Minor League Baseball and 38-game Season
Revenue Management and Pricing
Case1
Group1
Case Summary
Springfield Nor’easters was a new Class A minor league baseball team, which would start the first season in June 2009. The marketing director, Larry Buckingham, had to design the price scheme for the new season. Springfield was the third largest city in Massachusetts with 55,338 residents and around 60% of the households were families with children below 18. However, Springfield offered few spectator opportunities for sports fans, the only way to attend a professional baseball game is to drive to other cities.
Springfield Nor’easters, the first professional baseball team in the region, will compete in one of the 19 regional leagues under Minor League Baseball (MiLB). Each of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) was affiliated with minor league teams and they funded players’ salaries as well as bat and ball expenses, while minor league teams were responsible for uniform expenses, league dues, office and travel expenses, etc. Nor’easters’ financial goal for the first year is break even and their income will come from tickets sales, concession sales and sponsors from local institutions and organizations.
To design his tickets offers, Buckingham found that it’s important to both analyze the remaining data from a survey done in 2005 by League Sports Association and conduct a more detailed survey specific to the local market. Buckingham then figured out that his primary research objectives were to know how many people would come to the games and how much to charge them, and he made several observations while interviewing some counterparts of other minor league teams. First off, he needed to price seats on par with competition such as movies, bowling and other sporting events. Secondly, it’s important to have a well-designed mix of season tickets, group sales and individual tickets. Thirdly, he should consider promoting group sales with special promotions. Last but not least, concessions were
Case1
Group1
Case Summary
Springfield Nor’easters was a new Class A minor league baseball team, which would start the first season in June 2009. The marketing director, Larry Buckingham, had to design the price scheme for the new season. Springfield was the third largest city in Massachusetts with 55,338 residents and around 60% of the households were families with children below 18. However, Springfield offered few spectator opportunities for sports fans, the only way to attend a professional baseball game is to drive to other cities.
Springfield Nor’easters, the first professional baseball team in the region, will compete in one of the 19 regional leagues under Minor League Baseball (MiLB). Each of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) was affiliated with minor league teams and they funded players’ salaries as well as bat and ball expenses, while minor league teams were responsible for uniform expenses, league dues, office and travel expenses, etc. Nor’easters’ financial goal for the first year is break even and their income will come from tickets sales, concession sales and sponsors from local institutions and organizations.
To design his tickets offers, Buckingham found that it’s important to both analyze the remaining data from a survey done in 2005 by League Sports Association and conduct a more detailed survey specific to the local market. Buckingham then figured out that his primary research objectives were to know how many people would come to the games and how much to charge them, and he made several observations while interviewing some counterparts of other minor league teams. First off, he needed to price seats on par with competition such as movies, bowling and other sporting events. Secondly, it’s important to have a well-designed mix of season tickets, group sales and individual tickets. Thirdly, he should consider promoting group sales with special promotions. Last but not least, concessions were