The Kansas City Royals, with their first World Series appearance in 29 years this season, are anticipating in 2015 the halo effects on attendance and sponsorship traditionally enjoyed by upstart playoff clubs.
But a key portion of that expected growth
will not come from the immediate area. Rather, club executives are targeting outer markets such as Omaha, Neb.; Wichita and Topeka, Kan.; Des Moines, Iowa; and even Little Rock, Ark., as a critical portion of next year’s revenue increase.
Taken together, those outer markets historically have represented a mid-single-digit percentage of the Royals’ attendance base. But with this year’s surprise postseason run, marking only the third winning season since 1995 for Kansas City, the outer markets could grow to as much as 15 percent to 20 percent of the 2015 total.
“The team performance has allowed us to really ignite those outer markets,” said Mike Bucek, Royals vice president of marketing and business development. “We’ve been working at it for a while already, and I think it would have eventually happened, but the team has really helped accelerate that progress.”
The Royals already have been helping organize Fan Express bus trips from several of those cities to Kauffman Stadium, and have been actively promoting ticket availability through Fox Sports Kansas City and its radio network, which stretches into eight states. Those efforts will each grow next year, and the playoff run has fueled deposits for more than 4,000 new season-ticket orders, many from more distant locales.
“People traditionally have waited until the last minute to buy tickets to see us, waited to see what the weather was, or what have you,” Bucek said. “We’ll presell a lot more next year, and I think that will go a long way to changing fan behavior and people really planning ahead to go to games, certainly from the outer markets.”
The Royals this season drew 1.96 million fans for the regular season, up 12 percent from 2013, and the club’s highest draw since 1991. The next goal for 2015 is to at least challenge the franchise record of 2.48 million set in 1989.
The metro area itself is just 2.1 million in population and has 923,290 TV households, the 31st-ranked U.S. market, and third-smallest in baseball ahead of just Milwaukee and Cincinnati. But the inclusion of the outer markets more than triples the Royals’ overall footprint, to nearly 6.5 million people.
“When sponsors see our entire territory, it definitely can change the conversation,” Bucek said. “And the goal for now is to be a bigger part of the spend when a company is coming into the Midwest looking to do a regional buy.”
■ MERCHANDISE POWER: Merchandise sales, particularly commemorative, event-oriented items, typically take on a disproportionate amount of World Series concession sales. But Aramark executives said they were still taken aback by the propensity of Royals’ fans to spend on souvenirs and apparel during the first two World Series games last week at Kauffman Stadium.
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Royals fans were in the mood to spend on merchandise and souvenirs during Games 1 and 2.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Merchandise sales represented 55 percent of sales for Games 1 and 2 in Kansas City, leaving food and beverage sales in the minority of total revenue. That percentage is markedly higher than a 40 percent cut of sales devoted to merchandise typically seen at World Series games, and merchandise percentages as low as 15 percent during the regular season.
Even more notable, those percentages were achieved largely not through sales of expensive jackets and jerseys, but rather mostly through more affordable caps and T-shirts.
“Kansas City is a hat-and-tee town, but they have come out in force for these games,” said Carl Mittleman, president of Aramark Sports & Entertainment. Aramark did not disclose specific per cap sales, but did say the first two World Series games generated revenue more than double the figures posted during the American League Championship Series.
The frenzy was easy to see. Within minutes of the gates opening for Game 1 last Tuesday, the main shop at Kauffman Stadium was at fire code capacity and operated on a one-out/one-in basis for the duration of the evening. Aramark had added 2,000 square feet of space to that shop through an auxiliary tent, and eight additional merchandise stands throughout the ballpark.
“This facility presents us with a lot of advantages where we have available space and options to be able to bring in additional stands, additional square footage to help meet the demand,” Mittleman said.
