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Talking Tickets: 6 March 2020--Coronavirus! NFL! Touts! And, More

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Hey!

My 3 favorite events that I’ve attended are Pearl Jam at MSG on July 8th, 2003; the bloody sock game at Yankee Stadium; and, seeing Tottenham beat Chelsea at Wembley.

Now, I’m teaming up with Booking Protect to give you a chance to share your favorite events and experiences with the world as well. Check out the Ticket Guide program that was launched this week and apply to be a guide to the world of entertainment.

To the tickets!

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1. The Coronavirus is finally impacting entertainment all over the world:

For a lot of folks I spoke with this week, things didn’t really get real with the coronavirus until the Ultra Music Festival canceled on Wednesday.

Before the cancellation was announced, I’d been surveying folks around the world to find out how they were dealing with the outbreak and whether or not they had made contingency plans, refund plans, etc.

So far, I’ve found that 70% of organizations don’t feel like they have been touched by the virus yet. Which lines up with the 69% that haven’t made contingency plans and the 63% that have no plans in place to deal with refunds or cancellations.

Right now, MLB has a task force ready, but no plans for cancellations. Serie A isn’t allowing fans into their games for a month. And, the Australian Football League has been urged by the government to go on with their lives, but they are also ready to act if anything changes.

Just in general, I’m an advocate for planning ahead. The information coming from the US government has been a little unsteady, but here is an article that shares the differences between the flu and the coronavirus and here is a quick fact sheet about what you need to know.

Be mindful, wash your hands, and if you are sick…get checked out. Now more than ever, make sure you are being mindful of your health and taking care of your staff.

2. Arts marketers deserve respect!

Friday afternoon, I had the chance to talk with Aubrey Bergauer about the arts, marketing, revenue, and leadership.

We share a common vision for the role of revenue, innovation, and wise business decisions to be front and center in the world of arts marketing, theatre marketing, and, for me…just marketing in general.

One challenge that is often raised is this misguided idea that just because you are in the arts, you shouldn’t make a decent living….because, ARTS!

This piece from about 2 weeks ago talks about learning the lesson of business that you have to invest in your staff. This has been a theme of mine for a while now and if you go back and listen to my conversation with Tony Knopp, we talked about it quite a bit on our podcast.

Here’s how this applies to tickets and selling tickets:Just because you are in the arts, sports, opera, theatre, or whatever…that doesn’t mean you have to tie yourself to low pay, outdated technology, or decision making processes that lack creativity or innovation. In fact, buying into this is more dangerous than ever.

There are so many tools and ideas that we can borrow from all around the world that it is unwise to not look outside of our own bubble.

While I agree that marketing deserves more respect, as marketers, we have to do a better job of earning that respect. You do that by focusing on real, meaningful results.

3. MLS has a strong week:

People were watching the MLS on opening weekend and in Nashville, there were some folks there for the opening kickoff of the team’s first game.

I caught a little of the opening match between LAFC and Inter Miami and it is pretty impressive that Inter Miami was able to draw a crowd to a watch party in Miami and Ft Lauderdale in February.

Having been to a few DC United matches over the last few seasons, I see the value of attending soccer in the States. But I still wonder what the cap on the MLS is until the talent pool increases and the losses on the business side decline.

I’m curious about what impact the XFL and MLS are having going head-to-head. The XFL’s ratings have continued to decline from the high of their opening week, but they are still relatively competitive against MLS.

I guess to me, the question of viability will come up at some point…does one hurt the viability of the other.

Where I think both need to focus is on building up the in-game experience and the support at the stadium. My friend, Neil, went to the LA Wildcats game and his experience was a little more affordable and a little bit better than the one I had at Audi Field which was a little uneven.

4. The secondary market is back in the news for a lot of the wrong reasons:

Viagogo was ordered to a fine of around $90,000 to the French Tennis Federation for illicitly selling tickets to Roland Garros.

The gist of the suit comes down to the security measures that Viagogoput in place to ensure that tennis tickets weren’t being sold inside of France.

To me, this opens an interesting question to whether or not customers could file suits against any ticketing company if they find a technology angle…and while many of you are likely rolling your eyes at me right now, think about some of the arguments that have been coming up in different cases and areas like the ticket hearing on Capitol Hill last week.

On top of that, in NYC, a counterfeiter was sentenced for selling fake Super Bowl tickets, among other things. And, at El Clasico, there were arrests of folks selling fake $1,000 tickets in Madrid.

While these last two cases are about fraud and as I talked about with Gary Adler on ‘The Business of Fun‘, the NATB has worked hard to eliminate fraud and have partnered with the Better Business Bureau to help ensure that when you buy from NATB members, you are buying real tickets, this is still a story that will reflect poorly on the secondary market and the world of tickets generally.

To me, I like this summer ticket guide the Better Business Bureau produced a few summers ago. And, the members’ code of practice that STAR promotes in the UK.

5. The business of sports is interesting and you can see nothing happens in isolation:

The NFL and the Players’ Association continue to work towards a new labor agreement that would add a 17th game to the NFL schedule.

It is interesting to watch how player safety, roster expansion, and the divide between the stars and the roster fillers influence the ratification of the deal.

While we are looking at that and thinking about all the new revenue from TV, tickets, and merchandise…Simon Chadwick touched on some of the implications and angles of Silver Lake’s $500M investment in Manchester City.

This is interesting because you’ve seen the real estate angle be a significant part of the Braves’ new stadium in Atlanta, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and the redevelopment of the N17 around Tottenham HotspurStadium.

Where all of this gets really interesting is when you see English football clubs report their annual financial results as this week Aston Villa’s books showed that the team lost almost $90M as they won promotion to the Premier League and avoided bigger losses by using an accounting move that shuttled some of their losses off the books.

Why does all of this matter?

I did a handout last year with 101 ways to generate revenue from your live events and the point I hoped I made was that revenue doesn’t just come from one spot. As we think through the business of our venues, teams, or productions, it is important to keep the full picture in mind.

Hopefully, thinking about these things from a holistic vantage point can help generate some creativity and focus on working across silos to achieve organization-wide goals like more revenue, higher attendance, or developing new fans. While I belabored that point a little bit, it is important to keep an eye on what really matters and put the structures in place to help your organization reach its goals.

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What am I up to this week?

A few new podcasts this week with Aubrey Bergauer and Gary Adler, check out the archives. And, subscribe, rate, review, and share the pod!

Due to the coronavirus, I’m not traveling this week but to cover for my lack of travel, I am hosting a webinar on Thursday focused on helping people in the primary market understand how to work with the secondary market in a way that helps get them better results.

I am still planning on being in London from 9-16 April and I’m still planning on getting together for happy hour at Brew Dog SoHo on Monday, 13 April.

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Talking Tickets: 6 March 2020–Coronavirus! NFL! Touts! And, More was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

#arts marketing #coronavirus #marketing #mls #opera #theatre #tickets #XFL

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