Article on Devils and Nets Ticket Sales

[nyrsuck26]

Thought it was a good read, and decided to share.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704393604575614843246013802.html

[devlman]

Havent read it yet...but my first reaction is, 'Oh no, here comes the attendance bashing'

[DevsMan84]

Havent read it yet...but my first reaction is, 'Oh no, here comes the attendance bashing'

Not bashing, but somewhat interesting in how they are specifically targeting certain fans. For instance, most of the folks they decided to invite to the jersey tour meetings were fans who followed the team and live in NJ, but do not really buy tickets to go see the game in person. I guess this is why I did not go as I usually go between 10-20 games a season. Also interesting but not really surprising was that they found NJ Devils fans to be younger on average and there was a larger proportion of women fans than they thought. Thinking about the fan base in general, this sounds correct.

What surprised me was that they saw a spike of 85% in purchases of partial-season ticket packages. If this is true where are those? My guess would be that a good chunk of these partial plan buyers were former full-season ticket holders who for any reason decided to spend less money going to games. Just a theory.

[devlman]

Its a good read. Not surprised about us having a larger proportion of female fans. Im surprised about the 85% spike in partial-season. Could be former full-season ticket holders or maybe those pakages include games later on in the year.

Edited November 16, 2010 by devlman

[DaneykoIsGod]

Wow, very interesting read. Kinda makes you think about "Big Brother" with all this consumer info available about personal info, magazine subscriptions, commuting habits, etc. Just how easy was all of this info to come by?

Regardless, it was a very interesting read. For those who still think the Devils put no effort into marketing, they need to give this a read.

[thelastonealive]

My guess is that 85% spike in partials could be heavily focused on the All Star package. I seem to recall it being quite popular around here, and really, we couldn't quantify it ourselves by analyzing attendance figures because those games would likely be sell-outs (or close to it) anyway.

Also, I wonder if what they did last year with the billion-and-a-half ticket plans (Octoberfest, Hell's Bells Holiday, Stanley Cup opponents, etc) came back and bit them, because there were just too many choices (and really, who's going to buy a partial plan that's over in October?). I wonder what the numbers were like last year compared to the year before.

[DevsMan84]

My guess is that 85% spike in partials could be heavily focused on the All Star package. I seem to recall it being quite popular around here, and really, we couldn't quantify it ourselves by analyzing attendance figures because those games would likely be sell-outs (or close to it) anyway.

Also, I wonder if what they did last year with the billion-and-a-half ticket plans (Octoberfest, Hell's Bells Holiday, Stanley Cup opponents, etc) came back and bit them, because there were just too many choices (and really, who's going to buy a partial plan that's over in October?). I wonder what the numbers were like last year compared to the year before.

Very true. Also, who wants to get those packages when just about every game has some sort of offer where you can get tickets cheaper than the discounted price on those packages? I mean I look at the thread in the Marketplace here about discounted ticket deals all the time before I ever buy tickets and haven't paid even close to face value (except $10 seats) in well over a season and a half.

[mmajeski06]

The true question is, who will be worse...the 2009-2010 Nets or the 2010-2011 Devils?

[nyrsuck26]

The true question is, who will be worse...the 2009-2010 Nets or the 2010-2011 Devils?

Easy, Devils.

[DevsMan84]

I hope this leads to more free tickets.

[Onddeck]

After living through the nets season last year, i will not be excited to spend another year watching my other favorite team play a terrible season... it truly does just eat your heart out

[GoArmySports]

lol it says the ladies like to go to Devils games.

[RunninWithTheDevil]

no one should have that many rangers logos on their profile

The meetings were also the result of one of the more sophisticated ticket outreach strategies in professional sports, engineered by long-time GOP strategist Mike DuHaime, who adapted the micro-targeting techniques increasingly employed by political campaigns to identify new Devils fans.

After studying people who had bought Devils tickets over the past 10 years, Mr. DuHaime and his team created 11 profiles of typical team fans, ranging from "active families" to "upper income dads" to young professionals still living at home.

Then they analyzed residents of central and northern New Jersey—about 2.8 million people—to identify who else shared those characteristics. The result was a master list of about 500,000 names—people across New Jersey who look, act, and seem to enjoy the same activities as Devils fans but had yet to buy tickets.

Edited November 24, 2010 by RunninWithTheDevil