I see it on social media, its like they've lost touch or connection with a lot of the fanbase. Like the volume of activity from the customer side has decreased, even if a lot of the fanbase isn't active on social media. I will admit, I am no longer a STH and have more conflicts than I used to, but even on days where there is a game and I can go, UberEats and beer at home seem like a better idea than going to the stadium. Partly me but also for someone who went to probably 80% of games for a decade, sort of a sad view
I personally love the auto-renewal and how they break up the season tickets into monthly payments. I’m also getting a great deal on tix for being Legend Status. What I think they do poorly is advertise the benefit of working your way up to Legend. Side note - I needed some Dash tix and my rep was on vacay. The tix rep that took my call was fabulous: night and day from the previous poor customer service that I had received in years past. My theory is that my Legend status pops up at the top of my account and they’re a bit nicer. To me that’s progress.
I agree & these are good points. Also, because it's so easy to end up being a Legend, there will be more and more each year thus stress testing the Legend customer service experience. I would love if they kept the current easy promotion system, but then add a tier every 5 yrs (10 yr, 15 yr, etc) for STHs including a special tier for STH originals. In just 24-36 months, the majority of the STHs could be Legends thus devaluing the "special" status & VIP treatment of the tier
more Legend status getting breaks on their season ticket prices means lower secondary market prices when they sell them, so that’s good for all of us! May I ask how much the percentage discount is for the legends?
It should be an option. If you want to pay in advance ... great. Even offer an additional benefit for early pay. Maybe a real gift. If you want to pay the day before the season starts (and you are a renewing member) then fine. If you want to pay 1/3 a season each of the three months before the season -- fine. As long as you pay before the season. Give people options. Give your members options and power and earn their money.
Just to follow up the point about bloggers being locked out, Sammbonu was one of the vocal ones about being locked out last year and he was at Dynamo media availability as recently as last week (he’s been reporting on the team for the season I just wanted to provide a recent example). Not saying his example shows everything is fixed, but there is good movement in the right direction apparently. As for the reach I have no idea what they’re supposed to do for that. The media market is very confusing right now. On one hand pay tv is dying but on the other the Dash are broadcasting several of their games on SCHN (which I suspect the team is paying the network to air those games). https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2024/sports-may-not-save-tv-after-all-1234785009/
The league is the one that limited the reach with the Apple TV deal - but they went into that deal knowing in many markets it would resign the team to obscurity, especially those with large Spanish-speaking populations. Yeah, the teams approved it and they are getting more money now for broadcasting rights than they did before. But there's no one who can tell me or prove to me the Dynamo are more relevant now than they were before. It's actually easier to watch a Houston Sabercats match than the Dynamo. Let that sink in.
Based on Reddit it sounds like STH invoices are now out (did the opt out date pass already?) - anyone get clobbered with an increase?
I got mine. The opt out date is July 31. I'm in the Supporter Section. My tickets went up $2 each. 2025 will be year 20 for me.
got mine as well. A total (2 tix) $315 year over year increase. No additional benefits or discounts. In fact, there is very little difference between the Legend status members and the Captain status. And by very little difference, I mean Legends get 20% off at the team store and Captains get 15%. Other than that, fans that have been there since the very beginning get taken care of the same as fans that have been there since this year. Neat
Saw this on Dynamo Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dynamo/s/r8HWeTMOKU “Is it better to buy individual tickets instead of season tickets? I’ve seen mixed responses as to how much their season tickets have gone up and now find that ours went up a whopping $200! That’s insane considering we STHs have been absolutely shafted this year when it comes to perks, especially with the “gift” of a super cool purple hat that’s a different shade of purple from the purple kit. But wait! We at least get our own line to enter the stadium that’s the exact same as every other line and they don’t even ask if i’m a STH anymore. So, do you think it’s cheaper and more practical to just purchase individual game tickets for the season? “
That was fan feedback, a quote from one of our Forever Orange family members. Answers the question you posted pretty clearly.
The responses are interesting. It sounds like in some sections in the upper deck they charge more for the first few rows than for rows say 10 back from the front. Which I understand in concept, but kind of crappy for people who had those seats for a while. in their zeal to squeeze every last drop of pricing revenue out of the existing season-ticket holders, they seem to have ticked off some who are over the cliff and just might cancel. They are basically betting that they’ll have fewer cancellations or opt outs than they will additional incremental revenue for those who stay. But I just don’t see them increasing their customer base. they announced an attendance of 15,000 versus Charlotte, which clearly I’d be shocked if there was half that many people actually at the stadium based on what I saw on TV. I think the schedule is something they can’t really do much about but the season is too long and the summer dates are just killers with the weather. And I think to some degree this market is becoming over saturated with soccer
On top of this, our marketing suits do not know to sell the sizzle not the steak. I mean, knowing how saturated our sports market is, and with pro soccer on TV and in town so much compared to just 18 years ago with our launch in 2006, our FO needs to know how to make the game day experience something unique. Really make the soccer fan feel like part of a club, a proud fellow member in a larger family of naranja fanatics. As it is now, our marketing arm still struggles to sell Dynamo home games as an experience unlike going to an Astros or Rockets game. Astros baseball games on a Wednesday night is fine for sitting down for hours and eating a drinking. Get up out of your seat here and there. Pro soccer as witnessed the world over really allows the fans inside the stadium to feel like a participatory member of the sport itself down on the field. Your voice matters type of vibe and connection. All this is left wanting from our marketing folks as the bean counters just keep demanding more squeeze from those that happen to show up season after season. If long term season ticket holders leave, so be it. Not a great business model for our city's way of being.
