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Experience, LLC is a start-up company that sells in-game seat upgrades during live sporting events using text messaging and cell phone apps. From a user standpoint, a small upgrade fee results in better seats and a better game experience. From a venue or team standpoint, Experience fills unused inventory resulting in increased revenues and more satisfied fans with higher repurchase intentions. Experience is looking to expand its services beyond single-game upgrades to a full-season ticket that is based on filling open, but previously sold, inventory. This case illustrates the forces at play in the ticketing industry, describes the features of each service, and provides an opportunity to decide on the expansion strategy for a fast-growing start-up company.

This case illustrates the challenges entrepreneurs experience as they try to guide a new venture to the commercialization stage in the entrepreneurial process. Steve Wheeler, Mike Maddock, and Marcel Savidon are three young entrepreneurs and friends who founded Magine Snowboards, a company focused on the manufacturing of snowboards. This case is set in January of 2012 as Steve Wheeler debates the next strategic step for the company. Magine has developed an innovative product—a snowboard that uses environmentally friendly and sustainable materials. The entrepreneurs have been able to start the business through bootstrapping. However, they now need to develop a strategy that can guide the company forward.

Understanding factors that influence live game-day attendance has garnered significant attention from both researchers and practitioners in the sport industry. Despite the National Football League’s unprecedented annual revenues, league attendance remains down, spurring large-scale investment into the game-day experience (Florio, 2008). In this case, students will perform various statistical analyses (i.e., computing chi-square tests of independence, t tests, effect sizes [Cohen’s d], and confidence intervals) to determine which factors most strongly influence fan attendance at Jacksonville Jaguars home games. Specifically, this case investigates the degree to which stadium upgrades motivate fans to attend and explores the extent to which fans support the use of public funds for stadium upgrades. Answering these questions will further equip future sport managers to make data-driven decisions regarding the utility of strategies—such as stadium projects—to enhance the game-day experience. Furthermore, students can use the knowledge gained from the case to critically analyze public investment in sport stadia as well as the ways in which consumers’ preferences are either independent of or depend on categorical variables such as gender. The case is intended for use in research methods courses and is also applicable to sport marketing, sport facility, and sport finance courses.

James Park has been hired as the new CEO by the board of directors of GoSports Inc., a large national sporting goods retailer, which has been battling economic and internal issues over the previous years. Despite Park’s experience at the helm of large companies in need of profound strategic and structural change, in his new position at GoSports he has been “butting heads” with a powerful collective of executives unhappy with the hire and threatened by the new CEO’s accolades. To complicate matters, rumor has it that the decision to hire Park was far from unanimous, with various factions vying for control in the company, waiting for a chance to fill the power vacuum a quick departure by Park would leave behind. After two weeks with the company, Park is called before the board of directors to report on the progress made and how he plans to return GoSports to its former glory.

A professional sport team began play in a new stadium. Although the old facility had no such seat inventory, one of the features at the new facility was the addition of 8,800 club seats. According to the marketing materials provided by the team, the new club-seat inventory offers amenities not available at the old stadium, including upscale concessions, a heated and air-conditioned lounge, padded seats, and increased restroom capacity. After the opening of the new stadium, fans complained about their club seat experience, including long concessions and restrooms lines (typically longer than at the old facility) and consistent premium food shortages. In the off-season, the team began the process of sending ticket-renewal invoices for the upcoming season. Approximately 100 club-seat holders declined to renew, claiming the team breached the contract by not providing the services promised. The team attempted to negotiate with the affected customers with limited success.

Aaron Kelly, a highly respected college sport consultant, is charged with the task of presenting a new model of intercollegiate athletic administration to a panel of leaders in the field. Coincidence and research led him to a successful National Junior College Athletic Association athletic program that was discontinued in pursuit of a new model of competitive intra-collegiate athletics when the institution transitioned to a four-year university. Given the purpose of athletics within the academe to facilitate an educational experience difficult to replicate through any other opportunity, (Brand, 2006; NCAA 2010; Rader, 1999) this program sheds light on a new way to view this tradition we have come to know as college sport. The purpose of this case is to highlight the tremendous potential for innovation that exists within the intercollegiate athletic model. While financial challenges make it difficult for many institutions to sponsor broad-based intercollegiate athletics programs, this model presents a design that can reduce expenditures and provide additional participation opportunities for education through athletics. As Kelly prepares for his presentation, he questions whether this model is ideal and how the landscape of intercollegiate athletics might be affected if implemented on a national scale.

After eight years on staff, Katie Harris was recently promoted from director of ticket operations to a new position as associate athletic director at Montgomery University (MU). Several months into her new position, Katie is faced with a difficult challenge. Several thousand fans from conference rival Bucks State College (BSC) attended a men’s basketball game at the 15,000-seat MU Convocation Center. The large presence of BSC fans did nothing worthy of ejection, but was able to negatively impact the experience for many MU fans. MU’s high profile men’s basketball coach contacted the director of athletics requesting if something could be done to reduce the impact of visiting fans. Though the coach understands that dealing with opposing fans is part of sport, even on a team’s home court, the environment has become a distraction for coaches, players, and many significant athletic department donors who pay premium prices for season tickets. The coach received complaints from numerous supporters indicating that unless something is done they are considering cancelling their season tickets. Though complicated by logistics, financial, and legal consequences, Katie has been asked to research the issue and share recommendations for policy development.