Massachusetts Athletics Selects The Aspire Group As Official Ticket Marketing, Sales and Service Provider Through 2019

Massachusetts Athletics has reached an agreement with The Aspire Group, the global leader in sport & entertainment revenue enhancement, to build an on-campus Fan Relationship Management Center (FRMC). The FRMC will provide Ticket Marketing, Sales and Service support for football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s hockey, men’s lacrosse and softball. The UMass FRMC will include a Manager, Database Coordinator, Group Sales Consultant, and two Sales and Service Consultants.

The goal is to provide the Minutemen fans with excellent customer service, grow individual sports attendances, and generate incremental athletic revenues.  In addition to administering Massachusetts Athletics’ ticket sales operation, Aspire’s Strategic Consulting & Research team will also provide support in fan research and ticket pricing workshops to jump-start the partnership.

“This marks a gigantic leap forward in our ability to reciprocate the passion and commitment our fans show us on a daily basis,” stated Alan Pandiani, Massachusetts Athletics Associate Director of Sales and Fan Experience. “It is truly exciting to know that you are partnering with a firm that will continually deliver the most cutting-edge strategies and tactics for building fan engagement and growing attendance. Aspire is a pivotal component of our long-term strategy for UMass Athletics.”

In July 2015, Aspire executed a 20 week remote outbound ticket sales campaign for football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey that produced over $126K in revenue, over $32,000 of the total revenue was generated through remote email marketing efforts.

“After ten years as a professor at UMass earlier in my career, I am excited for this opportunity to return to campus with Aspire in supporting the Minutemen nation,” stated Bernie Mullin, Chairman & CEO of The Aspire Group. “It is a great privilege to work with Ryan Bamford and the UMass athletic staff in striving for world-class customer service and delivering peak performance in ticket marketing, sales, and service.”

The Aspire Group has named Doug Bean as Manager of the UMass FRMC. Previously, Doug was the Manager at Aspire’s Rutgers FRMC, which in 2015 broke records for average football season attendance, the highest crowd for a football game, highest wrestling season attendance, and the highest attendance for a wrestling match.

CJ Wiatr, Regional VP of Fan Relationship Management for The Aspire Group, will serve as the liaison between Aspire and Massachusetts Athletics. Wiatr has worked for numerous NFL teams such as the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns, and currently oversees twelve of The Aspire Group’s FRMC properties including the University of Minnesota, University of Kansas, and the University of Maryland.

For inquiries or further questions, please contact A.J. Smith at aj.smith@theaspiregroupinc.com (Director, Client Partner Development).

 

About University of Massachusetts Athletics 

As the flagship campus of America’s education state, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the leader of the public higher education system of the Commonwealth, making a profound, transformative impact to the common good. Founded in 1863, it is the largest public research university in New England, distinguished by the excellence and breadth of our academic, research and community outreach programs. University of Massachusetts ranks 29th among the nation’s top public universities, moving up 11 spots in the past two years in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual college guide.

Massachusetts Athletics boasts 21 NCAA-sponsored sports for more than 600 student-athletes. Led by Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford, the Minutemen and Minutewomen compete in the Atlantic 10, Hockey East, Colonial Athletic Association (men’s lacrosse), Eastern College Athletic Conference and as an FBS Independent in football.

 

About The Aspire Group

The Aspire Group is a global sports and entertainment marketing firm that specializes in enhancing all revenue streams while building lifelong fans for our clients through superb fan engagement and service. The Aspire Group currently works with client partners in North America, Europe and Australia providing ongoing strategic business consulting and research; outsourced services; and implementation support in all facets of sports business and investment optimization. Aspire has become the global leader in outsourced revenue enhancement with more than 40 collegiate properties in the USA and over 100 more sports and entertainment properties who have trusted Aspire to drive revenue, attendance and enterprise value. In 2015, The Aspire Group was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Top 10 Best Places To Work For In Sports” and nominated by Sports Business Journal for a “Best In Property Consulting, Sales and Client Services” award for the second time. For more information, please visit www.theaspiregroupinc.com.