Wednesday, February 8, 2012

"More Fans Can Look Forward to Affordability in 2012"

Article from Athletic Business

Review by Michael Prince in KIN 435 (section 2)

The article talked about how teams have been struggling to fill their stadiums. With the economy not being the best, teams have to find new ways to put people in the seats. The Cincinnati Bengals are coming off playoff appearances in two out of three years and still are having problems with attendance. Cincinnati will reduce prices for more than 14,500 seats in this upcoming 2012 season. They are pushing their youth movement to the fans telling them that they have a lot of talent and are looking to have a big turn out this season.

Not only are teams in the NFL having problems filling their seats but leagues such as the MLB, NBA and college level are rethinking their marketing strategies. Teams are beginning to reduce prices on certain seating to bring in more fans and money. I think this could work out well for the teams that do this. It only seems that the big name teams such as the Yankees, Red Sox, and the Patriots are consistently selling out each game. So the teams with the smaller market or the team is just not as good have to find something that can help bring in revenue. Normally you don’t see teams lowering ticket prices, but instead increasing them. In this case, teams are doing the opposite which goes against any basic marketing principle.

Time will only tell if this new marketing style will pay off. Marketers will have to do a good job of letting the public know of the price reductions through social media, television, flyers, etc. I think if the public knows that this is the new trend in sports they will be more prone to going to games. I know personally I will be going to more Orioles/Nationals games if they do some sort of price reduction on their seats. This article is just the start of more to come for other teams. I think as teams see how well reducing prices does for teams, you will start to see more and more teams begin to reduce prices. Overall, I believe that this will be beneficial for both the organizations and fans.

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