Ticket Realizing

Each year thousands of fans flock to ticket resellers to find seats for sold-out games and often times buy tickets for three, four and five times the face value of the seats. Some teams have fought resellers where others have embraced them and formed resale sponsorships.

Most often these sponsorships are profitable for owners, but sports conglomerates (ownership groups controlling multiple franchises) would be better served through synergy and Ticket Realizing.

Synergy: The essence of linking mutually controlled products for the advancement of the larger entity.

I wrote that definition. Pretty good, huh?

Ticket Realizing will grow multiple sport and entertainment products by selling readily available tickets of one product with free tickets to a high demand event.

By my count there are 30 owners (list at the bottom of the article) of the four major American sports that own teams in multiple leagues (for example and owner of an NHL team owning a team in the NBA – or – an NFL owner also owning an MLS team). Some of these owners have multiple franchises in the same market and others own franchises across several markets. Ticket sales for some of these teams are so competitive that they are always in contention to sell out.

OK, sports conglomerates listen up, because I’ve got an idea for you: You’ve got a product that sells out and one that doesn’t, right? Sell season tickets/ticket packages to the one that doesn’t sell out and include free tickets to the game that does sell out. Dolla Dolla Bills.

Things to consider in the sale of these tickets:

• Depending on the quality of the seats, ownership may gain, lose or break even on these ticket sales.
• It should be assumed that concessions, parking, merchandise, etc. revenue will increase at the packaged team’s games where the sellout will remain the same.
• This promotion should be very easy to market:
  • Fans automatically get the tickets to the game they want to see.
  • The fan will likely be spending as much for the season tickets and single game package as they would to go to a reseller like StubHub and buy just the single game tickets.
• Regardless of any profit from the ticket sales both sports are being grown whether it be the fans of the sellout sport now attending the non-sellout’s games or vice versa.
• Presumably, the increased ticket sales for the second-tier sport would increase total attendance numbers and, therefore, make sponsorships, advertising, radio and television deals more lucrative by showing the marketers the greater attendance.

We already know from a 2004 study in Sport Marketing Quarterly that the scarcity of tickets drives a fan’s desire to have them. A hypothetical situation was posed to fans with low and high identification with the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team and their playing a game in the Sweet Sixteen against UNC. From “Likelihood of Attending a Sporting Event as a Function of Ticket Scarcity and Team Identification:”

Fans learning that the ticket was scarce and highly identified fans were particularly likely to report an interest in attending the game, and these two variables did not interact…

The scarcity effect detailed here can explain much of the interest in these items. Individuals marketing such items could likely increase interest in the items and, potentially, sales price by providing the impression that the items in question are rare (a common strategy among merchants in this arena)…

The second potential move can be explained by the reactance theory. According to this theory, individuals react strongly to situations in which their freedom to choose an outcome or behavioral option has been removed. Typically, they will respond in a manner that reestablishes their freedom of choice. It follows that in sport consumption environments, fans desire scarce tickets because they want to maintain their freedom of choice with respect to attendance decisions; rather than having their choice made for them by virtue of a sellout, fans want to choose which events they will attend.

This tells us that consumers are more likely to buy a product if they think it is rare regardless of their previous interest level; that they will likely make a decision to buy it out of desperation to get that product because it keeps them in control of the situation.

Herein lies the key: If advertised that this is the only way to get tickets to the sellout not just at face value, but free, fans will jump at the opportunity to buy ticket packages to the other product.

Cue the haters. “Oh good for you. You came up with a promotion. Bravo! These things are thought of and shot down a thousand times over. Besides, this is for too narrow a segment of sports owners. You need:

1)      A sports conglomerate.

2)      It is only an option for those conglomerates with teams in the same market.

3)      Those owners with multiple teams in the same market also need to have competitive ticket sales and come close to selling out every game for this to work!”

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

1)      Yes, this is only for the owner that has investments in multiple teams.

