Hi! We are preparing our single ticket onsale plan for our 23/24 season. We have Yo-Yo Ma coming this season which will be our highest demand concert. One onsale option for this concert in particular that we're considering is making some inventory available for single ticket purchase but holding some back so once the first wave of inventory is gone, the only way to purchase tickets would be by purchasing a flex or series package. Has anyone else attempted this?
To add context, prior to coming to the Nashville Symphony I worked in professional sports where this is a very common practice successfully utilized to leverage package sales. However, this isn't something the Nashville Symphony has considered before and I realize the sports world is different from the performing arts world so I'm curious to see if there are any test cases of this in the arts industry.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Dan! What we've done in the past is place Subscription Holds on the packages for when single tickets go on sale, so that we can guarantee the same seat for every performance to the subscriber who purchases it. If Yo-Yo Ma is part of a subscription series, this could work for you to push people towards purchasing a full season package. Additionally, you can always use other hold codes (House, Management, etc) and release them as inventory opens up - or keep them only for Flex redemption/Subscriber exchanges.
Thanks Joel! Yo-Yo Ma is not included in any of our fixed subscription packages, it can be added on to subscriptions or included in flex packages. We currently have seats held with Management hold codes and my gut is to keep most of them held for packages while slowly trickling a small amount out for single ticket sales but there's some thought on my team to hold very few back after single ticket onsale. Have you ever held back a significant amount of inventory for a concert for flex packages or just for fixed subscription packages?