Oregon State University and the athletic department recently announced their new subscription-based and on-demand ticket service for all university athletic contests, SQUAD. The hope is to get more recent Oregon State graduates to attend home sporting events.
SQUAD is a mobile app that will allow users to attend any home game, for every sport that requires a ticket. This new on-demand service will be available on a monthly or yearly subscription model. In its trial run only the first 300 alumni who have graduated in the last 10 years will be able to sign up.
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Recent alumni who join SQUAD for the 2016-17 athletic season will pay $19.99 per month, or $239 annually. The idea is to encourage more recent graduates to attend as many home athletic contests as they want, for a much lower fee than buying individual game or season tickets would cost. However, the important part of the ticket app is the on-demand aspect that many younger people enjoy, and utilize throughout their lives. In its initial run the SQUAD app will be available for iPhone and Android devices.
Users can attend as many games as they would like throughout the entire year by requesting a ticket through the app. A SQUAD membership will allow alumni to attend Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Wrestling, Volleyball and Gymnastics, as well as the more expensive revenue-generating sports Football and Men’s Basketball. In total there will be over 80 sporting events to choose from.
The hope is to provide younger alumni the opportunity to attend games in a unique and modern way. The monthly subscription allows the flexibility to attend games last minute as well. SQUAD allows users who cannot commit to or afford season tickets as well as individual games, the chance to have a similar experience. Oregon State is not trying to make money from this endeavor at the moment, for now they are simply trying to encourage more young alumni to attend games.
Oregon State deputy athletic director Zack Lassiter said, “We’re not trying to maximize revenue… We’re trying to create a price that resonates with our young alums.” This on-demand ticket options allows SQUAD users to sit with each other at games, and also provides the option to upgrade to better seats, even at the last minute.
The on-demand membership service is still in its development stage, and the athletic department will wait to see how the inaugural season goes before they commit to continuing the program. Lassiter said, “It’s an experiment that we don’t know its potential… You always want to be open to growth if it’s something that resonates with people.”
For the recent alumni who get the chance to join this on-demand ticket service the benefits are abundant. The flexibility to choose to go to any game, even last minute, for one monthly cost is very unique. The relatively low cost of SQUAD is even more staggering considering that football ticket prices for Oregon State vs. Oregon next fall in Corvallis are starting at $145 on StubHub.
The huge alumni population at Oregon State means there is potential for the on-demand monthly subscription-based ticket app to grow immensely. However, for the first season recent alumni who join will be able to attend as many sporting events as they like, in a different, modern and mobile fashion. And you can bet other athletic departments will be watching the progress of SQUAD closely.