New Jersey state documents reveal new details on the three-year deal that Rutgers signed in February with The Aspire Group that made it “one of the first schools in the nation to experiment with using an outside contractor to fill empty seats at sporting events,” according to Kelly Heyboer of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. Rutgers “agreed to let Aspire keep a 30 percent cut of new ticket sales.” The company "will also get up to 5 percent of the donations sports fans are required to make to Rutgers if they want to upgrade to premium seats." Approximately 20 Aspire associates are each “expected to make at least 100 calls a day to find buyers for Rugters season passes, partial ticket packages and single game tickets.” The associates will use “an electronic database provided by Rutgers that can include the names of previous university ticket buyers, lapsed season ticket holders, website visitors and merchandise purchasers.” Rutgers officials “declined to show off the new Fan Relationship Management Center,” where Aspire’s associates are “working on commission to woo potential ticket buyers.” Since Rutgers announced its deal with Aspire in February, three other schools -- the Univ. of Maryland, Louisiana Tech and the Univ. of Buffalo -- "have announced similar deals with the firm" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 6/19).
