Saturday, March 13, 2010

Filling the Seats in a Down Economy

There are many creative ways in filling in the seats in a downward economy. The article that I read “Taking attendance: Facilities Find Creative Ways to Fill seats in a Down Economy” asserts great ideas and examples of how to fill the seats in a stadium or a theatre despite the bad economy. I found statements in the book “The Business of Sports very interesting in how fans think about their team. Mark Conrad who expressed points of view like psychological reasons why fans are loyal to their team wrote the book. Conrad explained that an average fan is loyal to their team because the fan is benefiting through entertainment, escape, eustress, aesthetic, family, self-esteem, and group affiliation (2009). I realized what Conrad was saying was true from being a sports fan myself. I am a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and it seems like sometimes the football team comes before my life. I always make time to watch the football game no matter how busy I am in my life. Now the reason that the subject of fan loyalty is so important is because they are the target audience that will decide if the seats are filled on a regular basis. Sports are a unique business because people are paying their hard earned money in order to fulfill their emotional and psychological needs rather than the necessities of life. When the economy is bad you would think that people would just buy things that they had to have versus the luxury of going to a sports event to cheer on their team.

There is a lot of money to be made in the sports industry or in any facility. Money to be made from a facility includes concessions, parking, naming rights of the stadium, and luxury seating. An example of a profitable stadium is the Dallas Cowboys Stadium where the team is profitable because of television time and loyal fans. A major part of a stadium is having exclusive advertizing where only one product of a similar type is marketed at that facility. The most important thing that I got from the article is making sure the fans really enjoy the experience at the stadium or facility. I remember watching a Dallas Cowboys game and the fans got the experience of watching the game in 3D in the second half of the game. Technology is constantly changing which helps make the experience better for the fans and facilities working hard to market their teams. New technology includes social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, blogger, and Linked In. Each of these websites allows teams to post updated scores for their fans to keep up with their teams despite their busy schedules. The teams also use these networking sites to promote their special days like dollar dog days, which attracts more fans. I noticed after the New Orleans Saints won the super bowl, the first thing they gave credit to was the support of the city of New Orleans and their greats fans which made the fans of New Orleans feel as they played a large role in the Saints winning the Super Bowl. The bottom line is that the fans want to make sure that they are getting good value out of the money they are paying.

References

Conrad, M. (2006). The Business of Sports: A Primer for Journalists. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Fall, S. (2009). Taking Attendance: Facilities find creative ways to fill sears in a down economy. Retrieved from:

http://www.iaam.org/Facility_manager/pages/2009_Jun_July/feature_3.htm

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