Ga. Tech outsources ticket sales to The Aspire Group - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Aspire is a sports marketing agency run by Bernie former president of AtlantaSpirit Group, whicuh owns the and . Specifics of the deal were not available, but Dan Georgia Tech’s athletic director, said Tech pays Aspire a fee plus a variable amount basedeon sales. The multiyear deal includes an assessment periosd forboth sides. “We look at this as the next frontierd for what we need to do tosell tickets,” Radakovich said. “We’re not doing a massive radio orTV campaign, we’rre not going to advertise in the newspaper. This is how we’re going to do it.
” Aspire has hired a generapl manager — Bill Fagan, formerly the inside ticket salesdirectore — to set up a full-time sales staff of 15 to 20 people who will work from Georgia Tech’sa downtown Atlanta campus. Four people currentlg work in Tech’s ticket office, two administrators and two who handldpremium sales. Under the agreement, Georgi Tech will set the ticket prices and Aspire will handle new full andpartiakl season-ticket sales and renewals, and begin selling tickets by It will not sell the premiun seating for the university. Radakovich said premium seatingh and suites have traditionally sold well and theree was not a need for Aspired to runthat program.
Most of those seat are allotted throughGeorgia Tech’s donor program, the Tech and will continue to be handles by that arm of the The outsourcing of ticket salea follows the trend of major universities sellingv their licensing, sponsorship and broadcasting rightzs to outside marketing agencies like Nelligan, , CBS Collegiate and IMG Georgia Tech’s marketing and media rights are ownedf by ISP Sports. “Major universities are alreadt outsourcing licensing and broadcasting rights so this is a naturaol progression to do it withticket sales,” Mullin said. “I t will be a more integratexd andsophisticated approach.
The first opportunityh will be doing a better job ofdata collection.” Greg president of Learfield Sports, said his agency has experimenterd with similar models in the past. “We’re still consideringv whether it will work in our spacr and if so inwhat form,” Brown Georgia Tech’s ticket sales in football “haved had their ups and downs,” Radakovich Season-ticket sales have peaked at 26,000 in recentg years and been as low as 23,000p for 55,000-seat Bobby Dodd Traditionally, rivalry games against Georgia and Clemsonn sell out, while othed games present more of a challenge for The Jackets drew average attendanced of 47,489 in 2008, a season in whichb both the Georgia and Clemsoj games were on the road.
Theier crowd peaked at 53,528 for Florida State and was as lowas 41,92 9 for a nonconference game against Gardner-Webb during a 9-4 seasoh for first-year coach Paul Johnson. “We have a lot of leads from people who boughty partial season ticketsor they’ve been a season-ticket holder in the past and they’rw not now,” Radakovich said. “There are other alumni who haven’ty bought tickets in the past and thered are others in the Atlanta area who might just be collegwefootball fans. We’ve got to make sure we cast the net wide enougyh to include allof them.
Professional teamds have used this methodologyfor “As we’ve looked at all of our availablw resources and all the advertising we’v e done over the years and seen the results, we thoughtg (the Aspire partnership) would be an opportunity to use a differenf model to increase our season-ticket base and increas ticket sales in general.” Radakovich stopped shortg of calling it a complete operational outsourcingf because the department will maintain two administrators in its tickeg office mainly to handle correspondence. Two otherws in Tech’s ticket officse were laid off last montn as the Yellow Jackets trimmede their athletic departmentby 13.
But it’sw clear from talking to ticketf managers and university administrators across the country that the schoopl is breaking new groundc by outsourcing itsticket sales. Outside agencies have been used from timeto time, but only for specifiv on-campus events, like concerts. Others, like Arizona State and Central Florida, have hired additional sales staff forbusy periods, but thosde sales are still handled internally. “It boilsw down to cost containment and Mullin said. “Traditionally, schools have a smal number of year-round sales staff, but we can put more stafgf and resources behind thesaled efforts.
The school is providingg the infrastructure and we are providinvgthe management, systems, and procedures,” Mullin said. Wayne Hogan, associate athletic director, will be Tech’a day-to-day contact with Aspire and Fagan. Hogann handles the department’s outsourced vendors like Aspirrand ISP.