September 14, 2023 • 34 mins
Are you tired of the same old stadium experience? Do you feel like you're not getting your money's worth for your season tickets? What if we told you that there are ways to make the game day experience more enjoyable and worth the expense? Join us, along with our frequent guest and problem-solver, Chris, as we share some thought-provoking ideas on how to revolutionize the stadium experience. We'll venture into audio and video enhancements, leveraging data and analytics, improving food and drinks, and even rethinking the whole concept of season tickets.
Technology can reshape the way we experience games. It can make processes faster, experiences more affordable, and build a sense of community among fans. We'll examine the potential of advanced ordering systems, the possibility of incentivizing off-time deliveries, and the exciting prospect of game veterans interacting with fans. Chris and I will also delve into how technology can enhance the stadium experience and make it more accessible to everyone.
Monetizing the fan experience is another crucial aspect we discuss. Stadiums can be more than just a venue; they can also generate profits in ways you never imagined. We'll discuss how apps can drive sales, the role of food and beverages in enhancing the experience, and the potential of variable ticket pricing. Of course, we'll also examine the all-important aspect of creating a family-friendly atmosphere. Join our enlightening conversation, and you might just find yourself looking at your next stadium visit in a whole new light.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So today we're going to talk about season tickets,
and we had this opportunitywhere so many people buy these
season tickets.
You have a market for thisproduct, but the fan experience
seems to have taken a bit of adownward turn.
You've got these stadiums thatare beautiful, but as a fan,
it's sometimes it's hard for meto justify the expense of season
(00:21):
tickets and travel and allthese other things To get myself
to the stadium when I now havethis experience at home.
And so we're going to dive alittle bit into innovating that
idea.
How can we think of new ideas,new ways, and have kind of a
brainstorming, problem-solvingsession revolving around
improving the fan experience inthe stadium?
(00:43):
And I'm joined today by theinternational man of mystery, an
elite problem solver, somebodywho has a great way of thinking
through problems and dissectingSolutions.
You'll hear him a lot on thisshow.
He is going to be a fairlyconsistent guest and you will
hear him quite a bit, but you'llprobably never see him, chris,
(01:06):
now I am going to apologize alittle bit today for the audio
quality.
We had a little bit of atechnical difficulty during the
recording, so there's a littlebit of choppiness there.
We have it solved, so you won'thave that in the future.
But today we're going to talk alittle bit about season tickets
.
How are we going to Improvethat fan experience and justify
(01:26):
the additional expense?
Can we think of some ideas andways to Make that experience
better?
Do I have that about right,chris?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, I think it's important To talk about why we
want to do this, right?
Why do you want to make aseason ticket holder More
valuable experience?
Right?
Because if I'm a business, Ijust want to make profit, so if
I make the experience better,I'm cutting into those margins.
But I believe and I think maybeyou do too that this idea of
the season ticket holder may beon its way out the door, because
(01:59):
people are choosing to watchthe game from home or from the
bar and not spend the hundreddollars a ticket it costs to sit
it in the 300 levels, right?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and I think, to speak to the innovation piece
of it, your audio and your videoinnovations at home have gotten
so good that we used to kind ofjokingly say it's the best seat
in the house, but now it trulyis.
You've got analytics, you'vegot data they can draw on the
screen, but then you also havethis crystal clear Video and
(02:29):
this crystal clear audio thatyou can really fill your home
with.
And if you fill your home withfriends, to your point, what's
the difference of that versusthe stadium?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, I mean, you have certain very special
stadium experiences.
So I don't think the idea of asellout at the iron bowl, the
Super Bowl, a Kentucky Dukebasketball game, is ever going
to go away.
But what about that?
You know Tennessee, yetVanderbilt game.
Or you know the commanders atDon't know the Cowboys who even
(02:59):
want to go to that, like thoseare the experience.
How do we get people to thosegames, especially, like you said
, john, when I could go to BestBuy right now and get a 38.12
sound system and a TV in 8k.
That's, like you know, just asgood as me being there and I've
got all these different cameraangles.
(03:20):
I've got all this data.
I can look up data on my phone.
My phone's working fine.
I don't know about you.
When I go to stadiums myphone's never working, like I
don't have the service.
So you just have such a betterexperience from food to the
people you're around, to the youknow, kind of controlling,
you're not having to pay forparking.
All that just makes being athome a better experience.
(03:42):
So what can we do in thestadium?
Or do we just get rid of seasontickets?
You know what do we do?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, and and I think that, especially with what?
Amazon?
I don't know if you've seenwhat Amazon's doing with
Thursday night football, wherethey're gonna be adding some of
those Amazon analytics wherethey're actually gonna guess the
play based on the colleges, andyeah, I mean they're
effectively turning it intoMadden and and how do you
compete with that in the stadium?
And there are, there are gameslike that where you want to be
(04:12):
in the stadium, you want to feelthe energy, the stadium, but
they've brought so much of thatof that entertainment value home
that, in my personal opinion,so if we're going to, what do we
do to innovate?
I am personally the camp ofjust delete the season ticket
holder.
I'm sure a lot of people willCringe at the thought of that,
(04:33):
but bear with me.
I think that if you, if youallow Teams, your organizations,
to capitalize on that 15xmargin that you get on a on a
Kentucky Duke basketball game orthe, you know, miami and the
Patriots, right before theplayoffs are happening, if you
can capitalize on that 15x valuethat your current season ticket
(04:53):
holders are currently taking,you can provide a much better
experience if you're collectingall of that money.
So I'm a huge fan of delete theseason ticket holder, get rid
of or, as far as on theinnovation side, get rid of the
season ticket holder altogether.
And on my particular side, whatI would do is no more season
tickets.
Everything's either a la carteor in three game home game
(05:15):
bundles You've got.
You take that money and thatyou've now collected for these
tickets and you open what Iwould refer to as like an ultra
fan zone or a or a, you know,ultimate fan zone and you give a
home team only special area forthose what we used to be season
ticket holders.
And I bet you I would bewilling to bet maybe 10% of the
(05:41):
season ticket holders actuallyattend almost every game and I
know a bunch of the seasonticket holders are brokers.
So you get those actualhardcore fans home team only.
You're never gonna see someonefrom the other, the opposing
side, in this space.
You get Food and drinks like foran annual fee instead of paying
(06:01):
for season ticket holders.
You pay an annual fee and youget into this special zone.
When you're in this specialzone, your food is free, your
drinks are greatly reduced andthen you also have a.
If you don't want to attendthat game, you have like an
outside giant sports bar typearea or a special tailgate area
with big screens and lots ofEntertainment value for those
(06:23):
people who didn't want to attendthat game but have paid that
annual fee.
It gets people out to thestadium, it gives them a
slightly different experience oftheir couch, but they're still
in Comfortable chairs and bigscreens and they're physically
there.
So when the big play happensyou still get that roar of the
crowd.
Because I've been at tailgatesand you're if you're a little
bit late going into the game oryou leave a little bit early,
(06:44):
sometimes you walk out andthere's this huge roar of the
crowd that you you'reexperiencing from outside the
stadium.
I think you can't replace that.
So, even if you don't plan ongoing to that game, I can get
you the stadium with it with anattractive offering of Kind of
fans.
Only the world's biggest sportsbar right outside the the
stadium for part of that fee.
(07:04):
And maybe it's a tailgate zone,maybe it's an actual covered
area that's built out like agiant sports bar, whatever that
is.
But you bring that fanengagement, you use that extra
money, you bring that fanengagement.
