2015 Schedule Questions

[SCfearfarm]

Hi everyone! We are going back and forth on the 2015 schedule and when to open next year. Football is king in the south and all of our local high schools are playing each other during October including about 8 homecoming games (6-8000 in attendance at each). Also, the local fairs are in town during October and the SC state fair, AND the big dirt track races and NASCAR race are during Oct. so we are really fighting a lot of things in Oct. for people's money, especially on Fridays.....our Fridays are getting to the point that the early Oct. Fridays are just breaking even $ and the Saturdays are growing and growing in attendance like many on the forums are saying across the country. Sundays and Thursdays are completely dead for us. From a haunter point of view it just seems wrong not to open on Friday nights, but from a business point of view (paying staff, fuel, electricity, etc.) every night that you are just "breaking even" is not worth opening. Has anyone on here ever opened only on the first couple of Saturdays of the month and left Fridays and Sundays off the calendar? We are thinking hard about just doing the first 2 Saturdays in Oct. and then start with normal weekend schedule. Something like Oct. 3, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31 for a total of just 8 nights. Our thoughts are that we had rather have 8 busy nights than stretch our season to 12-14 nights and only 4-6 of them be busy. For haunts who make money every night and have parking issues, long line issues etc. I completely understand stretching your season, but for us we can handle our crowds on busy nights and twiddle our thumbs on slow ones. What do y'all think? Thanks in advance!

[gorezone]

We are somewhat new at this and learning as we go. I think we opened to many days actually and next year we'll open a few days less. We have already looked at the schedule for 2015 and noticed in November there is a Friday the 13th. Who would be willing to stay open that long?

I think next year we'll go for Thursday thru Sunday only. GZ

[drfrightner]

I think we are going to do the same... this past we opened nightly for Darkness we might cut that back. Payroll is our biggest expense by a long shot.

We will probably stay open until November 13th which as you said is a Friday.

Larry

[freak 'n' stein]

Being minutes away from the SC state fairgrounds, which is conveniently located across the street from the USC football stadium, talk about fighting for the October dollars!! Every year we expect to be busiest closer to Halloween...happens every year...but surprisingly this year we were still decent at the beginning of the season as well and we actually increased from 13 to 16 nights this year. Every Friday Saturday and Sunday with the addition of the last two Thursdays plus November 1st.

[Jim Warfield]

Things Affecting Attendence

Local football game (Even if you team has only Won one game) The County Fair 20 miles away, a County Fair 30 miles away.
The Weather Man's words, illreguardless of his track Record or what the map shows. If he says:"Stay Home!" People will.
The price of a Gallon of Gasoline.a dramatic change in the weather from loosey to perfect, or vice-versa because when weather is great they do other things done when the weather is great! Rake the lawn, go camping, swap storm windows.
I have seen the customers here go from arriving in a 15 pasenger Chevy van to arriving in a sub-compact carrying only 4 people.
Our admission price back then was $2 then $3 a person, now it's $15 ea.
Almost 30 yrs. ago a letter I sent to The Chicago Tribune snow-balled my business up to a viable, dependable source of income.
Newspapers are dead in the water now, how well I know from recent experiences.
TV? Computer screen? Which channel? Which channel of 85 to flip-through?
Maybe renting ad time on an actul Oui-Ja board will be the way to advertise next year?
Being open a few extra nights might work out if a few of your other nights are terrible-weather episodes.
The local Chamber of Commerce used to have 4 nights of graveyard tours. This year only one night, they lucked out, the weather was OK.