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Schools look to score in end zones

Mississippi State's Scoreboard Club opened in 2014 and was developed as an “initiation piece” for first-time premium seat buyers in Starkville.
Photo by: HOK
Colleges are targeting end zones, often seen as a football stadium’s least desirable real estate, for the next wave of facilities renovations, with an eye on attracting young potential season-ticket holders and donors.

Over the past two years, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Mississippi State have all added premium seats as part of end zone upgrades. Louisville, Arkansas, Ohio State, Iowa, Missouri and Purdue plan similar improvements.

Sports designers working on these end zone projects say it’s the next logical step for improving college stadiums after building suite towers and club lounges along the sidelines.

The Sukup End Zone Club opened at Iowa State in 2015. “Age 30 to 50 is probably the biggest demographic,” AD Jamie Pollard says.
Photo by: IOWA STATE UNIVIERSITY
“Typically, the end zones get the least amount of work over the years and are in disrepair,” said Gerardo Prado, associate vice president at HNTB, which designed Iowa State’s Sukup End Zone Club and is working on end zone projects at Ohio State and Iowa. “Just upgrading those areas with basic seating, replacing a $25 seat with a $40 seat, doesn’t pencil out. Schools absorb an enormous amount of debt, and the fundraising is challenging. The trend is how to make these end zone renovations viable while reducing debt.”

Sports marketers such as Legends, the agency selling end zone premium seats at Oklahoma and Louisville, see another trend. The seats come with required donations to the alumni groups that help pay for stadium renovations, and the seats are drawing buyers who are also first-time donors, strengthening that financial lifeline.

Location dictates that premium seats in the end zones are priced lower than suites and club seats along the sidelines. As a result, schools are targeting their pitches toward younger alumni, who generally have less money to spend than their older counterparts, as a way to move them into premium seating and onto the list of annual donors.

As those alums grow older and gain more job security, athletic directors said, the strategy is to upsell them to premium seats between the 20-yard lines, as donors at the top of the food chain “age out” and eventually give up their sideline locations.

New premium seating at Oklahoma consists of 22 suites, 66 loge boxes and 1,810 club seats, and is sold out.
Photo by: COURTESY OF POPULOUS
In Norman, Okla., the big story is that 40 percent of premium-seat sales for the $160 million south end zone expansion at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium are to season-ticket holders who did not previously donate to the Sooner Club, which comprises the school’s biggest donors.

Of that 40 percent, half were first-time buyers. The remainder had season tickets that did not require an annual donation, said Mike Behan, vice president of Legends Global Sales.

“It’s given us an opportunity to seek a younger demographic base at the right price for them at that stage in their professional career, and cultivate that relationship,” said Michael Alford, Oklahoma’s senior associate athletic director for development. “We knew we had to grow our donor base.”

All told, Legends secured 150 new accounts from a waiting list of 2,000, Behan said.

The new end zone premium inventory, consisting of 22 suites, 66 loge boxes and 1,810 club seats, is sold out, Behan said. On the low end, the new club seats carry a $2,000 annual fee plus a $5,000 capital gift. Season tickets are a separate cost, which also covers the price of food and drink.

Craig Kauffman, a senior architect and principal for project designer Populous, said there’s some separation in finishes between OU’s two new end zone clubs, giving the new, younger buyers a chance to find the right fit.

The lower-level club, sponsored by First Midwest Bank, has an old-school feel with brickwork and Sooners memorabilia. The upper-level club has a more formal look with stone walls and wood finishes.

“Over the course of the next few seasons, those patrons will gravitate to one or the other,” Kauffman said. “The big thing with these entry-level products is to make it an exclusive space, but not to the point where it’s more desirable over the higher-end premium on the sidelines.”

There’s another dynamic in play: Millennials consume the game differently than their baby boomer parents. “They’re looking for a different experience than what has been traditionally offered at collegiate stadiums,” Behan said. “Rather than sitting at the top of the seating bowl, they want to be closer to the field, with a more enriched club experience.”

Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard describes the trend in general as “tailgating in a box.” The idea is to package those less desirable seats in the end zones with premium amenities such as a club that serves alcohol, and price those tickets considerably less than a 50-yard-line suite.

The Sukup End Zone Club at Jack Trice Stadium, which opened in 2015, is one example. Pollard said it eliminates the hassle of setting up a tailgate party for younger families with children.

The two-level Sukup club is connected to about 3,000 seats. For this season, Iowa State sold 2,800 season tickets and the balance is available for single-game sales. The club’s theming reflects the grain bin manufacturing business owned by the Sukup family, which donated an undisclosed amount of money to the school for the project.

The atmosphere is similar to a Buffalo Wild Wings, Pollard said. The club features 75 to 80 televisions and views to the field. Season tickets cost $750 a person plus yearly donations (food and drink is a separate fee). A typical end zone season ticket costs $175 with no club access.

“It’s the tweener crowd in the club, young professionals with kids … age 30 to 50 is probably the biggest demographic,” Pollard said. “But we have some older people in there, too. Part of what happened is, because it’s a newer space, that’s where some of the best ADA seating is … with elevators.”

At Mississippi State, the Scoreboard Club serves the same purpose at Davis Wade Stadium. The 1,170-seat space opened for the 2014 season and, unlike Oklahoma and Iowa State, those club seats are at the top of the north end zone, much further from the field.

The premium space was developed as an “initiation piece” for first-time premium seat buyers in Starkville that may be five years out of college, said Nate Appleman, HOK’s director of sports, recreation and entertainment. Season tickets cost $340 a person plus a $1,100 annual donation.

The Scoreboard Club is about 95 percent sold for the 2016 season. That’s on top of the 22 suites, 236 loge seats and the field-level Gridiron Club, all in the north end, that are sold out, said Mike Richey, Mississippi State’s senior associate athletic director for the Bulldog Club and ticket operations.

On its own, the Scoreboard Club is “modest, not over the top in design, but with a hip, modern feel that caters to a younger crowd,” Appleman said. “At MSU, they were missing certain stratas of donors. It’s not Park Place, but if you target these end zone seats to the right audience, you can generate new revenue.”

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