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How teams can benefit from a direct relationship with fans

Russell Scibetti, 

The impact of the secondary market on teams has been an important topic in the industry for some time, but

recently there seems to be more emphasis on analyzing pricing data so teams can evaluate and adjust their prices in

order to stay competitive. While I agree that it’s very important for teams to be aware of the secondary market and

leverage variable and dynamic pricing strategies as part of an overarching sales plan, they shouldn’t forget that their

competitive advantage differs from secondary market’s.

Thinking back to business school, I clearly remember learning about the dangers of competing on price. As soon as

one brand decides that the best move is to undercut the others, it’s not long until a price war ensues, and price wars

generate casualties. The two ways that non-sports brands avoid this now are:

1. Making it as hard as possible to compare products (have you noticed that the model number for that TV on sale at

Best Buy doesn’t exist at Wal-Mart?).

2. Implicit collusion where just the threat of constant price-matching keeps everyone from cutting prices.

If a team and its fans think of tickets purely as inventory, the secondary market makes it impossible to avoid

comparisons. Since these marketplaces don’t care nearly as much about the actual ticket price as the teams, the

threat of price-matching has much less impact on them.

At the core, StubHub and every other secondary ticket marketplace are transaction-oriented systems. They let sellers

sell at whatever price they like and ultimately the actual purchase prices are driven by market demand for specific

games and locations. If teams over-focus on competing with these transactional marketplaces, not only will they lose,

but they will do so by disregarding the most important competitive advantage that they have — their direct

relationships with fans.

In the past, teams felt like customers were willing to spend more to buy tickets from them directly because

customers trusted them more. The truth is that most consumers now trust the secondary marketplace just as much

as the primary. A 2013 Turnkey Intelligence study on MLB ticket buyers showed that perceptions of ticket

authenticity and availability are generally comparable between StubHub and team websites, so this cannot be a

team’s point of differentiation.

Customers value access, experiences, engagement and a level of treatment that they can and should only get from

the team directly. Debbie Knowlan of the Atlanta Falcons, who transitioned from director of season-ticket services to

director of customer relationship management, has a great perspective on this. “Being able to make the connection

with fans on a one-to-one basis and delivering experiences and game-day memories are the foundation for building

solid relationships that go beyond a ticket purchase. In a world that is consumed with social and digital

communications, people still look for that direct interaction with the team they support and are passionate for — this

is what creates a fan.”

This is one of the biggest reasons behind leveraging CRM across an organization — it is the best way to aggregate and

analyze all of your brand’s touchpoints with every fan and customer. It is the ultimate weapon to convert

relationship data into long-term, sustainable revenue, regardless of what tickets are selling for on the secondary

market.