Dynamic pricing pays off for San Francisco Giants tickets

The final weekend of the Major League Baseball season turned out to be more stressful than expected for San Francisco Giants players and their fans. But the unexpected suspense made it a perfect and quite profitable one for Giants ownership.

The Giants employ a dynamic ticket pricing system in which the price of tickets at AT&T Park fluctuates depending on demand. With the system, the team's bottom line got an impressive boost when the Giants—which needed to win only one game against the San Diego Padres to eliminate the Padres and win the NL West—lost the first two games of the series to set up a high-stakes finale (that wouldn’t have actually been a finale if the Padres won, but more on that in a moment) Sunday, October 3.

The Giants stopped their mini-skid in the nick of time by blanking the Padres, 3-0, to win the division and advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2003. The Giants’ clincher came in front of a sellout crowd of 42,822—the third SRO crowd of the weekend at the 41,915-seat facility. The Giants drew 42,409 to the opener Friday and 42,653 Saturday. The sellouts were the first for the Giants since they played to capacity crowds for each of the three games against those same Padres August 13-15—a span of 21 home dates.

Not bad for a series of games for which the Giants originally expected decent but by no means overwhelming crowds. Director of ticket sales Russ Stanley told Bloomberg News last week the Giants figured they would draw between 30,000 and 35,000 per game. Presumably, leading the NL West for the final week of the season also boosted interest in the Giants’ penultimate home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks: The Giants swept three games in front of an average crowd of 37,646.

The additional demand for the Padres series meant those who walked up to the gate over the weekend—or bought tickets on the resell market—certainly paid more than they would have in April, back when neither the Giants nor Padres were expected to contend and the cheapest seat to the October 1 game was a mere $5. By the middle of last week, that cheap seat reportedly was up to $20.

Bloomberg reported that a seat in the Field Club behind home plate was $68 at the beginning of the season but $175 by last week. At StubHub, meanwhile, the cheapest ticket Sunday to the afternoon’s game was $69.

The final weekend wasn’t the only time dynamic pricing paid off for the Giants. Stanley told Bloomberg the Giants’ revenue per seat increased by between 7 percent and 8 percent this season.

The Giants’ division championship gives them the home field advantage against the Atlanta Braves in the best-of-five NL Division Series beginning Thursday, October 7 and at least two more chances to maximize ticket revenue. That sure beats the alternative: Had the Giants lost Sunday, they would have been part of a historic three-team playoff for two spots with the Padres and Braves but would not have hosted either the NL West playoff against the Padres today, October 4, or, if they lost that game, the NL wild card playoff game against the Braves Tuesday, October 5.

Source: TicketNews: By Jerry Beach

Tickets.com Client Spotlight: AT&T Park

SAN FRANCISCO’S AT&T PARK GOES LEED

Venues Today Pulse
Matt Gunn and Dave Brooks

The city of San Francisco is typically known as a bellwether to eco-consciousness.

But in becoming the first previously existing major league stadium to attain Silver Certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the San Francisco Giants had to address a number of environmental challenges. Existing facilities have to meet separate requirements from new buildings to achieve LEED certification.

“I think it’s infinitely harder for existing ballparks to effectively retrofit their facilities to incorporate current trends and technologies into their existing practices,” said Jorge Costa, Giants senior VP of Ballpark Operations. “And there’s also an awareness that has to be created with the vendors and the public in making them know of the changes.”

Since the first stages of planning LEED certification two years ago, Giants staff and AT&T Park vendors, including Centerplate, Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Linc Facility Services have made a concerted effort in evaluating everything from waste management, recycling programs, lighting, water usage and even products and packaging.

The systemic approach brought a new attitude to AT&T Park, even though it has won Major League Baseball’s Green Glove award for recycling the past two years. The seventh-inning stretch, for instance, now includes an announcement from Giants manager Bruce Bochy asking fans for help picking up recyclables. Ushers wearing “Green Team” vests go into the stands, collecting any recyclable items the fans have collected up to that point in the game.

“I think the public awareness and education is pretty key to succeeding, and getting the numbers,” Costa said.

The team also installed new compact fluorescent lights throughout the park, and built a solar energy system which it plans to soon deploy. Low flush toilets were installed throughout the park, along with a powerful new Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision HD Scoreboard, which is 78 percent more efficient than its predecessor.

The park also dramatically increased its waste diversion numbers, with 67 percent of the ballpark’s waste being diverted from going to the landfill through an aggressive recycling and composting program. At a couple points last year, AT&T Park reached as high as 70 percent waste diversion, Costa explained.

“It’s a difficult standard to achieve and you couldn’t get there without the awareness of the fans and staff and all of the vendors,” he added.

Costa noted a particularly strong relationship with Linc Facility Services, which handles the stadium’s HVAC and engineering, and Giants hospitality partner, Centerplate.

While he didn’t disclose the total expense for the project, Costa said it was costly. While ballparks like Target Field in Minnesota and Nationals Park in Washington were built with LEED certification in mind, Costa believes it was more difficult to achieve the high standard in a 10-year-old stadium.

