OT- Nets selling $.75 tickets to games

Holy crap. I guess that's what happens when you are winless. You have to give tickets away (the tickets are free - the $0.75 is a ticketmaster handling fee) to get fans to come to the games.

BNM

 

Jesus.

I saw an ad during the Minnesota broadcast that for $17 you could get a $15 seat, a hot dog, a soda and popcorn (if I remember correctly). That seemed like a real money-loser for Minnesota because they won't make up any of the profit in added concessions.

But $.75? Wow. When you factor in hidden costs (toilets, security, electricity, etc) without even getting into player salaries, you are effectively paying people to show up for games.

Man, we have got to figure out a way to steal Devin Harris.

 

Yeah, it seems like the Nets are basically willing to take a loss on these tickets as a way to get people to sample the product, essentially. I guess if you chalk it up as a marketing cost, rather than failing to profit on ticket-sales, it makes some sense...assuming that people enjoy it and end up buying normally priced tickets for future games.

 

Yes, I'll take the season tickets for $33. Yep those are the ones. Thanks!

 

When you aren't selling those tickets anyway, you might as well give them away and make some money on concessions. It's not like if they sold out the rest of the unsold seats at $0.75, that they'd be spending much more money than if those fans didn't show up.

 

Yeah, but you'd better really fucking hope you land LeBron over the summer. Or somebody else that can vault you into at least 50 wins. Because otherwise once you train your customer base that your product is so worthless, it's going to be really hard to get them to shell out for season tickets next year.

There's nothing easier to do to raise sales than to cut your prices. Customers love it.

The problem is that it destroys profitability, and can really damage brand value. And it's much, much harder to raise prices for the same product.

 

Don't bet on it. They have a Russian owner with very deep pockets on the way to save their franchise (and move it to Brooklyn). Last I heard, the sale of the Nest is expected to be approved by the other owners within the next two weeks.

This promo may just be his way of generating some interest in his new team. Or, more likely a desparate attempt to boost advertising rates and concession/jersey sales. It will get more butts in the seats, which probably drives in-arena ad rates. And all those people who got into the game for free will still pay for parking, hot dogs, beer and popcorn. And some, feeling like they got a great deal may be inclined to actually buy a Devin Harris or Brook Lopez jersey or bobblehead doll.

Empty seats generate ZERO revenue, direct or indirect. Free seats dont' generate any direct revenue, but at least they can still cash in on all their regular streams of indirect revenue.

BNM

 

Obviously not to this extent, but Portland dropped their ticket prices a lot 4 years ago. I had season tickets for I think it was 199 per seat. For 44 games, I was basically paying 4.50 a ticket.

The key, as you mentioned, will be improving their record, so you essentially suck them in now, and slowly raise prices as you get better.

 

I wonder if they'd be much better advised to just donate tickets instead. Give several thousand away to, say, Iraqi war veterans, poor children, whatever. Then it'd be tax deductible, you'd get some good publicity out of it, you'd fill up the arena, and you wouldn't be sabotaging sales you might have made. (Some people would've been willing to pay the normal $15 or whatever price but gladly took the discount because it was offered to them.)

Maybe run a promotion kind of like the "one laptop per child" thing. "Buy a ticket at normal price, and the Nets will donate an equal value ticket to (insert charity here)."

*shrug*

 

If the move to Brooklyn is approved - there is no loss with the 0.75 tickets - since the people they will sell them to are not going to commute to Brooklyn often anyway - so raising the prices is not going to change anything at all.

The nice thing about the NBA is that even if your team sucks you can still charge money for the big-ticket opponents - the LeBrons and Wades and the like.

I think what this tells us is that these guys are certain they are going to play in Brooklyn in the near future.

 

Yeah, you're probably right.

 

I forgot about the move.

I wonder what name they'll go with. I see absolutely no point in keeping it "The Brooklyn Nets." It's not like that team has any sort of legacy, or that there's anything inherently appealing about being a "net".

 

The new owner is filthy rich and plans to throw his money at any free agent that will take it and move the team to Brooklyn. The product they are giving away for free is a different product than what they will be selling a year or two down the road - as is the much of their customer base (assuming they move to Brooklyn).

It reminds me of the Blazers back when they hit rock bottom and the Rose Garden was more than half empty on a regular basis. We used to buy upper bowl tickets for $10 and get to the game early for the $1 hot dogs. While we were setting around enjoying our cheap dogs, Blazer employess would walk around and exchange 100 and 200 level seats for our 300 level tickets. This was guaranteed to happen if the game was on TV as they didn't want crowd shots of an empty arena on TV. The seats were great, (100 level seats for $10) the food was cheap, but the team sucked.

Now the team is great again. Every game is sold out, and the food is expensive. But, I sure like winning a lot more than getting pummeled every night and being the worst team in the league. So, I sympathize with Nets fans and hope many of them take advantage of this promotion to show up and watch their team. At $0.75 a seat, I'd be taking eveyone I know to all eight of those games. They are playing some pretty crappy teams (Warriors, Wolves, Bobcats, etc.). Who knows, with an arena full of screaming fans, you might actually see them win a game or two.

BNM

 

I would vote for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

 

Well, the team was the New York Nets back when they were in the ABA and their first season in the NBA. And, Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City. So, there is a historical tie to the name Nets. It would be interesting to see if they would go with New York Nets or Brooklyn Nets. I suspect the latter as the development where the new stadium is to be built is supposed to revitalize Brooklyn. So, I think they would want Brooklyn in the team name. Maybe they could be the New York Nets of Brooklyn.

BNM

 

Yup, classic economics. not selling the tickets and not filling the seats = no revenue, selling a seat at a hugely discounted rate + possibility for concessions sales = not a lot of revenue, but better than nothing ... and maybe they get excited about watching Brook Lopez enough to buy another ticket down the line.