Syracuse Football Ticket Sales

[FAL]

We biotched and they replied

Earlier this afternoon, Coach Shafer graciously offered to buy a ticket for every ticket purchased for our 2014 Football home opener vs. Villanova on Friday, August 29th. This “Next Fan Up” matching ticket offer is Coach Shafer’s way of encouraging the community to build upon a successful 2013 campaign, and show their support by filling the Carrier Dome for our first game of the 2014 season.
As a season ticket holder, we want you to know that you were also included in this special offer, and you have the opportunity to request these complimentary tickets (up to the same number as your paid season football tickets) via your MyCuse Account. To take advantage of this special offer, just login to your MyCuse Accountanytime starting now through Saturday, May 31, 2014 at 11:59 pm. Once logged in, the offer is listed on the left side of the page.
The “Next Fan Up” offer expires on May 31, 2014. Tickets will be assigned in the best available non-preferred locations in the 100, 200, and 300 levels (note that these tickets will not be next to your season tickets). The priority order will be determined by the price level in which your season tickets are currently located. Your complimentary tickets will then be available for you to print-at-home (Ticketfast) or forward to a friend via your MyCuse account starting Tuesday, July 1. (There is no charge for this.)
As always, please contact us with any questions regarding this process at 1-888-DOMETIX (366-3849), and press “zero”. The Carrier Dome Box Office hours are 8:00am – 4:30pm., Monday through Friday.

Thank you and GO ORANGE!
Syracuse University Athletics

Thanks, Mark! Just ordered my two feebies.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Dan one thing Syracuse can do to help increase ticket sales is utilize the summer time and the corresponding events to reach out to people. I mentioned this before to Jason Poles but I think its worth repeating.

While Syracuse does have a booth at the State Fair (a terrible location by the way) I never see them at other events throughout CNY where I think they could be successful in selling tickets.

Events like Taste of Syracuse, Polish Fest, Irish fest etc are perfect opportunities for Syracuse to send someone like yourself and a person from the ticket office or even someone from the ticket office and an intern to set up a small booth and sell season tickets, mini game plans, give out posters, answer questions etc. I know some of the festivals like the Irish and Italian fest are usually held when the season has started, why not offer reduced season tickets or specialized plans at that point? Theres also several other festivals throughoug June, July, and Augst in that same space downtown that syracuse should have a presence at. I think they could easily sell several hundred season tickets or mini plans throughout the course of the summer especially with high profile opponents coming up the next few years ie FSU, LSU, Clemson etc.

Secondly Syracuse should also be targeting events that tend to attract people with more disposable income. Brew at the Zoo in early August attracts a large mostly white collar crowd. No reason Syracuse shouldn't have a booth right in the beginning of the event selling tickets, answering questions, offering mini packages etc, would surely be a hit. Ditto for taking advantage of other events throughout CNY, Balloonfest, Celtic Games, Greek Fest etc.

Third - Syracuse should also look to hit areas outside of CNY. I dont have dates or locations but someone should find out when cities like Utica, Rochester, Binghamton and other cities are having large festivals and ensure Syracuse has a booth there. Even if a large amount of tickets aren't sold you are at least planting the seed in peoples heads. Also gives Syracuse the opportunity to offer specialized packages for that one day only. You would be amazed how many people will jump on an offer if they feel there going to miss out and its only available that day.

Lastly Syracuse should absolutely be utilizing the Finger Lakes and wine country. Every weekend that place is packed with people doing wine tours (trust me I am one of them). Several of the larger wineries like Three Bros, Wagner, Glenora, Torrey Ridge, Hazlitt, draw in thousands of people each weekend. Syracuse could reach out to a handful of them and rotate to one each weekend with a small booth. Again a perfect opportunity to offer season tickets, single game sales, mini packages, schedule pamph

SU has always had a booth at the Taste of Syracuse.

 

[JeremyCuse]

SU has always had a booth at the Taste of Syracuse.

