Group 10 Case Analysis I (2510):
The Springfield Nor’easters: Maximizing Revenues in the Minor Leagues

1. Evaluate the research survey undertaken by the League Sports Association and by Larry Buckingham, Nor’easters’ marketing director. Consider each step in the process that led to the findings of the survey.

• The survey comes from a total of 10,000 postcards given to 5 different demographics and the percent of each demographic that did respond.

• Isolated each group/market segment and recorded their habits in terms of baseball watching, fan, attendance if local team existed based on each ticket type.

• Recorded percentages of people that would be willing to pay for each ticket type, and how many people would spend what % of ticket price on ancillary goods.

2. What do you consider to be the key findings of the research survey? Comment on what Buckingham learned about a prospective customer profile, pricing, and single-ticket versus season-ticket packages.

• Single-ticket: as long as prices were reasonable, they assume attendance is 100%

• Pricing: Too low and people will be more likely to not show up because they aren’t concerned with losing a few dollars-lose concessions if people don’t show up. Too high and people won’t buy tickets, again, no concessions.

• Customer Profile: 5,000 residents of Springfield above the poverty line and 5,000 people who attended or played in minor/little league games. The residents of Springfield consist 60% of families, 10% senior citizens and 25% are single. Also, recently many entrepreneurs have moved in to Springfield.

• Season-ticket: Attendance drops to 97%, 95%, 90%. Owner must consider the ancillary revenue that they are missing out on when ticketholder does not come and must make up for this difference in package pricing of season tickets.

3. What