As the college football season approaches, optimizing inventory and revenue is top of mind for college athletic programs. Iowa State University collaborated with Ticketmaster’s Nexus partner seasonshare to develop the Cyclone Mobile Pass. This pass allows fans to enjoy football games from various viewpoints in the stadium with a different seat location for each home game. Since its inception in 2020, the Cyclone Mobile Pass has driven over $1.5M in incremental revenue from recent alumni and budget-conscious fans while creating new leads for future full-season ticket sales.
How the Cyclone Mobile Pass Works
The Cyclone Mobile Pass offers fans a flexible, discounted ticketing option that complements the team’s full-season ticket offerings. Priced at $249, the Pass includes admission to all home football games at Jack Trice Stadium. However, fans will not know their seat location until the day before the game when their tickets are delivered through Ticketmaster’s Account Manager.
Leveraging seasonshare’s suite of technology, seats are assigned algorithmically based on unsold inventory on a game-by-game basis. This approach allows the team to utilize unused team-held seats and other returned inventory, providing a two-fold benefit: first, the stadium can be strategically dressed to ensure there are no empty seats or blocks in the lower bowl; and second, the team can surprise and delight Cyclone Mobile Pass buyers with lower bowl seats when available.
Integrating With a Best-In-Class Partner Network
Iowa State’s partnership with Ticketmaster provides the athletics program with access to over 95 certified technology partners through Ticketmaster’s Nexus Partner Program. By connecting to Ticketmaster’s Suite for APIs, Iowa State is able to seamlessly integrate the Cyclone Mobile Pass, through seasonshare, to Account Manager. With this integration, Iowa State can fill seats that would otherwise go unsold, generating incremental revenue and helping to pack the house. Additionally, they can gain valuable insights and establish a key touchpoint for cultivating lasting fan relationships.
Our partnership with Ticketmaster and seasonshare to fulfill our Cyclone Mobile Pass helps us to provide an affordable and flexible season ticket option to our fans. The growing desire from fans is flexibility, and with the use of Ticketmaster and seasonshare’s technology, we can assign Cyclone Mobile Pass holders a different seat location for each game along with the ability to purchase guest tickets to be seated next to their Cyclone Mobile Pass. This has opened a new revenue stream for us. Internally, the ability to fill seats in the stadium the day before a game allows us to ensure the stadium always looks full.
Justin Thompson
Assistant Athletics Director for Ticket Operations, Iowa State University
Unlocking Revenue Growth With Ticket Groups
A standout feature of the Cyclone Mobile Pass is its ability to enable fans to create ticket groups. Similar to adding friends or contacts on social media, this feature allows teams to unlock peer-to-peer revenue growth.
Fans can invite their friends to purchase separately while ensuring they can sit together on a game-by-game basis. Moreover, the team can also offer guest tickets, providing Cyclone Mobile Pass buyers with the opportunity to bring their friends and family to the games. This not only generates additional revenue but also enhances the overall fan experience, setting a benchmark for excellence in the industry.
Lead-Generation Capabilities
Beyond its immediate revenue impact, the Cyclone Mobile Pass is an effective lead-generation tool for full-season tickets. When the team goes on sale for a new season, the leads generated from the previous season’s Cyclone Mobile Pass buyers provide an invaluable opportunity to convert fans into new full-season ticket buyers.
By partnering with Ticketmaster and seasonshare, Iowa State created this innovative ticketing option for Cyclone fans, resulting in substantial increases in revenue and revolutionizing how their fans experience and engage with Iowa State football.
Are you interested in learning more about our Nexus Partners or what other services Ticketmaster can offer? Get in touch with us here.
About seasonshare
seasonshare makes the thrill of live entertainment more accessible to younger fans through ticketing technology that aligns teams and venues with the next generation of sports consumers. seasonshare’s subscription (Pass), last-minute (Flow), and credit-based (Flex) ticketing solutions solve the most immediate problems in live event attendance – for teams, getting young fans off the couch and into the venue, and for fans, creating personalized, flexible ticketing options.
