Memphis Is Giving Fans That Pay For The Season Opener A Free Ticket To Every Home Game Until The Tigers Lose
Credit to the marketing team down in Memphis because this is a genius promotion. You can probably get into the Bethune-Cookman game for about $5 on the secondary market or with a canned good donation at the gate, but I'd imagine Tiger fans will now be paying 12x that just for the thrill of it. Besides, Memphis is 52-9 at home in since 2014. It's not crazy to think that these fans could get season tickets for a one time payment of $60 this year. I bet the phones are ringing in the office this morning.
But a word of caution: the Memphis Athletic Director ain't no dummy. And this says a lot about what he thinks of his team this year, because buddy ain't in it to lose money. So while they should have zero problems with the FCS school they have in Week 1, and they will likely be pretty good favorites in their 2nd home game against Navy, there ain't no way this promotion is going to cost them in the long run.
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Home Game 3 - Boise State (heavy favorites to win the Mountain West)
Home Game 4 - Tulane (heavy favorites to win the AAC)
If the Tigers are really 4-0 after that slate, I'd imagine he's making enough money on the backend from more and more people coming to the games to see what the hype is all about. But okay, that's enough Memphis football talk, sorry Memphis. What I'm really interested in is what the prices would be if a true Power 5 team ran this promotion.
Top teams that are likely to run the table like Ohio State and Georgia wouldn't do this because they would have to offer the incentive at less than all of their games purchased solo, but what about schools like Mississippi? Yes they will beat Mercer and Georgia Tech, but then LSU comes to town. Heavy dogs. But if they were to beat LSU, they could legitimately run the rest of their home schedule since Bama and Georgia are on the road. So if tickets were $100 a game, would the AD do $500 for the opener and a free ticket until they lose? Would be interesting for sure. I need a mid-level Power 5 team to take the gamble.