Sports Event Audit free essay sample

I’ve recently attended the Men’s basketball home game against Wisconsin on March 2nd, 2013 to witness this chant first hand but primarily I attended the game in regards to evaluating the event from a consultant’s perspective. Prior to the basketball game that day there was of course pre-event advertising and promotions used as tactics in order to attract fans. The day of the game it was Assembly Hall’s 50th year anniversary. Those in charge of promotion and publicity used the venue’s 50th year of establishment in order to draw more fans and attention to the game. There was a mass mail email sent out the students here at the university about the game and the anniversary. The email included information regarding the history of Assembly Hall as well a special ticket pricing for this anniversary event. The ticket special would appeal to more people due to the lower prices. Traffic control is a major factor when it comes to organizing any sports event. Traffic control is important because this regulates safety as well as the customers’ satisfaction in attending your event. While in route to the basketball, which was set to start at 4:15PM there was light traffic, essentially just as much traffic as there would be on any other Saturday evening in my opinion. After the game however, traffic was at an absolute deadlock. There were traffic officers directing cars to their best abilities in order to provide a safe route to leave. The traffic officers had on their uniforms and reflective vest due to the darkness. The parking lot was completely jammed pack to the point where there was a five-minute wait just turn out of the parking lot. I personally did not drive to the game and was given a ride where I was dropped off directly in front of the main doors and ticketing booth. I was able to drive down the â€Å"drop-off only/will call† area directed and labeled by signs. Assembly Halls does offer parking in the four quadrants surrounding the building as well as across from First Street in the parking lot E-14. The area of parking makes the distance to assembly hall not that bad of a distance at while walking. During this basketball game there were no parking attendants on duty before the game. The parking fees are seven dollars per car or motorcycle and fifth-teen dollars per bus. The parking system follows a â€Å"first come, first serve† basis. The ticketing operations I feel are one if not the most important factor when it comes to organizing a sports event. Ensuring that you have enough tickets, the promotion of the tickets, and providing the tickets are the key elements. The tickets pave as access to get into any sporting event. The ticketing personnel wore their uniforms and were any distinguishable. For the basketball games held at Assembly hall you can purchase tickets various ways. You can order tickets online and print out your own ticket stub, you can also call and confirm tickets via will call and you can also purchase tickets at the ticket booth located at the front doors of Assembly hall. I think that those in charge of the ticketing operations did a very good job with the aspects I previously listed. Not to mention there were people outside the doors and around the ticket booth selling unwanted tickets for their own prices. The ticketing attendants in the booth were in charge of distributing the tickets those who have not already purchased them. The ticket prices varied upon level of sitting A, B, C, to be exact the A level is closest to the floor while C level is closest to the rafters of the arena. Of course the closer you are to the floor the more money the ticket will cost. My ticket cost was about eleven dollars because I sat in the C level, while the B level was 25 dollars, and the A level was 40 dollars for a ticket. As I stated earlier there was a special package deal, which consisted of four C level tickets for 50 dollars because of the 50th anniversary of assembly hall. Once entering the building you have more ticketing attendants who rip off stubs on both the main level and upper level of the arena. Three different levels classify the seating in the Assembly hall. The first level is floor seating, the second level seating is about the first 30 rows, and while the last and last highest level are rows 40 going back towards the top of the structure. I think that the idea behind the seating structure was to create the most possible seats for fans. There are over 16,000 seats at Assembly Hall. There were ushers at the opening of each seating sections that were labeled by numbers. The usher directed me towards my seat without me asking which were only a few rows before top row of is seats in the building. It was easy gaining access due to the labeling of the rows and seat numbers on the side of the stairs as you walk up them. Towards the end of the game I conversed with an usher. She was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable of other areas of the arena. She stated that she had been working at Assembly hall for years and really enjoys helping people. The seats were not that comfortable they were hard plastic with no seating cushion included. I would definitely invest in more comfortable seating throughout the arena. The sight line in my opinion were fine however, there was a man in the row in front me who had binoculars in the audience. I asked him if he used the binoculars because who could not see because of the layout structure of the seating and he responded it was due to fact of his weak eyesight. As far as the organization of the concessions stands I was quite impressed. There were concession stands every 500ft on each floor of the arena. This is definitely beneficial because of course or going to become hungry and its basic supply and demand as far as the prices go. I stopped at one concession stand to record some of their menu items. The concession stand sold typical products in my opinion