Monumental Sports and Entertainment has developed technology that provides data on fans to the company that owns and operates the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals.
The new Monumental360 program provides the data and is part of the company’s $40 million investment in Capital One Arena, the venue formerly known as Verizon Center after the announcement of last week’s naming rights deal.
“Part of this investment includes further developing cutting-edge technology that allows us to better serve our fans,” Monumental founder, chairman and CEO Ted Leonsis wrote last week. “Our new Monumental360 program, for example, will provide us with data that will give us a better understanding of our fans’ preferences and interests, which will allow us to deliver an improved and more personalized fan experience.”
Monumental plans to use what fans tell the company about their preferences as they interact with Monumental touch points. To improve the fan experience and cater to individual needs, Monumental will collect data such as who fans follow on social media, how tickets were purchased and seat locations, how fans connect to arena WiFi, and what they purchase in the arena. There will be many opportunities to do so with fans in the Washington D.C. area, as Monumental has the Monumental Sports Network and also ownership of the Washington Mystics, Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade.
Even the new point of sale system that Monumental will unveil this summer will feature better analytics and data so that it can better tailor the experience to each fan and offer automated concession and merchandise discounts for those using a Capital One credit card, according to the company.
Leonsis said in March at Leaders’ Sport Business Summit in New York that he or she who gets the most knowledge from the most touch points would find success. He singled out Amazon as a company that is “beating the world,” as it knows everything about consumer purchases and are able to better anticipate the next one.
“Why aren’t we doing that?” Leonsis said of the sports industry. “We know who our customers are. Why I hate the secondary market, I don’t know who my season ticket holder gave the tickets to or who they sold them to. So we have to find ways in sports to say, ‘We’re not sports teams anymore. Those seats we’re not renting. We’re in the customer data acquisition analytics business.
“We should know that when we play on a weekend, these are the people that come in through weekends and where they’re eating, if they’re taking Uber, if they’re driving, what they’re eating.
“We should be redefining the bundle. I don’t understand why the bundle is just video, why the bundle isn’t video and tickets and Uber rides and vacations, and that’s what we’re going to have to do all driven by data.”