The Colts have “hired Get Real Sports Sales and six summer interns to help sell 3,000 season tickets that weren’t moving,” according to Anthony Schoettle of the INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL. Colts officials said that it is the first time the team has “hired an outside ticket sales firm and the first time in a decade that summer interns have been hired to bolster ticket sales.” Colts VP/Premium Seating & Ticket Sales Greg Hylton said that the six interns “will cull the team’s season-ticket waiting list and call previous single-game ticket buyers, while locally based Get Real Sports will reach out to potential corporate clients.” Things were “so good for the Colts over the last decade, team officials essentially dismantled their sales team.” Hylton said, “It didn’t make sense to keep people on staff because we didn’t have anything to sell.” In the first two weeks, “the two-pronged effort has resulted in the sale of 900 season tickets, but much work remains.” Hylton said, “I’m not going to lie; it might take until late July or early August, and it hasn’t taken nearly that long in recent years, but I’m confident we’ll sell out.” Five years ago, the Colts “boasted a season-ticket waiting list of 30,000.” Part of that “was diminished by the move” from the 54,000-seat RCA Dome to the 63,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium. In ’10, Colts officials said that they "still had 16,000 who had paid a $100 deposit to be on the waiting list.” With the season-ticket renewal rate dropping to 87% this off-season, “that number has shrunk to 7,500.” Sources said that last year, the Colts brought in “almost $60 million in ticket revenue” (INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/18 issue).