You get people there buyingdrinks, buying food, paying for
a premium package and while as aseasoned ticket holder, your
overall expense may be a littlebit more, I think, once you boil
(07:29):
that down to the experiencebecause I don't think you're a
seasoned ticket holder the guythat's spending $10,000 to watch
every Dolphins game does notreally care if he's paying 15,.
In my opinion, I've met some ofthose guys and I don't think
your hardcore Dolphins fanswould be turned off by an extra
$5,000 that they knew they weregonna get this really, really
(07:50):
special spot.
And now you're taking all thesuper fans and you're putting
them together and you'reoffering them this beautiful
sideline area that's gotamenities and it really drives
them to want to be at the gameand it probably increases their
spend.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, but aren't you, isn't that?
Isn't that just a seasonedticket, If?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
you want to get rid of them.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We gotta get rid of them.
We can't get rid of them andkeep them.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
No, so what I'm effectively what I'm doing
instead of.
So you're still gonna have topay, let's say, $1,500 to get
into that big, that big timegame, as opposed to paying $485
and selling it for $1,500, butI'm offering you that fan zone
that's gonna guarantee you aseat if you want to go.
You still gotta pay at anexorbitant price, but you'll get
it and you'll have a speciallike a zone that kind of
(08:36):
guarantees your presence at thatgame.
So you're probably going to paymore over the course of the
year to attend games.
The games no one wants to be at, right, the dolphins versus the
browns no one's gonna attendthat game anyway because you
still pay lower prices for thosegames.
But those special games you'regoing to pay a whole lot more.
But instead of saying, hey, youhave to buy them all a cart,
(08:59):
you're no longer a seasonedticket holder, you're not gonna
sell those tickets, but I'mgonna take that money and put it
back into your experience andprovide you an exceptional
experience.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, I mean the copying out games and pricing
them uniquely isn't new, right,like I know where Perina has it,
I know the Reds have it.
You know the bigger games themore you pay for ticket.
But that suggests you keep theseasoned ticket.
You can build that in, becausewhen you're right, you're right.
John, I think we both agree thatthe experience at the stadium
(09:29):
just simply has to get better.
Right, it has to get bettereither through, I mean, honestly
, the Rakers do it really well.
They have, like you can buythis Jumbo Shark cocktail there,
but they really make it acircus and an event when you go
to a Red Rakers game.
But what do the Bengals do, orwhat do the Reds do, or what
does even the University ofbasketball and football do,
because they're very old schoolstadiums.
I think you gotta keep that.
(09:51):
You gotta keep that seasonedticket, because part of the
experience are the people yousit around, right, so not just
in the right section with theright fans or like the fans that
you just happen to be aroundthat game, but it's the fans you
kind of build friendships with,like I know I had seasoned
tickets to the local high schoolfootball team when nephew
(10:14):
played on it and we got to knowthe people who sat around us
right.
So we build a relationship overthe year and I think that's a
quintessential part of theexperience of buying seasoned
ticket for the thing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Let's say you spent $3,000, $4,000, whatever it is
for the ultimate fan experienceand you never attended a game.
You only went to the tailgatepart.
You're still gonna meet thosepeople and build those
friendships without seasonedtickets at all and I just
collected $4,000.
I wouldn't have gotten becauseyou weren't going to attend that
many games or you were gonnasell half your season tickets so
(10:49):
you could attend the Patriotsgame or the Duke game.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, I think it's not the ones that I sell that
I'm too worried about.
Right, Because your argumentslike, hey, because you didn't
come, I didn't get the food sale, the parking sale, the drink
sale, right, Well, if I sell theticket, you do that right, so
you get the person.
So I think we're only talkingabout seasoned ticket owners who
cannot convert their ticket toa sale.
I don't know what thepercentage of people that is
(11:13):
right.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, I mean, as a former Redskins fan, I can tell
you that there were severalyears back in the day where a
lot of my seasoned ticketfriends couldn't sell their
tickets.
Period that was just.
You paid for seasoned ticketsjust to hold on to the games you
couldn't go to and you couldn'tgive the things away.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And if you couldn't give the things away, how can we
sell that ticket to that?
Would that person who's notbuying the ticket to go into the
stadium buy a ticket to go toyour store?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But well then, that's kind of my thought process,
because the problem with being afan of a team like the Browns
well, the Browns have actually afairly decent fan base, even if
they're bad, let's say thatthey.
I can use the commanders,that's fine.
So, panthers commanders, right.
(12:02):
So the problem you have isthere are those very passionate
fans, but they sit over here,you sit over here, and your
experience would be so muchbetter if I just brought all
those super fans to the samearea and I said, hey, you're
going to pay an additional feewhich will make you a super fan,
but you, just you, forego this.
You know this seat assignmentand this, this ticket, that's
(12:26):
all inclusive to every game.
You forego that to swap it outfor an opportunity to sit with
those people every single weekand we know they're going to be
together.
They're not trying to buytickets together.
The number of times you see fanssay, hey, I'm going to be in
section D, can anybody, you knowanybody else want to join me
here?
I can take them, move them tothe sideline, charge them a fee
(12:46):
for it, move them to thesideline and just say, hey, you
got to buy all your tickets oneby one, but if you pay for this
package, I can, I'll guaranteeyour entrance, you'll get,
you'll get into some to somecapacity into this space, and
then you bring your most intensefans right to the sidelines and
you've got this an unparalleledyou know home field advantage.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So what I'm saying is every fan, like you, want to
drive, every fan to be part ofthe experience.
I think you still sell seasontickets, but you bring the
experience up for every singlefan.
And how do I bring theexperience up?
Well, what's my biggestcomplaint?
You know, when I go to afootball game or a basketball
game, my experience is I may notwant to drive there, get a
hotel, I may not.
(13:28):
Obviously, no one wants to dealwith parking, right?
Food prices, lines, there'sthings that just make it a
friction, a friction, fullenvironment.
So what can I do?
Cause I, you're right, I want,I want the most crazy fans there
, and I think I'm going to getthem, but I'd rather convert the
entire state into crazy fans,right?
(13:49):
So?
And I think we have, I think wehave data, not data, but but,
incidental day, you know whosells out a lot of baseball
games, the Savannah bananas, andnobody even cares what's on the
field, right, fact?
So what can we do?
And I think what we do is we,like you know, you bring the
(14:11):
parking experience up, and thatmeans, I think, you get more,
more people who help guidepeople into their parking spot,
get more cops involved, you know.
Run more golf carts back andforth or increase public transit
in your area.
Let the local people get toyour game.
Really easy Free bus rides fromyour house to the stadium.
(14:33):
If you drop off at the stadium,right, we get rid of your fees.
Then what do I do when you're inthe stadium?
We make everything better right, and I know it's a really easy
thing to say.
But what are we actually doing?
Like we're giving better food,we're getting shorter lines by
opening up more registers.
Now that cuts into our profit,but we want just more people
(14:55):
there and ultimately, I thinkyou convert more of those people
to season ticket holdersthrough the experience.
And if you get a full stadiumof season ticket holders, then
you're doing something right.
But then you're like big greenbit after than like three other
teams right.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
The natural argument from a billionaire owner is
going to be, well, there's justnot enough money in the package
to do all these improvementswithout increasing the price
tickets.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that person is who I mean.
How are they going to argue?
We should build a big sportsbar with a lot of money out
front, right.
So what are we going to do?
I think we cut into the profit,but we like.
