His choice might be unwise but he's not "dumb" or ignorant of the result. He's doing this on purpose. Crazy that he runs our club...
What burns me up is how skillfully Hunt has obscured the real issues. It's not about tickets. Unless I'm mistaken, DCU is using the ticket fiasco as a pretext to prune out conduct they don't wish to see in AF anymore. By giving SE a sweet exclusive deal they turned the fanbase in on each other. DC is above the fray and nobody can hold them accountable. Sad to say but we have to accept that their feelings on this issue are immutable.
Pruning out the conduct they don't want at AF is only the secondary issue. They are targeting a younger fan base. The Millennials are who they are after. Look at the decisions they have made. Bringing in the cool local chef to cook for us. This digital only ticketing BS. No parking to speak of, wanting fans to take public transport. All of these thing are targeted at the fans they want to court. Problem is that the fans they are courting at not loyal. Does anyone think that more than 5-7% of Millennials would stick around for 22 years? How about 10 years??? I doubt it. They will be going to the next twitter inspired fad in 34 seconds. No this is a flawed business model.
My niece just graduated HS and is the most diehard fan of the team (and Ian Harkes lol). She aint goin nowhere. I'm sorry you feel that way but you're partially wrong. Without belaboring the issue I'm 32 and been going to games since I was a kid. My fiancé and most of our friends are "millenials"...DCU already has their attention BECAUSE of the SGs. Add a new stadium and marquee signing on top of what traditionally makes United great and the fanbase would build itself (as it always has). Tom Hunt and DCU marketing brass have determined they don't need us, or the same atmosphere we brought to RFK to attract enough new people to offset our possible absence. It's a perplexing but deliberate strategy. The strategic partnership with SEs was only a byproduct and visible manifestation of that flawed thinking.
He had a quote like that early last week or late the week before. Its quite clear that they hope to set a low bar for fan service and interaction. This team used to have a STM program that would compete with the Caps who were always a team that was trying to win. Now being an STM gets you cheap plastic bag, assuming you hadn't already ordered one prior to the middle of last week. Some fan trinket, again announced at pretty much the last possible minute. They tanked the last couple of years crying poor at RFK while pocketing millions from SUM. Now their STM program is bereft of features and perks as the Nats ... who are going to lose a ton of STMs after hosting the All Star game. I know perhaps a dozen (so small sample) Nats STMs who are done after this years, one of them is staying. Most of them speak about people they sit around who are bailing, having turned down 3/5/10 year commitments for price locked season tix.
I think that it is simpler than that. I think that the FO thought that they could easily fill the stadium without having to resort to the SGs as ticket brokers. They thought that their product was so good, and the limitations on ticket numbers so enticing, that they would easily sell out the stadium with season ticket holders. They found out that they couldn't. So they went back to the SG that they thought would be more amenable to FO demands, the Screaming Eagles. They offered a deal on single day tickets that would be very profitable to the SE. What they didn't count on was that their product is not all that good, and that SG loyalty would mean that the other groups would not buy from SE. They added other ways to purchase tickets. Now there are weekend packages, Wednesday packages, and the "flex" robbery scheme. They brought in a marquee player that should be able to bring more spectators to the stadium. Now we are two days from opening, and they still have at least 400 seats that they are unable to sell. A few days ago the cheapest seats were $88. Today they are $75. Who knows how many more unsold seats they have that don't show up on Ticketmaster because they are trying to create an artificial scarcity? We know that at least some SG section tickets have not been sold, and that is on top of the 400 still available. What they need to realize is that their product is not as good as they thought and the stadium will not be full no matter what they do. Barra Brava and District Ultras will gladly buy tickets if offered the same terms as Screaming Eagles. At this point, unsold tickets are lost income. They will not be able to recoup these sales by withholding the tickets. And even though Screaming Eagles will make a killing selling individual tickets for Saturday's game, they will eventually lose money on those rainy Wednesday nights when they can't sell tickets.
