141 - Pros/Cons of "Buy Out" Nights

Buyout nights are one of the most misunderstood tools in sports marketing. Some teams swear by them — others won’t touch them with a ten-foot pole. In this episode, Jeremy breaks down exactly why buyout nights can be a revenue machine and a sponsor slam dunk… but also how they can quietly erode your ticketing strategy, overwhelm your operations, and reposition your brand as the “free entertainment option” in your community.

You’ll learn the financial upside, the hidden dangers, the operational realities, and a step-by-step framework for running buyout nights with intention — including the essential data capture, segmentation, bounce-back offers, and sponsor recaps that turn a one-night giveaway into long-term revenue.

Whether you’ve done buyout nights for years or you’re debating your first one, this episode gives you the guardrails you need to do them right.

Key Topics Covered:

✔ Why Buyout Nights Work — When They Work

• Guaranteed revenue upfront, regardless of opponent, weather, or win-loss record
• Perfect for teams in unpredictable climates or with volatile attendance rhythms
• Creates a “manufactured” packed house that directly enhances game entertainment
• Strengthens sponsor relationships through visibility, goodwill, and community impact
• Functions as a massive sampling event for new or casual fans
• Acts as one of the cheapest fan acquisition channels when data is captured properly

✔ The Hidden Downsides Most Teams Ignore

• Training your market to wait for free tickets (the “coupon culture” problem)
• Risk of season ticket holders questioning their investment
• Free/discounted attendees spend less, engage less, and convert less
• Turning your brand into the low-price entertainment option in town
• Sponsor expectations ballooning after their first successful buyout night
• Operational meltdowns when attendance jumps from 2,000 to 7,000 unexpectedly
• Lost marketing value if fan data isn’t collected every single time

✔ Why Email & Contact Capture Is Non-Negotiable

• Turning “visitors” into “buyers” starts with having their information
• Free ticket = free lead… only if you set the system up correctly
• Simple Google Form strategy: name, email, phone, zip, and one qualifying question
• How these leads power future meta audiences, family offers, and retargeting campaigns
• Why collecting data turns buyout night into one of your highest ROI events of the season

Timestamps

00:00 — Introduction: Why buyout nights spark so much debate
01:30 — The benefits: guaranteed revenue, packed buildings, sponsor wins
04:02 — How buyout nights boost community goodwill and brand visibility
06:06 — The lead-generation opportunities teams often miss
09:02 — The downside: discount culture, low-value fans, and pricing damage
12:50 — Operational challenges when attendance explodes overnight
14:49 — The secret sauce: bounce-backs, segmentation, sponsor POP recaps
17:23 — Final takeaways: Intentional vs. accidental buyout nights

Call to Action

Thinking about running a buyout night? Not sure how to price it, structure it, or avoid the pitfalls? Reach out and schedule a call — Jeremy can help you build a buyout strategy that gener

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Transcript

Jeremy Neisser (00:00.488)
Welcome to episode 142 of the Sports Marketing Machine Podcast, the show that helps you sell more tickets and grow your fan base. I'm your host, Jeremy Nizer. And today we're going to be discussing one of the most profitable, but most ignored moments in the entire year for your marketing. And it's a weird one. And it happens when everyone's home, everyone's scrolling and advertisers vanish from

the platforms that you typically would place ads from. It's called Q5, quarter five. It's that time period between Christmas and New Years. And if your team uses it right, you can sell more tickets for less than almost any other time of the year. Let's break down what Q5 is and exactly how to capitalize on it. Let's go.

Jeremy Neisser (01:06.67)
So what exactly is Q5? Q5 isn't an official financial quarter like Q1 would be January through March. Q5 is what marketers nicknamed several years ago that five to seven days between Christmas and New Year's. So why does it exist and why was it now Q5 and what does this all mean for you? Companies that spend ad dollars hit their year-end budgets early.

and often times brands are shutting off campaigns marketing departments are going on vacation competitors tend to disappear from ad auctions and ad platforms but the consumers the people that you are targeting to get to buy tickets group outings or what have you they're still online and more than ever think about it what are you doing between christmas and new years you're like everyone else you got off that time frame you don't have

things to do, you've taken that time off to spend time with your family, you're sitting on the couch, you're scrolling on social media, you're scrolling on Google looking for things, you're buying stuff that you didn't get for Christmas, you got gift cards, holiday cash, burning a hole in your pocket, and that's the time that you're spending it. So that Q5 is a great opportunity for you because it's such a great time for you to be able to get your

