Teaming up with the NFL

I think its a good idea to For the MLS to see if can do it , but i can't see the benefit to the NFL and why they would do it.

It could happen in KC or NE 'cause atleast they have the Same owners. but like in NY, i think its got a snowball chance in hell.

 

You’re fantasizing, not analyzing, moved to MLS general analysis.
Thanks,

 

That might not be possible since the Patriots probably will have very few people fail to renew their season tickets for the forseeable future.

But certainly it would make sense for the Krafts to tell everyone on the list that they'd be moved to the top of the waiting list should they buy Revs full (or partial) season tickets

 

That would be reason enough for me to do it. I'd announce an offer something like the following: The first x people that buy 2 Season Ticket Equivalents (STE) and a Rev's jersey get moved to the top of the waiting list and get a Pat's jersey to boot. It might not be legit with the NFL rules, owners, and all that, but I'm sure those are monitary details that can be solved. At the very least the media would grab it and run creating free pub.
There is down side of possible backlash and unused tickets, but it is a small one that is easily handled by a competent marketing staff.

This is such a no-brainer. Unless NFL prohibits it somehow, I can't even believe it hasn't been done yet. The Wizards should have done it with the Chiefs years ago when they had a waiting list.

 

Re: Re: Teaming up with the NFL

This would amount to nothing more than another NFL ticket price increase which would further distort MLS attendance figures. The goal isn't to make ourselves feel happy about attendance figures.

 

Re: Re: Re: Teaming up with the NFL

No, the goal is to sell tickets. So if the Revs can sell more tickets by packaging them with Patriots ticket sales, I say go for it.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Teaming up with the NFL

It's not selling more tickets anywhere but in your mind. They could package Patriot games with the Museum of Bad Art and it wouldn't make any difference. For that matter, they could sell tickets to the 2145 Moon bowl. It's called an NFL ticket price increase.

 

Ben, NFL owners are pulling the exact same tactics right now when they force their season ticket holders to buy tickets to useless preseason games as part of their season ticket package.

At least under lufty's plan, the NFL fans getting MLS tickets get seats to something far more entertaining than any NFL preseason game. And if they weren't soccer fans and chose not to go, they could always resell the tickets or give them to friends who enjoy soccer.

At worst, the MLS tickets bought by NFL waiting list folks would be unused. But who really cares if that happens.

If you go to any MLB, NHL, or NBA game during the regular season, half of the best seats are usually empty. But do the teams care? Not much, because they've already sold season tickets to those seats, and if the corporate types don't want to show up, well, that's their choice.

 

Why would the NFL want to do this? they aren't having any trouble selling tickets. In new england where Kraft owns both an MLS and NFL team ... maybe. But what incentive is there for Pat Bowlen in Denver to do this? The NFL teams that share stadiums are already so freakin' successful, there would be no advantage for them.
Nice idea, won't ever happen. but nice idea.

 

I could see something like this happening down the road in cities where NFL season ticket demand is high.

Here in Dallas, a lot of Cowboy fans are irritated about having to buy tickets to 4 useless preseason games as part of their season ticket package.

But if Jerry Jones were the owner of the Burn as well, he could offer the Cowboy season ticket holders an alternative to buy tickets to 6 Burn games rather than the 4 preseason games.

Obviously some diehard Cowboy fans would choose the 4 preseason game option, but I would imagine a fair number would decide to go for the Burn tickets instead.

 

i think that the problem is that the nuggets is one of the big 4... well another thing is buying NFL and SOCCER tickets... i really think that the fans wouldn't support toomuch of that

 

We're not talking about Bowlen in Denver, just NE.

The logic is that if 60,000 who can't get tickets want them, it's probable that 50,000 of them understand that waiting isn't in their best interest. Some may want them bad enough to pay extra, with money going to MLS. People will probably use some of the tickets at the very least. Throw a jersey in the package and psychologically convert them one person at a time. If people buy 36 tickets and use half, that's still 18 butts in the seats times how ever many packages.

