eCommerce Blog Week 10

Tickets with Flex

by Joe Lemire

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1151990/index.htm

This article wrote by Joe Lemire, discusses how a game where the reigning Cy Young pitcher against a rival team is far more appealing than seeing a no name pitcher play against the last place Pirates, though the price of tickets to those games cost the same. That is until this year.

As the article states, variable pricing is not new; teams continually charge more for marquee matchups. The Giants are the first professional franchise to take it a step further and institute "dynamic ticket pricing." For every game at AT&T Park, the Giants home, 2,000 upper deck beyond the outfield tickets will fluctuate daily depending on the perceived demand for the seats.

The concept was first developed by qcue, a company founded by two University of Texas students. The formula takes 20 variables - including the day, opponent, scheduled starters, and weather forecast - into consideration. The starting value ranges from $7-$30, and the price will move by increments of 50 cents. Selling an extra 2,000 tickets for $5 to 81 games would mean $810,000 in additional revenue.

Overall, I feel that this is a great idea for an organization to generate additional revenue. As a consumer, I am a bit skeptical, just because I don't want to pay an outrageous amount for a ticket. I am anxious to see where this goes in the future, whether it is a successful or not and whether or not more teams adopt the idea.

eCommerce Blog Week 9

Fantasy Sports Adds Baseball HQ To Web Holdings

by Matthew Futterman

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121079107716792615.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

With the fast growing world of fantasy sports, this article talks about how Fantasy Sports Ventures Inc. acquired Baseball HQ, a leading Web site for statistical analysis. The goal of this deal is the latest step by the company, Fantasy Sports Ventures Inc., who want to become the one-stop shopping center for marketers looking to connect to the estimated 15 million fantasy-sports players in the U.S. The company also has partnership agreements with 125 other fantasy Web sites in which FSV sells ads for these sites and shares revenue. Individually, sites acquired by FSV may have just a few thousand subscribers. But collectively their Web traffic has propelled FSV's network into the Top 10 sports sites.

I think this is a good idea for someone that wants to be come a one-stop shopping center for marketers looking to connect to fantasy-sports players in the U.S. But I still do not understand the concept of what this business, FSV, is doing. Are they trying to sell ads on their 125 sites that they have partnerships with and make their profit of off them? I think someone needs to create a fantasy sports website where you can consolidate all your teams to one website, much like you can do with credit cards and loans. So if you have one (1) fantasy team on yahoo.com, two (2) fantasy teams on ESPN.com and one (1) fantasy team on NASCAR.com, you can access them all from one site.

eCommerce Blog Week 8

Citigroup-Mets deal appears to be on

by Associated Press

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3881057

This article is a follow-up on one of my previous blogs (eCommerce Blog Week 1). Back in 2006, the New York Mets and financially troubled Citigroup signed a $400 million naming rights deal for the Mets new stadium set to open in April. Since, Citigroup Inc. has received $45 billion in federal bailout aid and late last year said it planned to cut 53,000 jobs worldwide. Thus, causing scrutiny from politicians, whom signed the federal bailout for the the banking industry, saying that they are spending their money unwisely.

The Mets argument is that Citigroup signed a legal binding agreement and they are fully committed to their contract. With this being said, Citigroup has came out and said that they are going to continue with their stadium naming rights deal.

Though Citigroup has said that they do not plan on using any part of their $45 billion federal bailout aid towards the $400 million stadium naming rights deal, I feel that this is not a good move for Citigroup during these trouble times in our economy. 

But, Citigroup should not be highlighted when other corporations who are also receiving billions of dollars in federal funds are spending money on sponsorships. Bank of America, another recipient of $45 billion in federal bailout aid pays $7 million a year for Bank of America Stadium, home to football's Caroline Panthers, and has been negotiating with the New York Yankees for a $20 million marketing deal that would not include stadium naming rights.

Companies buy stadium naming rights because they are good business and not just because executives like to see their corporate names on 15-foot signs. Naming rights deals have been a very profitable platform. Only time will tell if this will help out the banking industry.