We’ve changed our pricing structure 3 times in 21 years. It’s always been done with a great deal of thought, and out of necessity.
After 2017, the most challenging year we faced as an organization, we made two pricing changes. Long story short: without adequate private, corporate, and particularly the government funding to subsidize our work the only thing in our control is the box office. However, it is also an important part of our mission to keep our work accessible to as many people as possible. Instead of raising the price of all of our tickets to be more in line with the cost of professional theater tickets in the region (often $45-$70) we instead moved to demand-based pricing, leaving our lowest single ticket price ($29.50) as-is. The second change was a minor increase in preview ticket starting prices from $15 to $18 (still among the lowest in the region for professional theater).
We did a lot of research on this (locally, nationally, internationally) and now have a few years of this system under our belt — the dynamic pricing model makes a major impact on small to medium sized theaters like Jobsite. Through raising the price of popular performances by incremental amounts it has made a difference to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars per year. Those who purchase early are not impacted by price increases. Those on a budget who have flexibility with their schedule are still able to attend at the same price point they could a few seasons ago by coming on a night less in demand.
This has also greatly increased the value of our season tickets. We have not changed our season ticket pricing, and so picking one of those up not assures you a savings of 30-70%. Passholders can also move around freely when life gets in the way, exchanging to any other night provided we have seats available.
How does dynamic pricing actually work? As any given date begins to fill, hitting certain benchmarks along the way, the cost remaining seats is adjusted up accordingly by $2-$5. It’s that simple. Instead of now advertising that all of our seats are $29.50, we say “Today, tickets start at $29.50.” So, you may be looking online for tickets to a Saturday night performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and notice they are $59.50, but when you check on the Thursday night before they are only $34.50.
We will always take care of our season pass holders, and we hope this approach to ticketing is a greater incentive to pick one up. If a season ticket just isn’t for you, we recommend making a plan on the Jobsite shows you do want to check out and purchase early to avoid the increases.
Thank you for your continued support of Jobsite!
