Seat Fillers Probably Not a Good Idea

I’ve always wanted to get more kids into arenas and stadia. You know why? Cuz they add amazing energy to any building. But tickets are getting so expensive that families just can’t go, or at least not very often.

So I thought: Why not steal an idea from the Academy Awards and use seat-fillers?

What if kids and parents could pay $10 to get into an area of the building on the arena level; it’d have huge screen TVs, merchandise and each ticket would come with a slice of pizza and a juice. Any seat in the house that is not filled at game time + 10 minutes (say) would be filled by a kid and parent. If anyone leaves the building early, again their seats would be filled by a parent/child combo. If paying customers return for any reason, seat fillers boogie on back to the kid zone.

For players (or for that matter, any type of arena performer), it’s more fun playing in front of a house packed full of screaming kids and teens; more exciting too. A full house also makes for a much better TV spectacle, which is why the Academy does it. If Leo or Jack get up from their front row seats at the Awards to go get a drink or whatever, seat fillers rush into action. Wouldn’t do to have viewers think the Academy can’t sell out its own show?

The reason I’d put this new fan club at arena level is so that kids could get a tour of the business end of these buildings, and also access post game press conferences at which coaches and players appear to face the press. Be pretty cool to have kids there too not just media hounds. 

It’s probably a bad idea, but I thought I’d share it anywho.

@ profbruce @ quantum_entity