The time has come for the virtual season ticket
In September 2013 I wrote an column for Sports Business Journal titled “Virtual season tickets could produce real revenue for teams.”
Team owners are asking their business operations executives where new revenue will be coming from. There are no easy answers.
But one could be appearing virtually before our eyes. The next significant new revenue source for pro sports could be virtual season tickets. Teams have the ability to package significant pieces of inventory and benefits into virtual yet tangible off-site season tickets on a platform constructed to generate untapped revenue without cannibalizing existing team profit centers. Clearly the VR and AR optimism and investment of a few years ago never monetarily materialized in the world of sports.
The reasons keeping fans from attending home games of their favorite teams are varied and range from geography to affordability to the availability of other entertainment options.
We now have a life-changing challenge staring at us every day in every way. We are in the fight of our lives when it comes to COVID-19. In speaking to my colleagues in the sports business the question of “When?” comes up first followed by “How?” How and in what form are spectator sports going to come out of this? As Dr. Anthony Fauci reminds us, “We don’t make the timeline, the virus does.”
The coronavirus is outpacing the solution. It was only March 11 when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive and the NBA shut down. In rapid succession much of the country sheltered in place and daily routines drastically changed. No NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, March Madness, NCAA spring sports, Little League, 2020 Olympics, Wimbledon, EPL, Golf majors and every other sport from A-Z unless it was digital. Our shared in-person experience of sports is over for an unknown period of time.
There are tens of millions of fans devoted to 148 North American professional teams who may never set foot in their favorite team’s home venue in 2020.
A virtual season ticket could be built on everything that happens in and around the game. The virtual season-ticket holder would experience the live environment of the venue through a virtually immersive platform. Advances in technology, interactivity, 3D TV, video games, social gaming, mobile applications, video streaming and virtual spectatorship could bring ticket holders into the stadium environment without actually being there or spending thousands of dollars on tickets.
Think of the current market of season-ticket holder benefits as hundreds of pickup sticks. The virtual season ticket could bring order to this chaos. Fans could buy from a matrix of inventory as part of virtual season-ticket packages that could open a significant new revenue stream. Think of this as a new realm of immersive sports when you as a sports fan can’t be in the seats.
Let me describe what an NITV (not in the venue) game day could be like for virtual season-ticket holders.
• On any digital device, weekly customized matchups for that day’s game and a customized, downloadable sports stat package would be available.
• Virtual access to premium tailgate parties would be available and the opportunity to interact with top grillers, friends and family.
• A member of the team would offer a real-time customized virtual tour through the team’s offices and training facility, followed by a virtual walk over to the team’s or league’s Hall of Fame where a Hall of Famer takes over as your guide.
• At halftime, you can take a virtual walk around the home arena, field, ballpark and virtually tour the locker room.
• When the team is on the road, fans would have virtual access to the virtual bus and plane cam so they could feel like they are with the traveling party.
• Inside the virtual VIP suite, they could discuss the game action with the team’s alumni players.
• Fantasy play-by-play: Virtual season-ticket holders and a friend could broadcast the game in a virtual broadcast booth.
• Using the new normals of live video conferencing technology, virtual season-ticket holders could chat with players, coaches and team executives before every game and at other times during the season.
• Teamville: Similar to the Farmville concept, fans could build their own stadiums, compete and purchase virtual goods as they build their teams. This goes hand in hand with the next big revenue opportunity for teams: legalized betting.
There is a multibillion-dollar market of spending from fans that wasn’t and isn’t being effectively marketed. By creating a unique proprietary service/product offering through one-stop shopping, teams and leagues would create a new revenue pool that could break the stagnating revenue trend in pro sports. Virtual season-ticket packages will be scalable so that significant new revenue can flow to the rights holders.
Teams, leagues, schools and event promoters will have to invest creatively, technically and financially in implementing their customized programs. Since they own the rights, the costs should be minimal and the payoffs profitable. There is no better time than today to push technology to its limits when societal norms have limited our gathering rites of yesterday.
I have sat on the other side of the table from vendors and entrepreneurs pitching various unconnected components of this virtual, augmented, immersive and artificial intelligence puzzle. No single entity is effectively addressing the matrix concept of the virtual season ticket.
Companies are trying to get teams to buy their product with promises of additional revenue or greater insight into existing fan behavior. The market activation has many spokes but no hub.
The day of the LPC (little piece of cardboard, known as a ticket) is gone. As we peer into the future of fans in the stands, it is a Gordian knot that will take awhile to untie.
The virtual ticket could become just the ticket for the Brave New World of sports.
Andy Dolich is a sports business consultant who formerly was an executive for the Oakland A’s, San Francisco 49ers, Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies.
