Mark Cuban on SMU Basketball Marketing

[USFBulls12]

This needs to be read by everyone involved with USF Athletics and our failures need to be addressed. Mark Cuban seems to get it.

http://blogmaverick.com/2014/02/23/my-2-cents-on-sports-marketing-and-what-i-learned-from-smu-basketball-this-week/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogmaverick%2FtyiP+%28blog+maverick%29

Would love to read everyone's comments after you read the entire post.

Edited February 23, 2014 by USFBulls12

[Guest PCBull14]

hopefully with the new A.D more effort will be put in to marketing and fan entertainment. I think USF has tons of room to grow in this area. Very good read, especially for someone like me looking to get into college athletics. Need to take the next step, just difficult  trying to identify exactly what that is.

[hm101]

Smart man. It goes back to management. USF didn't need to do a lot of managing when things were going well. That will change. 

[Triple B]

Cuban's ideas sounded more geared towards the pro fan ... The SMU game experience sounded very similar to a USF one, except we need t-shirts blasted to everybody, not just students.

[bcgruber]

This point is a huge fail in my mind for USF

3. Price to the market, not to maximize revenue.

The sports industry is changing. TV is becoming a growing revenue source while ticket sales are a declining percentage of total revenues of TV sports.  IMHO, it is far more important to know the price points that will enable you to fill the arena than to know the price points that will max out your total revenue. Why ? Because winning matters. It is important to have fans in the stands. They impact your winning percentage.  And personally, I believe that winning increases long term profitability.

It is also because fans know the pricing trends of your tickets better than you do.  THey know how to use travel sites to get best pricing. They know how to use ticket sites to get best pricing. Teams try to be democratic when it comes to game pricing. Thats an inefficiency that some fans and many ticket brokers know how to take advantage of. We hired a full time Data Analyst to continuously examine and review online pricing for us. It has resulted in us changing pricing for 7k season tickets for this coming year.

The market told us that for season tickets we need to price to the current actual pricing market in order to attract new season ticket customers and to maximize our  season ticket renewals. We paid attention . We did it only for season tickets because those are the tickets we have to price in anticipation of the next season.  Our hope is that for single game tickets the game experience, our team performance and big games  will push our prices even higher and make our season tickets and even more attractive value .

[WoolyBully]

Great article, and I liked the point-counter-point as well. There's a lot of good advice in there, but again...and maybe age has a lot to do with it...the kids that attend games are the future. That's who needs to be cultivated. Us old guys who buy season tickets are the reliable workhorses he speaks of...we're gonna be there, we don't have to be enticed...we're there for the game.

 

So, perhaps, marketing is a multi layered proposition. Something for the digitally addicted, something for the "I'm here for the game" patrons as well. 

 

And as the years go by, the 'game day' experience changes as well. You can apply as much lipstick and fireworks and hoopla as you want, but it still boils down to winning. You can put on the best "show of distractions (ok...we'll use your phrase...'entertainment' during a lull in the action) but the big gray cloud is still going to be that loss. And in Tampa, a notorious band wagon town, you gotta rack up the wins to fill the seats. 

[USFBulls12]

Great article, and I liked the point-counter-point as well. There's a lot of good advice in there, but again...and maybe age has a lot to do with it...the kids that attend games are the future. That's who needs to be cultivated. Us old guys who buy season tickets are the reliable workhorses he speaks of...we're gonna be there, we don't have to be enticed...we're there for the game.

 

So, perhaps, marketing is a multi layered proposition. Something for the digitally addicted, something for the "I'm here for the game" patrons as well. 

 

And as the years go by, the 'game day' experience changes as well. You can apply as much lipstick and fireworks and hoopla as you want, but it still boils down to winning. You can put on the best "show of distractions (ok...we'll use your phrase...'entertainment' during a lull in the action) but the big gray cloud is still going to be that loss. And in Tampa, a notorious band wagon town, you gotta rack up the wins to fill the seats.

You're 100% correct. It's as simple as winning: if USF was 23-4 (11-3) right now with a #10 sitting next to our name on the television scoreboard, the Sundome would fill up to capacity, no doubt. It's all about winning. The cheesy little distractions ("entertainment") is only necessary to draw people out to a game for a losing team. I've never once turned on the tv to a game where the #10 team is playing in front of 2,000 fans at home, especially at a school that has little success on the court like USF. The dome would be packed if we could ever have a huge season like that. You think when Witchita State started their season last year that it was filled? NOPE. That Final Four run surely brought in the crowds and then having continued success this season as the new #2 team in the country has their place packed! People love to love a winner. Just win.

[charsibb]

This needs to be read by everyone involved with USF Athletics and our failures need to be addressed. Mark Cuban seems to get it.

http://blogmaverick.com/2014/02/23/my-2-cents-on-sports-marketing-and-what-i-learned-from-smu-basketball-this-week/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogmaverick%2FtyiP+%28blog+maverick%29

Would love to read everyone's comments after you read the entire post.

 

 

Thanks for the link.

 

Several of my undergrad students are sports management majors. This is going in their inbox tomorrow!

 

Especially the point about everybody needs to learn sales - this is what i tell them every day.

 

I also show them Shark tank episodes, so they already know and respect Mark - this article should be well read tomorow.

[Triple B]

 

Great article, and I liked the point-counter-point as well. There's a lot of good advice in there, but again...and maybe age has a lot to do with it...the kids that attend games are the future. That's who needs to be cultivated. Us old guys who buy season tickets are the reliable workhorses he speaks of...we're gonna be there, we don't have to be enticed...we're there for the game.

 

So, perhaps, marketing is a multi layered proposition. Something for the digitally addicted, something for the "I'm here for the game" patrons as well. 

 

And as the years go by, the 'game day' experience changes as well. You can apply as much lipstick and fireworks and hoopla as you want, but it still boils down to winning. You can put on the best "show of distractions (ok...we'll use your phrase...'entertainment' during a lull in the action) but the big gray cloud is still going to be that loss. And in Tampa, a notorious band wagon town, you gotta rack up the wins to fill the seats.

You're 100% correct. It's as simple as winning: if USF was 23-4 (11-3) right now with a #10 sitting next to our name on the television scoreboard, the Sundome would fill up to capacity, no doubt. It's all about winning. The cheesy little distractions ("entertainment") is only necessary to draw people out to a game for a losing team. I've never once turned on the tv to a game where the #10 team is playing in front of 2,000 fans at home, especially at a school that has little success on the court like USF. The dome would be packed if we could ever have a huge season like that. You think when Witchita State started their season last year that it was filled? NOPE. That Final Four run surely brought in the crowds and then having continued success this season as the new #2 team in the country has their place packed! People love to love a winner. Just win.

 

 

While I hope you would be correct, it's far from a "no doubt" that we would pack the dome on a regular basis in a season like that. Our first home game following the best season in the history of the program, in a "brand new" Dome, against a rival and we couldn't break 8K. It will probably take several years of being ranked like that to get anywhere near sellouts on a regular basis .... that's definitely uncharted waters, though, so who knows what would happen ....

 

and just as an FYI, Wichita State has averaged over 10K a game for years so their FF run wasn't really need to affect their attendance.

[smazza]

comparing cuban to our marketing dept is like comparing a man to a baby

Edited February 24, 2014 by smazza