I guess thats good news, I dont really recall it though so I am assuming its not in a great location. That being said I would like to see them target the other festivals and large gatherings as well, Taste is kind of a cluster F.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I guess thats good news, I dont really recall it though so I am assuming its not in a great location. That being said I would like to see them target the other festivals and large gatherings as well, Taste is kind of a cluster F.

They're not next to the wine slushies, if that's what you mean.

 

[ssmorol]

Season tix holders should never be left out of something like that! Thanks Mark & Dan, and whoever may have been a part of that.
Dan, might I also suggest something for the future for season tix holders...the Syracuse Crunch give vouchers as part of their season ticket package which they can give to friends and family to redeem for any game on the schedule. Maybe you could do some thing like that in the future? Maybe 1 or 2 vouchers per ticket that can be redeemed at an early season game against a 1AA opponent or a game where you know there will not be a lot of demand.
Thanks for your time and effort reaching out to us Dan! I have some things that I will post when I get a chance, but a lot of it has already been covered!

 

[JeremyCuse]

They're not next to the wine slushies, if that's what you mean.

LOL, they need to be. I wish they would move that event to some place with more space, you can barely move there, I think I have gone once in like the past few years because its such a Cluster F.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

LOL, they need to be. I wish they would move that event to some place with more space, you can barely move there, I think I have gone once in like the past few years because its such a Cluster F.

Chevy Court at the Fairgrounds?

Plenty of room, plenty of parking, and there's already a stage set up.

 

[Consigliere]

Dan one thing Syracuse can do to help increase ticket sales is utilize the summer time and the corresponding events to reach out to people. I mentioned this before to Jason Poles but I think its worth repeating.

While Syracuse does have a booth at the State Fair (a terrible location by the way) I never see them at other events throughout CNY where I think they could be successful in selling tickets.

Events like Taste of Syracuse, Polish Fest, Irish fest etc are perfect opportunities for Syracuse to send someone like yourself and a person from the ticket office or even someone from the ticket office and an intern to set up a small booth and sell season tickets, mini game plans, give out posters, answer questions etc. I know some of the festivals like the Irish and Italian fest are usually held when the season has started, why not offer reduced season tickets or specialized plans at that point? Theres also several other festivals throughoug June, July, and Augst in that same space downtown that syracuse should have a presence at. I think they could easily sell several hundred season tickets or mini plans throughout the course of the summer especially with high profile opponents coming up the next few years ie FSU, LSU, Clemson etc.

Secondly Syracuse should also be targeting events that tend to attract people with more disposable income. Brew at the Zoo in early August attracts a large mostly white collar crowd. No reason Syracuse shouldn't have a booth right in the beginning of the event selling tickets, answering questions, offering mini packages etc, would surely be a hit. Ditto for taking advantage of other events throughout CNY, Balloonfest, Celtic Games, Greek Fest etc.

Third - Syracuse should also look to hit areas outside of CNY. I dont have dates or locations but someone should find out when cities like Utica, Rochester, Binghamton and other cities are having large festivals and ensure Syracuse has a booth there. Even if a large amount of tickets aren't sold you are at least planting the seed in peoples heads. Also gives Syracuse the opportunity to offer specialized packages for that one day only. You would be amazed how many people will jump on an offer if they feel there going to miss out and its only available that day.

Lastly Syracuse should absolutely be utilizing the Finger Lakes and wine country. Every weekend that place is packed with people doing wine tours (trust me I am one of them). Several of the larger wineries like Three Bros, Wagner, Glenora, Torrey Ridge, Hazlitt, draw in thousands of people each weekend. Syracuse could reach out to a handful of them and rotate to one each weekend with a small booth. Again a perfect opportunity to offer season tickets, single game sales, mini packages, schedule pamph

Great points as always, Jeremy. Two key events in the Southern Tier this summer:
- Spiedi Fest and Balloon Rally - August 1-2-3. One of the attractions is usually an old Yankee player signing autographs. I'm sure some of our alums would love the chance to reach out.
- Dick's Sporting Goods Champions Tour Open at Enjoie GC August 15 - 17. JB used to make regular appearances at the BC Open Pro Am and his group always had the largest following.

