{"id":320,"date":"2015-04-07T12:26:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T11:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/?p=320"},"modified":"2015-11-24T05:21:03","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T04:21:03","slug":"stadium-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/entrepreneurship\/2015\/04\/07\/stadium-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"Stadium Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last summer, I was lucky enough to be at the opening game of\u00a0the new San Francisco 49ers<\/a> stadium: the Levi’s Stadium<\/a><\/strong>. The game\u00a0was\u00a0an\u00a0MLS<\/a>\u00a0(Major League Soccer) game with the San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> hosting the\u00a0Seattle Sounders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 49ers wanted to christen\u00a0the stadium with a non-NFL<\/a> game. It wasn’t a sellout but they did\u00a0fill 50,000 seats out of\u00a0about 70,000.<\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/a>
Broncos vs 49ers preseason game at Levi’s Stadium. Source: Flickr. Author: Jim Bahn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game itself wasn’t so great. The most interesting\u00a0thing\u00a0was the stadium itself. One of the long sides of the field looks more like an office building<\/strong>\u00a0than the usual\u00a0stands in a stadium, (see above image). These are in fact the \u00a0VIP boxes<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The number of VIP boxes has increased dramatically over time<\/strong>. Comparing this stadium with an old one such as the\u00a0Camp Nou<\/a>\u00a0(FC Barcelona<\/a> or Bar\u00e7a<\/em> stadium, built in 1957) where you have a hard time finding these boxes<\/a>, shows how much sport is a business\u00a0these days.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
NRG Sky Suite sits atop Levi\u2019s\u00ae Stadium. Source: Levi’s Stadium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VIP boxes are several times more profitable than seats<\/strong>. Making money out of a stadium today means having lots of these boxes<\/strong> and\u00a0having\u00a0companies in the area\u00a0with the money\u00a0to pay for them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Older stadiums are at a significant\u00a0disadvantage in terms of generating stadium revenue. They simply lack these money-making machines that are the VIP boxes.<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0interesting\u00a0to see today in the press how English Premier League<\/a> EPL fans\u00a0are complaining about rising ticket prices<\/a>.\u00a0Competition in the soccer\u00a0field depends on winning in the business field. As long as there are people willing to pay higher prices, the question is who gets the value, the customers or the teams. For now it\u00a0looks like the teams are learning to hold onto it at the expense of driving away those unwilling or unable to pay as much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last summer, I was lucky enough to be at the opening game of\u00a0the new San Francisco 49ers stadium: the Levi’s Stadium. The game\u00a0was\u00a0an\u00a0MLS\u00a0(Major League Soccer) game with the San Jose Earthquakes hosting the\u00a0Seattle Sounders. The 49ers wanted to christen\u00a0the stadium with a non-NFL game. It wasn’t a sellout but they did\u00a0fill 50,000 seats out of\u00a0about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240],"tags":[89754,83691,85382],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","tag-innovation","tag-sports-management","tag-stadiums","megacategoria-mc-entrepreneurship"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t