Season Tickets & Marketing

I received a phone call the other night from the UConn ticket office.  I wasn’t available to answer, but a very nice woman left a voicemail.  It was in regards to renewing my season tickets for the upcoming season.  I’ve had season tickets for the past few years, and usually wait until the last minute to renew for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into here. Anyway, this is the FIRST time I received a courtesy call to:

A – Remind me to renew

B – Give me exact dates on when to renew by

C – Review options for me on what to do if I don’t renew but still want tickets

D – Who to contact in order to renew

Now, most of this stuff I already knew anyway, however it’s so nice to see the athletic department make the effort to keep their season ticket holders.  Every year I know people who don’t renew their tickets, and I’m wondering if they had received a phone call or an e-mail, if things would have been different.  I know fans on the Boneyard have been screaming about the marketing department for years.  This is a step in the right direction, and I hope this continues into the future.

The other thing I am extremely shocked by and actually impressed is the e-mail I received in regards to the benefit of buying season tickets as opposed to mini plans or single game.  Seeing that amount of money that one could save I feel is a huge draw for people to buy season tickets.  It wasn’t until 3 years ago was I able to afford two season tickets.  Fresh out of college looking for a job, but too old for young alumni seats, I just couldn’t justify buying season tickets.  So I opted to buy single game tickets for 2-3 games that year.  If they had sent that e-mail to me at the time, I would have seen the value in having season tickets.  That’s two more tickets sold at each game, two more to add to their season ticket total.  I know I wasn’t the only one in that situation, so I wonder what the season ticket numbers could have been had people had this information! Not saying they would have sold 40,000, but I’d be willing to bet the season ticket numbers would have improved by 1000-2000.

Another example: Maybe 4 people decide on going in on two tickets for the season and split the games.  The people get to go to 3-4 games for the price of 2, UConn gets more people in the seats and the official attendance numbers grow.  I feel like it’s that UConn fan, who maybe money is the reason why they opt to buy single game tix as opposed to seasons, just were given a huge incentive to buy season tickets.  Now as opposed to one or two games a year, that couple goes to 4, really enjoys their experience, becomes invested in the program, and soon they’re buying two tickets for themselves every year.  This type of marketing will keep fans coming back.

I guess it’s just nice to see the effort.  We have a good fanbase here, and we have the potential to grow it.  The northeast loves football.  The northeast will support a competitive team.  A lot of what determines our success as a program obviously depends on the product on the field.  However, if people aren’t aware of the facts, how can they make an informed decision?  I think that was most people’s biggest issue with UConn marketing.  It seemed they just expected people to show up because we’re UConn.  In this economy, marketing this young program is vital.  Marketing has done their job this offseason.  I hope this is something we can get used to.

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