Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events 

A wall-to-wall week in New Orleans and what I learned: 

1) Sometimes an event outgrows it's home. The Super Bowl has outgrown traditional hosts in Miami, Tampa Bay, and New Orleans 

The thesis going into the event was that hotel rooms are going to be an issue. They were. 

New Orleans is amazing. I hadn't spent much time In the city before last weekend. I'd heard it is "not for me," but I had a different experience. I really enjoyed it and had a fantastic Super Bowl experience. 

I'm not sure that's the same experience most fans had. Due to a lack of rooms, many had to drive into the city for the festivities - and that was near impossible come the weekend. The one venture we made out of town was to take an airboat tour of the bayou. Upon arriving back, our Uber would have taken an hour-plus to go the final mile. And that was on Saturday. Sunday was worse. 

It's not just a New Orleans thing. The game is too big now. As much as I enjoy many of the great host cities, I think we're going to see a lot more of the more traditional conference cities hosting the game.

Miami and Tampa will still host, but I'll be surprised if New Orleans does again in the next ten years. Especially after how well LA, Phoenix, and Las Vegas did hosting the games. 

2. Miami and Las Vegas broke our expectations for the Super Bowl market 

I was very wrong, publicly, in my estimation of what the Super Bowl tickets would cost. Part of that equation was the hotel rooms. The bigger part? New Orleans was actually a fairly expensive game, we just remember the outliers more. 

In "Thinking Fast and Slow," Daniel Kanhemann lays out, in great detail, the case that we remember and over-index to extremes in most situations. 

I believe that's what happened this year as the internet oversold the weakness of the market. 

Ratings were as high as ever (ignore discussions of records. Everything is a record now since they changed the way they count ratings) and the market was fairly strong when compared to the first match-up between the Eagles and Chiefs in Phoenix in 2023. 

It just didn't match Miami or Vegas - and that's a great thing. Tickets need to be affordable to fans. A $5k get-in is not. 

Since 2000, only a few Super Bowl's stand out with get-ins over $2500: Phoenix in 2015 (and for no-longer-existent market reasons), Miami in 2020, and Las Vegas 2024. 

Most other Super Bowls are well-under $3k with some under $1k. 

I, like many, was starting to think maybe the maker is just more expensive now. 

Maybe not. 

Good thing that's not my job 

3. Thank You 

I started the Three Things as a journal for my kids. 

The support I get from friends and even strangers who walk up to me and say they enjoy reading my LinkedIn posts makes me so happy. 

People actually read it. 

Crazy.

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, and Live Events

The 2024 World Series and this coming Tuesday, Election Day.