Nobody cares if the NFL benifits or not. If they gripe then remind them they get the PAT's jersey revenue. If not, just make it 2 Rev's jerseys.

 

Because NFL tickets are so valuable that prices can be raised to great levels, this helps MLS how exactly? It appears that owners would prefer raising prices in an indirect way where possible (your preseason games, though I know of many NFL fans that watch them so I will reserve judgment as to whether MLS would be analagous- there can be zero doubt that NFL fans by in large would prefer watching preseason NFL over MLS). So is your argument that MLS creates value because it can be used as a device to raise NFL ticket prices?? We are still back to the reality that people aren't really paying for MLS tickets, that many probably won't go, and that this entire scheme is devised so you and others can rejoice at inflated, meaningless MLS attendance figures.

I'd also like to comment on this, "And if they weren't soccer fans and chose not to go, they could always resell the tickets or give them to friends who enjoy soccer. "

You are making it just that much harder to gauge the real support of the teams. Now some MLS fans will not directly by the tickets but look around for a hapless NFL fan that wants to get rid of them.

 

Fine. I have a better idea. Sell MLS tickets for $100 and give 1 NFL ticket away free with purchase.

 

No, you're not processing this the right way. Forget how you think I or MLS view it.

The point is to look at it from Kraft's business view.

I'll break it down for you...
*Kraft owns both Pats and Revs
*Kraft should want to use all his avenues/assets to increase the value of all his assets. Read:MLS -- So should you.
*Revs have 60,000 extra people(apparently), who want tickets, that don't fit into Gillette.
*This illustrates extremely high demand (D)
*Where D is unusually high, prices can (and should)be raised without greatly reducing D.
*Where D is so far beyond supply as to be rediculous, then who cares if D falls a bit. The effect is negligable (sp).
*Nobody is saying D would fall, it might not. Worst case: it's no big deal.
*People are looking at a generation wait for tickets. Who likes waiting two minutes much less 20 years?
*You can bet scalpers and brokers are abusing this by selling Pats' tix at prices much higher due to demand.
*Like the brokers, Kraft can borrow on the insanely high local NFL ticket D for his purpose: to accent ticket sales for MLS.
*This can be done by the voluntary[i/] plan mentioned or another better one.
*The buyers reality is: be excluded, wait and be excluded for now, be gouged heavily to be included, or get considerable and fair value for the "gouge" while greatly shortening the wait to be included.
*Some people will choose to buy Revs tickets and shorten the wait. WIN/WIN.
*This means there there will be people who buy the Rev's tix and they might find out they enjoy MLS by accident. Maybe not, either way the money is paid and some will come.
*I'm not suggesting raising NFL ticket prices. People get full value for what they purcahse. They may choose not to utilize the value, some will.
*There will be people who go, that can only add to attendance. Some of those will return next year. Many of those the following year, etc. Any count above 1 that does return only adds to the ticket base.
*This is a fiscal NPV positive project that only has the possible negatives of NFL bylaws, possible backlash from media and the portion of the 60k that are repelled by the idea.
*If those negatives are judged to be less than the obvious positive of revenue over time, you do it.
*Stadiums/owners exploit D by selling PSL's all the time. PLus, now owners borrow on the prestige of their teams[and economics]to gain public money for thier teams, stadia, and other personal interests as a matter of course. The concept can't be against NFL bylaws. It's done daily.

 

You're correct in saying that if Kraft instituted this policy he'd be effectively raising the price of his Patriot tickets. But so what?

Kraft is already doing something very similar in New England with club seating. Folks who want the best seats at Gillette Stadium but can't afford a luxury suite buy club seats which allow them to attend all the events at Gillette Stadium: Patriot games, Revs games, concerts, etc, etc.

And while Revs games and concerts are nice enough to go to, it's obvious the only reason anyone is going to shell out $5000 per seat per year, is to have great seats to Patriots games.

