The U of I needs help understanding Iowa fans and getting them to buy tickets?

[tweeterhawk]

This part made me chuckle ...

Athletics administrators have not made public the amount they expect to pay for an outside agency’s fan and ticketing work, and bids are due back April 12. The intent, though, is to award a two-year contract, with an option for three one-year extensions, with a pricing model based on revenue sharing and emphasizing new business.

Does this guy know no other way to do business? Classic Gar-Bar ... Clandestine verbals leading to lopsided, front-loaded guarantees and low-bar bonuses. Might as well sign 'em up for the 5 years, right now. Worry about the performance and RoI, later.

As lightning1 pointed out ... listening to a fan base that's been willingly offering reasonable solutions for years is frickin' FREE! Cripes for the cost of a few lunches and donuts, have a series of roundtables with the intent of actual implementation and you'd have just as effective results at a fraction of the cost that GarBar is certain to commit to.

Gary seems to be forgetting to tell us a lot these days — Fran’s extension, how much this is going to cost .... Is he suffering from amnesia?

 

[Motigerhawk]

So Barta can't do his job without outside help. When will this fool be fired?
My first step in basketball is to get the students in the first 10 or 15 rows around the floor. Push the fat cats back away from the floor. Make those student seats first come first seat. That ratchets up the enthusiasm right off the bat. Get a bunch of students camping out in front of carver for the best seats. No-brainer.

 

[sioux34]

The cost of retaining this marketing firm will exceed the cost of the free student ticket option discussed above.

 

[tweeterhawk]

The cost of retaining this marketing firm will exceed the cost of the free student ticket option discussed above.

Very likely.

 

[tweeterhawk]

So Barta can't do his job without outside help. When will this fool be fired?
My first step in basketball is to get the students in the first 10 or 15 rows around the floor. Push the fat cats back away from the floor. Make those student seats first come first seat. That ratchets up the enthusiasm right off the bat. Get a bunch of students camping out in front of carver for the best seats. No-brainer.

Strongly suspect there several things at work here, primary among them the consumer’s changing needs, wants and habits for utilizing expendable time and income. Iowa is not alone in this. Many schools and professional teams are seeing drops in attendance and revenue. The market and consumer interests have changed and are changing.

As an example: as much of a boon as the Big Ten Network has been, in many ways it is so five years ago. Online and personal devices are increasingly where consumers want their content. How do B1G programs most effectively reach those eyeballs and mouse (or smartphone) clicks? And most importantly, the money?

The Athletic Department, like many institutional regimes, may be hide-bound in its thinking. Barta may feel he needs new views and ideas about how to approach that. You could write a whole thesis on this but suffice it to say Barta may be looking for help thinking outside the box (I hate that term). So give him credit for that.

The other major consideration may be the department’s budget. If the five-year plan is projecting operating deficits (not saying it is, just posing the hypothetical), Barta may be considering ways to reduce personnel and operating costs. A vendor who doesn’t provide benefits (health care, mileage, expenses, pensions) may be a cheaper option in the long run for essentially the same services. Whoever gets this contract may be the one to provide those services, or may provide the third party justification for getting rid of department staff.

Just my .02.

Flame away.

 

[InGoodCo]

I'm all for Iowa being better or trying to be better in every way. If this helps that, that would be great. Sometimes it takes an outsiders prospective. Iowa isn't unique in trying this. That said - winning more is ultimately the answer.

 

[skinnykilmer17]

Maybe this AD and his underlings, especially in marketing, are getting nervous? Or maybe Bruce Harreld is losing confidence in Barta?? and has forced this?? Maybe this is the beginning of a realization from some people in this university that that the current model is not sustainable? Maybe this is a good sign for the regular Joe and the student fan after years of neglect? I mean you can only build so many luxury suites to generate revenue before you have to build a new stadium and that ain't happening.

Football participation will continue to decline. Attendance is down throughout the country. We shall see what happens with television/cable revenues.

But Barta has brought this on himself. No question. Tone deafness and arrogance combined with incompetence and a lack of awareness. He has taken the common fan for granted or just outright ignored him with crappy or underperforming products, from gameday experiences to lifetime contracts etc etc. Case in point hiring an outside firm to try and figure out your fan base. He/they aren't bright enough to figure this out on their own? He should have been thinking about this a decade ago and kept the lifetime contract - signing pen tucked away in his (presumably oversized) desk for starters. But he really can't help himself. Or us. See Fran's "secret" contract as recently as November.

 

[lightning1]

Strongly suspect there several things at work here, primary among them the consumer’s changing needs, wants and habits for utilizing expendable time and income. Iowa is not alone in this. Many schools and professional teams are seeing drops in attendance and revenue. The market and consumer interests have changed and are changing.

As an example: as much of a boon as the Big Ten Network has been, in many ways it is so five years ago. Online and personal devices are increasingly where consumers want their content. How do B1G programs most effectively reach those eyeballs and mouse (or smartphone) clicks? And most importantly, the money?

The Athletic Department, like many institutional regimes, may be hide-bound in its thinking. Barta may feel he needs new views and ideas about how to approach that. You could write a whole thesis on this but suffice it to say Barta may be looking for help thinking outside the box (I hate that term). So give him credit for that.

