A Look at NWSL Ticket Strategies: The Seattle Reign FC

We all know the importance of selling tickets to revenue maximization. Unsold seats means lower gate receipts but also forfeits ancillary revenue such as concession sales, merchandise, parking, etc and doesn't bode well with sponsors who want eyeballs on their brand. With that in mind, we recently launched a journey taking a look at NWSL ticket strategies. Here we continue that journey, revealing one of my favourite strategies in the league, highlighting elements being rolled out by the Seattle Reign FC.

Landing on a ticket strategy is the art and science behind measuring supply (seats available) and demand (consumers/fans). Although Seattle is a brand new team to the professional ranks, it can still attempt to gauge a pulse on demand based on attendance history of the W-League's Seattle Sounders who played at the same home field as the Reign FC's (Starfire Stadium, capacity 4,500). The Sounders Women sold out 9 of 10 home matches in 2012, pulling in 44k fans on the season. The difference this season is that there are now two elite teams in town as the Sounders will continue to operate in the W-League, so any effects of fan division is still to be seen.

Here we go...

1) Choice
The Seattle Reign FC have opened up sales for three types of tickets for their 13 home games in this inaugural NWSL season: Season tickets, 4-match packs, and single match. What is key about this is it gives fans the opportunity to try out the product at differing commitment levels, ranging from a low-end single match ticket for $19 (+$5 order fee) to a 4-match bundle for $68 to a VIP season ticket package at $2600.

2) Fan Segmentation
Seattle has sliced and diced the offerings, segmenting based on fan motivation for attending these games - a strategy that can help increase both attendance and revenue. There are four season ticket packages ranging from $195 to $2600. For single match tickets, throughout the 13-game home schedule Seattle offers three price points ($19, $22, $26) differentiating by seat location, which also determines whether its uncovered or covered (a big bonus especially during the Pacific Northwest spring months). Seattle has kept it simple avoiding variable pricing, mirroring what every other NWSL team is doing, by keeping all price categories the same regardless of opponent, visiting star players, day of the week or time of day. Variable pricing can help drive more revenue and better attendance, but it can help having some previous sales history to anchor such a strategy.

Seattle Offers Three Price Points for Single Match Tickets Differentiating by Seat Location

3) Highlighting the Cost Savings
Seattle landed on four price categories, highlighting the savings to single ticket prices, listing both the dollars saved and the percentage discount - similar to Amazon's "price slash" strategy where it gives people both defined and abstract references. Take a look at the screenshot here:

Seattle Offers Four Tiers for Season Tickets

4) Cater for VIPs as a Built in Long Term Marketing Plan
The team strategically carved out a a limited VIP season ticket offering made up of a 4-person table in the front row of the grandstand, at almost two and a half times the cost of the next most expensive package. What is so great about this strategy is it builds the team's brand image by offering an enhanced game-day experience with the opportunity to sit at one of only a limited number of tables at field level. This attracts a different dynamic of fans, people wanting to enjoy a more premium experience as well as the business crowd - courting potential sponsors and doubling as a long-term marketing plan. One downfall is that the VIP tables are not covered which in the early season of May in the rainy Pacific Northwest could pose a (wet) problem.

The VIP package, the highest priced ticket in the league, helps Seattle stand out as the only other NWSL team offering something similar is the Boston Breakers, who offer a Pitch-side Season Membership (at comparable total price of $650 per person - although Boston includes only 10 games where Seattle has 13, so Boston's price per ticket is actually 30% more at $65). It's tough to do a true comparison between Boston and Seattle's offering as the Seattle website doesn't elaborate much about what other perks the VIP package includes.

5) Competitively Priced
Although I'm not digging specifically into price point strategies in this posting, it's worth mentioning that the $19/22/26 ticket asking price is competitively priced compared to the average ticket prices of competing sports and entertainment options for 2011-12, according to ABC and the SBD: the NFL ($113.17), the MLB ($26.91), the MLS ($26.15) and movies ($7.94). Meanwhile it's a jump from the $6 price tag for a University of Washington women's soccer match, but one fans are likely to support if the NWSL teams can hold promise to its product. Although Seattle doesn't have an NBA team or an NHL team its worth mentioning the average ticket price there too: NHL ($57.10) and the NBA ($48.48). [Click here for a super cool infographic by ABC Tickets.]

In talking with some general sports fans who don't follow women's soccer, the Reign FC ticket prices to them seem "at first blush high, but in context to other pro sports, not so much". Layer in the heavy distribution of quality talent on each of the eight teams with 5-7 North American national team'ers per team, and the value jumps. By design, the league is looking to transfer the strong support the national squads get over to league support, something that has never succeeded in the past - but fandom for women's soccer is also at levels never seen before. It would be interesting to compare the average number of national team'ers on an NWSL team compared to an MLS team. Chances are an NWSL team boasts more.

A quick look across all NWSL teams and the average ticket price for a single match is about the same, when taking into account service/order fees. The league revenue sharing structure applies only to national sponsorships according to Arnim Whisler, Chicago Red Stars Owner (via Twitter) so I'm curious if the league "suggests" ticket price parameters or how they landed on similar pricing, considering they are all operating in different marketplaces.

6) What else?
I'm curious about what kind of deals the Reign FC is brokering closer to kick off time as a sort of "Operation Sellout" strategy that the NBA's Sacramento Kings made famous. Since the marginal cost of a getting an additional fan into the stadium is pretty much zero when attendance is below capacity, it makes sense for teams to use strategies to fill seats that would otherwise sit empty by partnering with local community groups who can help promote and sell tickets, thus maximizing attendance (and revenue).

Getting to Know the Seattle Reign FC

Stadium: Starfire Stadium (capacity 4500, surface synthetic)

Head Coach: Laura Harvey
Key Players: Kaylyn Kyle (CanWNT), Emily Zurrer (CanWNT), Keelin Winters (USWNT), Teresa Noyola (MexWNT), Hope Solo (USWNT, injured), Megan Rapinoe (USWNT, reports in June).
Website: seattlereignfc.com

Twitter: @SeattleReignFC


References: SBD and ABC Tickets, Sounders Women.


Related Post: A Look at NWSL Ticket Strategies (Intro)