An anecdotal ticket demand story

Two weeks ago the University of Georgia sent me an emailing inviting me to buy season tickets for this year. If UGA is sending me ticketing emails, you know the marketplace for tickets is changing.

For some background, Georgia sent me the email because I am technically an alum. I have never bought tickets for any UGA event through the school and have never donated. I should be low, low, low on any priority list. But the SEC Power with a huge fanbase is chasing ticket buyers because the demand for the ingame experience is changing. The secondary ticket market is now trusted, easy to use and so efficient that you can go to most of the games you want to attend and skip the uninteresting games, all at close to the face value of the tickets.

It wasn't always this way at Georgia. When I was a grad student in the mid-00s, there was a waiting list for regular season ticket packages and grad students could enter a lottery for the chance to purchase student season tickets. The odds weren't good and the demand was high.

If UGA is wasting their time with me, I can only imagine things are even tougher at BC. Our fanbase is smaller and our local sports and entertainment market is more competitive.

There is something great about attending a game in person. You see things you can't see on TV and their is the unique energy of a crowd. If I lived in New England I would probably have season tickets. But I understand why more don't. There is really little need to commit like that.

It will be interesting to see how attendance is for BC this year. Winning will help. So will the new booze policy. But there will be challenges. Hopefully Jarmond will be more aggressive and creative than the folks at Georgia.

KPL preseason All ACC and other links

I assumed that Steele Divitto would get preseason All ACC votes simply be being at the ACC Kickoff. Instead the media awarded KPL. Congrats to him. He certainly has the tools to be great. I hope the new defensive system allows him to shine.

The basketball team will also play USC this year. That will be a nice coming home for all of our Californians. I hope the Pac 12 Network isn't an issue with this game.

The Philly media likes the Momah story. Let's hope the coaching staff does too.

Denver resigned Dan Koppen.

This isn't BC related, but Stanford is rolling out dynamic pricing for their seats. If it works for them, it will be at Alumni shortly thereafter.

More moves: BC changes student ticket packages

First the Game Day tents, now Brad Bates changing in the student season ticket packages. Like the Game Day pregame facilities, I have no idea if this will work, but I applaud the action. Empty student seats were an embarrassment  Maybe this will change things.

Austin Tedesco broke the news and highlighted how the program will work.

All undergraduate students will be eligible to purchase the pass, and there will not be a limit on the number of passes sold. Once purchased, the pass will be loaded onto a student’s Eagle-One Card. Students will then be able to swipe their IDs for entrance to all football, men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s hockey games.

Swiping a card instead of a paper ticket is hardly revolutionary. BC is playing catch up there. The bigger change is the bundling of all the tickets at a reduced cost and available to all students. Two of the biggest complaints students have had (going back to my days) is lack of tickets and the cost. Now both have been addressed. The best part of the plan is bundling football with the other sports. Even the least interested BC student tends to buy football tickets. The casual Superfan was only committing to a few games and the cost was relatively cheap. Now those passive fans will have access to more events. I don't think they will suddenly become die hards and attend every basketball and hockey game, but it should create a marginal increase in attendance.

 Based on just his recent announcements, I am becoming very optimistic about the plan Bates is unveiling this summer. His early moves have shown a willingness to address long-neglected issues. If we keep heading down this path being a BC fan might be a totally new experience in five years.

Change is about more than tailgating

BC announced their 2013 Football tickets sales Wednesday. The prices are unchanged and the school is opening up new parking spots and rolling out a "You're No. 1" theme intended to change the whole BC-fan experience. I am not a season-ticket holder so it is easy (but slightly uniformed) for me to rail against what BC does and doesn't do on game day. But the reality is demand and attendance dropped the past few years.  Even outside of the lackluster product on the field, BC is now facing the changing marketplace for sports. These are a few suggestions.

1. Keep the action constant. I actually got this idea from Mark Cuban. He says his worst nightmare is seeing people looking down at their smart phones during games. I understand that BC cannot have a juggler running out on the field during every TV timeout, but there has to be something to fill the breaks in the action. Give people a reason to be there in person. If all they are getting is the game action, you will lose them to the TV experience. This probably means a significant upgrade in the scoreboard and the scoreboard features.

2. More dynamic pricing. The internet has already done this to a certain extent on the reseller's market, but  I think BC should test new ideas. The Army game is not as valuable as the Virginia Tech game. They should probably be priced accordingly. Even if it is net-revenue neutral for BC, the perception of the customer changes. They don't feel they are being "ripped off" by a less-exciting home slate.

3. Market and communicate culture changes. The two big ingrained fan behaviors need to change. The first is the late arriving crowd. The second is the fans who get mad at other fans for standing and cheering. BC has tried a few things here and there to change both, but nothing took hold. I think BC has to communicate its desire to change both and change the marketing around it. For getting to the seats on-time, that involves adjusting the tailgating policy in a friendly way, but also creating some sort of "must see" tradition to get people to their seats (a live eagle, maybe). For the "down in fronts" I think BC needs to potentially segregate the crowd. Ask people when they renew if they want a "loud" or "reserved" section. It might be weird to have whole sections sitting while others stand, but at least the fans will be with others like themselves.

What other ideas do you want to see?

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.