In-Depth
World Congress 2020: Tom Glick
President, Tepper Sports and Entertainment
On preparing for MLS in 2021:
GlickTony Florez
We’ve just finished our second survey around pricing and packaging product. Where do [fans] want to sit and what are the amenities that they want and what’s the right price for them? That data has just come to us. … [We’re] speaking with the fans that are not yet on board and put their deposits in about what’s the right time to make that decision. What’s clear is that everyone’s going to be ready hopefully this summer in 2020 to get back outdoors, get back out of their homes and get back to events.
On how the pandemic is changing the behavior of the sports industry:
I fully expect that we are going to invent things and discover things that we weren’t forced to. Because we weren’t under the same types of pressure or constraints or new guidelines that we are and are going to be over the next few weeks too. We imagine how we can serve our fans, communicate with them, do things for our partners, do things with our players, our athletes, our coaches in a different way when we’re not all able to be together.
I fully expect we’re going to come up with some things that will enhance the way that people can follow their team live or during the week without being at the venue. I think that’s only going to be good and help our business, but not at the expense … of the live event. One of the things that I continue to be impressed in the three decades that I’ve spent time in sports — we’ve been afraid the entire time about eroding the live event.
We’re social animals, sports are shared experiences. It’s about being part of memories with friends, with family. I don’t see that changing, and I see people investing more money in experiences going forward. It’ll be on us to make sure that our venues and how people experience our venues continue to stay fresh and innovative and convenient and affordable.
