Coaches’ Club seating area — essentially
the best seats in the house with PSLs be-
tween $20,000 and $30,000 — was held
in fall 2008, opening up the opportunity
to all Jets fans to buy the best seats in the
house. It was a tack never before taken by
a sports franchise, and the club pocketed
$16 million for 700 total seats sold in the
auction, with some lucky fans getting
seats for far below the base rate.
Some see a narrow ray of light.
We see the full spectrum.
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prices on some Mezzanine Club seats in
half (from $400-500, down to $195-395,
plus PSL), allowing previous purchasers
the opportunity to cut their costs as well
as making the seats more attractive to
new buyers.
“We went on sale to the general mar-
ket in late October with all remaining
seats. We hit all of the different types
of seats that are available, from clubs
and suites to the upper deck, which is a
non-PSL zone,” Ciccone says. “We have
a very loyal but diverse fan base. People
saw different value for different seats, and
we try to hit all those wants and needs,
from a marketing perspective. While
the marketing hits a broad market, they
all have one thing in common — they
want to watch football live, whether in
a club seat or upstairs. It was important
for us to have a ticket offer for everybody,
especially as the economy changed. We
made sure there are a lot of different price
points, and for our more expensive seats,
we offered financing the PSL cost for up
to 15 years.”
Direct response was a huge factor
in the effort, from a TV spot to a print
campaign to direct mail and all manner
of Web advertising, including E-mail, a
call-to-action was a major part of each
outreach. “Considering the economic
times, we believe the campaign has made
a huge difference,” Ciccone says. “Of
course, it’s not a complete success until
the entire building is sold out. But direct
response has allowed us to track what our
respondents wanted, how our buyers came
to us, and allowed us to be very flexible.
With every wave of the campaign, we’ve
seen enough ROI to cover more than the
DR investment.”
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The More You Learn …
Having worked for the franchise since
2002, Ciccone was able to lean on some
experiences to know what to expect from
a campaign infused with DR this time
around.
“Historically, with many sports franchises, there has been a drop-off in ticket
sales in the final season in an old stadium,
and we saw some of this during the 2009
