The Springfield Noreasters Maximizing Revenues in the Minor Leagues Case Write-Up
Business Overview
From: Marketing Consultant
To: President, General Manager Bob Cortez and Board Directors
A new Class A minor league baseball team called the Nor’easters is coming to Springfield, MA. News around town was that another professional sports team, the Falcons, was having trouble drawing revenue. Since the Nor’easters are a new team it’ll be challenging for them to draw fans. Springfield is located 90 miles away from Boston and is the third largest city in Massachusetts. Springfield had lost many high wage residents resulting in 3.6% drop in average wages since 1990. Median income of a family of three was $37,800 and median household income was $31,046. Springfield Nor’easters would need to bring die-hard sports fans that are tired of driving to Boston at a fraction of the price. With a declining economy reasonable ticket prices would be ideal for the community. The task of Larry Buckingham, marketing director for Nor’easters, is to sell Nor’easters residents on the baseball experience. Buckingham’s strength is that he has experience in entertainment, marketing and specifically pricing tickets. People wanted to attend games to have fun and revenue wasn’t correlated toward the teams’ win/lost results but more of the baseball experience. The audience trends toward a more family and student friendly environment to support a small community team in the neighborhood. Buckingham’s weakness was that his theatre background wasn’t ideal toward marketing to sports fans. To counteract his lack of experience in the sports industry, Buckingham sought out help by communicating with other minor league teams to better understand the local industry. Buckingham conducted a survey of Springfield residents to try to gauge how much he can price tickets. The survey he created needed to help price tickets to where they would draw a loyal crowd away from competing venues such as: college football, movies, bowling, and minor league
From: Marketing Consultant
To: President, General Manager Bob Cortez and Board Directors
A new Class A minor league baseball team called the Nor’easters is coming to Springfield, MA. News around town was that another professional sports team, the Falcons, was having trouble drawing revenue. Since the Nor’easters are a new team it’ll be challenging for them to draw fans. Springfield is located 90 miles away from Boston and is the third largest city in Massachusetts. Springfield had lost many high wage residents resulting in 3.6% drop in average wages since 1990. Median income of a family of three was $37,800 and median household income was $31,046. Springfield Nor’easters would need to bring die-hard sports fans that are tired of driving to Boston at a fraction of the price. With a declining economy reasonable ticket prices would be ideal for the community. The task of Larry Buckingham, marketing director for Nor’easters, is to sell Nor’easters residents on the baseball experience. Buckingham’s strength is that he has experience in entertainment, marketing and specifically pricing tickets. People wanted to attend games to have fun and revenue wasn’t correlated toward the teams’ win/lost results but more of the baseball experience. The audience trends toward a more family and student friendly environment to support a small community team in the neighborhood. Buckingham’s weakness was that his theatre background wasn’t ideal toward marketing to sports fans. To counteract his lack of experience in the sports industry, Buckingham sought out help by communicating with other minor league teams to better understand the local industry. Buckingham conducted a survey of Springfield residents to try to gauge how much he can price tickets. The survey he created needed to help price tickets to where they would draw a loyal crowd away from competing venues such as: college football, movies, bowling, and minor league