ATLANTA — Do you want to sit on the Hawks bench before the game? Done. How about shooting hoops on the floor after the game? Done.
Pictures with team captains, courtside for introductions and ticket upgrades? Done, done and done.
Thanks to Atlanta-based technology company Experience, fans can create unique memories that will last a lifetime.
"Let's take all these things that make your venue and your event incredible; things you typically had to be a VIP to have access to, and let's make that available to anybody and everybody," said Experience president Ben Ackerman.
Experience started in July 2011, and by early 2012, three teams had signed up: the Los Angeles Clippers, the LA Galaxy and the Hawks.
"What was attractive to us was this idea of essentially trying to reward members with these unique experiences that got them behind the velvet ropes," said Peter Sorckoff, chief creative officer and senior vice president of marketing for the Hawks. "It grants them access to things that, frankly, you just wouldn't get inside of a normal ticket."
Today, Experience has more than 300 partners -- close to two-thirds of every major league in professional sports. They are partners with nearly 80 college properties, plus the PGA Tour, motor sports, family entertainment, UCF, concerts and theater.
In Georgia, in addition to the Hawks, Experience has partnered up with the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Zoo, Fox Theatre, Aaron's Amphitheater, the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.
By downloading the free apps associated with your favorite teams or venues, you can open up a menu that will detail what experiences will be available.
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“It's everything,” Sorckoff said. “From potentially being one of the co-captains and being able to go down pregame with the referees and take your picture with the team captains to being in the high-five line to sitting on the Hawks bench to take in a post-game concert.”
Season ticket holders are "members" and have a certain amount of "memory currency," which they can spend over the course of the year.
Nonmembers are fans that can go in through the app and buy "memory currency" and then, on game days, go in and pick out what experience they would like to be involved in.
Sorckoff and the Hawks want all fans of every financial bracket to enjoy these unique experiences.
"If it was all built on, 'Hey, you spent $100,000 on tickets this year, you get all of these wonderful experiences,' then to all of our fans who can't do that, which is the majority of them, they could never take part and have those special experiences that somebody else got because they were extremely wealthy," said Sorckoff. "It doesn't fit with our diversity and inclusion profile."
Fans want options, and some only want access to single games or quarter- or half-season ticket plans.
Experience and the Hawks have created a way to ensure fans do not get frustrated when something happens and they can't make the game.
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Posted by ExpApp on Sunday, September 20, 2015
"We give them the opportunity to return those tickets to the team for credit which then can be used on the system to get access to all sorts of great things at your next game," Ackerman said. "They are giving that member flexibility when life happens. I'm a member and I want to go to 20 or 40 games, but man, when things happen, I have the ability to move around, and while I'm there I can personalize my event based on who's coming with me and create an incredible memory that we are going to talk about for a decade."
For the single-game fans, there is a day-of-game alert for tickets that has nothing but upside. You purchase a ticket in your price range, but you don't know exactly where that ticket is located.
"It is fun to say, 'I'll do it' and buy a $50 ticket. I might be sitting in a $50 seat or I might be sitting in a $400 seat," Sorckoff said. "If you ended up sitting in a $400 seat, you are going to tell all of your friends about it, you are going to post about it, tweet about it and you start creating these evangelists on your behalf because they have interacted with this type of program. Not everybody is going to get this every game, but it's a fun process. You do know you will never sit in a seat that is worth less than what you paid."
Getting fans to pay for tickets and invest their time in attending an event is one of the biggest challenges the Hawks and other teams face. Their product is available for free, on television in the comfortable setting of one's home.
So why go?
"They do it because there is this shared emotional experienced with other human beings they you can't get at home when you are watching on TV," Sorckoff said. "It's never going to have the same impact as you sitting in a stadium with 18,000 other people and Al Horford wins it at the buzzer and the building explodes. Nobody remembers the first sports game they watched on TV and who they watched it with, but most people can remember who took them to their first game."
Note: Experience is owned by Cox Enterprises, parent company of WSB-TV.