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Blog · Wallet share and penetration · Sports

From season ticket to hospitality: the members who bought once, and the ones who never were asked

How a sports organisation measures the path from its ticketing base to its hospitality and membership products, from the ticketing and hospitality ledgers joined on the customer: season ticket holders who have bought hospitality once, the ones who bought and did not return, the ones who fit the profile of hospitality buyers and were never offered it, the value at the norm of similar members, and the list per fixture of who to invite.

The short answerThe ticketing ledger and the hospitality ledger joined on the customer show three groups among season ticket holders: those who buy hospitality regularly, those who bought once and did not return, and those who never have. Among the third group, the ones whose tenure, seat band and spend match the profile of regular hospitality buyers are the prospects, valued at what similar members spend on hospitality per season. The once-and-gone group is a different list: what they bought, for which fixture, and whether the delivery data shows why. Per fixture, the invitation list is the prospects with the fixture's unsold hospitality beside them.

A club's hospitality team sells to companies and to whoever calls. Its ticketing base holds thousands of members whose tenure and spend match the club's own regular hospitality buyers, and none of them has been invited. The two ledgers joined on the customer show who they are. This guide sets out the three groups, the profile norm, the prospect value, and the per-fixture list.

The measures

Per member:

Hospitality purchases by season: regular (two or more seasons), once, never Profile: tenure band, seat band, ticket spend, fixtures attended Profile match = shares the profile of regular buyers, at a stated threshold Value at norm = median hospitality spend per season among regular buyers with the profile

Per fixture: prospects, and the fixture's unsold hospitality.

The rows you need

  • Ticketing ledger: customer, season, seat band, spend, fixtures attended.
  • Hospitality ledger: customer, fixture, product, spend.
  • Delivery data: fixture, hospitality booking, seats used, timing.
  • Customer identifiers: joined across the two systems.

Customer identifiers only.

The assertion

hospitality customers who are members ⊆ ticketing customers

A hospitality buyer with a member's profile and no ticketing record is an unmatched identifier, listed for the join.

A worked view

Members: 14,200.

Group Members Share Median ticket spend Reading
Regular hospitality buyers 610 4% £1,400 The norm's population
Bought once, did not return 480 3% £1,100 Service list
Never bought, profile match 1,900 13% £1,300 Prospects
Never bought, no match 11,210 79% £520 Not the list

The prospects, per fixture

Fixture Unsold hospitality Prospects matching Value at norm Invited before
vs Rivals, Sat 60 seats 1,900 £680/season 0
vs Mid-table, Tue 590 seats 1,900 0

Nineteen hundred members who look exactly like the club's hospitality buyers, a fixture with five hundred and ninety empty hospitality seats, and no invitation has ever gone out.

The once-and-gone

Member Fixture bought Product Delivery data Reading
M-2207 Cup semi-final Lounge Seats used 4 of 4; catering late by 40 min Service: the experience
M-4471 League, midweek Box share Seats used 2 of 6 Wrong product: too large

Where it goes wrong

Two ledgers never joined. The base and the product in different systems.

Prospects from a purchased list. The club's own members already fit.

Once-and-gone treated as prospects. Sold to again instead of asked.

Invitation without the fixture's inventory. The prospects invited to the sold-out fixture.

Every fixture, the list

Mapped once, the ticketing and hospitality ledgers and the delivery data produce the three groups, the profile norm, the prospects with value and the per-fixture list. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The sports page describes the setup, and the hospitality yield guide covers the unsold inventory the prospects are invited into.

Questions people ask

What is the profile of a hospitality buyer?

From the organisation's own members: tenure band, seat band, ticket spend, fixtures attended, and postcode band where held, among members who buy hospitality in two or more seasons. The norm is what those members share; a member with the same profile and no hospitality purchase is the prospect.

Why separate the once-and-gone?

Because a member who bought hospitality once and did not return had an experience, and the delivery data for that fixture, the seats used, the catering, the timing, may say what it was. That is a service conversation, not a sales one, and it is worth more than a new prospect because the interest was proven.

Does this need names?

No. Customer identifiers across the ticketing and hospitality systems, joined once. The invitation list goes to the hospitality sales team with identifiers; the ticketing system has the names.