So I know I've been to gameswhere, man, I'm going to go get
a beer, but it's, you know, it'sthis much money and I've got to
wait in line and miss half aninning at a baseball game, right
(15:40):
.
So it's all that speed.
How can we use technology tomake that better?
Well, why am I, in 2023, notnot, like, on demand, ordering a
beer to me or hot dog to me,right?
Like.
Could an Uber Eats situation belike, connected to my seat?
(16:01):
Right, could I bring analyticsto the seat?
Could I have a game day app forthe dolphins that lets me
rewind and play videos and seethe stat line?
That a Experience provided bythe dolphins to people in the
stadium, uniquely?
There's other technology thingswe can do that, like Taylor
(16:24):
Swift does, that we aren'tbringing the football games so,
like the wristbands that lightup, right, can you imagine a
night game with the the wholedear, only defensive plays?
The whole stadium is flashingorange and green, like that's
the experience I think peopleare coming up with, like if you
(16:44):
I know you can experiment it wasin technology about ten years
ago where it used the microphoneon your phone to hear songs
that were playing over theintercom and and it, like you
know, your, your color on yourphone screen flash, so so
everybody's phones were flashingblue and white at the same time
.
Now the microphone thing didn'tget worked out, so everybody's
(17:06):
phone was a little bit off.
You know it didn't keep goingforward.
But those are the things Ithink will bring people back
right that are relatively cheap,especially when you talk about
this, you I mean you haveinitial setup fees and
maintenance fees, but it's notwhen you're talking about app
based experiences, and I thinkyou would sell more food if you
can just get it to your seat,right, so you don't even have to
(17:30):
stand up.
Like could you imagine?
Like, hey, yeah, I know you gottwo kids, right, you're taking
your two daughters.
Just it's you and you knowwhatever age they are.
I know they're about the, the,the destroy everything age, so
they're both with under.
You know what they're withunder six, right?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, four and two like.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Imagine getting a drink for one of them.
Yeah, you know, get them bothup, walk them down the stairs.
That's hand in line for tenminutes together.
You know you've got to get upthere.
They have to decide what theywant because they haven't
thought about it and or changetheir mind 38 times in line.
It's easier, honestly, for youjust not to go get them bricks,
but if you so, so click a button, make them just see.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So, so let's, let's unpack an idea.
Let me tell me you think aboutthis.
So let's say, you, you takethat, that idea of a fan-based
application.
So let's say you take anapplication and it's fan
specific and All it does is logfor the first five games you
attend.
It logs your consumption.
(18:32):
So you, it says, okay, youdrank Six beer.
You or you ordered, regardlessof you know how many, you know
it could be friends, thatdoesn't matter.
You ordered six beers, threehot dogs and two things a
popcorn.
Next time you came, you orderednine beers and it and it
basically graphed that out andwhen you walked into the stadium
it said, hey, welcome back.
How, how accurate is this orderfor you on this particular day?
(18:56):
Yeah, and you could, basically,you could basically Pre-order a
little cooler and you walk bythe concession stand and they
just hand you a cooler bag ofsome kind and you walk to your
seat with with all the itemsthat you are gonna want to.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, or you go one step farther.
So I mean there there's someLegal issues that we may have by
giving someone six beers at onetime, but let's imagine, those
just don't exist.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Well, that's why I said order six beers and not
drink six beers.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
So like with price and legal issues there.
But let's just take all that,let's just make those go away.
We'll figure out that, that youget there right.
But I think you, you could, youcan even go one step further
and time that To your orders,right?
Hey, do I want six hot dogs togo to my seat with those in a
cooler?
Actually, I probably don't know, because they're really hot or
they may get soggy throughoutthe time.
But what if?
(19:44):
What you know, you do five orsix more games, and now I know
you tend to order a hot dog inthe first inning, the fifth
inning and at the bottom of theseventh inning.
So you can actually not you,you do go through the.
Would you like this package?
In matter of fact, I couldincentivize that package.
Hey, we'll give you 10% off atthe beginning of the game.
(20:04):
You, you go ahead and buy yoursix hot dogs.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And then we're, and then we have instead of more
kitchens, we have more runners,yeah, and we have the runners of
the bags that just bring themto your seat and we can.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
We can maximize the utility of the runners right by
incentivizing off-timeDeliveries.
So I know everyone wants a hotdog at the bottom of the seventh
inning.
Oh, I like that for fivepercent off.
What if you ordered it at thetop of the six, so you'll blast
and you can order another hotdog near in the game.
I think about you buy seven oreight, right?
(20:37):
We're not stopping, we wantmoney.
But, like now, we can controlwhat people are ordering by
incentivizing those orders.
Hey, we've already sold 10,000hot dogs today.
Probably want to do like let'ssee if we can push the pretzels
out the door, let's see if wecan push at the dead time.
So we're just constantlyrunning rather than having a
rush at the beginning and likethe bottom of the seventh, right
(20:58):
, and then it helps Us plan.
You know, you could.
You know, buying your food twodays before the game now comes
with a discount.
None of I've put a lot ofdiscounts or opportunities out
here, but a lot of stores do.
They give you 28 ways to save10%.
You pick which one you want,right?
But yeah, I agree that if youbuy two days early so that that
(21:20):
we know what to go ahead and buywe don't have.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, no, and what I like about that is you're
talking in.
One of the most efficientProcesses that I can think of on
the planet is Disney's fastpass setup, where they're where
they're constantly movingtraffic to reduce the amount of
lines throughout the park.
So you take you effectively takethat fast pass, that up and you
say, hey, you ping their phoneat the you know Middle of the
(21:48):
first quarter when no one'sordering really anything.
Everyone's still kind of hypedup and say, hey, you want a hot
dog and you know 10% off of yourorder, hot dog right now.
And you build that and you do alot of deliveries in that off
peak time for the people whowant value.
And then you do the big bulkdeliveries and the big runs and
maybe you even do go so far asto anybody who pre-orders during
(22:10):
that peak time the day before.
Whatever it is, their food isnot only ready to go, but
there's like a never stoppingline, that where they
effectively walk up to a booth,grab their bag and take off and
they're back in their seat inthree minutes and then now they
can go, you know, spend the restof the time waiting outside the
bathroom.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
For sure.
Like we just make it so thateverything is so fast, so we
don't take you away from that.
On field experience, right, andI think you can do other things
that yeah, they may cut intothat.
So we kind of talked about theAFRUG or analytics.
But what about what is anaverage play Like fans want to
(22:52):
see?
Honestly, have your lessexciting game.
Put three or four veterans justroaming around the stands, right
, and not your Tom Brady's ofthe world about your Dan
Marino's of the world, but theguy who played like three
seasons and had an averagecareer, right, have them walk
around in Jersey and talk tosome fans or like see if people
(23:13):
can like promote they're goingto be there and get autographed.
Break your balls, make theseguys feel like a celebrity
because you said you're lessimportant games.
People don't show up to yourCowboys, dolphins, what you said
.
But imagine I don't know the.
You know an average, you knowdolphins player, but you have
(23:33):
something to do.
Who's in his 50s or 60s had acouple of good?
You know help, you know maybesnap to the ball to Marino and
just let people know five ofthese guys around the 100s will
bring your kids to meet him getthe football sign.
Ask him the question becauseyou as a 30 or 40 or something,
apparently probably watch thisguy play and may or may not
(23:53):
remember him, but you definitelyremember some games he's in.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, I like that.
I mean, and obviously there'senough of those type of player.
