Firm Sports Tickets

A few months back I read the post of a CMO who was elated that she no longer had to deal with managing the season seats owned by her firm. At my firm the tickets are definitely felt to be a business development tool so the task falls to me. I can certainly understand the CMO's elation... But I also see the tremendous benefit the tickets bring to the business development/retention process. So I am happy to have the task in my department; But the task can still be trying.

When seasons overlap (baseball, hockey and basketball) it almost seems that I have more inventory (seats) than attorneys in the firm. And our local hockey team is in the playoffs (Go Mighty Ducks!). We have seats for the Angels baseball team and the Ducks. Fortunately, not for the Lakers and Clippers (HEY! They're Los Angeles teams. That's a whole 'nuther country from here in Orange County). But I do get calls from partners hoping that I can hook them up (which I can sometimes do -- connections are cool).

With the Ducks in the playoffs the task gets harder because the schedule is always last minute. It's tough to invite key executives with last minute plans. Tonight's game proved so difficult that I raffled off four tickets to the staff which is something I really enjoy doing. I believe it's great for moral and is a much overlooked tool for increasing employee satisfaction.

All in all this is a pretty weak rant on the task of managing firm tickets. It's just part of the job and like any other part it sometimes goes good and sometimes less. If you manage tickets at your firm and have found ways to make the task easier I would live to hear from you.