A recent external review of Utah Athletics determined the Big 12 department was leaving ticketing (and other) revenues on the table. One unnamed University of Utah employee told Intelligent Insights, according to review documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, that “we give out so many comps I can’t even tell what the real demand is.”

Pricing discipline is not a challenge confined to college athletics. Professional sports organizations struggle with it too.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, were 11th in NBA team attendance in 2024-2025 and yet ranked just 24th in the league in gate receipts.

“We were focused more on filling the building and not the price fans were paying to get in at,” Matthew Caldwell (CEO, Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx) said.

The club’s previous ownership group regularly utilized promotional offers to place the last ~2,000-3,000 seats unsold through traditional channels and manufacture sell-outs.

The logic was sound. Those fans would spend additional once at the venue money on parking, F&B, and merchandise, and become more avid supporters of the team over time.

But the math was flawed.

“Every time you run the analysis, it winds up being if you keep price discipline ––even if you lose a little bit of attendance–– you wind up having [more] revenue,” Caldwell said.

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In a perfect world, rights owners would sell out their venues for every game at high price points (see: MSG during the Knicks championship run).

Unfortunately, many struggle to sell inventory on a nightly basis and end up leaning on last-minute discounts and complimentary tickets to fill the building.

“Classic sales and marketing,” Caldwell said. “Bring fans into the funnel and then, over time, start to increase pricing.”

The problem with ‘papering the house’ is that individuals attending on free or discounted tickets come to expect them.

“Long-term, you’re never going to get that segment of the fan base to come up in price,” Caldwell said.

Rights owners must stop conditioning fans to wait for a better deal and start getting them to pay a fairer market value price to maximize gate receipts. Maintaining pricing integrity is the way to do it.

Of course, the reason why many rights owners struggle to maintain price discipline is that it’s not easy. Most will sell fewer seats in the wake of the implementation, and a PR blowback is nearly assured.

For context, Timberwolves attendance declined 5% YoY in 2025-2026, despite the organization putting a playoff-caliber roster headlined by superstar Anthony Edwards on the floor.

“People [kept] expecting us to drop the price on those last ~1,000 seats, but we hung in there,” Caldwell said.

Even with fewer fans in the building, Minnesota’s ticketing revenue rose 9% YoY during the regular season. And by the time Wolves made the postseason, the organization was able to post club record $3-4mm gates.

“We just retrained everyone and then it's playoff time and you have all that demand,” Caldwell said.

The club is anticipating a much larger percentage increase next season as it turns its attention to the lower bowl. Remember, Caldwell and Co. didn’t take over operations until last September limiting how much inventory they could realistically reprice or manage differently in year one.

“Once the season starts in October, all your season tickets are really sold. You sold a lot of suites already. You sold a lot of groups. You just have limited inventory that you're really able to [apply price discipline to],” Caldwell said.

Timing won’t be a constraint for 2026-2027. The Timberwolves went out with season-ticket renewals carrying a weighted average price increase across the arena materially larger than the NBA standard in January.

“It's not like we just took a random percentage. We went through every single price code and looked at sell-through rates and evaluated each price versus how we were selling on the secondary market,” Caldwell said.

While fans weren’t excited to pay more for the same seat package, 84% elected to renew. And total Timberwolves season ticket revenue will rise more than $6mm YoY as a result.

For context, high performing organizations typically retain ~90% of their season ticket holder base annually.

The relatively strong renewal rate can, in part, be attributed to Minnesota’s offensive approach and effective messaging. The club held a ‘stakeholder meeting’ with season ticket holders to explain the increase before sending out renewals.

“We've now had five straight seasons of playoffs…We're clearly investing in the team [on the floor]. We've been in the luxury tax the last two years. And two seasons ago, we were twenty-seventh out of thirty teams in pricing for our season tickets,” Caldwell said. “We’re just never going to be able to survive long-term with ticket pricing at the bottom of the league.”

It also promised to add two additional season-ticket-holder-exclusive events to the annual calendar: the Stakeholder Meeting that gives fans access to Caldwell, President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly, and Head Coach Chris Finch, and a fan fest during training-camp that provides direct access to the players.

Caldwell considered splitting up the sizable percentage increase over two seasons but ultimately opted to ‘rip the band aid’ off now understanding the organization currently has the wind at its back (see: new ownership/leadership, coming off conference finals appearance, Edwards won ASG MVP) and that winds can change direction quickly (think: injuries, performance).

“You got to go for it and strike when the iron is hot because you may not have those moments, and subsequently the opportunity, again,” he said.

Even with the increase, the Wolves expect to have an average ticket price well below the league median. The team ranked 24th overall last season (up from 27th in ’24-’25).

Raising the cost basis for season ticket holders will have a positive domino effect on the remainder of the team’s ticketing business.

“Now, when we go to price our singles, our secondary, our groups, [and] our nightly suites, we can be at a higher price,” Caldwell said. “Because we always want be above what the season ticket holders are paying.”

In-stadium per caps are likely to rise too.

“I’ve done all the analysis, the amount spent by people that get a comp ticket or a severely discounted promotional deal are much lower than someone who actually pays more money for their seat,” Caldwell said. “They’re just more vested…. Someone who gets a comp ticket might come late or leave early, and [they’re likely not] going to buy a jersey.”

And pricing integrity should help to facilitate a better in-stadium environment.  

“18,000 true fair market value paying fans are going to be much louder than 20,000 people that got discounts or comps last minute,” Caldwell said.

Skeptics will cite the Timberwolves engaged fan base, strong on court product, and star power and suggest it is easier for the club to hold the line than your average college program. But Caldwell certainly didn’t have those advantages when he ran the playbook in South Florida with the Panthers; the team had 3,000 season ticket holders at the time.

“We still had to enforce price integrity because we couldn't rely on comps long-term to build a committed fan base,” Caldwell said.

Taking a hard line on pricing isn't without risk––even if the rights owner gets fair market value right and ultimately generates more revenue. If attendance dips too far, sponsors expecting eyeballs will push back.

But it’s a gamble worth taking.

“You’re trying to retrain the market for future growth,” Caldwell said.