Elior Champ Rugby has agreed a multi-year ticketing partnership with Sport for Business member TicketCo to bring every club in the second tier of English men’s rugby onto the same platform, aiming to grow attendances and club revenues.
The agreement will give the league a shared view of its supporters, bringing ticket sales from every ground into a central fan-data source. The two organisations describe it as the UK’s first league-wide deal of its kind.
Clubs will be able to use that information to reach supporters who have stopped attending, encourage occasional visitors to return and develop membership offers around how people actually follow their team. Match pricing, hospitality, and spending on food, drink, and merchandise will also come into play, alongside opportunities for campaigns and offers across the league.
“Following a successful 25-26 season, awareness and attendance are growing in Champ Rugby, and for the first time, all our fan data will sit in one place, providing us with the possibility to understand our supporters as one league,” said Simon Gillham, Chair of the Champ Rugby Board.
“We have big ambitions over the next few years, and we wanted a partner with the technology and experience to match. TicketCo tick those boxes, and we’re looking forward to working with them.”
The commercial potential extends to sponsorship and broadcast discussions. Bringing the clubs’ data together should help Champ Rugby demonstrate the competition’s reach and the strength of its supporter relationships, giving it more evidence to back proposals to prospective partners.
TicketCo’s model is built around clubs owning their supporter data and using it to develop those relationships themselves. The league-wide approach will make tools and data available to clubs that might struggle to build the same capability themselves.
“Ticketing is no longer simply about getting people through the turnstile. It is the richest source of insight a sport has about its fans, and the most direct lever a club has on its revenue,” said Clare Kenny, Chief Commercial Officer and Board Member at TicketCo.
“Yet most of that insight sits in silos, club by club, and is never joined up. Centralising it across a whole league gives every club access to the kind of data and tools usually reserved for the biggest names in sport.”
Kenny also set out how the company intends to judge the partnership.
“We will measure this partnership in full stands and healthier club finances, not in tickets processed. Our success is tied to the clubs’ success, and we’re proud to be building it together with Champ Rugby.”
TicketCo are among the many sporting organisations that see the value of a Sport for Business membership. If you would like to join them and see your organisation in our content, on our stages, and in the daily conversation around the commercial world of Irish Sport, email us today to see what is possible, or sign up straight away using the link below.
Image Credit: TicketCo
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