Season Tickets are the Lifeblood for a Sports Team

We have sold more than 2,000 new season tickets for the upcoming Wizards season. We are being quite successful in the sale of season tickets.

We are now at more than an 80% renewal for our season ticket holders from last season. Thank you.

We love and treat our season ticket holders in a special way.

For the Caps, our success is almost directly tied to the sale of season tickets. In fact, I think we now have the second most season tickets sold for all American based teams. Season ticket sales drive revenues, attendance and the demand in the secondary markets for season ticket holders. It is a virtuous cycle. We have a backlog of people wanting to buy season tickets. All I think about regarding the business starts with the sale of season tickets.

Our goal is to sell out every game mostly to season ticket holders who become a part of a huge and embracing community of interest.

Every game matters. Every game is important in the standings race.

To say that season tickets are dead borders on the irresponsible. I see it totally differently.

Groupon is a great way to offer sampling and to get folks into the building on a paid basis. Groupon is aimed at the casual fan. They have a large audience. They only get paid for what they sell for real cash. Unlike traditional media - where you write a check and hope for a sale – Groupon delivers customers in an environment that consumers know and trust. It is why a Groupon is growing so fast and traditional media isn’t. As a merchant, do you want to work with accountable media or not?

We get customers into the building. They sample the experience and then we hope to SELL THEM plans and season tickets. That is the feeder system that Groupon creates for us.

And they show up because they bought the tickets. It is why comps to games really don’t work. The show rate on a comp is less than 50%. The people that get free tickets aren’t deeply passionate and motivated to come. They aren’t “committed” to the process. Groupon show rates will be very high I believe.

I am on the board of directors of Groupon. Groupon does these kinds of deals with many sports teams because it is a great new outlet and way to reach a casual fan. Groupon is booming.

The Caps and Wizards are booming.

Season tickets are hot. Season ticket holders are smart. This article? I didn’t get it.

One thought on “Season Tickets are the Lifeblood for a Sports Team”

I assume you get the article, but just disagree with it. It raises interesting and obvious points – points that have been raised in a more extensively and articulately elsewhere – but ultimately gets it wrong. While outlets like StubHub and Groupon have changed the cost analysis of purchasing season tickets – putting aside the fact that the ease of buying tickets on the secondary market is at least partially matched by the ease of selling tickets on the secondary market – the other major incentives for purchasing season tickets remain the same.

You allude to the major point that the article misses. Season ticket holders are not the equivalent of bargain shoppers with unlimited time. Most crave a fun experience that comes from following the team for the entire season. The better the product, the better the experience, the greater the incentive to own season tickets. You obviously get that. Owning season tickets is the closest most fans will ever get to “owning” part of a team. The discounts and other perks are nice, but at the end of the day the product on the court/ice/field is what really matters. Most people considering the purchase of season tickets are deciding whether or not to invest in that experience – not whether or not they could purchase tickets to big games for less money on StubHub.

Thanks for the Groupon offer. It will allow me to get my wife to a few games that she would not otherwise be interested in attending. Depending on the experience, I might be able to sell her on a partial season ticket package for next season.

Dan on October 20, 2010 at 3:09 AM said:

I assume you get the article, but just disagree with it. It raises interesting and obvious points – points that have been raised in a more extensively and articulately elsewhere – but ultimately gets it wrong. While outlets like StubHub and Groupon have changed the cost analysis of purchasing season tickets – putting aside the fact that the ease of buying tickets on the secondary market is at least partially matched by the ease of selling tickets on the secondary market – the other major incentives for purchasing season tickets remain the same.

You allude to the major point that the article misses. Season ticket holders are not the equivalent of bargain shoppers with unlimited time. Most crave a fun experience that comes from following the team for the entire season. The better the product, the better the experience, the greater the incentive to own season tickets. You obviously get that. Owning season tickets is the closest most fans will ever get to “owning” part of a team. The discounts and other perks are nice, but at the end of the day the product on the court/ice/field is what really matters. Most people considering the purchase of season tickets are deciding whether or not to invest in that experience – not whether or not they could purchase tickets to big games for less money on StubHub.

Thanks for the Groupon offer. It will allow me to get my wife to a few games that she would not otherwise be interested in attending. Depending on the experience, I might be able to sell her on a partial season ticket package for next season.