Ticket Pricing Strategy for the new Wembley Stadium
1 Introduction
OBJECTIVE To maximise profits from ticket sales at Wembley Stadium
KEY ASSUMPTIONS 1. Wembley has a monopoly on certain types of match
2. Wembley is run by profit maximising managers selling tickets to utility maximising buyers
STRATEGY Set prices for seats as close to the willingness to pay as possible using price discrimination
KEY CHOICES What type of seating to sell and at what price?
2 Scope
This strategy is limited to the following football matches:
? England home matches ? competitive and friendly
? Major cup semi-finals and final
? Lower league play-off finals
Wembley has a monopoly on these matches due to Football Association (FA) policy2. Theory states that Wembley should charge as close to the willingness to pay of its customers as possible to maximise its profits1. The ability to do this depends on demand and the ability to price discriminate between market segments.
3 Absolute Demand
Absolute demand for tickets will be high due to several factors:
? Football is England's national sport
? Watching live matches is popular
? Wembley Stadium is the ?home of football' with a long and distinguished history
There is good evidence for assuming high demand:
? The last three competitive England home games were sold-out2
? Attendance figures for club matches are consistently high3
? Recent cup finals at Cardiff Millennium Stadium were sold-out4 ...