The following individuals and teams have been nominated by their Regional Directors/Managers for their respective accomplishments during 2019. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at the Conference Awards Dinner.
Play of the Year
Playoff Plan, Indy Eleven
- With only one week to sell first round playoff tickets, Indy Eleven put together a sound plan highlighted by using FEVO for a season ticket holder pre-sale opportunity before tickets became available for the general public.
- The plan and quick turnaround resulted in $50K in sales for 2,400 tickets. It worked so well the team used a similar plan to sell the Championship game and was able to generate an additional $175K in revenue between these two weeks.
Youth Sports Clinic, North Carolina
- Working with multiple departments within the athletics departments, UNC incorporated a football clinic led by Coach Mack Brown and his coaching staff during the Summer that included a group ticket for a future game in November. The added benefit and experience resulted in more than 1,000 group tickets sold for the November game.
Men’s Basketball New/Renew Strategy, Washington State
- Capitalized on the hiring of new men’s basketball coach by offering loyalty pricing and lower season ticket pricing with a 4-year locked in price if fans renewed within the first month of tickets being on sale.
- Led to a 97% renewal rate-highest renewal rate in WSU property history
- Resulted in more new season tickets sold than the previous three years combined
Hustle Award
Marisa Danos, Colorado
- Nominated for the 2019 Golden Headset in January, May and June and ranks second in the company in call volume with 17,244 total calls. Also contributes by training new account executives and sales reps and represents the sales team a during all CU Athletics marketing meetings.
Pat Ryan, Maine
- Had two (2) Account Executives this year move on to promotions and collaborated with administration on developing improved football and hockey sales plans that included price increases and decreases in areas to drive results, accelerated sales timelines and was able to execute plans.
Chris Weil, Troy
- Chris is bought into improving Troy through their sales efforts and this is due to the hustle and work ethic Chris instills and going the extra mile, including working the ticket windows on game day to upsell all walk-up fans buying tickets resulting in additional season tickets from sitting at the windows as well.
Sales Trainer of the Year
Calleagh Darby, SMU
- Implements one of the most regular and robust MVP training, staff retreats and property sales contest programs in the West Region and company and led all three (3) Account Executives at SMU to a Top 15 finish in the Group of 5 National Sales Cup.
Zach Hanood, National Sales Center
- Placed two (2) Account Executives in the Top 5 of the Group of 5 National Sales Cup and his sales team members are consistently on 1Huddle MVP Leaderboard every month.
Dan Stahl, South Carolina
- Dan has always focused on what’s best for his staff and respond to him as their leader which shows in sales results and hustle stats. Through Dan’s sales training and development efforts, he has maintained a solid staff tenure:
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- Blake – over 5 years on staff
- Chavis and Judson – over 2 years on staff
- Jess – over 1.5 years on staff
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Salesperson of the Year
Ryleigh Gordon, Tennessee
- Finished in 2nd place of Power 5 National Sales Cup in 2019 and generated just under $400K in new ticket revenue this year.
Connor Lisle, Oklahoma
- Winner of Power 5 National Sales Cup and was #1 Account Executive in the West Region and #2 in the company in overall gross revenue.
Will McGrath, Penn State
- Led the North Region with nearly $1M in new revenue in 2019 and finished 2019 as the Top Group Seller in the company with over $600K in football group revenue for 2019 football season and nearly 9,000 group tickets
Top Selling General Manager
Lee Harris, West Virginia
- Responsible for selling over $500K in new revenue and worked with WVU Administration to take on the responsibility of managing the department’s direct listings for football and men’s basketball.
Casey VanSickle, Washington State
- Led Washington State to breaking the all-time football season ticket record in 2019 with 12,366 sold and finished 2019 with the third highest personal sales in West Region at $715K in revenue.
Caleb Weith, Memphis
- Led Memphis to year over year increases in Men’s Basketball Season Tickets and Group Tickets and Football Season Tickets and Group Tickets.