And we've mentioned local food tie ins many times but the FL wineries a must. Fenway Park boasts Bully Hill as its official wine but at the Dome there are no NYS wines offered (other than RedCat). Participation with the major trail events would be a great opportunity.

BTW, I've had seasons since enrolling as a freshman in 1973 but was able to recruit 4 new season ticket holders for next fall in large part due to their experience at the Fine Mess tailgates so you picked a great forum to reach out to Dan!

 

[UnknownOrange]

Season tix holders should never be left out of something like that! Thanks Mark & Dan, and whoever may have been a part of that.
Dan, might I also suggest something for the future for season tix holders...the Syracuse Crunch give vouchers as part of their season ticket package which they can give to friends and family to redeem for any game on the schedule. Maybe you could do some thing like that in the future? Maybe 1 or 2 vouchers per ticket that can be redeemed at an early season game against a 1AA opponent or a game where you know there will not be a lot of demand.
Thanks for your time and effort reaching out to us Dan! I have some things that I will post when I get a chance, but a lot of it has already been covered!

This is an awesome idea!

 

[JeremyCuse]

Great points as always, Jeremy. Two key events in the Southern Tier this summer:
- Spiedi Fest and Balloon Rally - August 1-2-3. One of the attractions is usually an old Yankee player signing autographs. I'm sure some of our alums would love the chance to reach out.
- Dick's Sporting Goods Champions Tour Open at Enjoie GC August 15 - 17. JB used to make regular appearances at the BC Open Pro Am and his group always had the largest following.

And we've mentioned local food tie ins many times but the FL wineries a must. Fenway Park boasts Bully Hill as its official wine but at the Dome there are no NYS wines offered (other than RedCat). Participation with the major trail events would be a great opportunity.

BTW, I've had seasons since enrolling as a freshman in 1973 but was able to recruit 4 new season ticket holders for next fall in large part due to their experience at the Fine Mess tailgates so you picked a great forum to reach out to Dan!

Going to have to check out that Spiedi fest, unfortunately Brew at the Zoo is usually the first Friday in August and that is a must attend. Highly recommend you consider making it if at all possible, fantastic time.

Also dont forget WineFest at Watkins Glen Raceway, nearly 100 wineries and thousands of people. A great event that I got into a few years ago. You must have attended that in past. Would be great for Syracuse to get a booth there, place is crawling with people from all over NY and the NE.

Fine lot tailgate is a great time, going to be a few changes coming this year but will still be outstanding.

 

[sutomcat]

Thanks, Mark! Just ordered my two feebies.

Me too. I hope Coach Shafer isn't really paying for them...

 

[ssmorol]

We got our 4! Thanks Coach!
LOCK THE GATE!

 

[OrangeMojo]

BTW, I've had seasons since enrolling as a freshman in 1973 but was able to recruit 4 new season ticket holders for next fall in large part due to their experience at the Fine Mess tailgates so you picked a great forum to reach out to Dan!

this is why a strong tailgating scene is so important to football attendance - people won't be so fixated on who the opponent is any given week if they just want to head over and have a great time tailgating before heading into the game

great job Fine Mess crew!

 

[rocklloyd]

The guy asks what he can help you with for ticket sales and you people are asking him to widen the concourses and build family bathrooms... Oh Lord

For me, the bathroom thing is pretty important. Try dragging 8 and 6 year old girls through the men's bathroom by yourself. I'm getting close to it not being an issuebut for for 3 or 4 years, was a big deal.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Great points as always, Jeremy. Two key events in the Southern Tier this summer:
- Spiedi Fest and Balloon Rally - August 1-2-3. One of the attractions is usually an old Yankee player signing autographs. I'm sure some of our alums would love the chance to reach out.
- Dick's Sporting Goods Champions Tour Open at Enjoie GC August 15 - 17. JB used to make regular appearances at the BC Open Pro Am and his group always had the largest following.