There's enough of those youknow, let's call it and I'm not
going to name any players, thatdon't want to upset anybody but
yeah, you've got those playersthat even 10 years ago that
played, that are doingengagements and they are doing
(24:19):
events.
So it's not like they're notalready out there doing those
things.
So I like that idea.
So I will admit you're swayingme a bit to your idea as far as
keeping the season tickets andmaking the experience better.
The next question you have tohave is so, as an organization,
how do I monetize that, the appand the incentivization of food
(24:40):
and drinks?
Obviously, food and beverage isa massive amount of the profit
of these stadiums, so sellingmore of that will naturally turn
into income.
But, as people tell you all thetime, savings isn't sexy.
So if you approach an owner andyou say, hey, this is what we
want to do, I guess we'd have toopen the analytics of how
successful the Falcons have beenwith their reduced pricing on
(25:03):
their food to see how successfultheir food and beverage sales
are.
But I imagine it's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, I mean, people have to think it's not additive,
it's multiple-cathode, right?
So if I sell to, you get likeeverybody who comes in if they
buy a hot dog.
There's a lot of money there.
The price of the hot dog wecould argue about all day, but
the thing is every FTC doesn'tbuy a hot dog, right?
(25:29):
So even if and I think we cango back to your idea of like,
when we have variable pricing,which Industries do that?
It's not uncommon.
Airlines, right?
If I want a better seat, I'mpaying more.
Right?
If I want to be in a morepopular real fight, I'm paying
more.
So what do we do on those cheatdays to drive the value of that
(25:51):
ticket up?
And you're right, like, if I,if I bring my kid and I forgot
the football, he's gonna getautographed.
I'm selling a lot of relativelycheaper footballs.
They're just good forautographs that day, right?
I bet this average player thatwe're talking about let's think
of an average player throughtime.
I know you don't want to sayanybody, I will RG3, a very
(26:12):
average player through time.
And you have him running around.
He hasn't sold a jersey in 20years.
He's selling a lot, right.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Well, and that leads you to that also leads you to
new merchandise, and I guessthat's the next step to that is
your fans tend to buy the new,exciting merchandise.
If you give that person anopportunity, hey, based on your
previous orders, we already knowwhat sizes you order.
Click here if you want the new,the new merch, delivered with
your food in the, you know, inthe first quarter.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And people buy in the moment.
So people want that experienceto buy.
So you can even make the appbetter than that, right?
Like, hey, an hour, two hours,up to two hours after the game,
you can bring your kids into theend zone.
Right, you get the photo andthen you get the opportunity to
buy the shirt.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
We will probably do an entire segment on how to how
to make sports more familyfriendly, because that is the
number of times I've had thatconversation of how do we make
the game be experienced betterfor people with children.
And if you say OK, your kidscan be in the end zone.
Not only that, but you'llthey'll get their shirt right
before that picture, so they puton their brand new shirt and
they're all proud about it.
(27:18):
That's a.
That's an interesting sellingoption.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
And to be clear, there are 30 somethings.
We want to go in the end zoneto like you're just not pitching
this Just some day in his kid.
Like I would go to the game inzone today without a kid because
I want to wear a Burro jerseyin the end zone.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
True, I mean yeah, and I would do the same thing,
especially if, if there's anopportunity to get a family
picture in the end zone with thefield behind you, you have 100
percent chance.
I'm doing that.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, and you just converted the shirt.
You know, and hopefully youknow you're making those
memories so that you go to oneor two games a year, I think.
I've read the NFL has somewherebetween 70 and 80 percent
season tickets, I think, butlike 10 to 15 percent of those
are brokers.
So let's say half of thestadium is the tickets.
What do we do with?
(28:05):
the other stadium.
We're trying to convert thosepeople to season tickets, right?
So?
And then at the end of the yearwe do what Uber does, right,
where it's like hey, you knowyou could save five dollars if
you were part of Uber one.
Hey, you know you could havesaved $1,800 this year if you
were a season ticket holder andyou wouldn't have pre-purchased
all these tickets, because wewould have they all.
(28:27):
Season ticket holders getanother two percent off food or
like the service, the associatedwith delivery is free, get
better, more prep.
And you know, we could havesaved you this much money had
you just, you know, bought aseason ticket.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I think, bringing that savings.
I know there are companies outthere like like Granger, that
they focus heavily on that ofhow much should you save, and
because a lot of people think ofGranger as a company that
provides products, but yeah,they're a little bit more
expensive.
So Granger breaks it down toyeah, you know, some individual
(29:02):
products are more expensive, buthere's how much you save by not
running around buying thosefrom 15 different places.
And so you take that same kind,that same basic math and you
say here here's how much yousaved by ordering before the
game, here's how much you savedby ordering by using off peak
hours.
You can really break that downand I bet you that's a
substantial savings.
(29:22):
And I don't know about you, butfor me personally, if you give
me, if you say, hey, you saved$3,000 this year, that means
something to me Like that's likehey, wow, how much did I spend
to save $3,000?
But, more importantly, sure,wow, I saved $3,000 just by
ordering in the first half orjust by ordering the first
(29:43):
quarter.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Listen, I think you have to give us selling behemoth
in America is Walmart.
Everybody who wants to go toTarget, everybody who wants to
shop elsewhere, everyone wantsto pay Walmart as the bad guy.
Walmart is an absolute behemoth.
And why?
Because everyone who says Iprefer Target still likes paying
(30:06):
less money at Walmart.
They still go to Walmart tosave their money, right, even
though they may wear a mask anda hood to make sure no one sees
them there.
They're still there becauseWalmart isn't getting as much
sales as they are about peopleboycotting Walmart, people still
shop on Amazon.
It's not as much the priceanymore, it's all the
(30:28):
convenience of coming to yourdoor.
Even though they say we'regoing to boycott Amazon this
year because of whatever reasons, they're growing 20% a year.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
and it's not because people are boycotting, yeah,
it's because I can ordersomething right now, it'll be in
my door in 45 minutes for noreason at all.
Yeah yeah, the number ofbirthday presents I've ordered
the day before the kids partywould shock you, and for no
other reason than just pureconvenience.
So let's wrap this here.
I think we've done a great jobof unpacking the fan experience.
(31:02):
To recap, we started out withthe idea of how do we improve
this fan experience, how do wemake it better for season two,
how do we make it better forseason ticket holders?
My personal idea to start outthe show was maybe we delete
season ticket holders altogether.
Maybe we build an a la carteexperience and take that money,
that extra money that you getfrom the season ticket sales by
(31:23):
selling them all a carte, createa truly unique fan experience,
build out this very specific fanenvironment.
But I think Chris had a really,really great idea of let's keep
the existing experience to.
I mean, obviously we can save alot of money and implement it
much faster.
So let's take that experienceand let's improve it with
(31:44):
something as simple as an app,and I love that idea, will
probably go deeper into thatidea down the road.
Maybe we'll even bring insomebody from a professional
sports team on the ticketingside to discuss how that could
improve and the efficienciesthat could bring into.
We'll look into that as afuture episode.
I think it's a really great wayto highlight the specifics
(32:05):
around when you're talkinginnovation with your
organization or with your teamor whoever it may be opening
that door to not justbrainstorming an idea but maybe
going a little more hyperspecific and finding that
specific problem and let'sdiscuss that.
Let's open the conversation totalking to anyone that's a good
advocate for shareholderinterests and let's really dive
(32:29):
into those ideas and createsomething that's truly unique
and special that will reallyinnovate this space.
