Saturday, June 25, 2011

More signs of ticket sales troubles

Fresh off the "Father's Day Sale" come two more signs that ticket sales are not where they need to be. One is innocent enough. The other is more troubling.

The first promotion involves parents who buy tickets for Parent's Weekend. They now have they option to buy Northwestern tickets at a discount. Parent's Weekend has always been a strong seller so it makes sense to build off of that momentum. Plus I am sure BC is figuring that a lot of BC parents will be dropping their kids off around the time of the Northwestern game. What I find troubling though is that Northwestern cannot sell out on its own. If BC cannot sell out a Big Ten game on Labor Day weekend, then they shouldn't be playing Labor Day weekend.

The much bigger issue is that some non-DBS ticket holders are getting a chance to buy DBS tickets this season without the requisite donation. This is supposedly only a one time waiver good for this season, but like all other discounting, what sort of behavior are you creating in the marketplace. And how will your usual DBS donors react? As I have said before, this season may be a wake up call with how BC manages its relationships with its most important customers. It also may be time for Gene and Spaz to raise expectations, not lower them.

8 comments:

JBQ said...

The signs are bad. The bad bowl games are because BC has no travelling fans. There has to be a solution, doesn't there?

William said...

The next time GDF has one of those chats I'm going to ask him to convince me it makes financial sense to get season tickets.

A majority of the games will be discounted & the only game that might be resold at a premium is played on a Thursday night which doesn't allow anyone who doesn't live in Mass to go to the game.

mod34b said...

Let's hope bad sales and low attendance will lead to some reexamiantion of the issue: IT IS NOT THAT MUCH FUN GOING TO A BC HOME GAME.

Add the fun back in, take out the hassles, and do not piss off he fans you already have and more fans will come. Promise

GDF -- People luv sports at BC and luv sports in Boston/NE. Can't you figure anything out. Boosting tickets ain't that hard to do. Geez. Even a caveman can figure this one out. Cheers!

Ryan said...

Serious question that was brought up on EO, but I'm guessing Gene's minions read this site more seriously:

For all the alleged work being done by FSG in marketing our program, why have I not seen a single billboard, commercial, or ANYTHING ELSE outside of the bceagles.com site? Why are they not doing anything to attract people to our program who wouldn't otherwise be here, i.e. NOT on the bceagles website that only real fans visit in the first place?

chicagofire1871 said...

Not sure how this works at BC, but as a season ticket holder for other pro sports, I always appreciate a policy which dictates that no one will ever get a better price per ticket than season ticket holders. No single game discounts or one-off Groupon promotions will ever lower the price of a ticket below what a season ticket holder paid.

If BC doesn't do this, then they should. (among other things)

Anyone know someone at BC who can reveal what we learned from that USF big city marketing meeting? The article linked on this site mostly had quotes from the Gt guy who wasn't even there!

Big Jack Krack said...

As a DBS donor, I'd like to know how much money BC has earned since moving to that system versus how much money it has lost through lost ticket sales and goodwill.

Dan said...

Spaz and Co. strike again.

Picked up their 5th verbal from an OL recruit with a boatload of offers including some heavy hitters (Miami, Michigan State, etc...). He also had offers from most of the big time academic institutions with a football programs. Hopefully another Castonzo type on our hands.

EL MIZ said...

Gene should sign up for that show "Undercover Boss" and do a BC tailgate/game experience.

All joking aside, I think he would have a better handle on why the ticket #'s have dropped. Yes, the team isn't a perennial national champion contender, but as mod34B wrote, it isn't fun going to a game.

how great would it be for Gene in disguise to be screamed at by boston police, perhaps arrested for wandering a few steps outside of a "designated tailgating zone." or to get to the stadium and not receive any help from those hired hands in the yellow raincoats (are those ppl paid? what a rip off.)

a few yrs ago for BC/FSU, i think this was fall of 2006 but i could be wrong, i was at the game with my brother and the student section was overflowing with ppl. i had a ticket and so did my bro, and after returning to our seats we couldn't find a place to go. those ppl in the event staff jackets then came and told us to "keep moving" even though we showed them our tickets. we were threatened with ejection if we didn't "move." to where we asked? anywhere but where we were standing. meanwhile the game being played.

top to bottom its just an awful fan and consumer experience. it comes to no surprise whatsoever that people want to do other things with their time and money.