Package promotion whatever it is that you want to promote in front of people So if you're in hockey and you're in the middle of your season that window is marvelous if you're in college hoops Great time frame if you're in the bowl season and you've got some sort of holiday bowl that takes place around that time for college football great opportunity if you're in sports to take place during the spring and summer months another marvelous opportunity, so why is q5 such a

goldmine right because this is the time you're going to get the cheapest traffic that you'll buy all year long everyone is turned off not everyone but the majority of people who are placing ads on the social channels have turned it off the people that you are competing that oftentimes drive up the cost for you to be able to drive traffic to your website is now the cheapest because people have turned it off so we're talking your cost

Jeremy Neisser (03:33.304)
per thousand impressions, your cost per click, I mean all of that could drop 20, 30 or even 50 percent depending on your market. So the benefit here is you're driving cheap qualified traffic to your website promoting whatever it is that you have. So that window right there is awesome for you. So benefit number one, cheaper ads lead to more conversions. So you're going to pay less for impressions, you're going to pay less for clicks,

and you're most certainly going to pay less for conversions. It's like walking into the store and they quietly say, hey, everything is half off, but only for you. I mean, this is awesome. So if you're in the G league, the ECHL, the USL or any other junior hockey leagues, like this is awesome because you can promote specific packages during this time and really move some tickets for January. Same thing for college hoops.

because fans are at home and they're scrolling, right? This is the, the second piece of this is the psychological side. People are bored. They're relaxed. They're full of leftovers and they're scrolling, TikTok, Instagram for hours. Their guard is down. Like they're, they're impulse buying during that week. They're literally around sitting there thinking like, Hey, I could go to a game in January. Let me see what's actually happening with the team.

They're going down these rabbit holes of what's going on with your organization, with your team. And you could create a pack, a package, a specific game that you're promoting, or some sort of package for the upcoming baseball season for opening up. You could do a lot of different things because that's a time piece where a lot of fans have kind of turned it off as far as like.

their mental gymnastics of what they want to buy, what they don't want to buy. This is a point where their creativity and in things that may be interesting to them, they're not fighting off so many other things that are trying to grab their attention. So you can stand out this week that five to seven days in Q7 with the right creative, the right package and really drive a lot of conversions cheaper than you typically would.

Jeremy Neisser (05:55.106)
Benefit number three. If you think about this, you're sitting on the couch, you're scrolling, people are in the treat yourself mindset and that absolutely matters. They've got gift cards, they've got cash that their relatives gave them, they're buying stuff that they didn't get under their Christmas tree and they're kind of planning for something to look forward to in either January or February or if you're baseball, see if you can package something for the early part of the season. So if it's a game night with the family,

Great, a mystery pack, sounds awesome, some sort of three game plan. Those all fit perfectly into the treat yourself head space, if you will. Number four benefit, right? Your creative is gonna stand out more during this time period, right? Your competitors, both in sports and outside of sports, have turned everything off, but your ads suddenly get better placement, higher click through rates, more visibility, less noise.

There's not as many things asking for the attention of people because they're just basically doom scrolling on social media during that time. Hey, I admit I'm doing the same exact thing. So Q5 isn't just about cheaper. It's about the ads that actually are now performing better because the entire feed slows down.

your ads perform better because everything that they're looking at has slowed down. So how should you use Q5 to sell more tickets, ticket plans, group outings, whatever it is? So Q5 is your sweet spot. So what are you gonna do during this time period? Let me give you some ideas. A few episodes ago, I talked about these mystery packs and how some teams are really taking advantage of them. One team already sold

several hundred tickets to opening night in November for a baseball game in April. So you could absolutely slay this time period Q5 with a mystery pack. Price is low, surprise, you can add that in there, it's giftability, people can buy it and put it for a game specific demand, you can attach it to a slow night, right? So you could sell hundreds of these during Q5 because people are already in the

Jeremy Neisser (08:15.306)
Fun impulse buying mode number idea number two here just brainstorming out loud for you January February ticket pack. So if you're basketball if you're hockey, this is your wheelhouse here sell some hope sell something that they are going to look forward to so give yourself something fun in the new year Let's plan a fan a family night out something like that

meeting their New Year goals, family time, budget-friendly outings. Some of those are great words and copy to put in your emails or in your social posts that you're running ads for. Absolutely, they're going to hit pretty well about talking about New Year goals, family time, budget-friendly outings, and what have you. Idea number three here, some flash promos with some sort of hard deadline.

