1 billion dollars.
For most of us, a figure as large as that leaps off the screen as we imagine it settling deep into our wallets. Like us, sports teams and venues are excited about the idea of reclaiming that figure (yes, 1 billion dollars) in lost ticket sales prior to the adoption of beacon technology.
Location trackers are growing in size across the major sports leagues. In fact, proximity sensor research provider, Proxbook, released its Q2 2016 Proxbook Report, which shows 93% of MLB parks, 53% of NBA arenas and 47% of NFL stadiums have already deployed location trackers.
There are already 8,273,500 active proximity sensors that are registered through the Q2 Report. Of those, 6,061,500 are beacons that have been deployed by members of Proxbook. That number is projected to skyrocket to reach 8 million by the end of 2016, and 400 million by 2020.
For sports teams, beacons are used to communicate with a user’s mobile device which then tracks footpaths, encourages stadium seating upgrades and pushes sponsorship ads during and after the game.
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“Proximity technologies and beacons in particular are not only helping to sell more tickets, they are redefining how sports teams communicate with fans, increasing revenue from merchant sales as well as seat upgrades,” said Thomas Walle, co-founder & CEO of Unacast. “Proximity technology also opens up brand new revenue streams by enabling sponsors to interact with fans and monetize hyper-accurate visitor segments through advertising. We also expect that a number of NBA teams will be leveraging retargeting as an additional solution in the 2016-2017 season.”
Seeing is believing right? Well, just ask the Orlando Magic who saw a $1 million increase in ticket sales last season. Along with that, the Magic received a 30% app download increase which is 25% higher than the industry standard, and a 233% increase in Fast Break Pass sales since last season.
“We attribute the use of proximity technologies to our dramatic increase in fan engagement, ticket sales and season ticket holder renewal rates,” said Alex Martins, CEO at Orlando Magic. “The biggest complaints in our business centered around the long lines at the concessions and the fact that you had to miss a good portion of games because you were in that line. Now, we were able to eliminate that problem and look forward to utilizing the enormous amount of data to provide the best possible fan experience in our venue for our customers.”
Other teams besides the Magic have gotten on board with deploy beacons. The 2016 NBA Champion, Cleveland Cavaliers, the Golden State Warriors and the Milwaukee Bucks have all opened up their stadiums to the proximity solutions through the use of sponsored content.
According to the report, in 2015 unsold tickets resulted in $184 million in terms of lost revenue for the NBA, NHL and NFL. The MLB’s tale is even taller as it reached $955 million lost in 2015.
You see empty bleachers and lack of attendance across the professional leagues. With beacons becoming more popular, the major sports leagues will work to edge out obstacles faced along the way with attendance numbers. However, these beacons are doing their job, so who knows what will happen in the next few years.
Maybe you will check your phone and use a beacon to sit court-side with Beyonce and Jay-Z? That is a lofty maybe.