Saturday, September 12, 2015

Weekend Reading: TV Money, Ticket Firesales, & the Importance of "Cool"

Some weekend reading for you as you await the first full day of 2015 NFL games...
  1. Fields of Green - "The NFL's TV ratings are about to skyrocket," contributing to approx. $12 billion (!?!) in revenue this year.
  2. Fields of Green - "Leagues, teams and media companies may already be facing a bursting bubble," if cord-cutters disrupt the seemingly unstoppable trajectory of cable-rights fees.
  3. LivingSocial - The Orlando Magic follow the Florida Gators in selling tickets on the deals site, a sign that teams continue to struggle to get fans off of the couch and into the arena.
  4. Tampa Bay Times - However, not all teams are struggling at the gate - the Tampa Bay Lightning feel good enough about their strong ticket sales that they're targeting the secondary ticket market and threatening to take season tickets away from anyone who resells more than 50% of his/her account.  How has the team been so successful?  It's not the location; it's not the arena; it's an owner who has made his product the coolest in town.
  5. Field of Schemes - "No, Nationals Park is not an exception to the rule that stadiums don’t do squat for local economies," since it is impossible to tell what the Navy Yard would have become without baseball in the booming construction market that is Washington D.C...and the city could have arguably done more with that $600 million by spending it in other ways. 





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10 comments:

  1. Regarding item #4 that discusses the Tampa Bay Lightning's new season ticket policy, I would like to note the following:

    · The Tampa Bay Lightning play in an arena that is majority funded by the public, and for which Jeff Vinik is proposing an additional $25 million in improvements and asking the taxpayers to pay for half of that per http://tbo.com/sports/lightning/vinik-plans-arena-improvements-wants-reimbursement-for-half-the-cost-20150227/ .

    · Jeff Vinik continue to fight the reality that franchises in small markets derive some of their revenues from out-of-town fans.

    · This policy will continue to discourage and/or prevent out-of-towners from coming to Tampa to attend Lightning hockey games, thereby reducing tax, airfare, car rental, taxi, shopping, hotel, restaurant, and entertainment receipts for local citizens

    · This policy will deprive season ticket holders of the opportunity to make a few extra bucks.

    · Faulty methods will be employed to detect season ticket holders selling their tickets and/or to reject previous season ticket holders, in the name of getting rid of ticket brokers.

    Tampa is not like Detroit, or Chicago, or New York, or Boston where the arenas are easily filled with local die-hard fans of long tradition.

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    1. Scott, newsflash, the city owns the arena, so for Vinik or any other owner of a team that puts $ into someone else's place is better then $0. If I was renting a bedroom in your house, and went half on building a bathroom onto in it, you should be happy, because when I move out, though I enjoyed the bathroom, I'm out that $, and you benefit with a higher home value...
      And, the Lightning outsold NY last year! lol

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    2. Scott, newsflash, the city owns the arena, so for Vinik or any other owner of a team that puts $ into someone else's place is better then $0. If I was renting a bedroom in your house, and went half on building a bathroom onto in it, you should be happy, because when I move out, though I enjoyed the bathroom, I'm out that $, and you benefit with a higher home value...
      And, the Lightning outsold NY last year! lol

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  2. As long as the players & coaches get their fair share of the revenue...
    Selling tickets on 3rd party sites doesn't mean they're struggling "negative Noah", lol. That's like saying car dealers struggle if they use AutoTrader or Craigslist to sell more cars, it's just the new age of hustling by using online. "Can't knock the hustle"...
    And it is the location, it is the arena, it is the team, it just took a smarter person to get smarter people to put it all together. Put the Lightning in St. Pete playing in the arena the Islanders play in, and they would draw about the same % of fans as the Rays...
    And lastly, the Nats revived that area, and everyone they interview & that I've talked to has said the same. It's not just there, there is a lot of other cities that used stadiums to anchor the progressive build up of that area... Where do you people come up with this stuff?

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  3. "the Nats revived that area, and everyone they interview & that I've talked to has said the same."

    Well, of course if you ask the Nats and their supporters they will say that they were responsible for the revival. That's not entirely - the reality is they helped SOME of the revival (nice to see some sports bars in the area that wouldn't have been there otherwise) but the area was already on the map to be undergo some kind of revival.

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    1. Really, and you know this how? I think we would trust all the business owners around that area & those that live or lives in that area then some right-wing digressive that never been there...

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    2. Nail on the head, anonymous. You can't assume the Nats investment was a good one because the revival may have been done a LOT cheaper....and potentially, with more long-term revenues staying in the area.

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    3. "Nail on the head, (2nd) anonymous. You can't assume", we should take those that live, work, and own businesses there! They say it's because of Nats Park...
      Noah? Using your argument, let's "assume" if "done cheaper"(ie w/ out Nats Park), that there won't be as much there, w/ "potentially" shorter "term revenues", because there isn't a place bringing 15-20k people directly to that arena 100 days a year...

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    4. Nats Park - http://cnsmaryland.org/2015/04/03/nationals-park-spurs-neighborhoods-growth/

      AT&T Park - http://www.mercurynews.com/giantsheadlines/ci_6326258

      Busch Stadium - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/realestate/commercial/st-louis-development-plays-off-busch-stadium.html?_r=0

      Coors Field -http://www.citylab.com/work/2012/03/how-build-successful-downtown-stadium/1593/
      - http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/print-edition/2015/03/27/20-years-later-coors-field-is-still-a-winner-for.html

      Fenway Park - http://boston.curbed.com/archives/2015/04/mapping-the-construction-around-fenway-park-on-opening-day.php

      Petco Park - http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/case-studies/san-diego-padres-petco-park-catalyst-urban-redevelopment

      Target Field - http://www.startribune.com/the-pohlad-family-owners-of-the-minnesota-twins-is-building-up-around-target-field/321914651/
      http://populous.com/posts/target-field-revitalizing-downtown-minneapolis-with-baseball-transit/

      NYC teams - http://commercialobserver.com/2014/05/home-field-advantage-the-impact-of-yankee-stadium-and-citi-field/

      ... and those are just some of MLB's stadiums that have good progressive impact for their cities, not including football, etc.. Though it's a shame that there is parks built like the Marlins in hard to develop area's (or like Raymond James), and then digressive like NO'ah jump on and tout a digressive owners decision to build where it won't work. Like real estate says, location, location...
      Channelside will make this list of ballparks that help spur great growth around while RAISE real state values...

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