The other major consideration may be the department’s budget. If the five-year plan is projecting operating deficits (not saying it is, just posing the hypothetical), Barta may be considering ways to reduce personnel and operating costs. A vendor who doesn’t provide benefits (health care, mileage, expenses, pensions) may be a cheaper option in the long run for essentially the same services. Whoever gets this contract may be the one to provide those services, or may provide the third party justification for getting rid of department staff.

Just my .02.

Flame away.

It's actually a well thought out post, sans the budget portion. Gutless Gary is throwing around long term contracts and unnecessarily large buyouts, like money grows on trees outside his office. A budget conscious AD wouldn't do that. An AD with an IQ over 60 wouldn't do that.

 

[lightning1]

Maybe this AD and his underlings, especially in marketing, are getting nervous? Or maybe Bruce Harreld is losing confidence in Barta?? and has forced this?? Maybe this is the beginning of a realization from some people in this university that that the current model is not sustainable? Maybe this is a good sign for the regular Joe and the student fan after years of neglect? I mean you can only build so many luxury suites to generate revenue before you have to build a new stadium and that ain't happening.

Football participation will continue to decline. Attendance is down throughout the country. We shall see what happens with television/cable revenues.

But Barta has brought this on himself. No question. Tone deafness and arrogance combined with incompetence and a lack of awareness. He has taken the common fan for granted or just outright ignored him with crappy or underperforming products, from gameday experiences to lifetime contracts etc etc. Case in point hiring an outside firm to try and figure out your fan base. He/they aren't bright enough to figure this out on their own? He should have been thinking about this a decade ago and kept the lifetime contract - signing pen tucked away in his (presumably oversized) desk for starters. But he really can't help himself. Or us. See Fran's "secret" contract as recently as November.

This is what it boils down to, IMO. He's locked into the short term business model. A lot of things change in business but the core principles do not. And in the case of College athletics, it's WINS and cultivating the next generation of fans. The U of I has neglected tomorrow's season ticket holders for far too long.

 

[tweeterhawk]

This is what it boils down to, IMO. He's locked into the short term business model. A lot of things change in business but the core principles do not. And in the case of College athletics, it's WINS and cultivating the next generation of fans. The U of I has neglected tomorrow's season ticket holders for far too long.

And the entertainment bidness — and that’s exactly what college and Pro sports is — is undergoing rapid, massive change. There once was a time when concerts were the major source of revenue for musical acts. Then it was the sale of the content media — records, 8-tracks, CDs, t-shirts, memorabilia —that provided the bucks, and the concerts were the vehicle to sell the media. With streaming, online sharing, bootlegging, revenue from media sales is a fraction of what it was, performance is again a big part of artist revenue.

AD’s are wresting with these changes as much as anyone.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I just mentioned this on another thread. Some of you may remember when statewide NBC affiliates formed the Iowa Television Network in the late 1970's. I don't remember the name of the KWWL executive who helped launch it. I wished I did because he did a hell of a selling job to convince Iowa athletic officials that live telecasts of home games would increase the buzz around Iowa basketball, not decrease attendance. He was right. By the time I was a UI freshman in 1984 my money was down on season tickets a soon as they were available. Why? Because the ITN had made Iowa basketball appointment TV during my high school years, even bumping "Hill Street Blues" off Thursday nights. It was a perfect example of the athletic department keeping future consumers in mind as they made their decisions. Raise your hand if you think Barta is capable of making these decisions. I thought so. Do you think the average high school kid makes Iowa basketball on BTN or whatever appointment TV today? I thought so.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Strongly suspect there several things at work here, primary among them the consumer’s changing needs, wants and habits for utilizing expendable time and income. Iowa is not alone in this. Many schools and professional teams are seeing drops in attendance and revenue. The market and consumer interests have changed and are changing.

As an example: as much of a boon as the Big Ten Network has been, in many ways it is so five years ago. Online and personal devices are increasingly where consumers want their content. How do B1G programs most effectively reach those eyeballs and mouse (or smartphone) clicks? And most importantly, the money?

The Athletic Department, like many institutional regimes, may be hide-bound in its thinking. Barta may feel he needs new views and ideas about how to approach that. You could write a whole thesis on this but suffice it to say Barta may be looking for help thinking outside the box (I hate that term). So give him credit for that.

The other major consideration may be the department’s budget. If the five-year plan is projecting operating deficits (not saying it is, just posing the hypothetical), Barta may be considering ways to reduce personnel and operating costs. A vendor who doesn’t provide benefits (health care, mileage, expenses, pensions) may be a cheaper option in the long run for essentially the same services. Whoever gets this contract may be the one to provide those services, or may provide the third party justification for getting rid of department staff.

Just my .02.

Flame away.

Good post. But this is Barta's job. To figure out how to keep the fan base excited and in the seats. I'm not sure what other University's have done this, but I do know Iowa football is the only show in the state. And Iowa basketball is pretty darn near that. So its a failure of Barta to be losing a fan base.

As many have said, you win consistently and a lot of things take care of themselves.

 

[SmokeTownHawk]

Another amazing use of having outside consultants is having someone other than yourself to blame when things go completely sideways. If those on the marketing staff cannot manage to connect with the average Iowa fan then maybe there needs to be some housecleaning done.