If you and your family are regulars at Scarby.... no more Adult season passes

[Merlin the Elder]

It has gotten rather heated on all fronts. I think—at least I hope—that no one intended to be nasty to anyone, with the possible exception against the ones who decided to do away with the passes in the first place.

Forgive me for attempting to mediate, but I've found cyber-friends out here on both side of the fence, and I really don't want to alienate any of them/you—I haven't even had a chance to meet most of you. I am in the middle—the change in the passes (this time) did not impact me, as we have been buying FoF passes for a while. But we did go through a price change a few years back...I just took it as the price of doing what I really wanted to do.

I work at a state university. I've dealt with administrators and their logic. I'm not going to sit here and blow smoke up your skirt and tell you that there is a valid reason for all of this. I will tell you that they likely think there is, but that may or may not be the case. I am not in the position to determine that. Not even close! The logical step is the one that many have already followed—making the displeasure known.

I can tell you from painful experience that ultimatums are worthless. Requests to reconsider, however, with impeccable logic, intelligently presented, and sans anger-filled threats, will have a much better chance of reaching desired ears. I'm not guaranteeing it will change anything, but it's certainly more conducive to discourse. You never know though...maybe they didn't realize how much you care. If you didn't care—a lot—about Scarby, it would mean nothing. That's special.

I am not attempting to encourage anyone not to be mad about the change in passes—you have every reason to be upset. But if you simply give up on Scarby because you think they did you wrong, you only shooting yourself in the foot. Not everyone can afford to be altruistic these days. I like to do the FoF passes because I'm seeing some progress out of it...and maybe I'm being naïve! I won't deny it! But in these days and times, not everyone is in the same situation. I'm struggling with some things, but not as much as a lot of other people, a lot of you.

Our entertainment, when things get tight, is the last thing we want to give up. It's the only thing that helps us keep our sanity. If any Scarby higher-ups are monitoring this conversation, I encourage you to rethink your decision.  It's not for me—I'm good to go for the 2011 season—it's for my friends.

[Drac]

While I am not happy on the way it was done I wish no ill will toward the management, players, playtrons, vendors, or performers.

We will buy the passes, go as often as we can, march in the parade and have fun.

After all isn't that what we're here for?

Drac

[DonaCatalina]

I am becoming curious about how many regulars that this will affect. I guess we won't really knwo for sure until opening, but how many of the Royal Guard and the Queen's Own will be missing?

[LadyStitch]

I'm actually tempted to join the groups now that PP and I are becoming more regular.  But I agree with you Donna, how will this effect the regulars coming week after week. We might see a serious decrease in parade length.

[Queen Bonnie]

 I know that I will not be able to attend as much as I usually do. I am sad about this. I loved Scarby. Maybe once or twice if I can get day trip rides. Sigh.I will miss all of you. See me at Sherwood.

[Merlin]

Here's my 2 cents (actually only worth 1 cent in todays economy but that's another subject):

If I'm management, my ONLY reason for making this change has to be financial. It has to be a decision based on increasing revenue through ticket sales.
If I do not offer season passes, paytrons have 2 choices basically... buy a day pass every visit and hopefully they will come more than 4 times which in that case will generate a few more dollars to ME as management of the grounds. OR they will purchase a FOF pass which will also generate more revenue for the grounds since FOF passes cost more than season passes.

I for one do not think this strategy works for raising more overall revenue however.

This is why.
Once a season pass is purchased, most feel somewhat obligated to come to faire in order to feel they got "their monies worth". What happens when people come? They spend money. If contemplating going out for the weekend and one begins to add up in their head the price of another day pass for the family and all the other expenses... I think some will opt out.
I think the vendors are the ones who are going to suffer the most. The "grounds" will probably not see a big difference either way in the amount of revenue increased from the sale of more FOF passes instead of season passes or a decrease from the amount of people who decide to only come a couple of weekends instead.

My fear is that if vendors begin to see a serious decline in attendance and spending... they will slowly begin to stop coming to Scarby and then it gets ugly.

Attendance has declined some from the economy and anything that would add to a possible decline in attendance could be detrimental to the future success of the faire.

NASCAR saw this happening 3 years ago and instead of raising ticket prices to offset the decline in revenue, they lowered the prices and offered more options to get people to commit to multiple days via package deals. The idea here is to get them in the gates...and they will spend money.

The first rule in any successful business is to get them HERE. Any tactic that makes customers shy away from coming hurts the business. You may not see it immediately but often once it shows, it's too late to stop the bleeding or at very least ends up costing more to fix the problem than the few dollars made with this idea of costing the customer more to come and play.

I didn't go back and read a lot of this post but I got the idea from my dads last post that this became a heated E-issue. I don't do E-fights. If anything I said here made you angry at me, I can't apologize for expressing my opinions in an internet discussion forum.

I'm not sure what we will be doing for passes this year.... most likely just 1 FOF. Scarby is my home faire and I plan on attending.

[Merlin the Elder]

It's really hard to know what's behind it all.  I think things have calmed down a little here on the forum, but there are still quite a few that are angry about it.