i’ve spent less time and energy on here talking about it this year because I just don’t think it’s ever gonna change. Everything‘s become a stale experience there and the nickel and dime stuff gets annoying. I still have and use these nice ceramic coasters from probably 07 or 08 that were the STH gift. Actually cost something. They gave out one of those cheap gas station caps this year as the STH gift I saw. Segal will still make money when he flips the team because franchise values have gone up, but the damage that Brener era did to this brand and team is just ridiculous
I had a conversation with my rep and he confirmed-- my 20% price increase was due to me being in the first row. He said the first three rows in the three middle sections took a large increase due to "demand" & that they have been "undervalued" the past few years. He thinks this large increase is a one off this year as a price correction and next year will go back to the standard increases but he naturally can't promise anything. the FO heard loud and clear the complaints about the hats this year but nothing was relayed to me what might be different moving forward. When asked why gifts are no longer mailed, he brought up the major issues last year with folks not receiving them and the problems that the post office has had with deliveries. Sounds like they are never gonna mail them again but try to make the pick up experience more efficient. He agreed that the benefits for the three tiers are almost identical but that legends get first priority for special event attendance and are the first to receive emails about offers. Also, the STs are much lower for Legends than the lower tiers but I'm not privy to those prices so I can't confirm just how much of a discount there is. There are beginning stages of talks to add and amend the tiers in future years but it sounds like nothing is gonna happen soon. PS My coffee cup sits on a near 20 yr old "siempre naranja" ceramic coaster every morning. I have no idea where my hat is from this year
This is someone in the FO who ran the spreadsheets/pricing model and thought it would be good to try and squeeze more money out of long-term customers for the same product. Better solution: grandfather folks in and if those seats turn over, then reprice. But its easier to turn up the volume on current pricing to existing seats then sell new ones in summer. It's hard to tell where this organization is on the business side. They hired an Astros guy as the chief revenue officer to replace the chief hostage negotiator last year then I believe they've had more changes on the ticket sales side. Attendance is nominally (announced) up and they claim they've increased season ticket sales which makes sense after a good year. But they also got rid of that pitch zone thing and gutted the sports deck benefits. THey have the recliners which are very comfy but I have no idea how they would be in the summer heat. The dynamic pricing algorithm is all screwed up, especially when STHs are selling seats for like 60% of what the box office is asking. And that reddit thread had a lot of comments about folks dropping full season packages and just buying game to game unless they had special seats they just loved. That to me would be alarming.
https://www.sportico.com/business/sales/2024/tim-howard-houston-dynamo-dash-ownership-1234789533/ Tim Howard has joined the ownership group.
The Dynamo have a new minority owner: https://www.sportico.com/business/s...36TtXgR83Xss4EoKJ4_aem_JaZ6R0xiRT6ii3nREl1HPg
That is interesting. 1. Tim Howard? Really? So I guess he was just looking to buy into any team and Segal was willing to take some profit -- especially since someone convinced Howard the club is worth 700M. I've never seen Howard being connected to Houston or the Dynamo in anyway. 2. 700M$. Really? This all kind of supports my theory that the cottage industry of "sports business experts" calculate things like franchise net worth with a heavy bias towards previous capital investments. One of the reasons Segal has been so willing to invest in building changes even when they don't make obvious sense -- like the East club. (The other big reason for the East Club is that it converted normal ticket revenue into premium seat revenue. Under the leagues revenue sharing model premium seat revenue is not shared, while normal ticket revenue is.) What I think they don't do well is figure out actual brand equity. How the franchise is perceived by customers, actual and potential. I have come to the conclusion that the Dynamo brand is severely damaged in Houston. In short -- I think Howard over-valued the franchise but I'm saying that without sufficient information to draw that conclusion. Its just my guess.
@7seven7 - You will want to read this. Could support an argument you have made: Excerpt of the statement of Tim Howard, July 16, 2024, paraphrasing: uhhh ... That last statement at the end is a doozy! Especially when you see what Miami is doing, what LAFC is doing. What exactly does he mean? Destination for players? For fans? In the Q&A he says something about being in Houston a lot to be very present and very involved. Wants to solve the problem of soccer fans not going to their local team's games. Lots of talk about using his connections to find solutions to problems. Frankly, a lot of that talk is rather inconsequential in my view. New guy thinks he will find solutions. Like no one before has been trying. Lots of buzzwards about aligning values, culture, best practices, blah blah. Talk about building culture. blah blah. (Not to be negative, but the idea that he will really impact the culture is something I will need to see to evaluate.) I mean Segal bought the whole team intent on changing the culture and while the team culture is 1000% better the FO culture is not much better. The point being is that it is hard, hard, hard and takes incredible effort and sacrifice. The 700M valuation? He is in it for the long haul. How involved in decision making? Heavily involved. Not involved just to sit around.
Good points as always DJ, Here are the numbers from that article>>> Financial terms were not provided, but the investment was made at a $700 million valuation, according to people familiar with the matter. Per Sportico’s MLS valuations, Houston Dynamo are valued at $550 million, and the Houston Dash are valued at $50 million, according to Sportico’s NWSL valuations. I would like to think that the $600 million for both teams and an additional $100 million for the stadium is a logical conclusion that has Sportico's staff stating the $700 million valuation.
I don’t have the energy to address every concern or question, but in my opinion this is unequivocally a good thing. This is the first time in the Dynamo’s history that there has been a true soccer person in the ownership group. Im slightly skeptical of what Howard is saying in terms of getting more people to games (which to be fair he doesn’t say is a problem unique to Houston) but he has a vast amount Premier League experience with clubs that have immense institutional knowledge. Of course Everton wasn’t super successful when he was playing there but I have no doubt that when it comes to facilities and operations they have a leg up on us in many categories. Figuring which parts of the clubs infrastructure to upgrade with the most impact will go a long ways.