Tonight in Unpacks: The NFL Club Business Development group has been around for 14 years, and as SBJ's Ben Fischer details in this week's magazine, Club BD has seen its size and influence grow rapidly over the past decade, as teams look for ways to maximize their operations and share learnings that help the entire league.
You’re reading the Lite version of SBJ Unpacks. Subscribe to SBJ All Access for the full version of this newsletter, plus daily email alerts, executive transactions, virtual SBJ Event access and dozens of other subscriber-only benefits. Here are the stories you’re missing in tonight’s full newsletter:
Also tonight:
- Barclays Center sees bullish debut for its first PBR event
- Forum: Is MLB on deck for the L.A. Olympics?
- Cincinnati Open sees record first weekend crowd
- Op-ed: The legal implications of private equity in collegiate sports
Listen to SBJ's most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour examines the growing opposition to Browns’ new stadium plans, the Brewers surveying fans on ballpark improvements, a novel approach to raising revenue at Northwestern and more.
NFL’s Club Business Development group playing bigger role in teams' decision-making
In late 2020, AMB Sports and Entertainment was considering a proposal to include tickets to one road game in Falcons club season-ticket packages. But first, then-CRO Tim Zulawski would need some key questions answered: Could their opponents guarantee sufficient quality inventory? How should they insure the program? Would this actually move the needle for fans on the fence about buying or renewing season tickets?
Zulawski and his colleagues researched those questions on their own, but to meet their goal of going to market in just three months, they wanted more research and validation. That’s where the NFL’s Club Business Development division came in, with ticketing and market research data to back them up. The Falcons went forward with the plan and have done it since, even selling out their season tickets for 2024.
It’s one of many examples team executives around the league give to show how NFL Club Business Development (Club BD), a 14-year-old division of the NFL that’s rapidly grown in size and influence in the past decade, makes their job easier, reports SBJ's Ben Fischer in this week's magazine.
Launched in 2010 and led by SVP Bobby Gallo, Club BD's basic concept is to facilitate more efficient information sharing among teams. Its first job was to act as the NFL’s in-house resource for teams seeking feedback on ideas, benchmarks and best practices. With information gathered from all 32 teams, Club BD can quickly inform teams if they’re outliers on pricing or headcount, for instance, or quickly spread ideas that work in one place to many markets.
