SEATTLE – If you’re paying $200 to watch an National Football League game, you don’t want to spend half the third quarter standing in line for a $5 hot dog – even if you do plan to auction the dog on eBay.
That’s the thinking behind a $7 million Qwest Field remodeling plan announced by the Seattle Seahawks in January.
The project, which has been delayed a few weeks while the Seahawks drove through the playoffs to today’s Super Bowl in Detroit, will turn 11,500 square feet of little-used storage space into Northwest-style “lofts.”
The area is behind a row of luxury suites – those swank boutiques reserved for corporations and the highest of rollers. But the new lofts will be reserved for holders of a different kind of premium ticket – club seats.
While suites may be better known, club seats are also a key part of the marketing strategy for any stadium or arena, experts say.
Club seats, said Adam Gesacion, director of sales at the Everett Events Center, represent “a pretty good chunk of revenue.”
Local pro sports teams are trying to cash in. The Seattle SuperSonics this year have converted some of their KeyArena luxury suites into a new XO Club, where ticket holders can go to dine at a buffet overlooking the court.
And at the Everett arena, marketers – who now have a waiting list for companies wanting to buy into suites – have begun working harder to sell their club-level seats.
Gesacion said creating club seating is a way to squeeze more revenue out of a limited amount of seating. In some arenas, he added, it’s used as a way to dress up seats in less-attractive locations – end zones or higher-level seats.
Club seat ticketholders typically get access to dining areas reserved for their use, or in some cases, waiters or waitresses bring food or drinks to their seats, said Kim Bedier, who manages the Everett Events Center. Typically, reserved parking is included in the package.
For this, patrons pay a premium. At Qwest Field, club-level seats are on the stadium’s second level. Tickets there run between $125 and $315 apiece, depending on how close you are to the 50-yard line. The seats just below, on the other hand, sell for $74 to $82 apiece.
The new area won’t look out on the field but will be packed with bars, food concession counters and restrooms exclusively available to holders of premium club-level tickets. There will also be seating, and large, flat-panel video screens to allow people to follow the Hawks – or any other NFL game in progress – while they’re away from their seats.
The goal is to make it easier for people sitting in these luxury seats to get their business done during a 12-minute NFL halftime, said Mike Flood, Seahawks vice president of community relations.
Early on, club seats were slow sellers for the Seahawks.
But as the team’s improved and began its current string of playoff appearances, the club level has become more popular, said Suzanne Lavendar, head of corporate communications for the team.
The club-level restaurants and lounges fill up early, with football fans who meet there to eat and drink and watch the early NFL games on big-screen TVs, she said.
At other stadiums, club seating lounges have become popular places for business people to meet and network, added Flood. And in some places, people who can afford the club level seats will take advantage of the lounges to escape from bad weather.
Bad weather isn’t an issue indoors in Everett.
At the Events Center, the club seating is some of the best in the house – lower level at center ice, where ticketholders get in-seat food and beverage service. There’s also a club section in the upper level; a ticket there gives access to a lounge with a bar. Both sections include parking passes.
The center ice club seats are $26 a game, compared with the $16 fans pay to sit one section over. The upper-level club tickets are $18, compared with $12 right next door.
The Events Center lowered those prices this year in hopes of selling more tickets, and the plan was successful, Gesacion said. Revenue is up $150,000, and 488 of the 700 tickets have been sold.
Like the Seahawks, who have found it easier to sell premium tickets now that the team is winning, the Silvertips’ first-season drive to the Western Hockey League finals “definitely helped,” Gesacion said.
But the Everett arena has a further advantage, Bedier said. It’s smaller, so there are fewer luxury packages that need to be sold, and its events are less expensive.
“That’s the real secret to the Silvertips success,” she said. “It’s affordable. Even if you buy a so-called premium seat, it’s affordable.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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