Ticket Sales Mini Analysis
KINS 5483
Sport Sales, Sponsorship, & Fundraising
Fall 2010
Jessica Perez
September 19, 2010
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Ticket sales are extremely important in the business of sports. Number of ticket sales affects revenue,
sponsorship, and many more things that are important for the business to remain successful. In the
following paragraphs five National Football League (NFL) teams’ ticket sales will be analyzed. These
five teams are playing in stadiums built in the last 5 years so ticket sale strategies have to be slightly
different than other NFL teams.
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The Arizona Cardinals play at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale which opened in 2006. The
average attendance per game is 63,142 with a venue capacity of 63,400. The Cardinals major
sponsors are University of Phoenix, Anhueser-Busch, Alltel, America West, Coca-Cola, and Ford.
The Cardinals ticket campaign for 2010 is “Protect the nest”. The campaign consists in ticket
packages of 3 or 6 at reduced priced compared to single tickets. Primary consumers for the Arizona
Cardinals are local metro area fans. The secondary consumers for tickets are people living in the area
that are not native from Arizona and buy tickets to their favorite sports team. Arizona has had a long
losing streak but has turned the team around since the new stadium has been built.
The Dallas Cowboys play at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington which opened in 2009. The
average attendance per game is 89,756 with a venue capacity of 100,000 if all the standing decks are
opened to fans. The Cowboys major sponsors are MillerCoors, Ford, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Bank of
America. The primary market for Cowboys tickets are metro area fans with middle- to high- income
to purchase season tickets. The Dallas Cowboys have a huge secondary market of out of the area
consumers since the Cowboys brand has reached around the world. The team’s slogan for the season
is “One team, one dream”. Since the primary market is season ticket buyers the campaign slogan that
is being used is “Imagine yourself inside the greatest stadium of the world”.
The Indianapolis Colts play at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis which opened in 2008. The
average attendance per game is 66,549 with a venue capacity of 70,000 if expanded. The Colts major
sponsors are Lucas Oil, Anheuser-Busch, Meijer Supercenters, Sprint/Nextel, Toyota, AirTran, and
Coca-Cola. The primary market for the Colts is metro area consumers. The secondary market is
consumers out of the metro area. Since Indiana is such an agricultural state, the Colts have many fans
out of the metro area. Every summer the team does a summer tour to reach out to fans all over the
state. This year’s slogan and tour name was “Make it personal”. In the tour, fans have a chance to
meet players, cheerleaders, and the mascot. Fans have a chance to be up close and personal with
players and get autographs.
The New York Giants play at the Meadowlands Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey which opened
this 2010 season. The average attendance per game is 78,701 with a venue capacity of 82,500. The
Giants major sponsors are Gatorade, Anheuser-Busch, Toyota, Verizon Wireless, Timex, and BP. The
primary market for the Giants is middle- to high- income season ticket buyers. Since this is the first
season at the stadium, ticket sales were primarily targeted to people that were willing to buy personal
seat licenses and also season ticket seats to go along with that psl.
The New York Jets also play at the Meadowlands Stadium. Their average attendance per game is
77,052, slightly lower than the Giants. The Jets major sponsors are Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, Verizon,
and MetLife. The primary market for the Jets is middle-income New York metro area consumers. The
secondary market for the Jets is the Seattle consumer. The Jets have several deals for consumers in
Seattle to fly to see the Jets in New Jersey. The Jets slogan for the season is “It’s go time”.
Considering that all the teams have new stadiums, the teams had very different pricing and ticket sales
techniques. One thing that all the teams had in common was that there was no variable ticket pricing in
regular season tickets. However, the price did significantly rise for playoff and championship games. The
Dallas Cowboys has the most of expensive tickets of the NFL. Only the season ticket and PSL prices are
available on their website, which is the focus of their marketing. For new stadiums, like the Cowboys and
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Meadowlands, the PSL money is extremely important to receive money upfront to pay back stadium
loans. The Cowboys had the most expensive PSL at $150,000 compared to the Jets at $30,000. All of the
teams analyzed have similar benefits for season ticket holders, which included complimentary or
discounted parking, club entrances, and rights to buy playoff tickets or tickets to events held at the
stadium. Indianapolis Colts were the only team with completely sold out tickets, including individual
tickets. Even though they were sold out, all of the ticket prices and season ticket prices were readily
available on their website for those consumers that wanted to be placed on the ticket waiting list. The
Colts also had the best perks for group sales, including free and discounted merchandise and preferred
parking. The Arizona Cardinals ticket prices were easy to find. Their website was the easiest to use and
find information. The Cardinals had the least expensive single and season tickets. The Cardinals and Colts
have more bang for the buck for consumers. The Cardinals have great offers because they are still
building their new brand image. The Colts have great prices considering their successes in the last years.
This helps the team maintain its image of being family and fan oriented. Each team has different markets
and brand images so ticket pricing and positioning is very different.
There are some teams in the NFL that because of their huge success do not need promotion to sell tickets.
