The Falcons are rolling out a series of new benefits for season-ticket members, including an unusual offer of free tickets to road games for some club-seat account holders.
Other new offers include a ticket-swap program that will allow most personal seat license owners to exchange their tickets to some games for additional tickets to other games and a ticket sell-back program that will allow certain PSL holders to redeem tickets to 2021 games that they can’t attend for credit toward 2022 season tickets.
Such moves are an effort by the Falcons to make the often unpopular PSLs more palatable and to reduce the number of tickets that can flood the secondary market for resale at sometimes deflated prices. The efforts come as the Falcons hope to return to full-capacity crowds at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the 2021 season, coronavirus pandemic permitting, after playing the 2020 season before limited or no fans.
Season ticket prices will be unchanged this year except for some upper-level seats that will decrease in price, Falcons chief revenue officer Tim Zulawski said.
The offer of complimentary tickets to 2021 road games, which the Falcons believe to be unprecedented in the NFL, will be available to season ticket/PSL holders who have club seats in the 10 lower-level sections between the 14-yard lines. There are about 6,600 seats in those sections, the most expensive in the stadium.
The offer is “not transferable,” Falcons vice president of sales and service Don Rovak said, “but if you’re an account owner (in those sections) and you want to support us on the road, we’ll buy your tickets to the game.”
He expects that to result in “probably hundreds” of free tickets for a typical road game, depending on the opponent. The offer includes only the tickets -- not transportation, lodging or food.
Another of the new initiatives, the ticket-swap program, will be available to all PSL owners (provided seats are available for the exchange) except those with upper-level end-zone seats or upper corner seats. The ticket sell-back program will be available to PSL holders who have club seats.
The programs will offer flexibility, beyond selling on the secondary market, for season-ticket holders who can’t attend all home games, Rovak said. The programs will require fans to make decisions on swapping or selling back their tickets well in advance of games.
“One of our goals is any tickets we can get off the secondary market, we want to do that,” Rovak said, “because we believe less supply out there helps the demand, helps our season-ticket members feel value. So instead of a fan selling two tickets for one game on the Ticket Exchange and buying two extra tickets for (another) game, let us handle that process.
“These programs are designed for both the short-term benefit to keep the season-ticket member happy and the long-term benefit of the price integrity.”
Even pre-pandemic, secondary market prices for Falcons games were often well below the tickets’ face value as the team struggled on the field in recent seasons.
Another new benefit, Rovak said, is free team-branded merchandise – jacket, pullover, hat or polo shirt – for PSL holders.
Zulawski said the cost to the Falcons of the various added benefits will be in “seven figures.” The organization hopes the investment pays off in happier season ticket/seat license holders.
“The more we can be in tune with our fans to align our offering to them, then the better chances are that they’re satisfied and that we keep more customers,” Zulawski said.
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