Venues Today 2009 Box Office Stars
February 2009
By Linda Deckard
The San Francisco Giants will be the first team in Major League Baseball to try dynamic pricing on select tickets thanks to the leadership of Russ Stanley, managing vice president, Ticket Services/Client Relations, San Francisco Giants.
He was also the first to allow season ticketholders to navigate the secondary market on their own - 10 years ago. That's why Pat Gallagher, president of the Giants, said Stanley "represents the best of the new breed of people who understand this business."
Those were all top-of-mind concerns when Stanley agreed to have the Giants partner with Qcue to offer a limited number of tickets on the dynamic pricing platform for the 2009 season.
"It keeps us busy and it keeps the staff motivated because they're not bored," Stanley said of his latest innovation. "We have a great group of people here. I come back from meetings and say, 'okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to change prices on 2,000 tickets on a daily basis.'"
Since then they've been figuring it out with their ticketing provider, Tickets.com. The first concern was to protect their best customers, the season ticketholders and the group buyers, so they know they will get the best price in their areas, Stanley said. So the chose four sections in the view level and three sections in the bleachers for the pilot program. Since the Giants had introduced variable pricing in 2001 in those sections, Stanley said the "normal" price would be anywhere from $8-$32. Variable pricing was based on day of week and opponent and was set in September with no adjustment as the season progressed.
This season, with dynamic pricing, the price will reflect all the true variables, from league standings to who's pitching to San Francisco weather that day.
Stanley recalled when he embraced the secondary market, then variable pricing, it was because "we saw what tickets were going for on the big games and the weekends. If that's what's happening, we ought to be following the market. And people said, 'What' are you guys crazy? You're going to charge more for the Dodgers on Saturday than the Padres on a Monday?' It increased our revenue over the course of the season by $1 million with no negative feedback."
His ah-ha moment with dynamic pricing came "when I look back at the night that Barry Bonds hit 756 [home runs] and it was probably the most demand we've ever had for a game. When he hit 755 and you knew 756 was coming, we were playing the Nationals on a Wednesday night. Not a great team, not a great night of the week. We were charging $10 for our view level ticket. That would have been a great opportunity to say, 'okay, those tickets are now $40,' which is what they should have been priced."
The Giants drew 2.85 million attendance in 2008, averaging 35,000 a game in the 42,000 capacity, 10-year-old AT&T Park. They sold out 20 games. Stanley would like to sell out 40-80 games...like the old days.
In truth, Stanley said it took him about nine months to understand what Barry Kahn of Qcue was asking the Giants to do. "He's a great partner, very smart. This guy's genious," Stanley said. Qcue, based in Texas, takes all of the information from the secondary market and the primary market, factors in sales history, game stats, opponent stats, current streaks and pitchers and star players and builds an algorithm that basically suggests the ticket was $10 yesterday, today it should be $11, or whatever. "We're able to make our pricing decision all the way up until the day of the game rather than the September before," Stanley said.
Stanley points out that the model is no different from what a broker does every morning when they come into work.
Nick Fanelli, Tickets.com, who is working with the Giants on dynamic pricing and another new initiativ, stored value, is constantly impressed by the job said Stanley and his crew are "pushing us and bringing us to new levels to where we can evolve technology."
Stanley and the Giants truly understand their audience, Fanelli said, and it is a marketplace that will support new technology.
"The buzz-word in ticketing has been secondary versus primary market: who controls it, is there opportunity for teams or venues to blend the two? We are going to allow the marketplace to price itself."
The other new venture, stored-value tickets, is being done elsewhere. Stanley said the Giants have introduced it in a limited fashion on 2,500-3,000 season tickets that were a tough renewal. They have kept the price at $18 and added $5 in stored value good at Centerplate concession stands. The Giants had to buy scanners for 350 Centerplate points of sale.
This is just a limited rollout, but Stanley already has his eye on the future. "We want to make sure we deliver this year, that it goes smoothly," he said, but Phase II will be adding stored value to group tickets. And eventually, now that Tickets.com is partnered with Givex, they can start offering promotional giveaways redeemable with a barcoded ticket, the same ticket that holds the stored value.
"We're sitting in meetings with them [Tickets.com] and the only thing stopping what they can deliver is our imaginations. We can say in a particular inning, if someone hits a homerun this inning, everyone in section 302 is going to get a hot dog, or everyone in this row gets $50 stored value for the dugout store. It's all bar code driven."
So far, their stored value offers are team generated, not bought, and have to be used that night. "I'd like the season ticketholder to be able, at the beginning of the year, to say, add $1,000 to this account and start moving money around ticket by ticket, but we still have to figure out what the laws are in California. I don't envision that until next year.
Bottom line, he wants it to be a benefit to the season ticketholder, "our best customers. We're not going to do something that is not right for them," Stanley said.
Some day, when dynamic pricing is more universal, that may not be the case. "I'm trying to figure that out," Stanley said.
"Some season ticketholders and other fans say it's about time you price your product based on supply and demand. You don't know six months out what the right price is. But is the world ready for a ticket to change prices on the primary market on a daily basis? I don't know. I'm hoping they are; I think they are."
Tickets.com congratulates Russ Stanley!
"Box Office Super-Star Award Winner"
Wishing you continued success,
your friends at Tickets.com