There are other teams that are in the process of building their brand so promoting is needed to sell their
tickets. There are other teams like the Colts that even with sold out tickets and their success still have
promotions and contests for their fans. On their webpage they have a full page of 20 different promotions
and contests that giveaway tickets, all-inclusive trips to Indianapolis, ultimate tailgating experiences, free
football clinics, and much more. The Colts ticket average price of $83 is average compared to other NFL
teams but still manage to make $53 revenue per fan in the stadium. The Indianapolis Colts has a great
marketing group that focuses on making sure that all the fans are able to receive information about games
and promotional events since a lot of the fans live outside the metro area. The Dallas Cowboys and New
York Giants have a lack of ticket sales marketing. Both teams have very high team values so that might
be a reason why they do not have the need to do marketing or promotions and giveaways since consumers
are still buying tickets. The Dallas Cowboys have the highest average ticket price of the NFL of $160
which is almost double of the Giants average ticket price of $90. Neither of these teams have any
promotions for fans. The New York Jets have an average ticket price of $87 which is about average for
the NFL. Even though the New York Jets need to increase ticket sales, they have limited marketing and
only one promotion for their fans. The Jets have an online game called “Gridiron” that the fans can play
to accumulate points and exchange those for free merchandise or tickets. The Cardinals have the lowest
average ticket price of the five teams analyzed and are also on the low end of the NFL average ticket
prices. The Cardinals have multiple promotions for Arizona youth and several ticket and merchandise
giveaways. There is a lack of promotions for the Cowboys, Jets, and Giants. This might be because their
stadium is brand new and the teams believe tickets will be sold because the new experience of the stadium
is sufficient. The Colts go above and beyond to cater to their fans. This is very impressive to see in a
successful professional team.
The five teams analyzed had different ticket sale strategies but one focus they had in common were
season ticket holders. The teams focused on season ticket holders giving them extra incentives and
discounts. It is important to have marketing practices to increase the retention of customers because this
directly affects the profit (McDonald & Stravos 2007). It seems that the teams are aware of this and have
even extended sale strategies to lifetime personal seat licenses like the Cowboys, Giants, and Jets. PSLs
guarantee that the seat will have a buyer for the lifetime of the stadium or team which gives the team a
reassurance for seasons to come when it comes to ticket sales. PSLs take away from the relationship
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building that a single season ticket holder might need to buy tickets the next season. The Colts have no
problem with that relationship and sell out season tickets year after year. The Colts “cornerstone
relationship marketing is the profitable retention of [its] customers” (McDonald & Stravos 2007). The
Giants and Jets are opening a new stadium this season. The Jets have not managed to sell all their PSLs
and club seats. Consumers are already saturated with choices of teams so the Jets are going to have a hard
time selling their tickets especially because they have competition in the same stadium they play. Because
of competition the, Jets will have to [push] the identification of smaller divisions of consumers within
existing customer bases to the wayside. The practice of pinpointing groups within the current fan base is
necessary for success, because a sport organization cannot gain a strong foothold within the marketplace
if these individuals are not identified and managed appropriately" (Ross 2007). Wann, Bayen, and Driver
say that “previous studies have predicted that persons with a high level of identification with a target team
would be more interested in attending a game involving that team than those with a low level of
identification” (2004). I believe that the statement before is true for both the Colts and Cardinals. The
Colts have a well established brand. The fans have identified with the brand and believe in the team;
therefore the Colts sell out tickets every season. The Cardinals have several negative points against them.
Glendale, Arizona has many new businesses and residents so may not have that relationship with the
home team. The Cardinals have in the past three years changed their losing image so they are still
working on building their brand image and loyalty. If the Cardinals continue their marketing techniques
and winning, sooner or later, the brand can be as successful as the Colts brand. The five teams analyzed
had very interactive websites. In this day in age, the internet and teams’ websites are an important
marketing tool. The NFL requires its teams to have websites with certain standards it has established.
“NFL [uses] online strategies and services most frequently as a means for sports marketing” so its teams
have to ensure that it can also do that on their individual websites (Ioakimidis 2010). The teams’ websites
were user friendly and contained information that fans would want to see including ticket prices, online
merchandise sales, fan promotions, and fan communities. “Online sports marketing has become the best
foundation for building fan communities for professional sports league and teams” (Ioakimidis 2010). In
building these fan communities all of these teams are establishing a better relationship with their fans and
this increases ticket and merchandise sales.
“One promising strategy for sport marketers to drive sport consumers’ preferences and loyalty is to build
strong, positive, and unique consumer beliefs about the club—in other words, to construct a strong brand
image” (Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer, and Exler 2008). The establishment of brand image is important to sell
tickets, obtain sponsorships, and retain season ticket holders. The Arizona Cardinals are the least
successful but are heading in the right direction with their ticket marketing and fan promotions. The
Dallas Cowboys brand has been established for years and is recognized across the world. The Cowboys
brand image is so strong that they have set records for ticket sales even in our economy today. The Colts
brand image is also very strong. Their fan base is increasing constantly, even outside of Indiana, because
of their marketing strategies and their relationship they have with their fans. The Colts team is a great
team to analyze and see all the successful strategies they have established to keep their stadium sold out
and their team value on top. The Giants and Jets face several difficulties this year sharing the new
stadium. The Giants and Jets have not sold out like they expected to this season. The Giants have a good
brand but need more marketing to fill their much larger venue. The Jets brand image is not as established
as the Giants so they will have to build up their image to increase ticket sales. “Brand strength is
positively related to economic success” because it influences ticket sales and consumer loyalty (Bauer,
Stokburger-Sauer, and Exler 2008).
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References:
Bauer, H., Stokburger-Sauer, N., & Exler, S. (2008). Brand Image and Fan Loyalty in Professional Team
Sport: A Refined Model and Empirical Assessment. Journal of Sport Management, 22(2), 205-226.
Ioakimidis, M. (2010). Online marketing of professional sports clubs: engaging fans on a new playing
field. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 11(4), 271-282.
McDonald, H., & Stavros, C. (2007). A Defection Analysis of Lapsed Season Ticket Holders: A
Consumer and Organizational Study. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 16(4), 218-29.
Ross, S. (2007). Segmenting Sport Fans Using Brand Associations: A Cluster Analysis. Sport Marketing
Quarterly, 16(1), 15-24.
Wann, D., Bayens, C., & Driver, A. (2004). Likelihood of Attending a Sporting Event as a Function of
Ticket Scarcity and Team Identification. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 13(4), 209-215.
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