Recommendations on how to make a minor league baseball team more profitable using promotions to increase attendance.

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The Springfield Nor’easters:
Maximizing Revenues in the Minor Leagues
Marki Jacob
Professor Morgan

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Marketing 372
09 February 2016

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The Problem
The Nor’easters baseball team is having problems putting together a pricing
strategy that would enable them to gain enough revenue to profit or break even. The
elements to consider while making the pricing plan would include: who is the target
market, how it would affect the attendance of both die hard and casual fans. 25% of
the residents in Springfield live below the poverty line, and 60% have children
under 18. These groups also need to be considered when designing a marketing
strategy. By organizing a pricing strategy, and effectively marketing and promoting
they can increase attendance and the amount of season ticket holders.
Analyzing the Problem
Attracting people to attend games when 60% answered “no” to being a
baseball fan on the survey means that the entertainment level and benefits need to
be a main focus to get casual fans more interested in the events. Attending a
sporting event is more about the experience, not if the team wins or loses. To
achieve better entertainment, the target markets need to be reached. The two
market segments are children and parents, considering they make up a quarter of
Springfield’s population, and the die-hard fans that would be interested in season
tickets. To address the needs of the casual fans, there needs to be more engagement
between the crowd and the event, such as raffles and competitions. As well as have
more family-friendly opportunities. To increase the amount of season ticket holders
there needs to be more benefits tacked on to incentivize spending that much money

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and making that large of a commitment. Considering the needs of casual fans and
die-hard fans will increase the attendance and revenue during the first season of the
Nor’easters baseball games.
Pricing Strategies
Ticket
Type
$4 $6 $8 $10 $12 $14
Single
Ticket
X X
5-game X
20-game X
38-game X
Looking at the survey results, for a single ticket 31% chose $10 and 27% chose $12.
Taking into consideration that 36% chose $10 for the 5-game package, $11 would be
the best price for a single game ticket so fans will save $1 per game if they choose
the 5-game package. For the half-season package of 20 games, the best pricing
would be $8, this would be a $160 purchase with $60 in savings when compared to
single tickets. A season pass should be priced at $6 per game, this being a $190
purchase. Spending only $30 more, they can upgrade from the 20-game package, to
a full season pass. A grandstand seat should be priced at $12, considering the survey

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results shows an overwhelming percentage of people only wanting to spend 10%
more than the cost of a single ticket. I believe it is important to keep all of these as
ticket options for the fans to choose from. Giving more options gives them more
control; this could increase the chances of them purchasing a package rather than
just a single ticket. Also, varying the prices of the different seating, as well as the
packages, shows that they can save by purchasing more tickets. This is important
because the more tickets a fan purchases, the more opportunities they have to
purchase from concessions. Offering half-season tickets is important as well,
because for those who do not think they have the financial and time resources to
commit to a season ticket, they again feel like they have more control over their
choices. Variable pricing is also important since the league is just starting out it
would not make sense to change the prices of the games day-by-day according to the
context of the events. Keeping the prices the same from the beginning of the season
to the end lets the fans know what to expect, it will only deter them if they see the
prices start rising.
Promotions
The Points-System-
The points-system is a way of attracting people to not only the season tickets,
but also to purchase more from concessions. By utilizing the fact that the majority of
people use technology regularly, there can be an app created where fans gain points
for the extras they purchase at the games. This app would double as a debit card
with the ability to be scanned at the time of purchase, the amount would then be

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tracked on the app and they would receive a certain amount of points for every
some amount of money they spend (i.e. 5 points for every dollar). The affect of this
type of promotion can not only increase the amount of season ticket holders,
because they would be acquiring benefits by purchasing one, but also influences
people to buy more from concessions because they want to obtain as many points as
they can. This is a good way of tracking buying behavior, as well. The types of prizes
received could be:
100 points-T-shirt
150 points-Discount on merchandise
200 points-Baseball signed by the team
250 points-Gift card
600 points-Throw the first pitch at a game
Kids Club-
The objective of this option is to increase the amount of children involved
with the Nor’easters. With this, we can build future fans that will eventually be a
part of the generating of revenue. The Nor’easters are a new team, so the amount of
time it takes to build a true fan base could take years. Creating a Kids Club means
that the children would have to pay a certain upfront fee, somewhere around $25
for a season. With this fee they get free access to the sporting events. And they also
get to be apart of activities with the team. Activities can include: Baseball or t-shirt
signings from the team members, throwing the first pitch at the beginning of a game,
clinics that could teach the kids hands-on about the mechanics of the game, and

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participating in activities during the 7th inning stretch. Kids club members get into
the games for free, while the parents still have to pay for their own tickets.
Prizes and Sponsors-
A more common way of generating revenue is getting corporate sponsors
that will pay the team to show their advertisements. Putting up posters on the
fences is one way of achieving this, or by giving the fans a chance to win items from
the sponsors. For example: Raffling. Fans can pay a dollar to get put into a raffle, and
who ever wins will receive something like a gift card from a local sponsor, or
merchandise. Another way of giving the crowd a chance to win prizes is to do
competitions during “media-timeouts”(timeouts during the game for advertising
purposes). Races around the bases, eating contests, or baseball throwing contests
are examples of the types of competitions that can be put on during the baseball
games.
Will They Break Even?
8956 people answered the survey, 5373 of those are baseball fans, and 3473
said they would actually attend games. To figure out if they would break even, we
need to use the number of people who would actually attend the games to figure out
the revenue they would generate. The numbers are adjusted from the amount of
undeliverable surveys and the amount of non-responses. The concession revenue is
adjusted for the amount of no-shows. And the numbers only reflect the people who
answered, not spouses, friends or children.

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Single ticket 1881 people-$20691
5-game 985 people-$49250
20-game 429 people-$68480
Season ticket 179 people-$34010
Kids club (Estimate) 500 kids join-$15000
Grandstand (Estimate)$1000
Concessions $49700
Grand total $238,131
Adjusted revenue
after sponsors and
promotions
$1,200,000
$238,131 shows just a sample of what they would be making in the first
season using the survey results and estimates. If we include the other factors, such
as those who bring friends and family, the amount of revenue gets closer to breaking
even, but still not quite. So far, only $34010 of that revenue comes from season
tickets, by doing more promotions for this package they can sway more fans into
purchasing those instead of the other packages and double the revenue. With the
research I have done, adjusting the revenue to add sponsors and impacts of
promotions, the amount could end up closer to $1,200,000, this is still not breaking
even with the $1,961,379 spent in operating expenses. Since, this is the first season
the Nor’easters will be playing, it takes time to generate a committed fan base that is
willing to attend every game and spend a large amount of money of souvenirs and
food. The odds of them breaking even in the first season is low. The first season is

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usually a trial run to see what they need to fix in order to gain a larger audience. So
realistically, no, the Nor’easters would not break even in the first season.
Using the Class as a Resource
I used the lectures and the textbook to help me put together this well-
thought out plan by gathering information about the different ticketing options, as
well as how to promote them. I learned about the different types of fans and how
that affects how to promote the sporting events and ticketing options. Overall,
learning about the broad subject of generating revenue in sports was helpful, I was
not aware of how much went into the process before reading the textbook; it made
this case study much easier. I have learned that it is more important to work this
into a long term plan rather than only focusing on the first season results.

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Bibliography
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