Portland Trailblazers Case Study
CHALLENGE
The Portland Trail Blazers need to sell tickets. A losing record, declining perception of the team in the city, and the Rose Garden, the home of the Trail Blazers, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, make selling tickets difficult.
STRATEGY
A conjoint analysis determined respondents primarily consider ticket price and seat location and preferred six-game packages, as opposed to three-game and 10-game packages, and showed a preference for receiving a promotional item.
RESULTS
Management needs to fill seats by offering low ticket prices and developing a strategic promotional item schedule. Management wants to push 10-game packages. To increase the attractiveness of 10-game packages, management needs to make a 10-game package the threshold for playoff tickets priority. As for promotional items, including a free hot dog and soda with ticket packages minimally effects profit margins and likely incentivizes men (78.1 percent of respondents) and fans with children (42.5 percent of respondents).
Opportunity for cross promotion exists through “Free Hot Dog Nights” for six-game and 10-game packages. Since the six-game package guarantees games against two elite teams or rivals, management only needs to cover $3.25 per ticket for the four games on nights with low projected attendance.
Jacob Betzner 