TFL Serves as Title Sponsor of NAATSO for Second Year
TFL was the title sponsor of NACDA’s NAATSO conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, which offered a space for Team TFL to network with, and learn from, other leaders in the industry.
Throughout the conference, there was a topic that was consistently at the forefront: data.
With mentions of the topic at several different sessions, it became clear that data is being used in a variety of ways.
Clay Discher, chief revenue officer at TFL, moderated a panel called “Insights to Action: Making Use of Data,” focusing on ways schools use data to help reach fans. Panelists included Matt Carabajal, the senior director of ticket operations at the Washington Commanders, Patrick Crowley, assistant athletic director at Tennessee, and Justin Morgan, assistant vice president of ticket sales and development at Texas A&M’s 12th Man Foundation.
One of the questions Clay asked the panelists was what valuable data reports they’ve created.
A report that Crowley highlighted was on gate entrances. His team felt that certain gate entrances were too busy, so they wanted to find a way that their fans could still have a good experience even if gates were busy. During home games, Crowley’s team ran a report to see where the most ticket scans were. They used information to then distribute workers accordingly to have more scanners at the busier gates.
Clay also asked the group what type of data they find to be most actionable and how they’re using that data to drive successful outcomes.
“We’re constantly running paid social ads and email marketing campaigns to find those hand raisers and making sure we’re reaching out to them as quickly as we can,” said Carabajal. “On the back end, I also think from an actional data standpoint, when we look at pricing and decisions that go into that, a lot of secondary market data is what I would rely on in addition to the insights that your partner – a group like a TFL – can provide you for making those decisions.”
If it wasn’t already obvious that data was emphasized at NACDA, NCAA president Charlie Baker even highlighted the NCAA’s new fan database in the conference’s featured session.
“We grew year-over-year ticket revenues at one program in the spring… by 30%,” he said to the schools in attendance. “We can do reciprocal work with you all to enhance many of your most interesting rivalry games and your own tournaments, but it can definitely give us the ability to connect fans with the schools and sports they love in person.”
“And it’s also going to dramatically improve how we reach millions of fans through a variety of social media and traditional media and streaming channels so that we can drive additional exposure, and yes, additional revenue to college sports.”
Data isn’t going anywhere. Especially as technology continues to advance, it’ll be increasingly more important for schools to dive deeper in their numbers and statistics to streamline their processes and understand their fan base.