So what lufty's proposed is basically just a poor man's version of club seating. You want your Patriot's tickets? Well, fine. But to get them you'll need to buy these great Revs tickets as well.

Obviously, a policy like this wouldn't be the fairest, but things like this are done all the time in entertainment and sports.

Want to play a top resort course like Pebble Beach? Well, not only will you need to pay a green fee, you'll also need to pay $300 for a room as well.

Want to attend the Texas-Nebraska game at Austin? Great, but to do so, you'll need to buy season tickets since single game tickets will only be available for games against no-name opponents.

I'll admit that if I were a Patriots fan I wouldn't necessarily like to be on the receiving end of a Patriots/Revs ticket tie-in policy, but such a policy could be expected to increase Revs attendance markedly. And, personally, I'd like to see 25,000 regularly attend Revs games and if it takes some Machiavellian manipulations, well, so be it.

 

Totally agree.

Also with NU tickets, every other team charges more for the NU game than the others on the schedule. NU fans travel and guarantee sellouts almost anywhere. May as well gouge 'em and pay some campus bills. BTW, if you can get your paws on NU tix, they are a great investment. They will go for much more than face on game day, especially when it's cold in Lincoln, the stadium is a sell-out, and the 'Huskers are still x-0.

 

I like my idea of $100 MLS tickets + a free NFL ticket. That way MLS revenues could exceed the NBA.

 

This is my canidate for "Stupidest thing posted on this site" this year.

 

No doubt, because it is your argument reduced to its most basic level of idiocy.

If anyone has a useful suggestion to improve MLS financially in a meaningful way, I am very interested. Forcing NFL fans to buy MLS tickets does nothing for MLS aside from making you feel better when you see the "attendance" figures.

 

This thread is of no interest to any NFL owner unless they also own an MLS team.

That is the situation with the Avalanche and Nuggets, which is why the situation works so well. The fact that they play at the same venue has nothing to do with it.

Look at the Rapids and Broncos, there's no way the Donkeys would up ticket prices just so that they could sell more Rapids tickets (except for the fact that they "own" Invesco and could conceivably make more money on the back end by having more fans come to Rapids games, but they are too dense to perceive this).

Anyways, we're forgetting the most important point: who wants NFL fans at MLS games anyways?

 

Driving to work today, I came up with the ultimate ticket selling strategy for the Krafts.

It's fan-unfriendly and would probably be pretty unpopular at first, but I have no doubt it would be very profitable for the Krafts in the long run.

You know the $4000 to $6000 per seat "club seats" the Patriots offer?

Well, after this season, what the Krafts should do is institute a new policy of making all sideline seats in the lower bowl "junior club seats".

The Krafts would charge each present Patriot season ticket holder in these areas an extra $400/year, and in turn these Patriot season ticket owners would get Revs season tickets as well.

And in one fell swoop, you've assured yourself of 15,000+ season ticket holders for the Revs.

Of course, not all Patriot season ticket holders would be crazy about this marketing strategy, but so what?

If someone decided they didn't want to shell out the extra bucks, there're plenty of people on the Patriot season ticket waiting list who'd willingly take their place.

And what of the present-day Revs patrons? Well, they could always buy tickets in the endzone areas, resold tickets from the Patriots fans, and if the demand existed, the Revs could even open up the upper deck.

 

Yeah, kick the loyal Revs fans into the crappy seats, and give the good seats to Patriots fans who don't want them. Actually, it sounds like something the Krafts would do.

 

Well, to be honest, most of what I wrote was quite tongue-in-cheek.

But, like you say, it does seem like something the Krafts might do.

Hunt? No way would he treat his teams fans like this.

Anschutz, if he owned an NFL team? I doubt it.

But the Krafts? The creators of the "create demand" marketing strategy where half of the best seats in the house are blocked off? Yep, I could see them doing something like this in a heartbeat.