2)      NO! They do not need to be in the same market and here’s why: A few years ago the marketing team at New England Sports Ventures saw that their MLB team, the Boston Red Sox, were among baseball’s top attractions and that they could market to the transplant fans of Red Sox Nation with what they called “Red Sox DestiNations.” Packages included, among other things: tickets to a Sox game, trip accommodations, and a meet and greet with a player. Now, NESV owns a Single-A affiliate of the major league club, the Salem Red Sox. Why couldn’t the group market some sort of DestiNation package for fans of the Salem Red Sox to go see the major league club and get tickets to a Salem game? This isn’t something just NESV could do, any of the ownership groups could do it!

NCAA Division I programs could benefit from this promotion better than pro owners.

How was this not thought of by college sport marketers before? College athletic departments own a monopoly on their fans, a fan of one college team will likely identify with the rest of the school’s teams. It’s rare to find a fan of Ohio State football and Michigan hockey.

“I want to see Duke play UNC. Oh, it’s sold out? I’m shocked!” If you want guaranteed seats to the big game you need season tickets to one of the school’s other sports. It could be further manipulated by offering a specific game for the draw product depending on the sport the fan chose to get season tickets too. Ditto for the quality and price of the seats they pick for said season ticket package. Duke as an example:

• Duke’s men’s basketball team and men’s lacrosse team are consistently among the most popular and most competitive in their respective sport each season, with Coach K’s guys taking the cake as one of the greatest draws in college sports.
• It wouldn’t make sense, then, for Duke lacrosse to be the team to market season tickets for to get a Duke-UNC basketball game. Duke football has not had a winning record since 1994. In that time their record has been 26-133, including 4 winless seasons.
• That struggling brand would benefit more from this promotion than any other. Buy a season ticket package to the football team and that gets you the Duke-UNC game. Buy season tickets to another sport and maybe you get Boston College; another, Virginia; another, Georgia Tech; another, an out-of-conference team, etc., etc.

Examples of package ideas similar to Ticket Realizing:

• Under the Kraft Group season ticket holders for the New England Revolution have access to Patriots TicketExchange where they can purchase tickets from season ticket holders. They also have a special pre-sale to major Gillette Stadium events.
• Despite separate ownerships, this June the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Browns franchises offered the MVP Suite Package of one Browns game and two Indians game.

Fans would embrace this opportunity to get season tickets to a sport, plus the game they wanted to see for the same price as what it costs to buy tickets to the draw product from a reseller. Ticket sales and revenue would ultimately jump across the board. Everyone wins.

Here’s a list I’ve compiled of owners in the 4 major American sports and other sports franchises they own. NASCAR teams, sport venues, private enterprises, hosted tournaments, and things of that nature were not included. The list isn’t sorted in any particular way. If I was wrong about something or missed anyone or anything that should be on the list, please let me know.

Owner	Team	Sport	League
Jerry Reinsdorf	Chicago Bulls	Basketball	NBA
	Chicago White Sox	Baseball	MLB
	Phoenix Coyotes	Hockey	NHL
Arthur Blank	Atlanta Falcons	Football	NFL
	Georgia Force	Football	AFL
Jerry Jones	Dallas Cowboys	Football	NFL
	Dallas Desperados	Football	AFL
Clark Hunt	Kansas City Chiefs	Football	NFL
	FC Dallas	Soccer	MLS
	Columbus Crew	Soccer	MLS
Kraft Group	New England Patriots	Football	NFL
	New England Revolution	Soccer	MLS
Paul Allen	Seattle Seahawks	Football	NFL
	Portland Trail Blazers	Basketball	NBA
	Seattle Sounders FC	Soccer	MLS
Malcolm Glazer	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Football	NFL
	Manchester United FC	Soccer	Premier League
Atlanta Spirit LLC	Atlanta Hawks	Basketball	NBA
	Atlanta Thrashers	Hockey	NHL
Dan Gilbert	Cleveland Cavaliers	Basketball	NBA
	Lake Erie Monsters	Hockey	AHL
Kroenke Sports Enterprises	Denver Nuggets	Basketball	NBA
	Colorado Avalanche	Hockey	NHL
	Colorado Crush	Football	AFL
	Colorado Mammoth	Soccer	MLS
	Colorado Rapids	Lacrosse	NLL
	Arsenal FC	Soccer	Premier League
	Arsenal LFC	Soccer	Women’s Premier League
Pat Bowlen	Denver Broncos	Football	NFL
	Denver Outlaws	Lacrosse	MLL
Palace Sports & Entertainment	Detroit Pistons	Basketball	NBA
	Detroit Shock	Basketball	WNBA
	Asheville Tourists	Baseball	SAL
Glen Taylor	Minnesota Timberwolves	Basketball	NBA
	Minnesota Lynx	Basketball	WNBA
Madison Square Garden	New York Knicks	Basketball	NBA
	New York Rangers	Hockey	NHL
	New York Liberty	Basketball	WNBA
	Hartford Wolf Pack	Hockey	AHL
Comcast Spectator	Philadelphia 76ers	Basketball	NBA
	Philadelphia Flyers	Hockey	NHL
Spurs Sports & Entertainment	San Antonio Spurs	Basketball	NBA
	San Antonio Silver Stars	Basketball	WNBA
	San Antonio Rampage	Hockey	AHL
	Austin Toros	Basketball	NBA D-League
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment	Toronto Maple Leafs	Hockey	NHL
	Toronto Raptors	Baskebtall	NBA
	Toronto FC	Soccer	MLS
	Toronto Marlies	Hockey	AHL
Larry H. Miller Sports and Entertainment	Utah Jazz	Basketball	NBA
	Salt Lake Bees	Baseball	PCL
Lincoln Holdings LLC	Washington Wizards	Basketball	NBA
	Washington Capitals	Hockey	NHL
	Washington Mystics	Basketball	WNBA
New England Sports Ventures	Boston Red Sox	Baseball	MLB
	Salem Red Sox	Baseball	Carolina League
Michael Iltch	Detroit Red Wings	Hockey	NHL
	Detroit Tigers	Baseball	MLB
Lewis Wolff	Oakland Athletics	Baseball	MLB
	San Jose Earthquakes	Soccer	MLS
Tom Hicks	Dallas Stars	Hockey	NHL
	Texas Rangers	Baseball	MLB
	Liverpool FC	Soccer	Premier League
B. Thomas Golisano	Buffalo Sabres	Hockey	NHL
	Buffalo Bandits	Lacrosse	NLL
Calgary Flames Ownership Group	Calgary Flames	Hockey	NHL
	Calgary Hitmen	Hockey	WHL
Peter Karmanos Jr.	Carolina Hurricanes	Hockey	NHL
	Plymouth Whalers	Hockey	OHL
	Florida Everblades	Hockey	ECHL
Anschutz Entertainment Group	Los Angeles Kings	Hockey	NHL
	Los Angeles Lakers (part)	Basketball	NBA
	Los Angeles Sparks (part)	Basketball	WNBA
	Los Angeles Galaxy	Soccer	MLS
	Manchester Monarchs	Hockey	AHL
	Reading Royals	Hockey	ECHL
	Eisbaren Berlin	Hockey	Deutsche Eishockey Liga
	Hamburg Freezers	Hockey	Deutsche Eishockey Liga
	Hammarby IF Fotboll	Soccer	Allsvenskan
	Djurgardens IF Hockey	Hockey	Elitserien
Eugene Melnyk	Ottawa Senators	Hockey	NHL
	Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors	Hockey	OHL
San Jose Sports and Entertainment Enterprises	San Jose Sharks	Hockey	NHL
	Cleveland Barons	Hockey	AHL
Sports Capital Partners Worldwide	St. Louis Blues	Hockey	NHL
	Real Salt Lake	Soccer	MLS
	Peoria Rivermen	Hockey	AHL