The approach is wrong. You don't forsake one demographic for another. You find a way to attract both. Soft tickets should be an option, perhaps even at a cost savings to the STM. Parking wasn't a millennial driven decision IMO, it was a cheap ownership decision. The Jose Andres things is just laughable. Its not going to be his chefs cooking the food. Everyone who felt they HAD to have that are getting rolled. Catering cooking is very different from restaurant cooking. Go ask a Nats STM what they think of Levy, particularly the premium STMs at Nats Park.
Goff was poo pooing the # of upset fans on twitter, although I think he was confusing upset fans with the total # of upset supporters.
The FO is not above the fray. This is about the FO and their incompetence/being jerks. The Sitting Eagles leadership are pathetic toadies, nothing more.
I'm burned up and I'm an instagram-loving millennial. The thing that Hunt does not know is that millennials also love diversity and can immediately sniff corporate double-talk. They can also tell quickly when they are being pandered to rather than being given a solid product. DC United should sell tickets to any possible paying customer. I hate how stupid and self-defeating this strategy is to everything we care about with this pro soccer team. Hunt read some bullshit magazine about how millennials love soccer and he immediately dreamed up a stadium filled with people out of a J. Crew ad. Next, he put it on a speadsheet, called his made up numbers a "business metric" and off we go. Too bad the article didn't tell him that millennials hate corporate bullshit because we've had to live with it our entire lives.
I'd trust a millennial at least as much as I'd trust a boomer, probably more. The issue is picking new (potentially transient fans) over proven fans. From the front office's point of view, the proven fans are both numerically insignificant and pains in the ass. After a decade of being the laughingstock of the league, that's what happens. But if the FO think that some millennial anglophile is going to go to a stadium where the Sitting Beagles are the main attraction and say, "Hey this stadium experience is more authentic than that avocado toast I had for breakfast, I should buy season tickets," well, they're just delusional. That's why shitting on the Barra & co. is suicidal.
And I am not saying that 100% of the Millennials are what I am describing. But 75% are. I coach High School filed hockey and soccer. Believe me I am more in tune to what the young kids of today want that Hunt and his cast of yes men are.
Plenty of millennials will show up once but the retention rate will be low unless the product on the field vastly improves.
There is virtually nothing in FAM that I'd spend the points on. Its all stuff that was pretty easy to get freely as a STM prior to the new stadium and I don't really have any interest "upgrading" to the club level. And there's no way I am selling on DCU's portal to give them a cut of the sale. Even if it costs more, I'll use Stubhub, find a friend or something.
Credentials or credibility? Having one does not necessarily require one to believe they are mutually inclusive.
Right about the FO, they are as dumb as an anvil and sadly deserve pity not mockery. On the other part of your statement I see you don't teach math because if 75% of millenials (1980's- mid 1990's, or simply put, ages 22 to 37 in 2018 are considered a Millennial) are still high school kids then they are dumber than even the FO. But semantics aside and just for grins, the group you are familiar with, HS teens, want everything that's cool no later than this afternoon, just as long as Dad and Mom (or Mom and Mom or Dad and Dad) pay for it. You are tuned in on what people with absolutely no income or responsibilities and the attention span of a squirrel want because their friends have it. So in their heart of hearts,right after being popular, an acne free complexion and plenty of sex are ticked off, a rewarding soccer experience isn't that high on the list, ever. Facts can be checked set a better example for your students
See it's not math that is my issue it is civics, if I don't know exactly which age group are the Millennials. Oh and I do play filed hockey, after coaching the high school kids, with players in the age group you refer to so I am still exposed to Millennials.
The important thing is that everyone who isn't old enough to remember hating Scrappy Doo gets off our our lawns.
Millenials will not be the reason this fails and we all agree that this is a flawed business model. We are quibbling over "Why?" and stuck on the fact that DC thinks they are targeting a younger (whiter) crowd when they don't know what that crowd actually wants. Their plans and choices are not coherent enough to accomplish their goal. As said above: