Sports Business Journal
Eric Fisher
Turnkey Sports & Entertainment this month is introducing Prospector, a ticketing software program it believes will dramatically change how teams seek to fill their buildings.
The program was developed over the past four years at a cost of more than $1 million. It uses inputs such as individual ticket purchases, survey responses and merchandise buys, and blends that data with a variety of demographic, housing and income information on those same fans to create detailed ticket-sales leads that are scored by their likelihood of success.
The software’s custom-built algorithms also allow for customization to rank sales leads for fans’ likelihood to purchase different ticket packages. For example, a high-income fan might score high as a candidate to purchase a luxury-seat package and score lower as a candidate for a smaller, value-oriented ticket package. But if survey data also arrives indicating a propensity by the fan to bring his family to games and participate in youth-oriented promotions, the lead scoring for that person could change, and the sales pitch as a result may then veer away from the more-corporate seating options.
Turnkey successfully beta-tested the effort with the Texas Rangers and Miami Heat earlier this year and will launch the program with at least 18 pro teams over the next several weeks, including the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Timberwolves and Kansas City Royals. The effort seeks to reverse years of declining ticket-sales trends. Pro teams in the early 1990s commonly were able to close sales on 3 percent to 4 percent of their outbound sales calls, but they’ve seen that rate fall below 1 percent in more-recent years as people grow more resistant to any sales call, particularly calls not customized for them.
“The key factor is boosting the close rate back up to where we were 20 years ago,” said Len Perna, Turnkey chief executive. “It’s the only thing that will work. Staying at 1 percent just isn’t going to get it done, so this is about creating tools that will enable more efficiency and improving that close rate.”
To create Prospector, Turnkey needed to strike a series of licensing and commission-based deals with a large group of related parties, including Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, and database marketers Acxiom and InfoUSA. Others, including Veritix and MLB Advanced Media, are also being sought out.
To that end, the Turnkey effort seeks to collate and analyze data that exists at these various outposts or has been voluntarily provided and perform analytical functions that in many instances now occur in a more rudimentary fashion. Many pro and college teams for years have sent lists of names to companies such as Acxiom for additional data enrichment and analysis, but such a process often has been time-consuming and performed in large batches.
Prospector, conversely, performs such analysis daily and on an individual level, more akin to the type of extensive and rapid consumer profiling common in the retail industry.
“This has definitely made us a lot more intelligent and efficient,” said Andy Silverman, Texas Rangers executive vice president of sales. The Rangers posted the highest percentage attendance increase in the American League this season and now are fully deploying the Prospector system in preparation for 2010.
The Heat, similarly, posted during its offseason sales period for the 2009-10 season seven times more ticket-sales revenue from its highest-rated Prospector-generated leads than from those at the bottom end of the scoring.
“This looks like it’s a really slick product,” said Glenn Christian, an Acxiom sales executive who works exclusively with sports teams and properties. Turnkey will act as a reseller of Acxiom data. “There are still some teams that are going to want to have raw data and data enrichment from us, but what they have done to get their secret sauce in there is really interesting.”
Teams will pay a monthly licensing fee to use the service, with an introductory rate of $4,000 a month. The participating teams’ data will be stored on Turnkey’s servers, and the data can be both uploaded to the clients’ computers and woven into teams’ existing CRM systems.
As with any new product, there are some issues continuing to be worked out. The Rangers are among the teams purging buys from ticket brokers from their Prospector analysis, as broker behavior is typically very different from individual and corporate buyers.
The product also promises to create a bit of a management issue, as ticket salespeople at individual teams may start clamoring for only highly rated sales leads as opposed to lower prospects. The Prospector system allows for a variety of view levels, though, depending on organizational seniority and responsibility.
Turnkey is a research partner of SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily.
Showing posts with label dallas stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dallas stars. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Barry Kahn of Qcue to present at Ticket Summit 2010 in New York City
By Kelly McWilliams
Barry Kahn, founder and CEO of Qcue, will present once again at the upcoming Ticket Summit to be held on January 13-15, 2010, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Qcue offers a dynamic pricing model to sports teams, promoters and venues in order to optimize ticket revenue in response to fluctuations in market and environmental conditions. An economist, Kahn guides company strategy and product direction for Qcue as well as overseeing business and partner development. Kahn recently shared with TicketNews his hopes and expectations for the upcoming Summit.
Q: You will be presenting at Ticket Summit 2010. What topics do you expect to focus on in your presentation?
A: My focus will be on dynamic pricing, but more specifically, I’ll spend a lot of the time discussing how dynamic pricing by teams and promoters impacts season ticket holders. The audience at Ticket Summit is primarily brokers who hold season tickets, so I think the real interest here is going to be how dynamic pricing is going to effect resale value and how brokers have the opportunity to change some of their purchasing patterns to take advantage of dynamic pricing and make their season tickets a much more valuable commodity.
Q: How many times have you appeared at Ticket Summit?
A: This is my second time speaking at Ticket Summit. I also attended the conference once as an attendee, back when the conference and Qcue were both in their infancy. Back then, Alfred Branch was the lone reporter for TicketNews, StubHub was the controversial young company, and there were only three representatives from the primary market. So it really has been interesting to see the conference evolve as it has and to now being in a position where I have some knowledge and experience to share.
Q: Tell me more about your experiences with Ticket Summit over the years.
A: At the first conference I attended, to say I was green would be an understatement. Anyone in the business will tell you that ticketing isn't like any other industry and in those three days (and nights) I picked up a lifetime’s worth of knowledge.
Fast forward to July's conference and I had a much deeper understanding of the industry, and the industry had matured. StubHub is now an industry staple. Their president gave a keynote address [at the Summit], the New Jersey Nets had a booth at a secondary market convention, and I got the opportunity to represent Qcue as the controversial young company. I was very impressed by the enthusiasm and interest in what we are doing. It resulted in a lively discussion that began during our pricing panel and followed me around for the rest of the evening.
Q: What challenges do you see ahead for the ticketing industry?
A: The buzz around the industry for the last year or so has been the merging of the primary and secondary markets, and I think the real challenges here are how both sides respond. While there have been some attempts to prevent the markets from merging, such as technology like paperless tickets, I think everyone is better off with a more unified market. Of course, how to price tickets continues to be the biggest challenge organizations must solve. The San Francisco Giants and the Dallas Stars have already taken steps to be more nimble in this new marketplace and you’re going to see a lot of teams and promoters follow their lead - which involves completely changing the way they've sold tickets for decades. I think in 3-5 years on the outside, secondary market websites like StubHub and TicketsNow will start to look a lot more like Orbitz and Kayak, with primary and secondary market tickets being sold side-by-side (openly). What that means is these websites become a different sales channel, not a different marketplace, and that is going to change the way that primary and secondary market sellers have to price their tickets.
Q: What new and impressive companies or individuals do you see on the horizon?
A: Obviously, I am going to say Qcue here. But the honest answer is that I think for the first time in decades, it is the primary market where the innovation is happening. I know a lot of new companies are coming out of the secondary market, but I still haven't seen anything on that side of the business that is a game changer. But watching established organizations recognize the changing tide and respond by embracing technology and changing business models has been inspiring. We’ve seen that from Russ Stanley at the San Francisco Giants and Colin Faulkner at the Dallas Stars. These are two people who have been able to take their organizations in a new direction and really change the tide of an industry. You are also seeing some game changing innovation from Larry Witherspoon and Derek Palmer at Tickets.com. While it doesn’t garner the headlines, they are trying to change the face of the primary ticket market by redefining the ticketing system as an e-commerce platform, something that should have happened a long time ago.
Barry Kahn, founder and CEO of Qcue, will present once again at the upcoming Ticket Summit to be held on January 13-15, 2010, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Qcue offers a dynamic pricing model to sports teams, promoters and venues in order to optimize ticket revenue in response to fluctuations in market and environmental conditions. An economist, Kahn guides company strategy and product direction for Qcue as well as overseeing business and partner development. Kahn recently shared with TicketNews his hopes and expectations for the upcoming Summit.
Q: You will be presenting at Ticket Summit 2010. What topics do you expect to focus on in your presentation?
A: My focus will be on dynamic pricing, but more specifically, I’ll spend a lot of the time discussing how dynamic pricing by teams and promoters impacts season ticket holders. The audience at Ticket Summit is primarily brokers who hold season tickets, so I think the real interest here is going to be how dynamic pricing is going to effect resale value and how brokers have the opportunity to change some of their purchasing patterns to take advantage of dynamic pricing and make their season tickets a much more valuable commodity.
Q: How many times have you appeared at Ticket Summit?
A: This is my second time speaking at Ticket Summit. I also attended the conference once as an attendee, back when the conference and Qcue were both in their infancy. Back then, Alfred Branch was the lone reporter for TicketNews, StubHub was the controversial young company, and there were only three representatives from the primary market. So it really has been interesting to see the conference evolve as it has and to now being in a position where I have some knowledge and experience to share.
Q: Tell me more about your experiences with Ticket Summit over the years.
A: At the first conference I attended, to say I was green would be an understatement. Anyone in the business will tell you that ticketing isn't like any other industry and in those three days (and nights) I picked up a lifetime’s worth of knowledge.
Fast forward to July's conference and I had a much deeper understanding of the industry, and the industry had matured. StubHub is now an industry staple. Their president gave a keynote address [at the Summit], the New Jersey Nets had a booth at a secondary market convention, and I got the opportunity to represent Qcue as the controversial young company. I was very impressed by the enthusiasm and interest in what we are doing. It resulted in a lively discussion that began during our pricing panel and followed me around for the rest of the evening.
Q: What challenges do you see ahead for the ticketing industry?
A: The buzz around the industry for the last year or so has been the merging of the primary and secondary markets, and I think the real challenges here are how both sides respond. While there have been some attempts to prevent the markets from merging, such as technology like paperless tickets, I think everyone is better off with a more unified market. Of course, how to price tickets continues to be the biggest challenge organizations must solve. The San Francisco Giants and the Dallas Stars have already taken steps to be more nimble in this new marketplace and you’re going to see a lot of teams and promoters follow their lead - which involves completely changing the way they've sold tickets for decades. I think in 3-5 years on the outside, secondary market websites like StubHub and TicketsNow will start to look a lot more like Orbitz and Kayak, with primary and secondary market tickets being sold side-by-side (openly). What that means is these websites become a different sales channel, not a different marketplace, and that is going to change the way that primary and secondary market sellers have to price their tickets.
Q: What new and impressive companies or individuals do you see on the horizon?
A: Obviously, I am going to say Qcue here. But the honest answer is that I think for the first time in decades, it is the primary market where the innovation is happening. I know a lot of new companies are coming out of the secondary market, but I still haven't seen anything on that side of the business that is a game changer. But watching established organizations recognize the changing tide and respond by embracing technology and changing business models has been inspiring. We’ve seen that from Russ Stanley at the San Francisco Giants and Colin Faulkner at the Dallas Stars. These are two people who have been able to take their organizations in a new direction and really change the tide of an industry. You are also seeing some game changing innovation from Larry Witherspoon and Derek Palmer at Tickets.com. While it doesn’t garner the headlines, they are trying to change the face of the primary ticket market by redefining the ticketing system as an e-commerce platform, something that should have happened a long time ago.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Qcue Introduces Dynamic Ticketing to Dallas Stars
Venues Today
Dave Brooks
Ticketing upstart Qcue has signed another deal to bring dynamic ticketing to a professional sports franchise. The Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League have signed an agreement to sell most of the American Airlines Center upper bowl using a yield-management model similar to the airline industry. Working with Tickets.com, the system allows the team to make real-time price changes based on demand, opponent and historical sales data.
The system is already in its second season with the San Francisco Giants, another franchise powered by Tickets.com. Qcue CEO Barry Kahn said his Austin, Texas-based company helped the Stars set the prices for their first 14 home games, which go on sale Saturday.
“That’s when the big change in price occurs,” said Stars Exec. VP of Sales and Marketing Geoff Moore, adding that tickets are released in batches of 14 every two months. Last season, nearly all tickets in the premium terrace were priced at $60. Now, less than 25 percent of tickets are priced that high. Tickets drop to $50 for an Oct. 30 game against Florida and go as low as $36 per ticket for games against Los Angeles or Calgary. A second game against Nashville on Oct. 14 was selling for $24 less than the opener against the same team.
“They definitely kept the fans in mind and came out of the gate with low prices that they expect to rise,” Kahn said, later adding that tickets “where underpriced across the board to reward those who purchased early.”
The strategy is to price the tickets low for the initial on sale and then slowly increase in price as more tickets sell. While he said the Qcue web-based application gave him the ability to make daily price changes, the team would more likely adjust their prices on a weekly basis.
“The technology actually told us to raise the price on a couple games, but we didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” Moore said. The goal is to sell more tickets and not necessarily to extract more revenue out of the same ticket. In Texas, the live experience of a packed hockey game is almost as important as the product on the ice, Moore said.
“And that’s a critical piece when you’re competing for entertainment dollars with football and other sports,” Moore said. “In a fragmented media landscape, it’s become very difficult to communicate offers to people through traditional media. We’re trying to make it as easy and simple as possible to understand our pricing. When we advertise, we can just push everyone back to dallasstars.com and they can check the price of the game for that date.”
Prices for the seats won’t drop below the season ticket value and Moore said the team expected to have a multi-year relationship with Qcue. Kahn said that Qcue’s earnings would be based on sales volume revenue benchmarks tied to increased sales.
“We have a strong sports market here in Dallas, and we have a growing hockey market. Our challenge always is to market our team and find the right value proposition for the sports fan,” Moore said. “Dallas fans like hockey, but they love football. Sometimes when you like something, then price and value become a strong part of whether people will buy tickets or not.”
Dave Brooks
Ticketing upstart Qcue has signed another deal to bring dynamic ticketing to a professional sports franchise. The Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League have signed an agreement to sell most of the American Airlines Center upper bowl using a yield-management model similar to the airline industry. Working with Tickets.com, the system allows the team to make real-time price changes based on demand, opponent and historical sales data.The system is already in its second season with the San Francisco Giants, another franchise powered by Tickets.com. Qcue CEO Barry Kahn said his Austin, Texas-based company helped the Stars set the prices for their first 14 home games, which go on sale Saturday.
“That’s when the big change in price occurs,” said Stars Exec. VP of Sales and Marketing Geoff Moore, adding that tickets are released in batches of 14 every two months. Last season, nearly all tickets in the premium terrace were priced at $60. Now, less than 25 percent of tickets are priced that high. Tickets drop to $50 for an Oct. 30 game against Florida and go as low as $36 per ticket for games against Los Angeles or Calgary. A second game against Nashville on Oct. 14 was selling for $24 less than the opener against the same team.
“They definitely kept the fans in mind and came out of the gate with low prices that they expect to rise,” Kahn said, later adding that tickets “where underpriced across the board to reward those who purchased early.”
The strategy is to price the tickets low for the initial on sale and then slowly increase in price as more tickets sell. While he said the Qcue web-based application gave him the ability to make daily price changes, the team would more likely adjust their prices on a weekly basis.
“The technology actually told us to raise the price on a couple games, but we didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” Moore said. The goal is to sell more tickets and not necessarily to extract more revenue out of the same ticket. In Texas, the live experience of a packed hockey game is almost as important as the product on the ice, Moore said.
“And that’s a critical piece when you’re competing for entertainment dollars with football and other sports,” Moore said. “In a fragmented media landscape, it’s become very difficult to communicate offers to people through traditional media. We’re trying to make it as easy and simple as possible to understand our pricing. When we advertise, we can just push everyone back to dallasstars.com and they can check the price of the game for that date.”
Prices for the seats won’t drop below the season ticket value and Moore said the team expected to have a multi-year relationship with Qcue. Kahn said that Qcue’s earnings would be based on sales volume revenue benchmarks tied to increased sales.
“We have a strong sports market here in Dallas, and we have a growing hockey market. Our challenge always is to market our team and find the right value proposition for the sports fan,” Moore said. “Dallas fans like hockey, but they love football. Sometimes when you like something, then price and value become a strong part of whether people will buy tickets or not.”
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tickets.com Client Spotlight: Dallas Stars
Dallas Stars’ top line stays sharp
Star-Telegram.com
Steve Ott, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen have been feeling pretty good together lately, and they were key in the Stars’ victory over Florida before the All-Star break.
They were at it again after the break.
Ott had a goal and an assist, and Lehtinen tallied the game-winner in the Stars’ 2-0 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at American Airlines Center on Tuesday. Marty Turco stopped 24 shots for his second shutout this season.
The Stars continue to stay strong at home, where they haven’t lost in regulation since Dec. 29 (3-1 against San Jose).
The Stars’ top-line wings scored early in the first and second periods, and generated plenty of opportunities against the Thrashers.
Both teams were well-rested, thanks to the All-Star break, but the Stars were definitely the sharper of the two. The Thrashers’ exception was Kari Lehtonen, whose goaltending work kept this game from being a lot worse.
Find Dallas Stars tickets >
Star-Telegram.com
Steve Ott, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen have been feeling pretty good together lately, and they were key in the Stars’ victory over Florida before the All-Star break.
They were at it again after the break.
Ott had a goal and an assist, and Lehtinen tallied the game-winner in the Stars’ 2-0 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at American Airlines Center on Tuesday. Marty Turco stopped 24 shots for his second shutout this season.
The Stars continue to stay strong at home, where they haven’t lost in regulation since Dec. 29 (3-1 against San Jose).
The Stars’ top-line wings scored early in the first and second periods, and generated plenty of opportunities against the Thrashers.
Both teams were well-rested, thanks to the All-Star break, but the Stars were definitely the sharper of the two. The Thrashers’ exception was Kari Lehtonen, whose goaltending work kept this game from being a lot worse.
Find Dallas Stars tickets >
Monday, December 1, 2008
Tickets.com Client Spotlight: Dallas Stars
Modano's 3rd-period goal lifts Stars past Oilers
USA Today
USA Today
DALLAS (AP) -Mike Modano's latest milestone gave the Dallas Stars yet another home victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Modano scored on a power play with 2:21 remaining in the Stars' 4-3 victory over the Oilers on Sunday night.
Modano broke a tie with his 537th career goal, beating rookie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers from the left circle off a feed from Brad Richards to become the 31st NHL player with 1,300 points.
``That was a great shot there, especially on a milestone goal that was so meaningful for our group,'' Stars coach Dave Tippett said. ``You don't get 1,300 points without being a great player, and that was a great goal.''
Modano also had an assist and extended his lead among U.S.-born goal-scorers.
``(Richards) made a great pass, on the stick, and I found a seam,'' said Modano, playing in his 20th season - all with the Stars. ``I've been blessed to have been around this long.''
Toby Petersen scored his first goal in two seasons, and Mike Ribeiro added a power-play goal for Dallas. The Stars improved their regular-season home record against Edmonton to 23-4-2 since they moved from Minnesota in 1993.
The honors continue for Modano, the franchise's greatest player.
``When you think about all he's done, the milestones and the ceremonies, and one more creeps up on him,'' Stars goaltender Marty Turco said. ``At this juncture of the season we need him more than anyone.''
Modano, second on the team with nine goals, wasn't sure he would be healthy enough to play after overnight back spasms. But a pep talk from his father, Mike Sr., visiting for the holidays, convinced Modano to lace on the skates.
``It spasmed up in the middle of the night, but it felt better as the day went on,'' Modano said.
``Dad gave me a little lip service, told me not to sit this one out.''
Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said leaving Modano alone on a late-game power play was a major tactical error.
Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said leaving Modano alone on a late-game power play was a major tactical error.
``It was missed execution on a pretty elementary part of our penalty kill,'' MacTavish said. ``The game was there for us. It was ripe for opportunity. We squandered a pretty good second and third (periods) with boneheaded mistakes.''
Sean Avery gave Dallas - last in the Western Conference - a 3-2 lead with 5:09 remaining off a centering pass from rookie James Neal, but the Oilers tied it with 3:22 left on Kyle Brodziak's goal off a rebound, his second goal of the game.
Ales Hemsky also scored for Edmonton. The Oilers were 4-2 winners at St. Louis on Saturday night, but Edmonton is 2-5-1 in its last eight.
Ribeiro put the Stars in front at 7:20 of the first period. Modano's shot from the right point was stopped by Drouin-Deslauriers, but the puck popped into the air, rolled down the goalie's arm and into the crease, where Ribeiro nudged it over the goal line.
``It was a bad bounce,'' said Drouin-Deslauriers, who hadn't played since Nov. 13. ``I batted the puck in the air. I needed to back up in my net. It was bad bounce off my pads. When you're lucky, that hits the top of the net.''
Petersen's tip-in of Matt Niskanen's shot pushed Dallas' edge to 2-0 at 14:01 of the opening period. The goal was Petersen's first for the Stars and first in the NHL since March 27, 2007, while a member of the Oilers.
Hemsky's power-play goal from the left circle at 12:11 of the second cut it to 2-1, and Brodziak's rebound goal tied it at 2 at 4:21 of the third.
Losing two leads in the third period caused doubt to creep in for the stumbling Stars, 3-5-2 in their last 10 games.
``It's a pattern, but finally our power play was something to get excited about,'' Modano said. ``It finally won us a game. It's been a while. It's been a real struggle at times, but you've got to brush yourself off and come to work.''
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tickets.com Client Spotlight: Dallas Stars
Dallas Stars and WBAP Stars & Stripes
WBAP and the Dallas Stars want to send a special “thank you” to our service men and women…whether active, reservists or retired. To do so, WBAP is asking for nominations and they will select a military person to be honored at each Dallas Stars home game this season. Each honoree will receive 2 tickets and be recognized on the scoreboard! It’s a tribute and “thank you” to our service men and women for their contribution to our freedom!
Submit your nomination >
WBAP and the Dallas Stars want to send a special “thank you” to our service men and women…whether active, reservists or retired. To do so, WBAP is asking for nominations and they will select a military person to be honored at each Dallas Stars home game this season. Each honoree will receive 2 tickets and be recognized on the scoreboard! It’s a tribute and “thank you” to our service men and women for their contribution to our freedom!
Submit your nomination >
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