BuzzerBeater Forums

What is the best ratio of the different types of arena seating?

How can you work out roughly how much arena space you should have?

There really is not a magic ratio for arena expansion (it's not like hattrick, for example). The bonus is that in BB you don't pay a weekly maintenance fee for your arena.

My best advice is to look at what type of seats you're selling out on a regular basis. In your case, you sold out everything in your last home game; but if you look back, you've sold out your courtside seats for nearly a month. So you know you'll want to expand those. Plus, you're in the midst of a huge winning steak. Do you think that will continue?

What I've found the safest with arena expansion is to see what you can afford to expand in each section, and expand about half of what you can afford (leaving enough in the bank for unforseen expenses that may arise). When that sells out, repeat, rinse, repeat...

I have noticed that the number of bleacher seats filled varies more from game to game than the other seats. One loss may reduce the amount of people buying bleacher seats since they are the least hardcore of fans and the come and go as the team wins and loses. The other seats seem to always sell out for me even if I lost a couple games in a row.

I agree, and I may not have been clear enough in my reply to the OP. Courtside sell out more than anything else in my experience, and I've needed to expand there far more often than anywhere else.

While on the subject of arenas, this portion of the rules has bothered me:

You will find that the people who want the most expensive seats will pay their money win or lose (but care a lot about ticket prices), while the less expensive seats are mostly filled by rabid fans who will show up when the team is winning but won't pay to see a losing team.

I understood that to mean that seats in lower tier, courtside and luxury boxes will sell quite regularly-- regardless of the team's wins or losses-- unless there is a fluctuation in ticket price. I also understood this to mean that the "rabid fans" who sit in the bleachers couldn't care less about the cost of the ticket, as long as the team is winning. I've found the latter to be rather untrue.

I raised bleacher seat prices from $12 to $14 (while expanding 250 bleacher seats) after an 8-game winning streak that included 2 TV games. Immediately after the price hike, my bleacher attendance dropped by 1,107 seats (~23%) while my team continued to win. Now that my winning streak has stretched to 11 games, my bleacher attendance still has yet to return to what it was previous to the ticket price increase (-774 seats/down ~16% last home game).

I was curious if anyone else had seen bleacher sales drop so sharply in relation to other seats after a price increase...?

Edited by darykjozef (12/15/2007 2:09:22 AM CET)

Last edited by darykjozef at 12/15/2007 2:09:22 AM

Yes. I expanded all 4 sections recently and raised prices and the bleachers failed to fill up. The bleacher fans are a very fickle bunch and DO respond to prices.

My experience suggests that the response of bleacher fans is even more sensitive than that of the more expensive seats.

In my example above, I also raised prices on lower tier and courtside seats, while dropping the price of luxury boxes (though I previously had no luxury boxes in my arena, so this is a rather moot point). My results after expansion and price hike were:

Bleachers
14-18-25 Nov: $12 (cap. 4750)
Sold: 4750, 4750, 4750
2-9 Dec: $14 (cap. 5000)
3643, 3976

Lower Tier
14-18-25 Nov: $40 (cap. 500)
Sold: 500, 500, 500
2-9 Dec: $44 (cap. 550)
Sold: 502, 532

Courtside
14-18-25 Nov: $125 (cap. 100)
Sold: 100, 100, 100
2-9 Dec: $131 (cap 110)
Sold: 104, 108

Now that I've charted it all out, it occurs to me that there may be something in the percentage of the price increase. A raise from $12 to $14 is a price increase of ~17%, whereas increasing from $40 to $44 is a mere 10% hike, and a raise from $125 to $131 increases the price less than 5%.

This all makes me wish I had a lot more data from which to draw conclusions.