The Jonah Keri Podcast, Episode 47
23 June 2011
Today’s guest is Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, and Washington Mystics, and author of The Business of Happiness: 6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work. He blogs at Ted’s Take and tweets @TedLeonsis.
The topics we cover:
- 0:30-9:15: The incredible challenge of winning a sports championship
- 9:16-17:30: Drafting well
- 17:31-20:40: Does an owner’s interaction with fans have a tangible impact on revenue?
- 20:41-27:28: Using analytics off the court/ice
- 27:29-29:17: Teams participating in the secondary market for ticket sales
- 29:18-32:57: Benefits and drawbacks of participating in an all-access documentary like the HBO Series 24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic
- 32:58-end: Film + philanthropy = filmanthropy
Player embedded below. To download, right click here.
2 Comments
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In response to Mr. Leonsis’s comment about deserving all or a portion of the profit generated on the secondary ticket market, I have to pose this counter-point: What about the thousands of tickets sold during the regular season that your loyal season-ticket holders are forced to sell at a loss? I have had to do this several times with my Yankee season tickets this season, and something tells me the Wizards’ ticket-holders aren’t finding all of their games to be in the highest demand. My question then becomes, would you be willing, Mr. Generic Pro Sports Franchise Owner, to invest in the risk of the tickets selling at a loss, and sharing that loss with the ticket-holder? If so, then I think there is a great deal to be said for his point, but unfortunately I doubt that is actually the case.
I hate what the secondary market has done to ticket prices, especially for the “premium games” as much as anyone, but I don’t think this is the solution to that issue.
I agree with some of Brian point. He doesn’t say where he is from. If he is following a great team, he probably sell some tickets of the premium games plus play offs and make some money to cover the cost of his season tickets. I go back and fourth on the secondary market thing. After all the ticket holder already paid for the ticket. Why should the team care what he does with the ticket.