Bowls at Forefront of Experience Revolution - Sports Business Journal

Source: Sports Business Journal
By: Robert Tuchman

At the 1999 BCS title game in New Orleans, a Fortune 500 client of my company, TSE Sports & Entertainment, wanted to have a tailgate function for her top customers. Back then, the individual bowl games were just beginning to figure out how to accommodate the growing need for event hospitality.

Fortunately, Jeff Hundley, COO of the Sugar Bowl, and his staff were quick to act. They were able to pull off an exclusive event inside the Louisiana Superdome.

The TSE clients could walk to and from their seats inside the stadium to a private entertaining area on the concourse. The Sugar Bowl was ahead of the curve at the time because most of the other venues hosting bowl games were not able to offer such a unique opportunity.

It will be 10 years this January since the formation of the Bowl Championship Series by six conferences (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East and Pac-10) and the University of Notre Dame. In that time, there has been a dramatic change in the type of hospitality programs that have come to market.

Hospitality revolution

The great hospitality revolution was set in motion once the BCS decided to rotate the championship game among the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose Bowls. It was no surprise that the bowl games selected for the BCS were played in premier destinations (respectively, Miami, New Orleans, Arizona and Southern California) that offered fans a desirable place to enjoy a midwinter escape.

I have worked since 1998 with all the major bowl organizers. Because each of them takes center stage every fourth year, they continually develop new opportunities to ensure that their own hospitality options are on par with those of the others.

In the years before the BCS, a client might say, ¡°I was able to get this terrific set-up at the Orange Bowl. Can we make the same thing happen at the Rose Bowl next year?¡±

With the BCS format in place, major bowls are now competing against one another. Bowl game organizers will come to me with new hospitality options at their stadiums. Each year they are creating ways for clients to get closer to the action and experience the game.

Dave Murphey, vice president of partnerships for the Orange Bowl, and his team have seen major renovations to Dolphin Stadium over the past several years. Fans can now purchase Legends suites, Executive suites and even Hall of Fame suites (four mini suites put together) for the Orange Bowl. Fans have made some of the corner helixes in the stadium concourses into private party venues.

The Rose Bowl is working with PrimeSport¡¯s Sharyn Outtrim, a former executive under Jim Steeg at the NFL, who has taken her experience and applied it to the college game.

Rose Bowl experience

Last year, she helped transform what was once a vast and unorganized tent city surrounding the Rose Bowl into a tailgate village. Hospitality sponsors now integrate their products into the pregame and postgame festivities around a central gathering point of entertainment events outside the venue.

This year¡¯s tailgate events at the Rose Bowl will be staged off the backs of Honda vehicles. EA Sports will host the finals of its national football game challenge in the tailgate village. Fans can test out EA¡¯s new games while sipping Coca-Cola products.

Another major factor in the increased offerings at the bowl games is the organization of the schools themselves with their fan travel programs. Universities have gotten into the lucrative business of creating their own fan experiences for students, alumni and large donors. Many have hired experienced professionals such as Brian Wilder, the president of Premiere Sports Travel, to create unique travel programs.

Ten years ago, most fans were content with a ticket to the game and a beer. Today, that same fan wants to go to the official pregame tailgate party, sit in the club-level area and celebrate at the hottest postgame event.

The interest was always there, but it was just a matter of organizers making the inventory available. It¡¯s easy to understand this change if you consider that sports travel contributed an estimated $16 billion to the $213 billion U.S. sports market in 2006 .

If you want to know why these bowl games have placed many of their resources into the experience side of their business, understand that corporate spending on sports and entertainment events is forecast to exceed $18 billion in 2007. This represents an 11 percent increase from 2006.

Sports business landscape

Hospitality and premium event services have become a major part of the sports business landscape. As evidenced at the Rose Bowl, companies signing sponsorship deals are demanding more quality and quantity in their hospitality components.

In fact, many of these companies are getting involved with sponsorship as a means to own hospitality first and brand their product second. Entertaining your largest client in an atmosphere screaming your brand can translate into major business.

Companies understand that it is a lot easier to make an impression on one person responsible for purchasing millions of dollars of your product, than on millions of fans purchasing one dollar of your product.

Companies will focus on both angles to sell their wares, but one thing is for sure: Hospitality no longer plays No. 2 in the nation at bowl games.

Robert Tuchman is president of Manhattan-based TSE Sports & Entertainment.