And I think that having thisidea is something that we can
really open the door for.
And we're gonna have an entireepisode specifically geared
around the differences betweenbrainstorming and complex
problem solving for a specificissue.
(32:50):
So I'm looking forward to thatconversation.
Thank you, chris, so much forjoining us today.
We really appreciate your inputand looking forward to having
you on future shows.
I have been your host, johnMowed.
Remember, no problem is too bigor too small to solve.
Innovation is born out ofnecessity and curiosity.
We are all about pushing thoseordinary limits and thank you so
(33:10):
much for joining us.
Please don't forget tosubscribe and remember you are
never stuck.
We'll see you next time.
So today we're going to talk about season tickets,
and we had this opportunitywhere so many people buy these
season tickets.
You have a market for thisproduct, but the fan experience
seems to have taken a bit of adownward turn.
You've got these stadiums thatare beautiful, but as a fan,
it's sometimes it's hard for meto justify the expense of season
(00:21):
tickets and travel and allthese other things To get myself
to the stadium when I now havethis experience at home.
And so we're going to dive alittle bit into innovating that
idea.
How can we think of new ideas,new ways, and have kind of a
brainstorming, problem-solvingsession revolving around
improving the fan experience inthe stadium?
(00:43):
And I'm joined today by theinternational man of mystery, an
elite problem solver, somebodywho has a great way of thinking
through problems and dissectingSolutions.
You'll hear him a lot on thisshow.
He is going to be a fairlyconsistent guest and you will
hear him quite a bit, but you'llprobably never see him, chris,
(01:06):
now I am going to apologize alittle bit today for the audio
quality.
We had a little bit of atechnical difficulty during the
recording, so there's a littlebit of choppiness there.
We have it solved, so you won'thave that in the future.
But today we're going to talk alittle bit about season tickets
.
How are we going to Improvethat fan experience and justify
(01:26):
the additional expense?
Can we think of some ideas andways to Make that experience
better?
Do I have that about right,chris?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, I think it's important To talk about why we
want to do this, right?
Why do you want to make aseason ticket holder More
valuable experience?
Right?
Because if I'm a business, Ijust want to make profit, so if
I make the experience better,I'm cutting into those margins.
But I believe and I think maybeyou do too that this idea of
the season ticket holder may beon its way out the door, because
(01:59):
people are choosing to watchthe game from home or from the
bar and not spend the hundreddollars a ticket it costs to sit
it in the 300 levels, right?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and I think, to speak to the innovation piece
of it, your audio and your videoinnovations at home have gotten
so good that we used to kind ofjokingly say it's the best seat
in the house, but now it trulyis.
You've got analytics, you'vegot data they can draw on the
screen, but then you also havethis crystal clear Video and
(02:29):
this crystal clear audio thatyou can really fill your home
with.
And if you fill your home withfriends, to your point, what's
the difference of that versusthe stadium?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, I mean, you have certain very special
stadium experiences.
So I don't think the idea of asellout at the iron bowl, the
Super Bowl, a Kentucky Dukebasketball game, is ever going
to go away.
But what about that?
You know Tennessee, yetVanderbilt game.
Or you know the commanders atDon't know the Cowboys who even
(02:59):
want to go to that, like thoseare the experience.
How do we get people to thosegames, especially, like you said
, john, when I could go to BestBuy right now and get a 38.12
sound system and a TV in 8k.
That's, like you know, just asgood as me being there and I've
got all these different cameraangles.
(03:20):
I've got all this data.
I can look up data on my phone.
My phone's working fine.
I don't know about you.
When I go to stadiums myphone's never working, like I
don't have the service.
So you just have such a betterexperience from food to the
people you're around, to the youknow, kind of controlling,
you're not having to pay forparking.
All that just makes being athome a better experience.
(03:42):
So what can we do in thestadium?
Or do we just get rid of seasontickets?
You know what do we do?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, and and I think that, especially with what?
Amazon?
I don't know if you've seenwhat Amazon's doing with
Thursday night football, wherethey're gonna be adding some of
those Amazon analytics wherethey're actually gonna guess the
play based on the colleges, andyeah, I mean they're
effectively turning it intoMadden and and how do you
compete with that in the stadium?
And there are, there are gameslike that where you want to be
(04:12):
in the stadium, you want to feelthe energy, the stadium, but
they've brought so much of thatof that entertainment value home
that, in my personal opinion,so if we're going to, what do we
do to innovate?
I am personally the camp ofjust delete the season ticket
holder.
I'm sure a lot of people willCringe at the thought of that,
(04:33):
but bear with me.
I think that if you, if youallow Teams, your organizations,
to capitalize on that 15xmargin that you get on a on a
Kentucky Duke basketball game orthe, you know, miami and the
Patriots, right before theplayoffs are happening, if you
can capitalize on that 15x valuethat your current season ticket
(04:53):
holders are currently taking,you can provide a much better
experience if you're collectingall of that money.
So I'm a huge fan of delete theseason ticket holder, get rid
of or, as far as on theinnovation side, get rid of the
season ticket holder altogether.
And on my particular side, whatI would do is no more season
tickets.
Everything's either a la carteor in three game home game
(05:15):
bundles You've got.
You take that money and thatyou've now collected for these
tickets and you open what Iwould refer to as like an ultra
fan zone or a or a, you know,ultimate fan zone and you give a
home team only special area forthose what we used to be season
ticket holders.
And I bet you I would bewilling to bet maybe 10% of the
(05:41):
season ticket holders actuallyattend almost every game and I
know a bunch of the seasonticket holders are brokers.
So you get those actualhardcore fans home team only.
You're never gonna see someonefrom the other, the opposing
side, in this space.
You get Food and drinks like foran annual fee instead of paying
(06:01):
for season ticket holders.
You pay an annual fee and youget into this special zone.
When you're in this specialzone, your food is free, your
drinks are greatly reduced andthen you also have a.
If you don't want to attendthat game, you have like an
outside giant sports bar typearea or a special tailgate area
with big screens and lots ofEntertainment value for those
(06:23):
people who didn't want to attendthat game but have paid that
annual fee.
It gets people out to thestadium, it gives them a
slightly different experience oftheir couch, but they're still
in Comfortable chairs and bigscreens and they're physically
there.
So when the big play happensyou still get that roar of the
crowd.
Because I've been at tailgatesand you're if you're a little
bit late going into the game oryou leave a little bit early,
(06:44):
sometimes you walk out andthere's this huge roar of the
crowd that you you'reexperiencing from outside the
stadium.
I think you can't replace that.
So, even if you don't plan ongoing to that game, I can get
you the stadium with it with anattractive offering of Kind of
fans.
Only the world's biggest sportsbar right outside the the
stadium for part of that fee.
(07:04):
And maybe it's a tailgate zone,maybe it's an actual covered
area that's built out like agiant sports bar, whatever that
is.
But you bring that fanengagement, you use that extra
money, you bring that fanengagement.
You get people there buyingdrinks, buying food, paying for
a premium package and while as aseasoned ticket holder, your
overall expense may be a littlebit more, I think, once you boil
(07:29):
that down to the experiencebecause I don't think you're a
seasoned ticket holder the guythat's spending $10,000 to watch
every Dolphins game does notreally care if he's paying 15,.
In my opinion, I've met some ofthose guys and I don't think
your hardcore Dolphins fanswould be turned off by an extra
$5,000 that they knew they weregonna get this really, really
(07:50):
special spot.
