Real’s side of the Relocation story
Straight from mouth of Bill Manning
For those who still do not know who Bill Manning is, you are missing out, he is the new RSL president and a very nice guy. He met with representative of the supporter groups to talk about seating and prices at the new stadium, and I was able to ask some questions not related directly to the supporter groups (if you want those details (click here).
My first question was simple, a family of 4 with front row tickets in section N23 paid $1020 for their tickets this season, to get the same seats in the new stadium, their price would increase to $3600, how does RSL justify that to loyal fans? The answer was straight forward, RSL is currently losing money, and needs to pay for a $110 million dollar stadium. They have decided that the front row experience in all sections is an elite experience and is worthy of a premium price. That family can get seats in row 2, which will in reality have a better view than their current seats for a small increase in price $1200.
My second question was how can RSL a team that the organization has admitted has not performed to an acceptable standard, charge prices higher than clubs like Houston (two time MLS champions) or Colorado (new stadium)? Again the answer was a no bull response, RSL has already had great success with the premium priced seats ( I am not sure of the number, but will check with RSL for them), I believe that almost all the club priced tickets (700 or so of the 930) have already been sold, and the Center Circle seats (72 of 96) have been sold, and in order to help provide the team with revenue, the organization has chosen to go with the premium price for the center 3 east side sections and the front row seats in all sections. They believe that a large number of these seats will be sold to corporations, and they have structured the pricing to allow for more seating to be affordable. Here are the # of seats available by price:
$900- 2739 seats
$500- 4753 seats
$400- 3177 seats
$300- 3552 seats
09 Season Seat Pricing Chart
While this number does not include the Club and Center Circle seats, it also doesn’t include the 2nd level seats which the pricing on has not yet been determined. You can see that 80% of the seats are priced very close to the current price structure at RES.
Relocation Guide
I asked if RSL planned on capping the number of season tickets that would be sold, the answer is no there will be no cap, and if 10,000 season tickets are sold that RSL would be very happy with those results for the 2009 season. Bill expects that the $900 and $300 seats will be the first to sell out, and the others will fill in after them.
On a non-stadium note, Bill mentioned that RSL is in the contract phase with two teams for international friendlies this season, he was not at liberty to give specifics but he said that he was confident that fans would be very excited by the teams. Unlike friendly matches in the past, RSL is appointing a team to work on all aspects of these events, from public relations and marketing, to merchandising and sponsorships (no more autograph sessions without any merchandise to sell). Overall I thought it was a great meeting and if you have any additional questions, post them as comments and I will take them to Bill or Davy Ratchford (Director of Communication and Marketing) to get their response.
After the fact
So after the others had left, I was gathering facts from Bill, and he was very open about a number of issues, but I really found a couple things to stand out from our additional 45 minutes of one on one conversation, first was the statement that when Bill was approached about the position he wasn’t looking for a new job and was very happy with his situation at the NFL’s Eagles. Bill said when he talked to his father about the opportunity, he father said “bigger is not always better”, Bill understands the potential of the league and the chance by coming to a relatively new team that was ready to move into a new stadium that he would have a chance to do something special. Many of the ideas we discussed were really cutting edge for MLS, and speak very well to the vision that Bill brings for not only Real, but for MLS in general, I believe things that RSL does in the next couple years will be trendsetting, and become the standard for the league.
The second thing that impressed me was when Bill talked about his recent meeting with the staff of Deseret News, how when the meeting started and the reporters were in full attack mode, that instead of being defensive, that he simply explained to them he was not involved in past decisions, and to allow be judged on he and the organization perform moving forward. He knows that he will be held accountable by the media and public for decisions made on his watch.
I was also impressed when he responded earlier to the question of were we going to sign Brian McBride, his answer is that the club had talked with Toronto about trading for their spot on the allocation list, but the price was too high and RSL was not going to sell their future in a trade. I totally agree with the decision not to pursue McBride, he would be a great short team fix, but he is rumored to only want to play 1 more year after this season, and the price they wanted is far too high.
My thoughts about all of it
OK, I think they are making a mistake, I think the $900 price for all front row seats is too high, a better move would be to offer them at $100 over the normal price of each section. I also think making the 3 east side sections premium priced at the $900 level is too much, I think $750 would have allowed the club to not alienate the current fans in those sections, while still increasing their revenue. I do understand that premium pricing for front row seating is common in many sports, but RSL will be the first to implement this in MLS, but RSL has been first in new revenue streams in the past. Just remember that the Xango deal was the first front of the jersey sponsorship in MLS, I fear that Bill will be hated by thousands of MLS fans around the league when other teams adopt this same type of premium pricing, and not for RSL winning the MLS cup this season.
Bill pointed to this weekends matchup against KC as a very important measuring stick for where RSL is as a team, I told him I thought the match up on the 21st against a very good New England team was really going to be the matchup that could make or break the season for RSL. I expressed my opinion that if RSL can not win 3 of our 5 home matches, and get a result in one of the others, that the fans will begin to demand a change at coach. I told him that I do believe that Jason will make a great MLS coach, but fans are tired of excuses and explanations, we want to see more of the RSL that dominated the second half against San Jose, and less of the team that look unorganized in the first half of that match.
I am more confident now in the front office operations of RSL than I have ever been before; Bill did something totally unexpected by me. He showed me a book that he is making all the sales staff (and I think the rest of the staff as well) read, it was interesting because I have a copy of this book in my collection as well. It is, The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence (buy it here on Amazon), I bought this book for OC Tanner’s customer service department last year. Bill mentioned that his wife worked for Nordstrom for a number of years and that their customer service would become the new RSL standard. That is an impressive goal, but like I said before I am more confident of the front office than ever before. Oh by the way they have some nice new merchandise that has come in, and more cool stuff is on the way. I really like the new RSL franzi scarf, so much so that I picked one up, along with a new hat and the first copy of the 2008-09 RSL calendar (a bit over priced at $25 bucks). Anyhow I have to go watch the US vs. Spain match on my DVR.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on June 5, 2008 at 12:03 am and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.