Reader Response: Talk is cheap, tickets aren’t

I received quite a few responses from orchestra managers challenging my point of view regarding the recent article about orchestra ticket prices . One of which came from Curt Long, the Executive Director for the Dayton Philharmonic…

• Curt had this to say:
  "Why
  look at average price rather than lowest price?  We have seats that
  start in the $11-13.50 range for all of our classical series."

My
reason for focusing on the average price instead of the lowest price is
because many of the least expensive tickets are few in number and
usually have purchasing restrictions (such as student or senior
tickets). Therefore, the average 20something and 30something usually
ends up having to select from among the average priced tickets.

• Curt went on to point out:
  "As
  an industry I would suggest that ticket prices have increased because
  expenses have increased – primarily musician wages, but also guest
  artist fees and production/hall costs.  If we charge people
  significantly less than they have shown they are willing to pay, does
  that mean we pay musicians less?  Or hire less prominent guest artists?"

Curt’s
point sound quite reasonable, but I think it confuses cause and
effect.  Just because you will lower ticket prices does not mean that
you need to lower connected musician pay, guest artist budgets, or
management’s salary.  Although it’s a practical static analysis, it
doesn’t take into account a number of positive dynamic variables. Such
as by bringing in more patrons with lower average ticket prices, you
significantly increase the number of potential donors.  And if the
organization is doing a good job of enabling patrons then you’ll gain
more in the long term from them as involved donors than what you will
make in the short term with higher ticket prices. And remember, the 20
something’s that become enabled today turn into your big individual
donors over the next 30 years.

• Curt goes on to make what I consider an excellent observation:
  "I imagine that the orchestras building really small concert halls [1000 seats] are going to be faced with a cost per seat structure which will push their ticket prices frighteningly high."

I
couldn’t agree more. I feel these orchestras are going to financially
strangle themselves to death because this problem perpetuates the "rich
white guy" syndrome.  Meaning they are unable to bring in new patrons
to replace those leaving because the ticket prices are prohibitive to
the average person.

Several
orchestra administrators wrote in to make the following point. Here is
an excerpt from one of the letters where the manager went on to poke
holes into my two-tier ticket price idea:

• "Your
  idea of two tier tickets may work for some houses, but it would be more
  lucrative to price as many sections as can be differentiated by the
  audience — the main floor and the 2nd balcony are obviously two
  different sections, but what about the upper and lower parts of the
  same balcony? Can you make a case for that? In some houses you may be
  able to. The goal should be to price the house up to what people are
  willing to pay."

My point is that patrons are
telling orchestras what they are willing to pay but orchestras aren’t
listening. Simply look at the 60%-65% average attendance at most
orchestras. Those numbers don’t exist simply because of ineffective
marketing (although it is connected), so much as due to high ticket
prices.

And
yes, different sections of the hall have different qualities but that
does not justify pricing them differently.  For example, take this
dynamic analysis: There is much more going on than just listening when
you attend an orchestra concert. Audience members don’t always sit in a
particular section because of its popularity. Sometimes I like to sit
in the acoustical "sweet spot" to hear the best homogeneous sound and
sometimes I’ll sit far to the side and up close so I can hear a
particular section in the orchestra better.  As a patron, I don’t feel
that there should be financial restrictions (in the form of multi tier
pricing) regarding where I am able to sit.

Keep posting your opinions, I think the issue of inflated ticket prices is paramount to the industry’s future and your opinions matter.