Wednesday, March 04, 2009

ACC Tournament Ticket Change = Valuable Lesson for Sports Marketers

We all know about the law of supply and demand, but the Atlantic Coast Conference directors have learned the importance of location and knowing your audience.

Atlanta is hosting the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament this year, tickets are available to the general public for the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House (1966).

For decades, corporate sponsors, team relatives, select students, and major boosters were part of the exclusive group with access to the nationally-televised event. As the size and scope of the tournament grew, the ACC decided try venues other than the Greensboro and Charlotte arenas, which were within a short drive from Tobacco Road.
Atlanta, Tampa and Washington D.C. were added to the rotation, and this year, the commisioners probably have Carolina on their mind, because Atlanta isn't the right fit

In a statement to ESPN, ACC commissioner John Swofford  cited a "unique combination of playing this year's tournament in a dome during very trying economic times." as the reason for the public sale. He also put a positive spin on the situation.

Having already sold more tickets to this year's tournament than the capacity of any of our other venues, our schools felt it would be appropriate to offer the remaining tickets to college basketball fans in the Atlanta area.

On the surface, Swofford's capacity quote sounds impressive, but the 70,000 seat Georgia Dome won't fill more than half of its seats. (They offer 30,000-40,000 seats when the layout is configured for basketball.)

By comparison, the Greensboro Coliseum seats 23,500 and Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena seats approximately 20,200. Here are some numbers to chew on:

The combined undergrad enrollment of the ACC is approximately 194,000 students. Obviously, not every student is going to spend the time and money to travel to the tournament, but even if only 5 to 10% of those students purchased tickets, their presence alone would nearly fill Charlotte or Greensboro. In addition to the current students,  consider all the alumni who would love their first chance to attend, and you start to get an idea of the market size.
Obviously, the demand is down. Why? I believe there are two main reasons.
One reason is obvious: the economy.
The other reason: Atlanta isn't a good location, which is why the ACC will return to Greensboro for 2010 and 2011.
My friend, Ben Burnett , who knows just about everyone in the college sports scene, connected me with Will Wade, who was the Director of Men's Basketball Operations at Clemson University during the 2006-07 season and a graduate assistant coach during the 2005-06 season. Currently, he's an assistant coach at Harvard, where he works with head coach Tommy Amaker, the former player and coach at Duke. I figured Wade could offer an insider's perspective on the ACC market. When Wade was at Clemson, the tourney was in D.C. and Greensboro, and he described it as a very hot ticket. Wade wasn't suprised by the conference's decision to open public ticket sales and believes that Atlanta is much better fit for the SEC, due to its proximity to conference members. (For the record, Atlanta does host the SEC tourney as well)

 Atlanta is a SEC market. I know Georgia Tech is there, but  most of the people are Georgia fans, and the dome is only two hours hours from Auburn and a few hours from Alabama and Tennessee, it's not too far from UF and Vandy. When it's in Greensbroro, you're  within 60 miles of Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and N.C. State.Other schools like Clemson and Virginia Tech are only a few hours away. You're within four hours of half the conference membership. Now, in Atlanta, you're asking a fan to take off Wednesday through Friday for the extra travel.

Should you purchase your tickets at the gate, you'll have to pay $363  for the entire 11-game book and you'll be in the upper deck. Online ticket brokers offer  flexible deals. Complete tournament ticket packages start at $350, but you can buy first round (Four games) tickets for $65 each. You can find tickets at razorgator and stubhub.

I'll be watching the tournament closely to gauge the size of the crowd.

Posted By Matt O'Hern at 11:25 AM
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