On Monday, the Dallas Fuel dropped slashed ticket prices to the rest of their homestand weekends. The Fuel revealed this move in a truly meme-worthy remix of Jeff Kaplan developer updates on Friday, courtesy of YouTuber Dinoflask. The spliced-together video of Kaplan announced that the Fuel would cut ticket prices by almost 50 percent at certain tiers and introduce single-day passes.
Prices for the Dallas Fuel homestands originally stood between $60 for the cheapest seats and nearly $300 for VIP tickets. Now fans can purchase tickets for $19 at the cheapest level and VIP tickets at around $200.
For reference, Dallas’ single homestand event of last year had tickets priced between $35 and $145, not including VIP packages. Additionally, for comparison, tickets for the 2019 Grand Finals started at $60 at the cheapest level.
The decision to slash their prices signals that parent organization Envy is responding to the changes demanded by the new format. With more options for live Overwatch available to fans, consumers are being more judicious about which events are worth their money.
Envy Gaming president Geoff Moore elaborated on the organization’s decision in a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News: “That changes the supply and demand equation and I didn’t really account for that in the pricing for 2020,” Moore said. “I was thinking on qualitative terms, rather than quantitative. As we sell for 2020, the reality is that fans look at their budgets and the feedback they’ve had to make choices about which events we pick, but the premium pricing makes us make choices. And they wanted to attend more events.”
Dallas is doing right by fans that bought tickets before the price drop, according to Envy CEO Mike Rufail:
The Dallas Fuel and Envy are choosing to invest in their audience. By responding to the change in supply generated by the new format, they have created an environment for existing fans to attend multiple homestands. Subsequently, they have reduced barriers for mainstream consumers to step into the world of Overwatch League.
With a whopping five homestands slated for this year, Dallas has the most invested in live events out of any of the Overwatch League teams. Their marketing reflects this. Reducing the barrier to entry benefits new and old Overwatch fans alike. Hopefully, this will a long-term payoff for the Dallas Fuel.
The venues for the two May homestands have not been announced.
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