Publications

May 2019
Teaching Note

SeatGeek

By: Robert F. Higgins and Sarah Mehta

Teaching Note for HBS No. 819-013. View Details

Keywords: Event Ticketing; Sports Ticketing; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Business Model; Decision Making; Digital Platforms; Sports; Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Technology; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; New York (city, NY)

17 Feb 2016
News

Red Sox taking ticket resales in-house

March–April 2023
Article

Pricing for Heterogeneous Products: Analytics for Ticket Reselling

By: Michael Alley, Max Biggs, Rim Hariss, Charles Herrmann, Michael Lingzhi Li and Georgia Perakis

Problem definition: We present a data-driven study of the secondary ticket market. In particular, we are primarily concerned with accurately estimating price sensitivity for listed tickets. In this setting, there are many issues including endogeneity, heterogeneity in... View Details

Keywords: Price; Demand and Consumers; AI and Machine Learning; Investment Return; Sports Industry; Sports Industry

01 Sep 2015
News

Case Study: Golden Ticket

(iStock) The startup shorthand for the year-old G8 Rocket (pronounced “gate rocket”) is SAP meets Square—an enterprise platform designed for local vendors. In G8 Rocket’s case, those vendors are typically high-school athletic departments, which rely on the business to... View Details

03 Oct 2013
News

This season, the Bruins are the ticket

04 Dec 2013
News

Why big budgets still generate the hottest tickets

11 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

In the Future of Sports Investing, Media Is the Best Bet

But if you ask Bob Higgins, Wyc Grousbeck, and Mark Wan—all seasoned sports team owners-—about the secret to investment success in sports, they'll tell you it has little to do with owning a team. Rather, it's all about the media... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports; Sports

01 Jun 2020
News

How Sports Should Use Its Timeout

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. Angela Ruggiero (MBA 2014) is cofounder and CEO of the market research firm the Sports Innovation Lab, and when we spoke in May, it... View Details

12 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

What Actually Draws Sports Fans to Games? It's Not Star Athletes.

governing player drafts, free agency, revenue sharing, salary caps, and even ticket prices. Tickets must be sold at face value under league rules, eliminating the unauthorized sales of View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Sports

01 Mar 2014
News

Insight: Yenball

Business of Sports course and has conducted research for both professional teams and leagues. In a new HBS working paper, he and Isao Okada—a journalist and former Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard's Reischauer Institute of Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Morrell, Daniel; Masahiro Tanaka; Hideki Matsui; Isao Okada; business of sports; Arts, Entertainment

19 Jun 2012
News

Pricing Lessons From the London Olympics

September 2009 (Revised May 2019)
Case

The London 2012 Olympic Games

By: John T. Gourville and Marco Bertini

It's 2009 and Paul Williamson, Head of Ticketing, must finalize ticket prices for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Yet, there are many criteria to consider. First, given the importance of ticketing to the Games' bottom line, he has a strong incentive to maximize... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Customer Satisfaction; Price; Strategy; Profit; Revenue; Sales; Sports Industry; London

November 1981 (Revised December 1992)
Case

Gotham Giants

The owner of a professional baseball team is trying to figure out if promotions are having an effect on ticket sales, and if televising games is hurting attendance. He considers renegotiating the television contract. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Sports; Television Entertainment; Sports Industry

December 2004
Case

Ciclon de Alicante

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

A Spanish soccer team that received a large influx of cash thanks to a real estate transaction with its stadium faces critical accounting decisions. The team's accountants are confronted with decisions about players' contracts, jersey inventory, season ticket sales,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Financial Statements; Sports Industry; Spain

August 2005 (Revised September 2006)
Case

The NFL

By: John R. Wells and Travis Haglock

From 10-cent tickets to $17 billion television contracts, examines how a game became a multibillion dollar industry. Looks at the birth and growth of the NFL, how the NFL responded to competitive challenges, how the NFL maximized revenues, revenue sharing, the salary... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Groups and Teams; Sports; Corporate Finance; Sports Industry; United States

29 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the ‘Flutie Effect’ on College Marketing

so—intercollegiate sporting events generated an estimated $2 billion in revenue and $1 billion in profit in 2010. Winning programs prosper in diverse ways including ticket and product sales, alumni... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Sports; Sports; Sports

July 2008 (Revised May 2009)
Case

The Springfield Nor'easters: Maximizing Revenues in the Minor Leagues

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Christopher H. Lovelock and Laura Winig

The marketing director of a new minor-league baseball team must design, conduct, and then interpret survey research to determine optimal ticket pricing that will yield large attendance figures and contribute to the owner's goal of breaking even in the first year of... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Quantitative Analysis; Consumer Marketing; Pricing Strategy; Price; Marketing Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Product Launch; Sports; Sports Industry; Massachusetts

November 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

San Francisco Giants

By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind

Larry Baer, executive vice-president and COO, was eager to improve profitability for the San Francisco Giants baseball team. Over the last few years, the Giants have had a number of successes. They successfully built the first privately financed ball park in over 30... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business or Company Management; Success; Sports; Sports Industry; San Francisco