Oakland A’s chief operating officer Chris Giles, who was behind the team’s decision to replace its standard season ticketing plan with a monthly membership program, has left the club to start his own company. His new venture, Greenfield Sports Group, will market the subscription-based ticketing strategy to other franchises across all sports.
Giles led the team’s launch of A’s Access, which was introduced before the start of the 2019 season. The pass charged fans a monthly fee based on how many games they wanted to attend, ranging from 10 to 81 home games. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Giles explained that the success of A’s Access led him to launch his own firm that will create software to help other teams execute customized membership programs.
“We’ve had a ton of success,” Giles told the Chronicle. “It’s a fundamentally new approach to ticketing. There’s a lot of interest from other teams and properties on how to be able to do that. As an industry, we need to start thinking about what teams can sell that can’t be replicated through a secondary market transaction.”
A’s Access is being continued for the upcoming 2020 season. It also offers discounts on parking, concessions and club merchandise. Membership includes the option to select either a flexible seating plan or a plan for fans who want the same seat every game. To use A’s Access, fans must download the MLB Ballpark app on their smartphones.
About 18,000 people registered for A’s Access in 2019 as the team increased its average attendance from 19,427 in 2018 to 20,521 in 2019.
Giles spoke at SportTechie’s Horizon Summit last June.
