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College football fan satisfaction edges up

Despite record attendance last year among Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools, a national survey has again found college football significantly lacking in game-day experience elements such as ticket pricing, customer service and facility amenities.

For the second year in a row, Turnkey Sports & Entertainment conducted a nationwide survey gauging the satisfaction of college football ticket buyers, surveying more than 27,000 fans at 25 universities representing every major FBS conference.

And much like 2013, the survey put ticket buyers’ satisfaction far below the levels of some competing sports properties. College football ticket buyers produced a Net Promoter Score, a customer loyalty measurement of how likely a brand is to be promoted to others by consumers, of 24.
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The number is less than half the comparable figure for the NFL, a mere fraction of top consumer brands such as Apple and Amazon, and much less than many other individual teams and properties in the sports industry.

Net Promoter Score operates on a scale of negative 100, in which every customer is a detractor, to positive 100, in which everyone is a promoter.

The relatively meager numbers arrive despite FBS schools posting an all-time high attendance of 38.1 million in 2013. Still, this year’s college football figure is six points higher than the final adjusted 2013 Net Promoter Score of 18, representing some movement toward an improved fan experience.

“This isn’t necessarily a big shift upward, and the number is still low,” said Steve Seiferheld, Turnkey Intelligence senior vice president. “But this data does suggest some optimism that programs are catching on to the need to elevate their game-day experience.”

The primary issue inhibiting fan satisfaction in college football is a perceived divide between pro-level ticket pricing at many FBS colleges, and game-day amenities that are not keeping up with other sports and entertainment options. As a result, season-ticket holders averaged a 7.2 on a 10-point scale on their overall satisfaction with their college football ticket purchase versus their expectations.

The figure is up from an adjusted 2013 figure of 6.4. But any response less than a 9 or 10 on that scale is seen as being passive or a detractor to the brand. The composite figure takes into account a variety of purchasing factors such as pricing, customer service, facility amenities and game-day experience.

Just as in pro sports environments, issues such as in-venue mobile connectivity, parking, variable ticket pricing and better food options are paramount concerns in college football.

“The year-to-year movement shows we’re heading in the right direction, but there is still a lot of room for growth and improvement,” said Mike Odom, Wake Forest University assistant athletic director for marketing and special projects. “Fans spend a lot of time and money with us, there’s a lot of competition out there, and having this data to see where we as an industry can improve is very helpful.”

A year ago, Turnkey collaborated with Ohio University and offered the surveying and resulting data to FBS schools for free. This time, Turnkey is working alone and charged schools $1,000 each to participate as it looks to turn this polling within college athletic programs into a revenue source.

The more than 27,000 respondents for this year’s report is roughly a third as large as a year ago, but Seiferheld called it “a very strong sample of the market and a good representation of FBS schools.”

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