GSU outsources season-ticket sales to IMG

By contrast, using its own sales team consisting mostly of part-time employees, Daniels said Georgia State projects it will fall $240,000 short of its goal of selling $980,000 in tickets for the 2011-12 athletic year. Georgia State made up the difference in revenue with better-than-projected performances in corporate sales, multimedia rights and other revenue streams.

“We need [these increases] to continue to grow the fan base,” Daniels said.

Daniels said they would have outsourced the sales even if Georgia State hadn’t agreed to join the Sun Belt Conference earlier this month. FBS football requires an average attendance of 15,000 per game. Georgia State averaged 14,286 fans last season playing on the FCS level.

“Moving into FBS, those attendance milestones are necessary to maintain,” she said.

IMG, whose client list includes Tennessee, Penn State and Texas-San Antonio, will receive 30 percent of sales revenue in the first year, with that percentage increasing to as much as 40 percent by years 2 and 3, if certain goals are met. IMG won’t receive less than 30 percent or more than 40 percent in any year of the deal.

Georgia Tech did something similar in 2009, outsourcing its ticket sales to the Aspire Group in a three-year deal that paid a similar percentage. Tech exercised a two-year option last year that will extend the contract through 2013.

As IMG moves forward, Daniels said that fans can expect a better customer-service experience, including follow-up thank-you calls, for example.

“A big part will be groups,” Daniels said. “Our intent is to grow season tickets. That’s our bread and butter. You can supplement that through the sale of groups.”

Georgia State’s outsourced operation will be run at the GSU Sports Arena, and will feature three full-time employees using GSU’s current database of 106,000 contacts.

Georgia State’s ticket-sales operation had been staffed by four full-time part-time people and was supplemented by as many as eight students. They were supervised by a manager, Kyle McKeon, who will assume more responsibilities on the development side, and an assistant athletic director for development, Kevin Miller, who recently accepted a job with West Virginia’s athletic fundraising organization. GSU is looking to fill that position.

Daniels said using full-time people, trained in ticket sales by IMG, was one of the selling points.

“They are wearing the IMG armor with a Georgia State jersey,” Daniels said. “We wanted someone well-versed and trained ... to continue to service our fans and to continue to improve the experience.”