Call it a free-agent defection. QuintEvents, once the NFL’s longtime sales agency for Super Bowl ticket and hospitality packages, has signed a multiyear deal with the NFL Players Association, under which it will sell similar packages wrapped around player events.
“Other than going to the game itself, the No. 1 request we get from customers is the ability to see a player, meet a player, get up close and hear their stories,” said QuintEvents President Brian Ruede. “This allows us to deliver a fan experience focused on the players and the game. From our point of view, player interaction is the ultimate fan experience.”
The deal is a licensing agreement allowing Quint to use NFLPA intellectual property and athlete likenesses to build player events around the Super Bowl and other NFL events such as the draft and combine. Also in the works are player appearances and events at non-NFL events such as the Kentucky Derby, or perhaps standalone events.
Ruede said Quint has been working on the deal since late last year, with Steven Scebelo, the union’s vice president of licensing and business development.
QuintEvents sold Super Bowl tickets and hospitality directly for the NFL from Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 through Super Bowl 50 in 2016, and assisted On Location Experiences with its Super Bowl sales for the most recent game in Minnesota. As the league’s new partner, On Location’s deal with the NFL got the hospitality company exclusive rights to buy around 9,500 “official” Super Bowl tickets and hospitality packages. Quint’s deal does not specify a set number of tickets, but as Ruede put it: “For us, [Super Bowl] tickets are not the challenge. However, it opens up a lot of doors for creative ways to look for tickets.”
For next year’s Super Bowl in Atlanta, Quint has secured the Georgia Freight Depot building, which holds around 2,500 people, for an event space from Thursday through Sunday.
