Amy Sprangers is a Seattle native, growing up on Bainbridge Island, attending the University of Washington and then going to work for the event festival Seafair. She did such a good job there, a friend at Budweiser insisted she should work for the Seahawks. She’s been at the NFL team since 2001, rising though the ranks to now overseeing all suites, retail, concessions, sponsorships and local media rights. SportsBusiness Journal caught up with her in what is the team’s first offseason since 2011 in which it was not coming off a playoff appearance.
We pride ourselves on being a consistent championship-caliber team both on the field and off the field. Beyond the success on the football field … we are committed to ensuring our Seahawks organization is a source of pride and leadership throughout the community.
Amy Sprangers
Vice President of Corporate Partnerships & Suites, Seattle Seahawks
On ticket renewals being strong: This story holds true there, building off of 130 consecutive home game sellouts. We have had a 97 percent-plus renewal rate, still strong season-ticket wait list, Blue Pride [the team’s wait list] is capped at about that 12,000 number and there is just over 68,000 more that have applied that are waiting to get on the Blue Pride list. So our ticketing base is strong; our suite renewals and our corporate partnership renewals have been strong, too.
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On the Atlanta Falcons cutting concession prices: So much of their experience on game day is also food and beverage related. So, we really wanted to focus on local. We spent a ton of time researching how we would do that. There’s a great team of people in place that lead that effort now, so we have looked at that approach in terms of really highlighting the tremendous local food, wine and beer and craft choices across the region. We really wanted to bring that into a stadium environment for our fans, which is difficult to do.
Does that mean you have decided not to cut prices? Correct.
On a deal you are proud of: What we have been able to do with Delta on [the] 12status [program] is a first of its kind with Delta for SkyMiles. Fans earn one Delta mile for every yard the Seahawks throw on the field at both home and away games during the regular season. What is super cool about this is more than 30,000 fans participated. Delta awarded more than 92 million miles for the 2017 season, and what they really needed to establish was a strong foothold in our region and a strong tie that Delta is the official airline of the Seahawks. To create this program specifically around our fans, specifically around the 12s, that rewarded on-field performance, was something that they had not done before.
On how a communications major has helped her career: I really enjoy speaking in front of people, and that is not something I always enjoyed. And so, having that major and focusing on that as well as writing, really serves what I do today in terms of negotiating deals and really thinking strategically about where we need to take our business and being able to have that forward-thinking ability. But more importantly, being able to communicate that very succinctly. That is where that degree has really helped me is the polish, the preparation, to be able to know how to speak in front of a group, large or small, especially in sales to be able to walk into a room and confidently deliver your ideas and your pitch with a positive outcome.
— Daniel Kaplan