such as, hot dogs, pretzels, nachos, candy, pizza, fountain beverages, and bottled waters. The products were a little over priced being about one or two dollars than what you would usually pay outside of arena setting. The concession stand had around six workers that had their own individual stations, which aided in the process an effective and quick checkout process for the customers. The workers had a great attitude in assisting the customer in what they asked for with no problem. There were also special carts that served items such as barbeque and others that served ice cream they as well portrayed excellent customer service. I talked to a worker of a concession stand he explained that there is only right way to come to work and that is with the best attitude possible. He stated it makes everything much easier from customer relationships and the relationship of the manager on duty. Merchandise vendors were scattered among the first and second level floors but not as often as all the concession stands. I believe that there could have more stands in order to generate more revenue. I stopped at one merchandise vendor and took down a inventory of what they were selling. They had U of I t-shirts, Jersey number t-shirts, hats, posters, mini basketballs, and magnet schedules. From the looks of their stock in the open there was a good supply of items in which they would have enough to sell in order to make a profit. The quality of the products seemed fine or average nothing appeared to be lacking quality and neither did anything seem to have amazing quality. The pricing for shirts was overpriced in my opinion by being anywhere from 20 to 25 dollars for a shirt. Every other product I listed above seemed fair that would be a good equilibrium price for both seller and buyer. There were a very high number of restrooms in Assembly Hall. There were about four restrooms on each floor separated by seating sections basically. I visited four bathrooms, two bathrooms on the first floor and two bathrooms of the second floor. Each one of the bathrooms that I visited was very clean. There were also lower urinals next to taller ones for children. There is a lot of signage all throughout the arena there were signs everywhere. Directional signs were right above your head and in the line of sight leading you to seating, bathroom, and concession areas. When you looked at the court all over the scoreboards and announcer’s table there were signs from and ads from sponsors. There were even signs on the building itself for example if you were looking for section number it would be located on the on the stone portion of the building and not a wall. The signs were not clutter or confusing but instead very easy to follow and were easily used as a guide. The atmosphere was an amazing part of the game. The atmosphere of a game is in my opinion one of the most versatile factor of organizing an event. You want all spectators to enjoy their selves throughout and not have a bad experience atmosphere can greatly affect this experience. I asked three people how atmosphere impacted their sporting experience. All there of them responded similarly adding that the best part of being at Assembly Hall are all of the fans chanting and everyone coming together to root for their home team. One of the three people that I asked the question responded that personally think that something that would have made their experience better if they had vendors up and down the aisles with snacks and beverages. During slow moments of the game the announcer would let us know of future events. There was also sponsor advertisement located on the jumbotron and announcer’s table as well as scoreboards. Music was played throughout the arena simultaneously especially during slow moments of the game and timeouts. The fans were completely in tune with the game of course they participated in the â€Å"I-L-L-I-N-I† chant at specific moments of the game. Of course there was the typical banter of gameplay by fans. Some fans were encouraging while others wee angry when players were angry. One thing that I noticed was that the fans participated in the â€Å"loud-o-meter† that flashed across the jumbotron during crucial moments of the game. I felt as if that was a great way to get fans involved with the action that was going on the court. Some event extenders were t-shirt cannons targeted at the audience, there was a raffle to win autographed basketball. Something that I’ve never noticed before was that at half time everyone rose to sing the school song in harmony. The only thing that came close to this was during the national anthem. During halftime and timeouts the cheerleading would perform and or do aerial stunts across of the court keep fans entertained we all as spectators waited for the action to continue. In conclusion the basketball was organized very well as it should have been due to the level of professionalism among those working in colligate basketball. Overall I would make slight changes in order to enhance the fans experience. The atmosphere level was great but I agree with the one spectator whom I asked about his experience with the idea of hiring vendors to walk up and down the aisles. Some people may want to purchase food but do not want it enough to actually get up and purchase it this would solve this problem. I would say that it is always important to keep well-rounded employees of areas of career opportunities in order to maintain the best customer service as possible. A person attitude or lack of knowledge could deeply impact a person’s experience at your sporting events. I also think that provide spectators with the most comfortable surroundings is an important aspect that Assembly hall should consider, comfortable seats for example. Making sure that the elements of organizing a sporting event are completely satisfied it will lead the most successful event and I believe this basketball game was very successful.