Because quarter five is short, I mean we're five to seven days. Some sort of offer like buy one, get one for 48 hours. You get free merch or a hat with a ticket purchase. $20 family night vouchers, extra concessions credit. Keep it simple, make it fast, and make it so that as someone sees it they're like, this is a no-brainer. There's clarity around what this is.

It's easy for me to understand it. I'm going to hit the buy now button. So that would be my recommendation as you start to think about, maybe I want to do a flash promo deal with a hard deadline. Great. Keep it simple. Keep the language and the content. You're creative. Very simple. Because I always say when you confuse, you're going to lose people. Play number four here, seasonal content, light storytelling ads, things like that. So

People are enjoying that week. It's a feel good week and it's content. So it's great opportunity for you to be able to run some family oriented creatives, kind of what to expect on a game night, best moments of the year, even some player holiday messages, just to get some eyeballs on your content, even like behind the scenes of some holiday content like

Jeremy Neisser (10:27.052)
That time period right there is great. Even if you're not asking them to buy today, you're building an audience of people that are genuinely interested in what you have to sell. So people will get warmed up and kind of pulls them into the funnel rather cheaply. If you can kind of run ads to content. So 30 second video content about what to expect, best moments of the year, some holiday message and what have you, right? All right. Here's the part here.

Where this is the caution part of the podcast episode what not to do during q5 do not launch complicated campaigns Fans don't want to read a four-step offer and have to do 19 different things to buy something. They want something Super simple. I mean we all do right but especially down that time during that time period They don't want to have to think make it simple for them number two don't

Pause the spending. This is the one week where your spending performs better with no extra effort. So if you were thinking about turning off your ads during that time period, I would say, if you've got the budget, ramp it up a little bit because your January, February, and March are going to thank you for doing that during that time period because you're building momentum for those months during a week when everyone is relaxing.

And you have the attention of people because you're cheaply buying traffic to your website. You're cheaply buying attention. And number three, don't ignore your warm audiences. This is primary targeting season. So those folks who bought, put stuff in their cart, but didn't buy website visitors, even those social and gagers, all of those in your meta audiences, they're ready to buy during this time period because they're in that

that psychological mindset of like, I'm going to buy something for myself. I'm going to treat myself. I didn't get what I wanted during the holidays. During Christmas, I'm going to do it now. So don't ignore your warm audiences. All right. Let's bring this puppy home. Q5 is cheaper traffic. It's definitely quieter on the screens because there's not as many ads that are being run and getting in front of

Jeremy Neisser (12:49.326)
That's why you see folks like Coca-Cola ads show up lot more frequently because they're spending a little bit more dollars because fans, people are sitting there at their homes and they're just eating and watching TV and spending time with their family. So that's why Coca-Cola spends more money during this time period. And I'm encouraging you to do it because it's a more scroll heavy time period and it's also a more purchase friendly time period. And they gift for a sports team

is a great time to show up and share the opportunity of a game or something fun to do with their families. I think it's such a marvelous opportunity for you to be able to place ads and move some tickets. So when brand advertisers, those are the folks that are typically driving up your calls per clicks and your calls per impressions, they're turning that off. That time period, this is such a great opportunity for you.

to swoop in, capture attention at a discount. It's truly one of the easiest wins on your calendar this year. So if you haven't planned anything for the end of the year, those five to seven days, build something super simple, something fun, something easy to buy and let the cheap traffic work for you. All right, that's it for this episode. Thanks for tuning in to Sports Marketing Machine Podcast. If this episode sparked an idea,

you want to run with or you want to brainstorm you you're trying to think through something like I've got a q5 idea and just want to kind of run through the idea with someone should be a message popping over to website schedule a quick 20 minute phone call 10 minutes happy to chat through it with you about this great idea so that you can sell more tickets and grow your fan base until next time