Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tennessee Ticket Suit
For years, generations of Thomas Luck's family supported the University of Tennessee and its endeavors. But the Nashville lawyer on Friday squared off against his alma mater in a Nashville courtroom in a dispute over prime box seats at Neyland Stadium.If the contract is solid, and as described in the article, it would seem that Tennessee's remedy would be to purchase the ticket rights from Luck at a mutually agreeable price, or live up to the contract. My hunch is that personal seat license contracts in the modern era spell things out in more detail, and may limit the duration of transferable rights. If anyone knows the language in PSL contracts, I'd welcome your comments.
...As president of the West Tennessee Big Orange Club, Luck's father, William Luck, helped raise money to build the stadium's upper west deck. As a result of the father's fundraising, Gen. Robert Neyland, the school's former athletic director and football coach, gave William Luck lifetime rights to buy tickets for both seats in a 1961 contract.
The contract said the right could be passed down through generations, and Luck inherited that right when his father died in 2002.
Luck, who is representing himself, filed the lawsuit after school officials sent him a letter saying that because of renovations they were moving his seats.
Labels: season ticket sales, ticket prices
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Mixed signals on the sports economy
NHL ticket sales are up, but newspaper coverage is in serious decline. (HT: Ken Houghton) Although the latter may say more about newspapers than the nexus of sports and the economy, having a reporter on the team's beat would seem quite valuable for a team. Were it not for conflict of interest issues, perhaps even worth subsidizing! ;)
One interesting experiment will begin on Sunday, when the NY Jets launch an auction of 2,028 premium seat licenses at StubHub.com. It's an awkward time to turn what has traditionally been a renewable subscription into a capital asset, with callable loans being called in, credit drying up for all manner of businesses, etc. The Jets claim they won't hold any tickets back, and are going into this "with eyes wide open." Could they be desperate for cash as well?
Labels: demand for sports, PSL, season ticket sales
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Success in Year t, Greater Demand in Year t+1
Two things are well-known among sports economists.
- Ticket prices do not drive team performance. In other words, when a team says it must raise ticket prices to become/stay competitive, you should detect a whiff of stinky sulfur.
- When a team performs well in one year, especially when the performance is unexpected, it faces a higher demand curve the following year, all else equal. This results in higher ticket prices and in the following year.
The Missouri and Kansas football programs provide a nice anecdote.
In sports, winning sells, especially the year after.
When a team posts a better-than-expected season, the financial rewards through ticket sales typically follow in the next calendar year.
So it should be at Missouri and Kansas, both on a record season-ticket sales pace with football programs coming off 12-victory seasons and high-profile bowl triumphs.
With that kind of wind in the sails, the schools haven’t needed to launch major ticket-selling campaigns.
...In 2007, KU set an attendance record, averaging 46,784 for seven games at Memorial Stadium. That happened with a record 31,000 season tickets sold.
The Jayhawks expect to top those marks this year, even with an increase from $275 to $300 for a full-priced season ticket. Priority seating goes to donors of the Williams Educational Fund, and that’s where associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said the school is seeing growth.
...Last season, the Tigers averaged 60,232 and sold about 34,000 season tickets. Earlier this month, MU had renewed 90 percent of its season tickets.
“That’s a figure we’re used to seeing in August,” Grinch said.
Missouri also had 3,500 new season-ticket accounts. When it’s added up by the Sept. 6 home opener, the Tigers should easily surpass the season-ticket record of 34,800 set in 2004.
Cross-posted at Market Power
Labels: college football, demand for sports, season ticket sales
