Mel Evans/AP - It’s an offseason of uncertainty for the NFL and its locked-out players, and it’s affecting businesses linked to the league both directly and indirectly.
It was about 10:30 one night last month when Frank Fullerton opened his laptop. He was in the “Panthers room” of his home on the outskirts of Charlotte. While most of the house features neutral colors, in this room Fullerton has a giant 12-foot team logo painted on a blue wall. A custom-made Vinny Testaverde Panthers jersey hangs near the entrance.
Fullerton began typing. “I’m selling my season tickets for the coming season,” he wrote, “if there is one.”
He’s owned the two seats in Section 321 since the Panthers moved into Bank of America Stadium in 1996. His passion for the team hasn’t wavered, despite the team’s dismal 2-14 record last season. But he lost his sales job a couple of years ago. He lived off old stocks for a while and though he’s only 53 years old, he recently began dipping into his IRAs.
“Same thing that’s happened to a lot of people,” is how he explained his situation. “Companies have been cutting back everywhere. It makes it hard for anyone to justify three grand for football games.”
The advertisement for his tickets went up on Craigslist. He was only asking for face value, but no matter how many times Fullerton checked his inbox, there was no response.
It’s a tough time to sell pro football tickets. Since NFL owners locked out their players in March, league officials, ticket brokers and season ticket holders have all reported a difficult time moving tickets.
NFL owners and players are at a stalemate in negotiations for a new labor agreement, and they might stand to lose the most by a prolonged work stoppage. But there is a trickle-down effect that has many others carefully monitoring the dispute, from those in charge of merchandising to the restaurants and bars surrounding NFL stadiums to businesses large and small that depend on the NFL for advertising, entertaining clients and promoting their brands.
“We’re one of the peripheral figures that are affected by this lockout,” said Glenn Lehrman, a spokesman for StubHub, one of the most popular outposts for buying and selling tickets on the secondary market. “Like so many others — vendors, merchants — we’re all in the same boat.”
The two sides have recently begun private talks about a labor deal, and an agreement couldn’t come soon enough for many. While the full impact wouldn’t hit until September, some businesses have contingency plans in place. The lockout has presented large advertisers such as Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch and Mars, maker of the Snickers candy bar, with difficult decisions about budgeting, media buys, in-store displays and campaign rollouts.
‘A huge, huge swing’
Those in the ticket business are already feeling the impact. Ticket sales are down 53 percent from the same time a year ago, according to Don Vaccaro, chief executive of TicketNetwork, one of the country’s leading online ticket exchanges.
“That is a huge, huge swing,” he said. “It seems that a lot of folks on the lower end aren’t buying tickets, and it could be the start of a multiyear problem for the NFL, like we’ve seen with some other leagues.”
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