How the Seattle Reign Turned an American Legend’s Final Game Into an All-Time NWSL Attendance Record

The Challenge

When two-time World Cup Champion Megan Rapinoe announced her impending retirement this past July, the Seattle Reign knew that demand would be high for the last few games of her illustrious career. And for Rapinoe’s final curtain call, the Reign wanted to do something truly special — like, say, setting an all-time NWSL attendance record. In order to get there, the Reign’s marketing team needed to figure out how to draw in a huge number of new or more casual fans without cannibalizing and/or devaluing the tickets purchased (or set to be purchased) by the die-hards who show up every week. In other words, they wanted to unite all tiers of fandom to celebrate the send-off of a legendary player. 

The Solution

The Reign’s sales and marketing staff worked together to identify specific sections they knew would sell more slowly, and then sweeten those seats with a topical hook to get people interested: a flash sale featuring $15 tickets for no. 15 Megan Rapinoe. The $5 discount from the original $20 face value was significant enough to entice fans who were on the fence without devaluing the experience for the regular match-goers, thereby creating a sense of buzz the entire Reign community could get behind.

The Marketing Plan

The team decided to run the $15 sale for just 48 hours, creating a sense of urgency as the game fast approached. The Reign used targeted email and social campaigns to drive fans to a standalone FEVO Flash Sale page with robust information that helped to establish the historic importance of the game without distracting or impeding more regular fans from the standard, expected ticket-buying process. The results were incredible, helping propel the club to a record-setting 34,130 attendance count for the final home game of the season — and the final stanza of one of the most storied careers in American sports history.

Other Key Takeaways

• The Reign plan to use the flash sale purchase data for targeting on future flash sales
• The FEVO “New Names to Database” feature was used to identify and target any new purchasers 
• Reign used the momentum of the record-setting game to drum up interest for season ticket members to renew

FEVO allows us to easily use flash sales to sell tickets to the less-in-demand, slower-to-move areas of the stadium, and thanks to their tech and data collection capabilities, it makes it simple to remarket to the same fans down the road, all while telling a compelling, coherent story.
– Stephen Thurlby, Director of Ticketing, Seattle Reign

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