This is when you know your franchise is in a mess

[chopper31]

Originally Posted by ReadyToBolt

Yes, I noticed that. Pitt's stadium was also empty when the Steelers played the Chiefs. The must have more season ticket holders or maybe a lower sellout threshold.

Oh believe me the game was sold out a long time ago. They have a 50 year waiting list for season tickets, and have never once had a game blacked out.

Getting tix for a game in that stadium is neither easy nor cheap. You'd have to likely pay $200+ for a nosebleed seat.

Perhaps a bunch of season ticket holders chose not to go to the game because of the weather forecast. Same thing happened for the Cleveland game. It was sold out, but the stadium was empty because of the weather (40 degrees and rain).

[Strife9878]

Originally Posted by BoltBacker4Life

The waiting list for a season ticket for the Packers is 50+ years. Could you imagine what their fans would think of an NFL team needing to resort to Groupon to sell tickets?

It is called the Vince Lombardi Trophy for a reason... our fan bases can't be compared. They are the original Super Bowl Champions… and they are in theory a publicly owned team so the Packers have earned their fanbase in the normal and not so normal way.

[plcowner]

Originally Posted by charger1_sj

It makes sense for the MLB because they rarely sell out regular season games. The NFL is quite the opposite and this only works when you have +10K tickets to sell, usually for losing franchises at the end of the season.

I thought BB4L said that Miami and SD are the only teams that have started using Groupon (?) If this is right, we don't know if it actually works for the NFL in any type of scenario just yet.

Fielding a better team would help sell more tickets but this isn't going to happen this year. My point is that Groupon is a different marketing strategy. The Chargers need to sell tickets and nothing else appears to be working so from a business perspective you give it a try.

Can you provide a better alternative than Groupon? If Groupon signed a deal with MLB in part to sell tickets, why is it so distasteful for an NFL team to use Groupon regardless of how many tickets need to be sold? Does Groupon have a bad reputation in the US?

Instead of Groupon, maybe the Chargers can try the Mardi Gras promotion that the CFL's Ottawa Renegades used.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/10/13/...tawas-cfl-team

"Lonnie Glieberman has few regrets, sticking by the decision to bring banished NFL star Manley to Ottawa and the much-ridiculed Mardi Gras promotion, sort of Girls Gone Wild come north, where ladies sitting in the south-side upper-deck stands were encouraged to bare their boobs in return for beads. The girl with the most beads was given $1,000.
“Mardi Gras was a good decision,” said Glieberman. “A survey of more than 4,000 people showed that only 20% were offended by Mardi Gras. It was a fun promotion. The upper deck was virtually sold out and once we cancelled it, the upper deck was only half full. If you wanted to avoid it, you could sit in 18,000 other seats.”

[JohnnyB1SD]

Originally Posted by BoltBacker4Life

You applaud them for being so desperate to get rid of 13,000 tickets that they have to go Groupon? You applaud them for us being in such a horrific state that we have 13,000 unsold tickets to where they have to start thinking outside of the box?

To each his own

So what's your point? You'd rather have them try to sell the tix at full price? So you can piss and moan about how they are losing and still trying to sell tix at full price. They could be stubborn about the tix and keep them at full price.

There were lots of posters here saying how they should reduce the tix prices when there was a blackout looming, now we have posters saying it a bad thing that they are lowering prices. This type of mixed fan base just lets me know that Spanos isn't going to fire AJ because fans are calling for it.

[plcowner]

Originally Posted by BoltBacker4Life

The waiting list for a season ticket for the Packers is 50+ years. Could you imagine what their fans would think of an NFL team needing to resort to Groupon to sell tickets?

Who cares what their fans think. Spanos certainly doesn't. He is just trying something to sell more tickets. Would it better if the Chargers partnered with Stub Hub? Ebay?

[plcowner]

Originally Posted by sdchargergt

From a business standpoint this is a good move. It's helping them get rid of tickets they otherwise would not be able to sell. People that are complaining (saying it's desperate, etc.) need to stop being mad at the world and just support the Chargers. Who knows, this might help avoid future blackout games. Although it has been a disappointing year, I will be there rooting them on like I am every game.

Cheers!

Yes, exactly.

[chargertom]

I'm not sure how offering Charger fans a discount on game tickets can be viewed as a bad thing.

[plcowner]

Originally Posted by BoltBacker4Life

Okay, Washington DC, Chicago, Dallas, Pitt, etc. could you imagine them having to resort to Groupon?

So far it's us and Mia, probably TB next. That's not a good club to be in.....

My understanding is that non-traditional marketing techniques (mainly using the web) are the way of the future. I don't think a lot of people think of it as "resorting to groupon".

[JohnnyB1SD]

They not offering the tickets any cheaper, if you buy a ticket using a groupon, you'll get a $20.00 voucher for concessions. It's a great business move if it works I can see them using it again next season. Just because of the uncertainty of what the team will do next season. I don't see season seat sales being what they've been over the last few season, I can see another drop off. Which will compel them to use the groupon service again if they get sales over the last home games this season.

[ktmjim]

Originally Posted by chopper31

Perhaps a bunch of season ticket holders chose not to go to the game because of the weather forecast. Same thing happened for the Cleveland game. It was sold out, but the stadium was empty because of the weather (40 degrees and rain).

That is the definition of fair weather fans right there. Weak sounding fan base if you ask me. Let them go 49 years without winning a championship like us and then see how empty that stadium is.