Rookie of the Year General Manager
Eric Cole, Indy Eleven
- Developed and executed a robust playoff plan resulting in an additional $175K in revenue and is executing a strategic renewal campaign that has allowed renewals to go on sale three (3) months ahead of last year.
Alex Reed, Northern Arizona
- Led NAU to records across multiple sports, including football season ticket revenue, selling out football club seats and men’s basketball court-side seating and worked with administration to get 2020 football timelines moved up to November.
Evan Weber, UNC
- Has remained a top producer on the sales staff while leading UNC to six sell outs in 2019 thanks to more than 22,000 football group tickets sold and eclipsing 4,000 new football season tickets.
Rookie of the Year Partner
University of Iowa
- Surpassed 13,000 football group tickets for over $500K in first year – this excludes any secondary market sales – a record for a first year partner.
Troy University
- Troy reached 106% to goal in new football season tickets, finishing at 2,004 new seats sold. For basketball they reached 193% to their new Basketball season ticket goal, selling 484 new seats!
Texas Christian University
- Launched football season ticket deposits for the first time ever, resulting in 960 new season tickets in 2019 (more than doubling 2018 results) for over $270,000 in revenue.
General Manager of the Year
Lee Harris, West Virginia
- Lee and the WVU Sales Team’s 125%+ finish for their FY19 goal was instrumental in helping the company achieve its overall company goal and currently is pacing at 125% of their FY20 goal through the first half of the year. During 2019, Lee worked with administration to get payment plans approved for 2020 football for the first time and took on the role of direct listings on behalf of the athletic department which has proven to be a valuable new revenue source for the partnership.
Ross Nigro, Colorado
- As the highest grossing General Manager in the West Region and third highest company-wide, Ross helped lead Colorado to its highest overall ticket revenue in recent history and a $3.5MM increase in ticket revenue YOY thanks to a 112% increase in new football season tickets and over 26K football group tickets. In addition to this staff development, Ross fosters top notch administrative relationships guiding CU to be a national leader in implementation of technology best practices with Salesforce, DialSource, FEVO and PAC Marketing.
Bradley Reynolds, Duke
- Bradley has helped develop and maintain a great culture at Duke, consolidated secondary market for Duke football that allows the market to stay strong while also gaining the revenue needed from brokers. In addition to having Duke pacing to finish over 100% to goal for FY20, Bradley has actively taken on the role of handling the 1Huddle game format, game set ups, training topics, and distribution to the field. while overseeing Appalachian State and the East Carolina consulting partnership.
Partner of the Year
University of Georgia
- In 2019, the Georgia Sales Team began selling football groups and single game tickets for the first time resulting in 2,500+ tickets sold for $143k. The Bulldogs recorded their first ever men’s basketball season ticket sellout in school history, are currently on pace to break last year’s sellout record of seven home games and had their largest halftime performance group in school history with 562 paid tickets. UGA has had the highest season ticket revenue in 4+ years for all 5 ticketed sports, with group revenue the highest in 3+ years for 4 of their 5 ticketed sports.
University of Oklahoma
- In 2019, the Oklahoma sales team generated a property record $5.8 million is gross ticket revenue and over $4.1 million in ticket related development dollars, highlighted by over $1.8 million in new football season tickets, over $1.6 million in total new revenue related to premium seating, and over 28,000 group tickets sold. The OU team finished with 2 of the Top 3 Account Executives in 2019 National Sales Cup (Connor Lisle and Adam Jacquez) and rank in the Top 3 overall revenue generating collegiate clients for strategic partners FEVO, ReplyBuy and CallMyList.
Penn State University
- In 2019, the Penn State Sales Team finished at 125% of their FY19 Goal and worked with administration to add football premium season tickets and group tickets as an additional revenue stream for the partnership helping the team finish with a company high 30,000+ group tickets sold, surpassing both last year’s ticket and revenue numbers. The second year of their 30 for 30 promotion increased by 1,500 tickets and $50K in revenue thanks to the collaboration between Penn State Marketing and MOGO – finishing with 3,200 tickets sold for $96K in just 36 hours.