A Minnesota FC fan looks on during a match at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
Minnesota’s MLS team has sold out season tickets through 2019 at its still-under-construction new Allianz Field thanks to an overhaul of its ticketing platform.
Earlier this year, Minnesota United FC announced that it sold out a maximum amount of 14,500 season tickets for the 2019 season at its still under-construction Allianz Field. The new stadium in St. Paul has capacity for 19,400 and is set to open for business next year. Citing demand, the soccer club has since started a waitlist for Allianz dubbed The Preserve.
At the Sports Technology Symposium hosted by the Barça Innovation Hub in Barcelona last week, Jeanene Valentine, director of ticket operations at Minnesota United FC, provided insight into how the club’s digital ticketing and slow-drip release strategy fueled its success.
“With soccer not being so popular in America, we were trying to figure out how were we going to build excitement and how were we going to get everyone wanting to come and watch soccer. There was absolutely nothing but frozen ground and about six-inches of snow. So how were we going to get everyone to come and introduce them to the beautiful game?” Valentine said. “I decided that if I was going to be a part of this we were going to build a completely digital experience, show everyone something they’ve never seen before and let the momentum take us all the way to the stadium.”
Valentine, who joined the team as its new ticketing director the end of September, said she began to focus on forming relationships with partners that would help the team develop an experience with 360-degree seat views and digital ticketing.
Over the past year, MNUFC has announced partnerships with two companies to drive this digital strategy: SeatGeak (digital ticketing and blended inventory control) and 3D Digital Venue (360-degree venue maps). It managed all of this with third-party appointment and reservation software that enabled fans to times to go into the virtual venue to remotely select their new seats. At the peak of this, MNUFC had as many as 4,800 accounts looking around the stadium simulation within two minutes.
“Basically we brought out stadium to life,” she said. “It was like being there.”
Altogether, the team went from a capacity of 4,000 season tickets at TCF Bank Stadium in 2017, its current home at the University of Minnesota’s football stadium, to 14,500 at Allianz in 2019. Despite the 262 percent increase in capacity, MNUFC sold out all of Allianz’s season tickets in a few weeks. Existing season ticket holders were relocated to comparable seats or upgraded to more premium locations.
The team strategically released one product at a time through the digital seat selection process starting with the most premium seats to control inventory and flow and adjust pricing as needed. The new stadium has 16 private suites that can accommodate up to 26 guests, three party suites which can accommodate 50 people, 16 loge boxes that average four to six people, and three all-inclusive club areas.
“By doing that we created a huge sense of urgency,” said Valentine. “Basically, when it comes to sports and you don’t have a venue, we always take a deposit, you talk to a sales rep, then once the stadium is there you go inside the stadium, meet your seat, that kind of thing. I wanted to stray away from that. I wanted to bring the stadium to the customers and have them really excited about it. And by releasing only one product at a time, we were sold out within 24 hours.”
To top off all of these efforts, MNUFC built an experience center where people—mostly partners but also some season ticket holders—could physically visit a place to learn more about the new stadium. The team created a hologram there that through which visitors could see digital renderings of the new facility. The Cleveland Cavaliers used a similar strategy for the renovation of Quicken Loans Arena.
MNUFC also hosted the integration between SeatGeak and 3D Digital Venue on 70-inch touchscreen TVs so visitors could see 360 seat views from huge digital screens. The experience center led to a 90 percent conversion rate.
“They had never seen anything like that before,” Valentine said. “The No. 1 thing they were saying was it felt like they were already inside the stadium and getting ready for the game to start.”
Earlier this month, MNUFC announced the launch of a new app for the 2019 season that was built by VenueNext and will take these digital efforts into the future. The app integrates SeatGeek’s technology to make digital ticketing a fully mobile experience, and provides fans access to exclusive team content such as videos and photos, as well as maps to help them navigate the new stadium.
The app will also be integrated across hospitality through NFC technology, which will enable people to order and purchase concessions from their seats for pickup.
“Basically, for a matchday, all you’ll need is your phone,” Valentine said. “Your phone will be your ticket to get in, your phone will be your money to purchase or order food. So it’s going to be a 100 percent digital experience now from choosing your seats all the way through your actual match-day experience.”
