A VIEW FROM ABOVE

A luxury box is special private seating section located within stadiums and other sporting and entertainment venues. They are typically located in the midsection of a stadium grandstand, usually providing the best view of the event. Some can be opened from within, in order for the spectators to feel closer to and more immersed in the action of the event. Watching from above isn’t as immersive as sitting on the 50-yard line 10 rows up, or behind first base dugout. It does however come with an allure of prestige and class enjoying the game from a birds eye view. Inside of a luxury suite you are treated typically to refreshments, food, televisions, a small seating area. Other common perks are special parking spaces at the venue and access to secret entrances.

Luxury boxes are a significant source of revenue for most professional sports teams and venue owners. The average one game suite rental in the NFL is between 15,000 and 25,000. Club seating is a lucrative revenue-generating feature that has helped make pro sports teams financially successful. Most luxury boxes are leased by contract on a yearly basis, where access is granted to the owner of the box by the leaseholder or owner for every event held at the venue. Prices vary from 5,000 to millions of dollars depending on the venue and events that are held there. The first stadium to contain a luxury box was the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, built in 1965.

Houston Astrodome
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsapp/BT/DOMES/HOUSTON/images2.html

The NFL is the most notable when it comes to use of luxury boxes. Under the NFL’s previous revenue sharing agreement, teams had to forfeit a large portion of their ticket revenues so that the funds could be redistributed among all the teams. Most of the new stadiums being built today are not physically obsolete but are financially instead, according to USA Today in the past 20 years, 75% of American sports teams have either built or remodeled their venues, with luxury suite additions being a major reason for the construction and renovation. I learned that the luxury-suite phenomenon was pushed by the NFL’s revenue-sharing model, which until July 2011 allowed owners to keep all funds from luxury suite sales and drove up the average ticket price, so if you have a season ticket holder in your family now you know what the price has been raised over the past few years.

One of the most common reasons to purchase a suite is to entertain and build relationships with clients and prospects or for families to spend time together, and if the right experience is delivered, suite holders can be some of the most loyal supports of a team.

I believe that you should take advantage as a business owner in the area of a local professional sport team and use the “home field advantage” as a way to build a relationship with clients, especially if you or your potential clients are sports fans. Just make sure you are in the right market and can use this luxury to the best of your ability. Being able to bring something new and unique to the table when presenting or impressing will always work for the positive. Luxury box manager / head salesman sounds like a not to shabby job to have from my perspective.

Until next time…

Keep moving forward!