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Under the proposal, the two Super Bowl teams would lose 3,000 tickets from their allocations.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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The NFL is considering significantly lowering the number of Super Bowl tickets it gives to the two participating teams and giving the tickets it takes back to its hospitality offshoot, On Location Experiences.
Owners may vote on the change at this week’s league meeting in Charlotte. It’s a decision that is sure to generate controversy, given that it involves teams giving up Super Bowl tickets.
Who gets Super Bowl tickets?
The NFL’s current distribution of Super Bowl tickets follows this formula:
■ 35 percent: The two participating teams (17.5 percent to each)
■ 25 percent: Retained by the league
■ 5 percent: Host team
■ 35 percent: The league’s other 29 clubs (approx. 1 percent to each)
The league declined to comment, as did On Location, which is a separately run company with a 10-year license to manage the NFL’s Super Bowl hospitality business. On Location’s chief executive, John Collins, is expected to attend the owners meeting.
Owners are scheduled to select three Super Bowl host sites at the meeting, as well (see related story).
“The spring meeting is generally short on agenda items; at least 90 minutes is for Super Bowl bid presentations,” said one source familiar with how the league operates but who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss league business publicly. “So, if John is going to Charlotte, he is not going to just provide an update. He’s going to ask for something big and important. They wouldn’t put him on the agenda otherwise.”
A second source, who is involved in Super Bowl ticketing, said the league is pitching moving 3,000 Super Bowl tickets per participating team to On Location, which would more than double the number the firm has currently. The league in the past has given 17.5 percent of its Super Bowl ticket allotment to each of the participating teams. Beyond that, the league keeps 25 percent (the tickets already made available to On Location come from this allocation), the host team gets 5 percent, and the remaining tickets flow to the other 29 clubs (so a little more than 1 percent for each of those teams).
In other words, if there are 70,000 tickets available for the game, under the possible new plan, the two participating teams would lose 3,000 tickets from an allocation that currently provides them about 12,000 tickets.
“It is a work in progress; there are a lot of things going on,” said Dean Spanos, the San Diego Chargers owner who is chairman of the league’s business ventures committee, a group that has heard discussion on the hospitality issue in advance of the possible full-ownership discussion this week. “We want to try to come to some resolution we think is really unique to the fans and creates valuable experience for the fans.”
To that point, the change would create additional business opportunities for On Location, giving it more inventory. While the two Super Bowl participant teams would still have the top share of tickets, stripping away thousands likely means they will be unable to strike travel deals with providers like PrimeSport. That’s because the tickets they do get to keep are needed for their own sponsors, players, coaches, front-office staff, and season-ticket and suite holders.
“We have communicated to our partner teams we are here to continue to service them,” said Jason Parker, executive vice president of sales and partnerships at PrimeSport, which is owned by The Carlyle Group. (Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, through his RSE Ventures, owns a small stake in the hospitality company).
Twenty NFL teams have PrimeSport deals. These agreements give the company the designation of official travel provider for each club and allow PrimeSport to bundle Super Bowl tickets into vacation packages. The two teams in each of the last three Super Bowls have been PrimeSport clients, Parker said, adding he is unclear on what the league plans to do.
The NFL created On Location in 2005 to capture some of the Super Bowl hospitality business. The entity has added services for other NFL events, including the NFL draft and Pro Bowl.
In early 2015, the league sold a decadelong license to operate On Location to Bruin Sports Capital and RedBird Capital Partners. Collins left his job as NHL chief operating officer late last year to run the unit.
The NFL took a small equity position in the holding company that was created to own On Location, with the idea that it would soon win other sports hospitality contracts. That to date has not occurred, though the firm did in February buy Anthony Travel, the top provider of travel services for college sports.
One source said some owners at the NFL’s March annual meeting expressed displeasure with On Location’s relative lack of growth since the league made the licensing decision on the business early last year. Also, few issues are more political than Super Bowl tickets, so asking owners to cede control of them is sure to generate lively discussion at this week’s meeting.
