Avid fans of hockey and baseball in Los Angeles face an annual dilemma. From the Opening Day events of Major League Baseball to the victory ceremonies of the NHL Stanley Cup, many great hockey and baseball games take place at the same time. Now there is a simple solution: buy tickets to Dodgers Pride Night at the February 16 LA Kings home game and support your hometown teams all season long.
The strong financial success of sports team cross promotions in New York has motivated more sports marketing pros to give the idea a tryout. MSG Holdings, operator of Madison Square Garden in New York, has developed an entire line of business out of cross promotions between seven different professional sports teams: the NBA New York Knicks, the New York Liberty women’s basketball team, the NHL Rangers, Devils, Buffalo Sabres and L.I. Islanders, and the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.
America’s strength in cross promoting and packaging events in different sports has given U.S. companies expertise so superior that almost half of the worldwide ticket agency sales for 2012 Olympics sports events and packages in countries around the world are being managed by two American companies. These are CoSport of New Jersey and Cartan Tours of Manhattan Beach, California. Their success shows that this part of sports business has become extremely sophisticated, involving large investments in software, marketing channels and ticket inventories that only a few global organizations can compete with.
The acceleration of the trend to cross-marketing sports builds upon a shared business foundations and fan bases that deliver measurable boosts to team profitability. By far the most important are broadcasters and their global infrastructure. Since this has extended to social media (ESPN Sports Center has over 10 million subscribers on Facebook) sports cross promotions have become a classic win-win situation. Multi-sport merchandising outlets like the Team LA store also play a role. They are much more profitable than single team stores because of their broader appeal and their ability to maximize sales per square foot each month regardless of sports season. The same applies to the expensive corporate sales organizations required to close contracts with large corporate clients and premium box seat purchasers.
These success stories show that the goal of making Los Angeles the Creative Capital of the World is much more than a branding slogan. If a team effort can secure this role for Los Angeles, it will support infrastructure sharing and social networks that can build global business leaders.
See for yourself. Tickets are on sale now for the February 16 LA Kings home game against the Phoenix Coyotes. Ticket packages start at $28. That includes a ticket and a limited edition Dodgers Pride Night puck. Groups of fifteen or more can $6 or more per ticket. The special event online link is LAKings.com/dodgers. Tickets are also available by phone at 888-KINGS-LA.
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