And now you're taking all thesuper fans and you're putting
them together and you'reoffering them this beautiful
sideline area that's gotamenities and it really drives
them to want to be at the gameand it probably increases their
spend.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, but aren't you, isn't that?
Isn't that just a seasonedticket, If?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
you want to get rid of them.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We gotta get rid of them.
We can't get rid of them andkeep them.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
No, so what I'm effectively what I'm doing
instead of.
So you're still gonna have topay, let's say, $1,500 to get
into that big, that big timegame, as opposed to paying $485
and selling it for $1,500, butI'm offering you that fan zone
that's gonna guarantee you aseat if you want to go.
You still gotta pay at anexorbitant price, but you'll get
it and you'll have a speciallike a zone that kind of
(08:36):
guarantees your presence at thatgame.
So you're probably going to paymore over the course of the
year to attend games.
The games no one wants to be at, right, the dolphins versus the
browns no one's gonna attendthat game anyway because you
still pay lower prices for thosegames.
But those special games you'regoing to pay a whole lot more.
But instead of saying, hey, youhave to buy them all a cart,
(08:59):
you're no longer a seasonedticket holder, you're not gonna
sell those tickets, but I'mgonna take that money and put it
back into your experience andprovide you an exceptional
experience.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, I mean the copying out games and pricing
them uniquely isn't new, right,like I know where Perina has it,
I know the Reds have it.
You know the bigger games themore you pay for ticket.
But that suggests you keep theseasoned ticket.
You can build that in, becausewhen you're right, you're right.
John, I think we both agree thatthe experience at the stadium
(09:29):
just simply has to get better.
Right, it has to get bettereither through, I mean, honestly
, the Rakers do it really well.
They have, like you can buythis Jumbo Shark cocktail there,
but they really make it acircus and an event when you go
to a Red Rakers game.
But what do the Bengals do, orwhat do the Reds do, or what
does even the University ofbasketball and football do,
because they're very old schoolstadiums.
I think you gotta keep that.
(09:51):
You gotta keep that seasonedticket, because part of the
experience are the people yousit around, right, so not just
in the right section with theright fans or like the fans that
you just happen to be aroundthat game, but it's the fans you
kind of build friendships with,like I know I had seasoned
tickets to the local high schoolfootball team when nephew
(10:14):
played on it and we got to knowthe people who sat around us
right.
So we build a relationship overthe year and I think that's a
quintessential part of theexperience of buying seasoned
ticket for the thing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Let's say you spent $3,000, $4,000, whatever it is
for the ultimate fan experienceand you never attended a game.
You only went to the tailgatepart.
You're still gonna meet thosepeople and build those
friendships without seasonedtickets at all and I just
collected $4,000.
I wouldn't have gotten becauseyou weren't going to attend that
many games or you were gonnasell half your season tickets so
(10:49):
you could attend the Patriotsgame or the Duke game.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, I think it's not the ones that I sell that
I'm too worried about.
Right, Because your argumentslike, hey, because you didn't
come, I didn't get the food sale, the parking sale, the drink
sale, right, Well, if I sell theticket, you do that right, so
you get the person.
So I think we're only talkingabout seasoned ticket owners who
cannot convert their ticket toa sale.
I don't know what thepercentage of people that is
(11:13):
right.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, I mean, as a former Redskins fan, I can tell
you that there were severalyears back in the day where a
lot of my seasoned ticketfriends couldn't sell their
tickets.
Period that was just.
You paid for seasoned ticketsjust to hold on to the games you
couldn't go to and you couldn'tgive the things away.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And if you couldn't give the things away, how can we
sell that ticket to that?
Would that person who's notbuying the ticket to go into the
stadium buy a ticket to go toyour store?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But well then, that's kind of my thought process,
because the problem with being afan of a team like the Browns
well, the Browns have actually afairly decent fan base, even if
they're bad, let's say thatthey.
I can use the commanders,that's fine.
So, panthers commanders, right.
(12:02):
So the problem you have isthere are those very passionate
fans, but they sit over here,you sit over here, and your
experience would be so muchbetter if I just brought all
those super fans to the samearea and I said, hey, you're
going to pay an additional feewhich will make you a super fan,
but you, just you, forego this.
You know this seat assignmentand this, this ticket, that's
(12:26):
all inclusive to every game.
You forego that to swap it outfor an opportunity to sit with
those people every single weekand we know they're going to be
together.
They're not trying to buytickets together.
The number of times you see fanssay, hey, I'm going to be in
section D, can anybody, you knowanybody else want to join me
here?
I can take them, move them tothe sideline, charge them a fee
(12:46):
for it, move them to thesideline and just say, hey, you
got to buy all your tickets oneby one, but if you pay for this
package, I can, I'll guaranteeyour entrance, you'll get,
you'll get into some to somecapacity into this space, and
then you bring your most intensefans right to the sidelines and
you've got this an unparalleledyou know home field advantage.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So what I'm saying is every fan, like you, want to
drive, every fan to be part ofthe experience.
I think you still sell seasontickets, but you bring the
experience up for every singlefan.
And how do I bring theexperience up?
Well, what's my biggestcomplaint?
You know, when I go to afootball game or a basketball
game, my experience is I may notwant to drive there, get a
hotel, I may not.
(13:28):
Obviously, no one wants to dealwith parking, right?
Food prices, lines, there'sthings that just make it a
friction, a friction, fullenvironment.
So what can I do?
Cause I, you're right, I want,I want the most crazy fans there
, and I think I'm going to getthem, but I'd rather convert the
entire state into crazy fans,right?
(13:49):
So?
And I think we have, I think wehave data, not data, but but,
incidental day, you know whosells out a lot of baseball
games, the Savannah bananas, andnobody even cares what's on the
field, right, fact?
So what can we do?
And I think what we do is we,like you know, you bring the
(14:11):
parking experience up, and thatmeans, I think, you get more,
more people who help guidepeople into their parking spot,
get more cops involved, you know.
Run more golf carts back andforth or increase public transit
in your area.
Let the local people get toyour game.
Really easy Free bus rides fromyour house to the stadium.
(14:33):
If you drop off at the stadium,right, we get rid of your fees.
Then what do I do when you're inthe stadium?
We make everything better right, and I know it's a really easy
thing to say.
But what are we actually doing?
Like we're giving better food,we're getting shorter lines by
opening up more registers.
Now that cuts into our profit,but we want just more people
(14:55):
there and ultimately, I thinkyou convert more of those people
to season ticket holdersthrough the experience.
And if you get a full stadiumof season ticket holders, then
you're doing something right.
But then you're like big greenbit after than like three other
teams right.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
The natural argument from a billionaire owner is
going to be, well, there's justnot enough money in the package
to do all these improvementswithout increasing the price
tickets.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that person is who I mean.
How are they going to argue?
We should build a big sportsbar with a lot of money out
front, right.
So what are we going to do?
I think we cut into the profit,but we like.
So I know I've been to gameswhere, man, I'm going to go get
a beer, but it's, you know, it'sthis much money and I've got to
wait in line and miss half aninning at a baseball game, right
(15:40):
.
So it's all that speed.
How can we use technology tomake that better?
Well, why am I, in 2023, notnot, like, on demand, ordering a
beer to me or hot dog to me,right?
Like.
Could an Uber Eats situation belike, connected to my seat?
(16:01):
Right, could I bring analyticsto the seat?
Could I have a game day app forthe dolphins that lets me
rewind and play videos and seethe stat line?
That a Experience provided bythe dolphins to people in the
stadium, uniquely?
