Takin’ It To The Streets: 76ers Selling Gift Cards

76ers Offering $50 Gift Cards In Hopes Of Boosting Attendance

With the 76ers’ average home attendance “lower than it has ever been at the Wachovia Center,” the team has had grassroots marketing firm Smart Circle Int’l “canvassing neighborhoods and going door-to-door” to sell tickets, according to Paul Vigna of the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS. Since the preseason, “about 15 sales reps have been on the street Mondays through Saturdays selling a $50 card that offers an assortment of free and discounted tickets.” Smart Circle’s Greg Blanchard said that reps “mark out new territory each day, talking to between 150 and 200 people.” Officials said that 75% of those buying cards “haven’t been to a game in the past couple years.” 76ers VP/Business Operations Lara Price: “I took a look at what other teams had done and they really could show it was incremental sales. It wasn’t desperation; it was getting people to sample your product who haven’t sampled it before.” 76ers VP/Ticket Sales Larry Cohen, who used the program when he worked for the Angels and Ducks said, “The Yankees use them. Are the Yankees desperate?” Blanchard said that his firm is “endorsed by the NBA” (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 12/15).