Dave's Blog - Wakeman Consulting Group

Blue Dot Fever

“Blue Dot Fever” is everywhere. The New York Post. Twitter. TikTok. Everywhere. The seating charts are damning. Whole sections unsold. Blue dots just staring at you. A lot of folks will tell you this happens all the time…those are folks on the primary side. Other folks will say this is a sign that customers have gotten […]

The GWS Giants Don’t Need a Rebrand. They Need a Real Strategy.

The GWS Giants are reportedly considering a name change. “Greater Western Sydney” doesn’t pop. The club president says that people don’t identify with it. It doesn’t support the brand. He’s not wrong about the symptom. He is wrong about the solution. When someone says, “Let’s rebrand!” Your answer should always be, “No.” The Vessel Is Empty. […]

The Opposite of Extraction

The extraction model has a shelf life. I wrote about it this week. You can read all about how the World Cup is the point at which the extraction model in sports may have broken down. I’ve covered it here. The pricing that assumes infinite elasticity. The buyer treated as a mark. The number must […]

When Sports Broke?

You can only push people so far. That’s the sentence FIFA cannot say out loud. That’s the sentence that On Location may be whispering internally. The host cities don’t want to admit it, not yet, not while there’s still time to hope a wave of visitors is coming. But it’s the truth. The extraction machine […]

The Ticket Industry’s Biggest Fight is Really a Mirage

For decades, the ticket industry has been built on one battle. Regulation versus a “free market.” Closed versus open. Both sides claim similar things: “We are fighting for the fans.” Protecting the fan. Serving the fan. It’s a lie. Not an intentional one. But a lie. Every solution either side offers adds a layer between […]

The Secondary Ticket Market is Free Falling…

The secondary market is in free fall… Not metaphorically. Let me show you some evidence: I see three structural problems…and no one is offering good solutions. The Regulatory Squeeze: California and New York are considering bans on above-face-value resale. Massachusetts has passed a law to rein in resale. Ontario, Canada, is getting on board. The […]

Do You Know Your Pricing Blind Spots?

I think about pricing as one way your strategy shows up in the world. How do I mean? One, your price comes out of how well you’ve worked the Strategy Stack. Especially the first three questions: Two, your price shows how you view yourself? For me, your price is often a reflection of your strategy, […]