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Aspire and Fairfield to Develop Pricing & Packaging for New On-Campus Convocation Center

August 9, 2021

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ATLANTA – Fairfield University Athletics (Fairfield) has contracted The Aspire Group (Aspire) for fan and pricing research ahead of the grand opening of their new 85K sq. ft. Arena and Convocation Center in November of 2022. The 3,500-seat arena features a Stags Club lounge, premium seating areas, a Daktronics LED center-hung video board, and Spirit Shop. Fans will enjoy a variety of food and beverage options including the sale of beer inside the venue. Additionally, state-of-the-art locker rooms, a team film room, and fueling station are focal points of the project to enhance the student-athlete experience.

Aspire’s Strategy Consulting & Research (SC&R) team will work closely with Fairfield athletics staff to deploy a price sensitivity survey to Fairfield basketball fans that will test historic value perception, price elasticity, fan segment representation, and relative ticket package interest. This research will serve as a listening tool to help best shape the fan experience at the new on-campus convocation center. Fairfield’s fans will join the 130K+ who have been surveyed by Aspire’s SC&R team across more than 80 properties.

Results of this survey will inform the collaborative creation of a ticket menu, which will then be optimally priced through Aspire’s Yield Management workshop.

“The completion of the new Convocation Center will be a major inflection point in Fairfield University and Fairfield Athletics history,” said Deputy Director of Athletics Zach Dayton. “This arena will be a centerpiece for our campus and local community, and we want to ensure that we maximize this moment by creating a first-class gameday experience for Stags fans. To achieve this, we need all of our ardent and passionate supporters to have a voice in creating this experience, and we are thankful to have Aspire’s industry-leading process to provide that opportunity for our fans.”

“Aspire’s Yield Management workshops and recommendations have driven millions of dollars in incremental revenue, but the process relies on being as engaging as it is effective”, said Jack Luce, VP of Strategy, Analytics, and Marketing at Aspire. “Involving a property’s ticketing and operations teams ensures their buy-in on any adjustments to pricing and packaging. We are especially excited for this partnership with Fairfield due to the anticipation around their new convocation center and the opportunity we have to create lasting value for loyal fans of the Stags”

Driven by in-depth research into historic ticketing trends and relevant peer benchmarking, Aspire’s Yield Management workshops “scale the house” to assign values to venue sections. The process sets properties up for financial security through ticket marketing plans and logical multi-year pricing ecosystems.

About Fairfield Athletics

Fairfield University sponsors 20 varsity sports, 17 of which compete within the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in addition to field hockey (Northeast Conference), men’s lacrosse (Colonial Athletic Association) and men’s rowing (Intercollegiate Rowing Association) The Stags have competed in 49 NCAA tournaments, and have won 74 MAAC regular-season championships and 63 MAAC Tournament Championships. Fairfield’s new donor-funded arena and Convocation Center will be the home of Fairfield Stags volleyball and basketball as well as the largest on-campus venue for other University events.

For more information about Fairfield Athletics, visit their athletics page here.

About The Aspire Group

The award-winning Aspire Group is a sports and entertainment marketing firm that is globally recognized for innovative ticket and sponsorship sales, consulting, and research services. Aspire created the outsourced ticket sales niche, revolutionizing intercollegiate athletics with the first Fan Relationship Management Center (FRMC) at Georgia Tech in 2009. Over the past twelve years, more than 280 collegiate and professional sports properties have trusted Aspire to drive revenue, attendance, and enterprise-value growth through the combination of marketing, strategic consulting, and research services and best-in-industry fan relationship management.

For more information about The Aspire Group visit: www.theaspiregroupinc.com and follow us on Twitter @theaspire_group

For inquiries and more information on how Aspire can provide support to your Athletic Department, contact A.J. Smith at 404-389-9100 or aj.smith@theaspiregroupinc.com.

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