There's other technology thingswe can do that, like Taylor
(16:24):
Swift does, that we aren'tbringing the football games so,
like the wristbands that lightup, right, can you imagine a
night game with the the wholedear, only defensive plays?
The whole stadium is flashingorange and green, like that's
the experience I think peopleare coming up with, like if you
(16:44):
I know you can experiment it wasin technology about ten years
ago where it used the microphoneon your phone to hear songs
that were playing over theintercom and and it, like you
know, your, your color on yourphone screen flash, so so
everybody's phones were flashingblue and white at the same time
.
Now the microphone thing didn'tget worked out, so everybody's
(17:06):
phone was a little bit off.
You know it didn't keep goingforward.
But those are the things Ithink will bring people back
right that are relatively cheap,especially when you talk about
this, you I mean you haveinitial setup fees and
maintenance fees, but it's notwhen you're talking about app
based experiences, and I thinkyou would sell more food if you
can just get it to your seat,right, so you don't even have to
(17:30):
stand up.
Like could you imagine?
Like, hey, yeah, I know you gottwo kids, right, you're taking
your two daughters.
Just it's you and you knowwhatever age they are.
I know they're about the, the,the destroy everything age, so
they're both with under.
You know what they're withunder six, right?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, four and two like.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Imagine getting a drink for one of them.
Yeah, you know, get them bothup, walk them down the stairs.
That's hand in line for tenminutes together.
You know you've got to get upthere.
They have to decide what theywant because they haven't
thought about it and or changetheir mind 38 times in line.
It's easier, honestly, for youjust not to go get them bricks,
but if you so, so click a button, make them just see.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So, so let's, let's unpack an idea.
Let me tell me you think aboutthis.
So let's say, you, you takethat, that idea of a fan-based
application.
So let's say you take anapplication and it's fan
specific and All it does is logfor the first five games you
attend.
It logs your consumption.
(18:32):
So you, it says, okay, youdrank Six beer.
You or you ordered, regardlessof you know how many, you know
it could be friends, thatdoesn't matter.
You ordered six beers, threehot dogs and two things a
popcorn.
Next time you came, you orderednine beers and it and it
basically graphed that out andwhen you walked into the stadium
it said, hey, welcome back.
How, how accurate is this orderfor you on this particular day?
(18:56):
Yeah, and you could, basically,you could basically Pre-order a
little cooler and you walk bythe concession stand and they
just hand you a cooler bag ofsome kind and you walk to your
seat with with all the itemsthat you are gonna want to.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, or you go one step farther.
So I mean there there's someLegal issues that we may have by
giving someone six beers at onetime, but let's imagine, those
just don't exist.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Well, that's why I said order six beers and not
drink six beers.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
So like with price and legal issues there.
But let's just take all that,let's just make those go away.
We'll figure out that, that youget there right.
But I think you, you could, youcan even go one step further
and time that To your orders,right?
Hey, do I want six hot dogs togo to my seat with those in a
cooler?
Actually, I probably don't know, because they're really hot or
they may get soggy throughoutthe time.
But what if?
(19:44):
What you know, you do five orsix more games, and now I know
you tend to order a hot dog inthe first inning, the fifth
inning and at the bottom of theseventh inning.
So you can actually not you,you do go through the.
Would you like this package?
In matter of fact, I couldincentivize that package.
Hey, we'll give you 10% off atthe beginning of the game.
(20:04):
You, you go ahead and buy yoursix hot dogs.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And then we're, and then we have instead of more
kitchens, we have more runners,yeah, and we have the runners of
the bags that just bring themto your seat and we can.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
We can maximize the utility of the runners right by
incentivizing off-timeDeliveries.
So I know everyone wants a hotdog at the bottom of the seventh
inning.
Oh, I like that for fivepercent off.
What if you ordered it at thetop of the six, so you'll blast
and you can order another hotdog near in the game.
I think about you buy seven oreight, right?
(20:37):
We're not stopping, we wantmoney.
But, like now, we can controlwhat people are ordering by
incentivizing those orders.
Hey, we've already sold 10,000hot dogs today.
Probably want to do like let'ssee if we can push the pretzels
out the door, let's see if wecan push at the dead time.
So we're just constantlyrunning rather than having a
rush at the beginning and likethe bottom of the seventh, right
(20:58):
, and then it helps Us plan.
You know, you could.
You know, buying your food twodays before the game now comes
with a discount.
None of I've put a lot ofdiscounts or opportunities out
here, but a lot of stores do.
They give you 28 ways to save10%.
You pick which one you want,right?
But yeah, I agree that if youbuy two days early so that that
(21:20):
we know what to go ahead and buywe don't have.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, no, and what I like about that is you're
talking in.
One of the most efficientProcesses that I can think of on
the planet is Disney's fastpass setup, where they're where
they're constantly movingtraffic to reduce the amount of
lines throughout the park.
So you take you effectively takethat fast pass, that up and you
say, hey, you ping their phoneat the you know Middle of the
(21:48):
first quarter when no one'sordering really anything.
Everyone's still kind of hypedup and say, hey, you want a hot
dog and you know 10% off of yourorder, hot dog right now.
And you build that and you do alot of deliveries in that off
peak time for the people whowant value.
And then you do the big bulkdeliveries and the big runs and
maybe you even do go so far asto anybody who pre-orders during
(22:10):
that peak time the day before.
Whatever it is, their food isnot only ready to go, but
there's like a never stoppingline, that where they
effectively walk up to a booth,grab their bag and take off and
they're back in their seat inthree minutes and then now they
can go, you know, spend the restof the time waiting outside the
bathroom.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
For sure.
Like we just make it so thateverything is so fast, so we
don't take you away from that.
On field experience, right, andI think you can do other things
that yeah, they may cut intothat.
So we kind of talked about theAFRUG or analytics.
But what about what is anaverage play Like fans want to
(22:52):
see?
Honestly, have your lessexciting game.
Put three or four veterans justroaming around the stands, right
, and not your Tom Brady's ofthe world about your Dan
Marino's of the world, but theguy who played like three
seasons and had an averagecareer, right, have them walk
around in Jersey and talk tosome fans or like see if people
(23:13):
can like promote they're goingto be there and get autographed.
Break your balls, make theseguys feel like a celebrity
because you said you're lessimportant games.
People don't show up to yourCowboys, dolphins, what you said
.
But imagine I don't know the.
You know an average, you knowdolphins player, but you have
(23:33):
something to do.
Who's in his 50s or 60s had acouple of good?
You know help, you know maybesnap to the ball to Marino and
just let people know five ofthese guys around the 100s will
bring your kids to meet him getthe football sign.
Ask him the question becauseyou as a 30 or 40 or something,
apparently probably watch thisguy play and may or may not
(23:53):
remember him, but you definitelyremember some games he's in.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, I like that.
I mean, and obviously there'senough of those type of player.
There's enough of those youknow, let's call it and I'm not
going to name any players, thatdon't want to upset anybody but
yeah, you've got those playersthat even 10 years ago that
played, that are doingengagements and they are doing
(24:19):
events.
So it's not like they're notalready out there doing those
things.
So I like that idea.
So I will admit you're swayingme a bit to your idea as far as
keeping the season tickets andmaking the experience better.
The next question you have tohave is so, as an organization,
how do I monetize that, the appand the incentivization of food
(24:40):
and drinks?
Obviously, food and beverage isa massive amount of the profit
of these stadiums, so sellingmore of that will naturally turn
into income.
But, as people tell you all thetime, savings isn't sexy.
