The owners of WNBA basketball’s Seattle Storm are to take over the ticketing function for local National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) side, Seattle Reign.
Force 10 Sports Management has signed a deal merging Seattle Reign’s ticketing, service operations and a portion of its digital marketing under the same management as the Storm, the WNBA women’s basketball team in Seattle, US.
The Storm will be paid a fixed amount for its services, rather than operating on a percentage of the business brought in. The Storm play at KeyArena, while the Reign are based at Memorial Stadium.
Alisha Valavanis, president and general manage of the Storm said the agreement to link up with the Reign is to help gain recognition in a “crowded Seattle sports landscape.”
“I do hope that we can show a model and put a model in place that is mutually beneficial to the smaller organisations, (through) shared resources and looking at how both parties can benefit has been a part of it,” Valavanis said, according to the Seattle Times.
“We continue to look at long-term financial sustainability and really building out a business that’s viable and thriving,” Valavanis said. “With this arm of our business, the sports management, we see potential.”
She added: “This is a really unique opportunity to partner with and bring on board another women’s professional sports organisation that we believe the partnership can support.”
According to the Seattle Times, Reign owner Bill Predmore said the Storm’s “mature set of processes” in ticketing should boost his franchise’s revenue and allow him to focus on other aspects of the team’s business.
The Reign averaged 4,037 fans per home game at Memorial Stadium last season, down from 4,599 in 2016 and 4,060 in 2015.
“The end goal for us is pretty obvious — we’d like to sell as many tickets as possible,” Predmore said.
“There was no real reason to create parallel or redundant organisations. I think they’ve done a very good job of both selling and servicing their clients and customers.
“The idea of finding partnerships that allow you to provide better service and better experience at a lower cost is something that probably all teams are looking to do.”
Image: Team logos added to white background
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