And we've mentioned local food tie ins many times but the FL wineries a must. Fenway Park boasts Bully Hill as its official wine but at the Dome there are no NYS wines offered (other than RedCat). Participation with the major trail events would be a great opportunity.

BTW, I've had seasons since enrolling as a freshman in 1973 but was able to recruit 4 new season ticket holders for next fall in large part due to their experience at the Fine Mess tailgates so you picked a great forum to reach out to Dan!

Very cool stuff! Also have they signed up with season tickets or do they need some help...

 

[bnoro]

For me, the bathroom thing is pretty important. Try dragging 8 and 6 year old girls through the men's bathroom by yourself. I'm getting close to it not being an issuebut for for 3 or 4 years, was a big deal.

Right, but what do you expect the Dome to do? They can't remodel concrete...

 

[blizz]

Dan,

A big thing that I think encapsulates quite a number of issues that are being brought up repeatedly is the way you guys are getting information out or essentially educating the public. A great example are the complaints about season ticket pricing structure and you pointing out how there are nine (9) pricing tiers. Ok...so there's an issue that obviously has gotten a ton of thought and man-hours put into it, I would guess that it's something you guys revisit and re-evaluate quite often. But for all that effort, very few (if any) of your customers understands pricing or even how to buy a damn season ticket. I'll include myself here, I buy mine through a close friend who gets them through his employer. I have zero first hand interaction with anyone in the Athletic Department. Last year for the Boston College game, I heard about the 4 for $44 promotion from the articles posted on Syracuse.com, but going through the process of buying tickets through that promotion was such a pain in the a$$, it required e-mails back and forth to the Carrier Dome box office along with way more time and effort than it should have taken.

 

[Ottoble]

I like the loyalty concept. It builds in retention. It could be something simple like you get a 1% discount for every consecutive year you hold season tickets beginning with year 2. Cap it at 10%.
Maybe it's just a discount on the ticket, or the donation level, maybe both. Something that monetarily rewards loyalty.

I would suggest calling out people or families with really long season tickets to stand up for a round of applause during each TV timeout. People with 2+ years scroll through and have their names come up on the board with a thank you, 5+ get called out for applause 10+ years get called out given a T-Shirt that says 10+ year season ticket holder 20+ Year you get all of the above (20+ Tshirt) and have your student sideline reporter girl do a quick interview for the jumbo tron. Obviously for the ones where you are calling people out to stand up let them know what game it is happening for so they are sure their schedule allows them to attend.

Make it something for current season ticket holders to aspire to and keep renewing for. All season ticket holders should be asked to stand up and give themselves a round of applause at the last game of the season. "We love all our Fans and Season ticket holders and want to thank you all for your dedication and making this THE LOUD HOUSE"

I would say you could run a promotion where you get 1% off one of your season tickets for every new season ticket holder you recruit up to 10%. Run it for a few years and they get that 1% only that first year of the new STH but also you get to have 0.5% off each the next year for each one that renews for the 2nd year. Just put a referral box on the new STH website and paper form where someone can put in the email address of the person that referred them, affiliated with a mycuse account. Once you've got them for 2 years they should be pretty locked into a routine of being a season ticket holder.

i.e. If you buy 4 tickets and recruit 40 people you get 10% off all 4 of your season ticket price. This way it doesn't matter what level the new STH buys at you are still in the black.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Very cool stuff! Also have they signed up with season tickets or do they need some help...

Another example of some large gatherings where Syracuse should have a presence. Really hope Syracuse takes a look at some of the places both Consigliere and myself have mentioned, a simple small booth with the ability to sell tickets would be a huge hit.

 

[Ottoble]

Out in Utica a weekly booth at Saranac Thursdays is a good option for a weekly booth. And SU should have Multiple booths at the Boilermaker Post race since there are about 50,000 people at the post race party. However at the boilermaker people may not have payment methods with them since they are running I would encourage you to have an option where people can sign up and you would mail or email them their signup form.

Other events: Unadilla has motorcross events and Watkins glen and Oswego have racing throughout the summer, those are motor sports fans but its a big draw and there are probably football fans in that group when Fall rolls around. I'd consider a booth at Saratoga also, it's short season of weekends that ends before fall too.