So if you approach an owner andyou say, hey, this is what we
want to do, I guess we'd have toopen the analytics of how
successful the Falcons have beenwith their reduced pricing on
(25:03):
their food to see how successfultheir food and beverage sales
are.
But I imagine it's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, I mean, people have to think it's not additive,
it's multiple-cathode, right?
So if I sell to, you get likeeverybody who comes in if they
buy a hot dog.
There's a lot of money there.
The price of the hot dog wecould argue about all day, but
the thing is every FTC doesn'tbuy a hot dog, right?
(25:29):
So even if and I think we cango back to your idea of like,
when we have variable pricing,which Industries do that?
It's not uncommon.
Airlines, right?
If I want a better seat, I'mpaying more.
Right?
If I want to be in a morepopular real fight, I'm paying
more.
So what do we do on those cheatdays to drive the value of that
(25:51):
ticket up?
And you're right, like, if I,if I bring my kid and I forgot
the football, he's gonna getautographed.
I'm selling a lot of relativelycheaper footballs.
They're just good forautographs that day, right?
I bet this average player thatwe're talking about let's think
of an average player throughtime.
I know you don't want to sayanybody, I will RG3, a very
(26:12):
average player through time.
And you have him running around.
He hasn't sold a jersey in 20years.
He's selling a lot, right.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Well, and that leads you to that also leads you to
new merchandise, and I guessthat's the next step to that is
your fans tend to buy the new,exciting merchandise.
If you give that person anopportunity, hey, based on your
previous orders, we already knowwhat sizes you order.
Click here if you want the new,the new merch, delivered with
your food in the, you know, inthe first quarter.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And people buy in the moment.
So people want that experienceto buy.
So you can even make the appbetter than that, right?
Like, hey, an hour, two hours,up to two hours after the game,
you can bring your kids into theend zone.
Right, you get the photo andthen you get the opportunity to
buy the shirt.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
We will probably do an entire segment on how to how
to make sports more familyfriendly, because that is the
number of times I've had thatconversation of how do we make
the game be experienced betterfor people with children.
And if you say OK, your kidscan be in the end zone.
Not only that, but you'llthey'll get their shirt right
before that picture, so they puton their brand new shirt and
they're all proud about it.
(27:18):
That's a.
That's an interesting sellingoption.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
And to be clear, there are 30 somethings.
We want to go in the end zoneto like you're just not pitching
this Just some day in his kid.
Like I would go to the game inzone today without a kid because
I want to wear a Burro jerseyin the end zone.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
True, I mean yeah, and I would do the same thing,
especially if, if there's anopportunity to get a family
picture in the end zone with thefield behind you, you have 100
percent chance.
I'm doing that.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, and you just converted the shirt.
You know, and hopefully youknow you're making those
memories so that you go to oneor two games a year, I think.
I've read the NFL has somewherebetween 70 and 80 percent
season tickets, I think, butlike 10 to 15 percent of those
are brokers.
So let's say half of thestadium is the tickets.
What do we do with?
(28:05):
the other stadium.
We're trying to convert thosepeople to season tickets, right?
So?
And then at the end of the yearwe do what Uber does, right,
where it's like hey, you knowyou could save five dollars if
you were part of Uber one.
Hey, you know you could havesaved $1,800 this year if you
were a season ticket holder andyou wouldn't have pre-purchased
all these tickets, because wewould have they all.
(28:27):
Season ticket holders getanother two percent off food or
like the service, the associatedwith delivery is free, get
better, more prep.
And you know, we could havesaved you this much money had
you just, you know, bought aseason ticket.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I think, bringing that savings.
I know there are companies outthere like like Granger, that
they focus heavily on that ofhow much should you save, and
because a lot of people think ofGranger as a company that
provides products, but yeah,they're a little bit more
expensive.
So Granger breaks it down toyeah, you know, some individual
(29:02):
products are more expensive, buthere's how much you save by not
running around buying thosefrom 15 different places.
And so you take that same kind,that same basic math and you
say here here's how much yousaved by ordering before the
game, here's how much you savedby ordering by using off peak
hours.
You can really break that downand I bet you that's a
substantial savings.
(29:22):
And I don't know about you, butfor me personally, if you give
me, if you say, hey, you saved$3,000 this year, that means
something to me Like that's likehey, wow, how much did I spend
to save $3,000?
But, more importantly, sure,wow, I saved $3,000 just by
ordering in the first half orjust by ordering the first
(29:43):
quarter.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Listen, I think you have to give us selling behemoth
in America is Walmart.
Everybody who wants to go toTarget, everybody who wants to
shop elsewhere, everyone wantsto pay Walmart as the bad guy.
Walmart is an absolute behemoth.
And why?
Because everyone who says Iprefer Target still likes paying
(30:06):
less money at Walmart.
They still go to Walmart tosave their money, right, even
though they may wear a mask anda hood to make sure no one sees
them there.
They're still there becauseWalmart isn't getting as much
sales as they are about peopleboycotting Walmart, people still
shop on Amazon.
It's not as much the priceanymore, it's all the
(30:28):
convenience of coming to yourdoor.
Even though they say we'regoing to boycott Amazon this
year because of whatever reasons, they're growing 20% a year.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
and it's not because people are boycotting, yeah,
it's because I can ordersomething right now, it'll be in
my door in 45 minutes for noreason at all.
Yeah yeah, the number ofbirthday presents I've ordered
the day before the kids partywould shock you, and for no
other reason than just pureconvenience.
So let's wrap this here.
I think we've done a great jobof unpacking the fan experience.
(31:02):
To recap, we started out withthe idea of how do we improve
this fan experience, how do wemake it better for season two,
how do we make it better forseason ticket holders?
My personal idea to start outthe show was maybe we delete
season ticket holders altogether.
Maybe we build an a la carteexperience and take that money,
that extra money that you getfrom the season ticket sales by
(31:23):
selling them all a carte, createa truly unique fan experience,
build out this very specific fanenvironment.
But I think Chris had a really,really great idea of let's keep
the existing experience to.
I mean, obviously we can save alot of money and implement it
much faster.
So let's take that experienceand let's improve it with
(31:44):
something as simple as an app,and I love that idea, will
probably go deeper into thatidea down the road.
Maybe we'll even bring insomebody from a professional
sports team on the ticketingside to discuss how that could
improve and the efficienciesthat could bring into.
We'll look into that as afuture episode.
I think it's a really great wayto highlight the specifics
(32:05):
around when you're talkinginnovation with your
organization or with your teamor whoever it may be opening
that door to not justbrainstorming an idea but maybe
going a little more hyperspecific and finding that
specific problem and let'sdiscuss that.
Let's open the conversation totalking to anyone that's a good
advocate for shareholderinterests and let's really dive
(32:29):
into those ideas and createsomething that's truly unique
and special that will reallyinnovate this space.
And I think that having thisidea is something that we can
really open the door for.
And we're gonna have an entireepisode specifically geared
around the differences betweenbrainstorming and complex
problem solving for a specificissue.
(32:50):
So I'm looking forward to thatconversation.
Thank you, chris, so much forjoining us today.
We really appreciate your inputand looking forward to having
you on future shows.
I have been your host, johnMowed.
Remember, no problem is too bigor too small to solve.
Innovation is born out ofnecessity and curiosity.
We are all about pushing thoseordinary limits and thank you so
(33:10):
much for joining us.
Please don't forget tosubscribe and remember you are
never stuck.
We'll see you next time.
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