Optimising match ticket prices for Women’s Football
Applying PSM and Gabor Granger to help The FA set ticket prices
The challenge
With the rapid rise in popularity of women’s football, The FA wanted to ensure that match ticket pricing was optimised to maximise attendance, ensuring that fans weren’t priced out of the market, whilst also ensuring that pricing didn’t undermine the value of the event itself. Pricing research was needed to identify the optimum price for match tickets in the context of attendance figures.
The solution
Bonamy Finch designed an ad hoc study employing a Price Sensitivity Measure (PSM) to identify perceived price thresholds among supporters of the women’s game, alongside a Gabor Granger to understand the likely interest in tickets at a range of price points. The research design also allowed analysis of results by different showpiece matches (e.g. Women’s FA Cup Final) and different venues.
The result
This work has helped inform and influence pricing for Women’s FA Cup and England games, ensuring the right balance between fan attendance and commercial goals. It contributed to the achievement of a record attendance of over 25,000 fans at the England v Wales fixture in April 2018.
The work has been hugely influential in helping to increase attendance at, and value from, Women’s football.
Ross Antrobus
Head of Consumer Insight, The Football Association
