strategic drift Archives - Wakeman Consulting Group

The World Cup: A Global Game of Chicken

The World Cup is two weeks away. Thursday brought a few interesting stories: This is what a game of chicken looks like. A structural standoff where the people with tickets thought they’d be able to get football fans to pay anything to see “the biggest World Cup ever.” All they had to do was wait. […]

Who’s Guarding the Game?

College Football Playoff expansion rumors are flowing. 24 teams, baby. More is better. MORE! The SEC meets next week in Destin. This is a topic that will certainly be on the table. The Big Ten wants it. The ACC wants it. The Big 12 wants it. Greg Sankey…doesn’t. He’s set a line at 16. Sankey […]

Vanity Fair Used to Be a Party…

I’ve been a Vanity Fair fan for years. A long-time subscriber. I read Dana Brown’s book on the Graydon Carter era in one sitting. I have a fondness for the magazine and the things it represents: glamour, intelligence, Hollywood. I’m not someone throwing rocks at an easy target. I’m a fan who wants to know […]

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 […]