PSG’s ticketing strategy: impact of COVID-19 and Ticketplace
How fans are compensated for missed matches
Since the beginning of the pandemic, PSG only played 7 home matches with a maximum capacity of 5,000 fans. If you know that during the 2018/19 season, there was a 99% attendance rate and €105 million revenue out of ticketing and hospitality, the impact on the club is enormous.
The French government decided that all ticket sellers needed to deliver credit notes to those who bought tickets. As a result, PSG created a system on their ticketing platform via which fans could see the amount of credit they receive (for missing 6 Ligue 1 and 2 Champions League matches). Fans could decide if they wanted to use the money for future ticket purchases or if they wanted to donate it to the PSG Foundation. In total, 40.000 fans used the credit notes for an amount around €25 million.
“Even though fans know we don’t sell any tickets at the moment, there are still 30.000 to 40.000 visitors each month consulting the COVID-19 guidelines on our ticketing website.”
Ticket sales priorities once Parc des Princes reopens
Similar to the high demand prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club has worked on an overview of who will be contacted first and how many tickets will be available per category:
VIP season ticket holders are the first group to be informed about the available tickets. However, they won’t be able to buy all available tickets.
In addition, season ticket holders from Club Premier, Le Virage and Le Tribune will have a priority on the available tickets
Should there still be tickets on sale after informing their season ticket holders, MyParis members are next in line
As a final step, the ticket sales to the general public starts
How to set a correct ticket price post-COVID-19
Defining our prices will be our next priority after ensuring that the stadium measures are ready and in compliance with the sanitary recommendations.
PSG’s strategy consists of 4 steps:
Anticipating different scenarios depending on the Government’s rules and regulations
Consistent price
Corresponding to the value of the PSG experience
Be profitable
The rise of Ticketplace
Since the 2016/17 season, fans have the opportunity to resell their ticket in case they can’t attend a specific match, while PSG takes a commission on the resold tickets.
The TicketPlace platform has allowed PSG to create an easy-to-use system for fans that has decreased the overall no-show rate and maximized ticketing revenue while also helping the club to tackle ticketing fraud.
Of course, there are some restrictions for its season ticket holders. For example hospitality guests are not able to use Ticketplace while fans with a season ticket in ‘Auteuil’ can resell their tickets max. 10 times.
The recorded presentation of Arnaud Delpech’s presentation is only available for ESSMA Spotlight participants as his presentation cannot be shared on the ESSMA Knowledge Platform.