Though the busy regular season schedule has kept Costa from speaking with many of his counterparts at other stadiums, he said sustainability has been a big initiative in Major League Baseball for several years.

“It’s about innovation and technology, good hard work, practices and awareness that are the key if you’re really going to try and accomplish this, and to maintain it long term,” Costa said.

United Football League Introduces California Redwoods as Team Name & Unveils Uniforms

UFL News

At a press conference today, United Football League Commissioner Michael Huyghue announced the California franchise will be named the Redwoods and unveiled innovative team uniforms showcasing the Redwoods’ “Premiere” season colors of green, blue and white. The name “Redwoods” was selected after more than thirty thousand fan entries and interpretation from industry experts and an in-house creative team on what attributes the fans were seeking with their submissions. California Redwoods Owner Paul Pelosi was also in attendance at the press event.

“It was critical for us to select team names that we felt best reflected the local community while simultaneously defining the personality of the team,” said Commissioner Huyghue. “The Redwoods, large, strong trees native to California, symbolize many traits that the UFL and the California franchise plan to embody. The Redwoods and the UFL are reaching for the stars and are eco-friendly.”

Redwoods’ owner Paul Pelosi wanted his team’s name to possess attributes that signified strength, respected the environment and suggested growth opportunities.

Previously, the UFL announced Miami-based GameWear Team Sports as the League’s official uniform supplier. GameWear Team Sports is one of the leading athletic uniform outfitters in the country and has worked extensively in growing the sport of football on the grassroots level. Award-winning designer Ron Caruso of Purepartner created all the teams’ uniforms using derivatives of the official League logo for all the designs while making each one distinctive.

“The inspiration for the “Premiere” season uniform design comes directly from the UFL shield and its foundation colors which represent “green grass”, “blue sky” and silver for innovation,” said Caruso. “Throughout the uniforms, we used the dimensional “arc” of the shield on the chest and supporting “arcs” on the sleeves and pants. The unique font of the numbers reinforces the shield’s classic bold typeface with angles and dimensional treatments conveying depth and motion. The four uniform designs work together in a unified branded system, providing manufacturing efficiencies while allowing each team to retain its own unique and differentiated character.”

Yesterday, the United Football League introduced the Las Vegas Locomotives at a press event. Similar events will be held in Orlando on Wednesday and in New York on Thursday. Photos of each of the team’s uniforms will be available on the League’s website, www.ufl-football.com, along with video from the press events.

“We are extremely pleased with the names selected for all of our teams and the overall “Premiere” season uniform design,” said Frank Vuono, COO of the UFL. “Name selection for a new sports franchise can be an arduous process having to take into account the disqualification of many great possibilities due to trademark and copyright issues. There was a team of experts headed up by Jeff Sofka of Bendigo Co., and included Charley Inc., GameWear Team Sports, Purepartner, and many others who assisted in the name selection and uniform design processes and we are grateful for all of their hard work.”

The UFL launched its Name the Team Campaign with the redesign of its website in February. From that time, more than thirty thousand entries were submitted. Fans who submitted the selected names will be notified and given the appropriate credit.

Coach Dennis Green who was unable to be in attendance at the press conference due to a previous commitment gave the name high marks. “The true measure of success for a football team is how we produce on the field. The UFL’s success will also be measured in how we connect with the fans in our community. With the Redwoods’ name, we are showcasing our plan to firmly set roots in the community and our desire to cultivate this team into a successful franchise.”

The California Redwoods’ first game of the season will be in Las Vegas on October 8th. The Redwoods’ first home game will be on Saturday, October 17 at AT&T Park against the Florida franchise. Tickets go on-sale tomorrow and can be purchased by calling Tickets.com at 800.225.2277 or logging onto www.tickets.com.

2009 Mavericks Surf Contest: Watch LIVE at AT&T Park

Don’t miss Mavericks - The World’s Most Dangerous Wave – as it meets Baseball’s Perfect Address - AT&T Park

The 2008/2009 Mavericks Surf Contest® is once again presented LIVE at AT&T Park on the HD big screen.

Called on just 24 hours notice, 24 of the world’s best big wave surfers will descend upon Half Moon Bay to challenge the wave, Mother Nature, and themselves.

For the second year in a row, the Mavericks Surf Contest® will be viewable at AT&T Park LIVE via satellite. Last year over 1000 people spent the day at AT&T Park watching the 7-8 hour satellite feed on plasma screens throughout the park, as well as on the HD big screen scoreboard. Tickets include in and out privileges (in case you have to go back to work), but more importantly, a percentage of ticket sales will go to help protect the natural environment in Half Moon Bay.

The Contest date is determined on 24 hours’ notice upon Mother Nature’s production of a Contest-worthy winter swell - sometime during the as yet TBD Waiting Period between December ’08 and March ‘09. Festivities at AT&T Park begin promptly at 8:00 am on Contest Day.

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Dynamic Ticket Pricing: San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants rethink ticket pricing and will offer dynamic pricing in 2009.



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