Improving the TB Rays Fan Experiene: Lower Ticket Prices, Increase Fun

Last week I wrote about the Tampa Bay Rays' turnaround. The team’s performance was stunning this year, going from worst to first in their division, and beating the White Sox in the American League Division Series. And as Alan Schwarz of the NY Times wrote last week, the turnaround was carefully crafted and patiently pursued. Home game attendance this year was up 12 points to 53%, but the team played to a house that was only half full. I ended that story wondering whether this year's performance and other changes are enough to guarantee that the team plays to a fuller house next year.

The baseball insider in my family (my 13 year old son) is sure the Rays' attendance problem is due to the stadium, and that they are going to go ahead with plans to build a new one. Apparently, fans in Tampa and St. Petersburg agree that the stadium is the problem. In an August 29 article, St. Petersburg Times reporter John Romano shared some of the suggestions he received from fans about what it will take to boost home game attendance. Far and away, the #1 complaint mentioned was about Tropicana Field’s location and facilities. Price came up a lot, too, and as the economy grows shakier, all teams as well as StubHub should be concerned about season’s ticket renewals.

While my son and the fans may be right about why Rays home game attendance remains so low, the brand marketer in me wonders if a new stadium is really the Rays’ best solution. As mentioned in my story last week, the Rays have already made many of the changes on the retail CEO turnaround checklist – new management, new talent, new name, new logo and look, improved facilities.

I believe the team still has more cost-effective ways to increase attendance (and revenues) than building a new stadium. Blaming the stadium is an easy out – a new stadium should be a last resort – it’s expensive and disruptive.

The fan experience sitting in a stadium that’s half empty can't be good. We never go into empty restaurants – we assume the food must be bad. Getting butts in seats at Tropicana Field may be more important in generating the kind of excitement that builds an enduring brand franchise than generating revenue off each ticket sale.

According to Team Marketing Report, the Rays’ ticket prices and the cost of a fan visit to the ballpark are among the lowest in Major League Baseball at $17+/ticket in 2008. I suspect the average may not be as meaningful as the actual prices – the least expensive seat at Tropicana Field is on the Upper Deck and costs $14 at "prime" games, a Baseline Box Seat at a “prime” game cost $38 last year and a Lower Infield Box Seat cost $70. Those are expensive tickets, no matter what the Team Marketing Report says about relative prices to other teams. In Tampa and St. Pete, the relevant comparison may be the Yankees A+ Team across town, where $6 buys the best seat in the house.

Rays management can sell and do more to facilitate the sale of partial season’s tickets rather than requiring fans to commit to 80+ home games a season. They can lower ticket prices and rely more on concessions, merchandise sales and parking fees to generate the same or higher average spend per fan visit. They can do goofy stuff at the game to engage the crowd and humanize the Rays brand. In short, they can create a more affordable, fun and compelling fan experience that will build loyalty, increase the amount spent per attendee per game, sell more tickets and fill the stands.

So, before taking the plunge on a new stadium, the Rays might want to take a page out of the Durham Bulls playbook, and make the Tampa Bay fan experience more like what the Bulls offer in terms of price as well as the fun factor. If that doesn’t work, there’s always Plan B.

Tampa Bay Rays Makeover Delivers

It’s October. And in my house, October means we’re watching even more baseball than we do the rest of the season. Major League Baseball is in its high season.

Like Retail, baseball is full of statistics. MLB tracks everything. And that got me wondering about the handful of stats lay bare the connection between the Tampa Bay Rays performance on the field, the fan experience of the team, fan loyalty and the team’s financial success. In measuring team success on the field and with fans, three statistics tell the story: a team’s win/loss percentage, its home-game attendance and merchandise sales.

Of the teams left in the pennant race, the Rays are clearly this year’s biggest story. For the past six years, the Rays have had one of the worst win/loss records in baseball – between 2002 and 2007 they averaged .388. They have also consistently been in the dumpster when it comes to attendance – worse at home than on the road. At home, their attendance over the same time averaged only about 33% of capacity.

Faced with six years like this, what would any self-respecting retail CEO do? Get a new chief merchant? Overhaul the brand and the merchandise? Run a new ad campaign about being "new and improved"? Remodel some stores and close others?

The Rays did most of the above over the last offseason. They hired a new manager, nearly doubled their player payroll and made several key trades and free agent signings, changed the team name (from the “Devil Rays” to the “Rays”), introduced a new logo (from a fish to a ray of sunshine) and new team colors (dropped green, leaving Oakland as the only team in major league baseball with green in its palate). And major stadium renovations and upgrades were also undertaken in both 2006 and 2007.

And lo and behold, 2008 has been a different story. The Rays are in the playoffs with the third best win/loss record this year. At .599, they are behind only the Angels and the Cubs. And this year for the first time, they played their home games in a stadium that was consistently more than half full. In addition, team merchandise sales are up 75-100% compared with last season and another 25-30% since the Rays secured a postseason spot according to Mark Fernandez, Rays senior vice president and chief sales officer.

Though congratulations are due the team for this huge improvement on all fronts, attendance did not improve as much as the team’s performance on the field did. Their win/loss ratio at the end of the regular season was up 48% over 2007, but home game attendance was up only 30%. Moreover, attendance in the second half of the season when it was clear the Rays were in contention for the pennant race was up only 24% over last year’s second half.

So, what will it take to get Rays regular season home game attendance above 50% next season? The team’s playoff performance should have some carryover effect. What do you think the Rays should do this coming offseason to further boost attendance in 2009?