Chuck the Writer
06-23-2007, 09:54 PM
Okay, in the most recent Ask the CEO, Crazy Joe starts blathering about how affordable an ABA season can be for fans.
ABA season tickets cost about $200 each; 18 games of exciting, fast-paced professional basketball. ABA tickets cost little more than movie tickets and certainly less than tickets to other sporting events and concerts. ABA tickets are great values. What we've found is that many companies buy two or four season tickets and then give them to their employees to use during the season or for promotional purposes. Other companies are including season tickets in their sponsorship packages so that they also get venue signage, on the teams' websites and radio broadcasts.
Season tickets are very important to our teams. One other thing. Our teams also have Group Ticket Sales that provide excellent discounts. Very shortly, we will be announcing a very interesting and unique way to buy season tickets, group tickets and single tickets via the ABA website (www.abalive.com) - probably the easiest, no-hassle way ever to get tickets to a professional game. You will enjoy it.
Oh boy, this is like a fastball in front of Barry Bonds.
Let's all break out the pens and calculators, people.
Let us assume, arguendo, that the average operating budget for an ABA franchise to succeed and thrive is $300,000. The sound of crashes to the floor are from ABA owners who thought they could run the team on $10,000 and a handshake.
$300,000. It might be more, it might be less. Now factoring in let's say $50,000 in sponsors, and maybe another $50,000 on the team owner's AMEX card, that still leaves $200,000 to come from somewhere. That means you've got to find 1000 season ticket holders willing to pay $200 each.
Now considering that the lion's share of ABA teams average 300 warm bodies a night, this leaves the average team 700 season tickets short of breaking even. And that's even considering that 18 games are played; fans would certainly demand refunds and reimbursements for games not played, unless you start rolling out $200 single-game tickets.
And even after that money has been acquired, what's to stop the owner from skipping town with all the loot and leaving the players and fans high and dry? (See Christie, Worth).
And while we're on the subject, what's this about having an ABA ticket portal on abalive.com? Who's going to get to skim money off the top for that one? Man, Crazy Joe's got his hand in so many cookie jars, he must have mixed up his Egg McMuffins with Chips Ahoy.
ABA season tickets cost about $200 each; 18 games of exciting, fast-paced professional basketball. ABA tickets cost little more than movie tickets and certainly less than tickets to other sporting events and concerts. ABA tickets are great values. What we've found is that many companies buy two or four season tickets and then give them to their employees to use during the season or for promotional purposes. Other companies are including season tickets in their sponsorship packages so that they also get venue signage, on the teams' websites and radio broadcasts.
Season tickets are very important to our teams. One other thing. Our teams also have Group Ticket Sales that provide excellent discounts. Very shortly, we will be announcing a very interesting and unique way to buy season tickets, group tickets and single tickets via the ABA website (www.abalive.com) - probably the easiest, no-hassle way ever to get tickets to a professional game. You will enjoy it.
Oh boy, this is like a fastball in front of Barry Bonds.
Let's all break out the pens and calculators, people.
Let us assume, arguendo, that the average operating budget for an ABA franchise to succeed and thrive is $300,000. The sound of crashes to the floor are from ABA owners who thought they could run the team on $10,000 and a handshake.
$300,000. It might be more, it might be less. Now factoring in let's say $50,000 in sponsors, and maybe another $50,000 on the team owner's AMEX card, that still leaves $200,000 to come from somewhere. That means you've got to find 1000 season ticket holders willing to pay $200 each.
Now considering that the lion's share of ABA teams average 300 warm bodies a night, this leaves the average team 700 season tickets short of breaking even. And that's even considering that 18 games are played; fans would certainly demand refunds and reimbursements for games not played, unless you start rolling out $200 single-game tickets.
And even after that money has been acquired, what's to stop the owner from skipping town with all the loot and leaving the players and fans high and dry? (See Christie, Worth).
And while we're on the subject, what's this about having an ABA ticket portal on abalive.com? Who's going to get to skim money off the top for that one? Man, Crazy Joe's got his hand in so many cookie jars, he must have mixed up his Egg McMuffins with Chips Ahoy.