go and check your show if it's for free than if charging. However, like I said, I don't really see big sponsors advertising in your shows, so it would only be advertisements from local or small companies, and it would be hard, taking into account that the amount payed would depend on how much people go into the shows, and I believe that out of 10 people, only 2 would attend your shows even for free, so in the final numbers, having to pay the wages to your wrestlers, referees, the rent of the arena, and only having as revenue a low advertising, it would leave your company in red numbers rather fast