12th Feburary 2025

As part of the master class “Capacity and sales maximization – best practices from the industry” at the SPOBIS Conference 2025, Eike Korsen (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf), Knut Keymer (VfL Bochum) and Mirco Markfort (Rudolf Weber-ARENA) gave insights into their strategies and successes.

Season ticket and spectator records at TSV Hannover-Burgdorf

True to the motto "Every department sells tickets - in its own way! We can only achieve our goals together!" every employee at the RECKEN from Hanover knows the goal of maximizing capacity utilization and thus sales in ticketing. Since this motto was officially announced at the beginning of 2023, the RECKEN have broken their season ticket record in both seasons. In the Germany-wide comparison of the spectator table, they are now in second place with an average of 8,691 spectators per home game.

The formula behind the success? Attractiveness + atmosphere + attention.

The RECKEN manage to generate demand regardless of the opponent and date - with a focus on group experiences that are put together into packages. Themed match days such as family, Halloween or environmental match days are also part of the RECKEN repertoire.

Spectators now also know that it is worth booking early. Because those who book earlier benefit from the cheapest ticket prices.

Secondary ticket market for a particularly full stadium at Castroper

While the secondary ticket market was still "nice to have" for VfL Bochum 1848 in the second Bundesliga, it has become a game changer in the first division. 75% of all standing places are now sold as season tickets - but more fans than before have the opportunity to visit the stadium in the standing area. If a season ticket holder is unable to attend, they put their ticket for this game on the secondary market. This is integrated into VfL's online ticket shop, so that fans without a ticket have the opportunity to buy.

With the help of the integrated secondary market, the no-show rates have now fallen to 9%, which puts VfL Bochum 1848 way ahead in the Bundesliga context.

Another lesson learned by Bochum: It is advisable to influence fans with positive communication - a "shame that no one could cheer" has a better effect than the threat of withdrawing season tickets if they do not use them.

Sales jumps of over 60% at the Rudolf Weber ARENA

The geographical location of the Rudolf Weber ARENA in Oberhausen has the advantage of a large catchment area and the disadvantage of many competitors in the sports and entertainment segment in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In order to reach the largest possible target group, especially for premium offers, the arena uses the eventim.de platform as an additional channel in addition to its own online ticket shop. An interface ensures that all tickets can be offered on several channels at the same time.

The Rudolf Weber ARENA is extremely successful with this strategy: The placement of suite and box tickets has led to an increase in sales of over 60% within a year. The occupancy of the entire arena was increased by 7% to a total of 95% from 2023 to 2024.

There is now even a separate category for the eventim.de platform - the so-called comfort upgrades. These upgrades include a separate entrance to the arena and a reserved parking space.