Everyone's situation is different. In my case, I'm just too damn old to worry about what, for us, is an insignificant amount of money. We're spending several hundred for travel and lodging, so $40-$50 just isn't a deal-breaker. But we are the exception rather than the rule. We're near retirement age, and have pretty much made our way in the world, for what that means these days. We come for usually only one weekend (because of the distance) but actually make the FoF passes pay for themselves because we bring friends.

You younger folks are in a much more precarious position. Being young, you still have your curtain-climbers and yard-apes, and due to the increased family size, it DOES become a deal-breaker to have to pay the extra $$$ for FoF. I understand, sympathize, and empathize. My advice is to continue to make your feelings known to management, and perhaps they will reconsider for next year.

Without knowing specifics of how many season passes were being sold, it's impossible to make a judgment of the business savvy of the move that eliminated them. But you may be right, son...when the numbers come in for 2011, they may see the errors of their ways.

The best point is what you said about the economy, young Merlin. Now is the time to build a following, not push it away.

[Ken]

My family started going to Scarby as gated ticket purchasers.  We enjoyed it so much that we stepped up to being Season Pass purchasers, and after a year of that we became FoF holders.  We bought one FoF Pass each for my wife and myself, and an Adult Season Pass for my teenage daughter (our little ones were still young enough to get in free).  When the FoF jumped suddenly in price, we stopped going as patrons and started working for shops.  Now, we manage a shop of our own.

As a vendor, I'm concerned, though not alarmed, by the dropping of the Adult Season Pass.  The vast majority of the people coming in the gate (and therefore past our shop) are people who bought a "regular", or at least not a Season Pass or FoF Pass.  So, on the one hand, the dropping of the Adult Season Pass will probably have small affect on our sales.  What it MAY affect, however, is the cash available to those people who had to shell out the extra cash for FoF Passes.  It's understood that many (if not most) Season Pass and FoF Pass holders spend the first 5 or 6 weekends "shopping" and the last couple of weekends "buying", so the extra hit in the wallet to those people probably won't affect me much until the last 2 or 3 weeks of the show.  It will be interesting to see if our numbers drop this year during those weeks compared to last year.

Looking back, I don't know if we would have gone from being occasional attendees all those years ago to being FoF Pass holders had there not been that interim step of Adult Season Pass.  At that time, the price of a FoF Pass was just out of reach, but the regular Season Pass was do-able.

I wonder if the cost of printing the Adult Season Pass tickets themselves could no longer be justified by the presumably low numbers that they were selling.

~Ken

[BagPipeBabe]

I am becoming curious about how many regulars that this will affect. I guess we won't really knwo for sure until opening, but how many of the Royal Guard and the Queen's Own will be missing?

I have been going to scarby for a few years now and this year i got a pass but my husband did not. SO! My question is how do I join a group??

[Merlin the Elder]

I think it will depend on the group, BagPipeBabe. Some require nomination by an existing member in a local chapter—I believe Clan M'Crack works that way—and others you just kinda say "howdy, can I play?" and you're in. If you'll look around some of the threads, you'll find some group threads. There are several in Texas, and most of the Texans I've run across have been "right friendly." It's simple enough also to just ask questions of group members. You'll see indications of membership in groups in people's signature, i.e. ROoL in mine (Royal Order of Landshark).

[Don_Juan_deCordoba]

I am becoming curious about how many regulars that this will affect. I guess we won't really knwo for sure until opening, but how many of the Royal Guard and the Queen's Own will be missing?

I have been going to scarby for a few years now and this year i got a pass but my husband did not. SO! My question is how do I join a group??

Since you have a pass, come park near us and we'll introduce you to Brian and Aislynn O'Farrell, the Count and Countess of Glenmorangie. They are usually very welcoming to anyone but especially those of Scots leanings.

[SirRichardBear]

[Since you have a pass, come park near us and we'll introduce you to Brian and Aislynn O'Farrell, the Count and Countess of Glenmorangie. They are usually very welcoming to anyone but especially those of Scots leanings.

But be warned the Col and the SG1 will recriut you for the parade    We're always on the out look for more Scots to scare the English with.

Serious just look for the Flag and a large group of kilted gentlemen that is the QOH come by and say hi.

[BagPipeBabe]

[Since you have a pass, come park near us and we'll introduce you to Brian and Aislynn O'Farrell, the Count and Countess of Glenmorangie. They are usually very welcoming to anyone but especially those of Scots leanings.

But be warned the Col and the SG1 will recriut you for the parade    We're always on the out look for more Scots to scare the English with.

Serious just look for the Flag and a large group of kilted gentlemen that is the QOH come by and say hi.

I am a Scot and i jump in the parade all the time. What dose QOH stand for??

[Your Grace]

Queens Own Highlanders 

[SirRichardBear]

I am a Scot and i jump in the parade all the time. What dose QOH stand for??

Have you marched with the regiment in the past? or walked with the English?  If you have marched with us then you are already part of us and if you send me a message I'll forward you our yahoo group info so you can join up and get all the information about what the QOH are doing in and out of faire.

If you never march I can highly recommend it marching is alot more fun than walking the parade and we get better pay