Take Otto with you to as many of these summer events as possible, it makes people stop and take pictures start conversations with you.

One of your Kiosks like the one in destiny on base at Ft. Drum?

 

[cpatrocks]

I would suggest calling out people or families with really long season tickets to stand up for a round of applause during each TV timeout. People with 2+ years scroll through and have their names come up on the board with a thank you, 5+ get called out for applause 10+ years get called out given a T-Shirt that says 10+ year season ticket holder 20+ Year you get all of the above (20+ Tshirt) and have your student sideline reporter girl do a quick interview for the jumbo tron. Obviously for the ones where you are calling people out to stand up let them know what game it is happening for so they are sure their schedule allows them to attend.

Make it something for current season ticket holders to aspire to and keep renewing for. All season ticket holders should be asked to stand up and give themselves a round of applause at the last game of the season. "We love all our Fans and Season ticket holders and want to thank you all for your dedication and making this THE LOUD HOUSE"

I would say you could run a promotion where you get 1% off one of your season tickets for every new season ticket holder you recruit up to 10%. Run it for a few years and they get that 1% only that first year of the new STH but also you get to have 0.5% off each the next year for each one that renews for the 2nd year. Just put a referral box on the new STH website and paper form where someone can put in the email address of the person that referred them, affiliated with a mycuse account. Once you've got them for 2 years they should be pretty locked into a routine of being a season ticket holder.

i.e. If you buy 4 tickets and recruit 40 people you get 10% off all 4 of your season ticket price. This way it doesn't matter what level the new STH buys at you are still in the black.

I like the idea of recognizing long term season ticket holders.

They should also figure out a way to recognize the season ticket holders that go to ALL the games. I assume they could recognize the ones whose tickets are scan for each game.

I don't think it needs to be anything at the game, maybe just one of their silly giveaways - like the license plate holder.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Another example of some large gatherings where Syracuse should have a presence. Really hope Syracuse takes a look at some of the places both Consigliere and myself have mentioned, a simple small booth with the ability to sell tickets would be a huge hit.

We are always looking to make our presence known! I'll be at Healthy Kids day at the YMCA in Liverpool next Saturday

 

[UnknownOrange]

Dan,

A big thing that I think encapsulates quite a number of issues that are being brought up repeatedly is the way you guys are getting information out or essentially educating the public. A great example are the complaints about season ticket pricing structure and you pointing out how there are nine (9) pricing tiers. Ok...so there's an issue that obviously has gotten a ton of thought and man-hours put into it, I would guess that it's something you guys revisit and re-evaluate quite often. But for all that effort, very few (if any) of your customers understands pricing or even how to buy a damn season ticket. I'll include myself here, I buy mine through a close friend who gets them through his employer. I have zero first hand interaction with anyone in the Athletic Department. Last year for the Boston College game, I heard about the 4 for $44 promotion from the articles posted on Syracuse.com, but going through the process of buying tickets through that promotion was such a pain in the a$$, it required e-mails back and forth to the Carrier Dome box office along with way more time and effort than it should have taken.

Definitely can understand that. This is one of the driving forces behind my presence here. I want people to know (by me posting offers, deals, and need-to-know information on this site when appropriate) I am the guy to see. Anyone you know, or yourself included, looking for packages send them my way. My email is always open! Drbartle @ syr dot edu

 

[TexanMark]

Very cool stuff! Also have they signed up with season tickets or do they need some help...

Dan...I'm the Commander of the FineMess. I'm fairly certain they bought their seasons and also joined the OrangeClub to get STadium West parking. Consigliere can jump in if I'm wrong.

Speaking of events...Harborfest in Oswego is in July a time of the year when some folks are starting to think about football.

 

[FAL]

Right, but what do you expect the Dome to do? They can't remodel concrete...

Seriously: Why not a job-johnny inside the Dome with use restricted solely for parents with little kids? Of course you would have to have some security person on hand to ensure that the privilege isn't abused.