CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL: TEPPER SPORTS OPENS HIGH-TECH SALES CENTER AS $1.3B BOFA STADIUM RENOVATION BEGINS
On Thursday afternoon, Eric Sudol, Tepper Sports & Entertainment chief revenue officer, led reporters on a tour of a new 15,700-square-foot sales center designed to sell fans and companies on a series of higher-priced and upgraded premium experiences that will come with a $1.3 billion Bank of America Stadium renovation now underway. The center, called Momintum in a nod to the stadium address of 800 South Mint Street, is in the Legacy Union complex across from the stadium.
Sudol’s sales pitch looked to be in mid-season form. He told reporters at the outset, “We’re not here to only do a renovation. This is the physical, cultural and emotional manifestation of a region that actually finds its convergence at 800 South Mint Street.” More superlatives followed, from invoking “the aesthetics” and “beauty” of life in the Carolinas — and, by extension, the stadium — to billing the center “as the most technologically advanced sales experience in sports.”
Tepper Sports built the sales center in partnership with interactive design firm Advent, a Nashville, Tennessee-based firm with extensive experience in sports. Advent’s client roster includes the NFL Dallas Cowboys, La Liga’s FC Barcelona, MLS team Inter Miami and MLB’s soon-to-be Las Vegas A’s.
The firm’s CEO, John Roberson, attended the Momintum opening Thursday, telling CBJ that Advent and Tepper Sports spent the past year developing the high-tech, high-touch, interactive sales center.
Guests begin with a visit to a memory vault room that features video screens with images of safety deposit boxes, each one labeled with a date of a memorable moment in the stadium’s 30-year history.
Visitors receive custom memory vignettes of events they have attended, featuring highlights and video from past games, concerts and other milestone moments. A bank vault-style door leads into a room with a large video screen showing what the stadium will look like in 2030. CBS Sports play-by-play voice Jim Nantz narrates the montage, beginning with his familiar on-air greeting of “Hello, friends” and pronouncing BofA Stadium as “built for the Carolinas.”
Tepper Sports owns the stadium and its anchor tenants, the NFL Carolina Panthers and MLS team Charlotte FC. Between now and 2030, Tepper Sports and Charlotte city government will invest $650 million each in the renovation of the 30-year-old, 74,000-seat stadium.
Another room features virtual testimonials from 85 influential players, coaches and team executives, along with business and civic leaders such as BofA market president Kieth Cockrell, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and, of course, Tepper Sports founder and owner David Tepper.
A larger room introduces fans to an interactive table-top screen that zooms in on new stadium features and seating areas, uptown maps to show improved traffic patterns being put in place by Tepper Sports and local officials, and pinpoint navigation to show fans where they will enter and leave the stadium and what they can access in each area.
Nearby, an immersive, 270-degree video cube puts each guest in the huddle with Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and teammates before shifting to interactive renderings that provide a sense of field views and seating and social options in various sections.
Down the hall are test-drive versions of suites, private clubs and other high-dollar VIP options. In each case, areas have either been refreshed, newly created or extensively overhauled. The sales center opens to the public on Aug. 24, with existing season-ticket holders taking priority for possible upgrades and/or other commitments. New pricing will be disclosed as part of those discussions, according to Tepper Sports.
Roberson explained the sales strategy behind the eye-popping visuals featured throughout the center.
“Audiences today have lots of choices where they can spend their money, where they can invest their resources,” he told CBJ. “So, you could almost say that choice has become a commodity. So, the way that you persuade people is you personalize an experience. When people call us by name, when we feel known, we feel important.”
He added that all of the personalized data, “hundreds of gigabytes of data in this facility, is on demand for the docents and the tour guides to tour you through and conjure off that content at the click of an iPad or the click of an iMac.”
Roberson concluded, “That’s all because the sales process, the persuasion process, is no longer linear. Today, selling is much more about engaging … The way we underscore your importance is with that personalization. So, the content is all built around that personalization, and it’s a combination of the tactile and the captivating. You know, it surprises you.”
Attendees included past and present Panthers such as Jake Delhomme, Thomas Davis, Luke Kuechly, Bryce Young, Derrick Brown, Josh Norman and Greg Olsen. Panthers GM Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales were also in the audience, as were members of City Council and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. Other notables included Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, retired BofA executive Andrea Smith and developer Johnny Harris.