Sims (l) said more than 97% of fans enter Quicken Loans Arena using the Flash Seats mobile ticketing appRICK OSENTOSKI
Sports teams want to reach a point where they know everyone who walks into their building, but they want it to be a technology push, not a security issue, said panelists during the opening session of the ’18 AXS Ticketing Symposium in Detroit. “We’re making a lot of progress with mobile ticketing and secondary partnerships, but there are still a lot of people we don’t know,” said 76ers CRO and Devils/Prudential Center Senior VP/Ticket Sales & Service Jake Reynolds. “About 2/3 of the people, we don’t understand their habits. Who are their favorite players? How much merchandise are they buying?” Cavaliers Exec VP/Franchise Operations & CRO Brad Sims said his team is in a similar situation, but the fact that more than 97% of fans enter Quicken Loans Arena using the Flash Seats mobile ticketing app helps increase fan identification. He hopes to eventually know 100% of the fans who enter the building. “Right now, if you’re on an airline, they know 100% of the people on their flights,” Sims said. “We want to get to that 100% number, but hopefully it’s not a security issue that drives it.”
IS THE PRICE RIGHT? Ticket pricing continues to become more sophisticated, with Bucks Senior VP/Ticket Sales & Service Jamie Morningstar noting that her team is “dynamically pricing as we go” for bigger games, and that ticket costs might change five or six times on game day. Lions VP/Ticketing & Premium Seating Todd Lambert said his organization has learned from recent years, when they might have priced some fans out of potential seats. “We want to be aggressive, but not overly aggressive,” Lambert said. Reynolds noted his organizations are fully dynamic and pricing on a seat-by-seat basis, sometimes changing prices as many as 20 times a day. He said an “easy sellout is not necessarily what we want, because that means there was revenue left on the table.” Reynolds: “If you ask our analytics team, they want one seat left in the building, because that means they priced it correctly.”
KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND: Creating incentives and rewarding early buying is great when demand is strong, but how do you handle messaging if demand drops because of poor play? Reynolds noted the 76ers experienced both ends of that spectrum in recent years, going from a lottery team to one that won 52 games this season. “The dynamic for fans has shifted,” Reynolds said. “They want to feel valued, or they want to feel they have value in what they have purchased. We can’t control how many games we’re going to win. What we can control is the experience, the access and what we can give them.” Morningstar noted the Bucks were in a “very low-demand situation” a few years back before making a rebound recently. “When we’re talking to someone about the package they’ve purchased, if it’s not about team performance, it’s about the access they have,” she said, adding that the Bucks should achieve their goal of having 10,000 season-ticket holders for their new arena opening this fall. “It might be the day before opening,” she said. “But we’re on track.”
