The Evolution of Ticket Sales – Matt Peterson, SF Giants

This transcript has been transcribed by Riverside.fm, no edits (please excuse any errors)

Sean Callanan (00:01.41)
Very happy to have Matt Peterson. He's the VP of Ticket Sales and Premium Seating at the San Francisco Giants. Matt, welcome to the podcast.

Matthew Peterson (00:10.097)
Thanks, Sean. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Sean Callanan (00:12.46)
Not a problem at all. I always start my podcast trying to find out people's sports business journey and how they got into the world of sports. What about yourself? How did you get into the world of sports business?

Matthew Peterson (00:22.555)
You know, I've been in sports now for, man, it's been about 26 years. I was in college at the University of Arizona, not quite skilled enough to play sports in D1, but really had a passion for sports. To be candid, needed a little extra income and took a part-time job selling mini plans for a local AAA baseball team. So not the sexiest job in the world, but really being a part of a front office and kind of having that feeling of riding with the team and…

riding with their success. It was my first sales job as well. Had no sales acumen whatsoever. Had a great coach at the time that really taught me sales process and how to connect with people and most importantly just have fun, right? Like that's the business we're in. Have a good time, focus on the fun, focus on the fan experience and you'll be just fine. Started getting a couple wins under my belt and said, man, this is pretty fun. I could see myself doing this even though I never imagined being in sales in my life.

So, you kind of took the journey from there. My first job in the Major League level was with the Padres back in 2003, the last year at the old stadium and first year at Petco Park. And, you know, that really taught me a ton in terms of, you know, A, working for a team that was flailing a little bit that first year, working at the old stadium with a team that lost 98 games. You really had to work for every dollar you brought in, right? I mean, I was getting people hooking me out on the phones. It was wild, but, you know,

Sean Callanan (01:43.661)
Yeah.

Matthew Peterson (01:47.589)
thickening up my skin, right? Getting me to a place where I said, okay, know, no is fine, whatever, move on to next, having that kind of mentality of just grinding and being resilient. And then seeing the other end of that, moving into a new stadium of everybody wanting to be your friend, everybody wanting a piece of the action and working at that feverish pace, right? So kind of coupling those two things really set me up for success. Had a cup of coffee at a couple other teams and then got a call from the Giants through a connection at the Padres saying, would you like to work for the Giants in their group sales department?

landed here and the rest is history. I've been here 19 years. I've sold every vertical, I've managed every vertical and now oversee every aspect of sales, group sales, membership sales and premium seating.

Sean Callanan (02:30.978)
So it is a common theme. lot of people, when I do say, how did you get your start? A lot of people do get their start in that sales role, whether it be inside sales or just a sales rep for either minor league team or major league. It is very much a way to get your foot in the door. You spoke also about that resiliency that keep marking off the no's because the next no means you're closer to your next yes. Is that again, something that's

One, you were taught early, but something you had to learn early.

Matthew Peterson (03:02.958)
Yeah, mean, know, the first one hurts, right? And then the next one hurts a little less and you work your way through it and realize you're just talking to people on the other end of the line, ultimately. And I think for me, salesmanship and or, you know, kind of sales process is applicable across all roles. So, you know, when I was learning how to sell, I really saw a broader vision of what I could do long term. Now I ended up in sales, which is great. I'm coaching, I'm training, I'm…

leading the team. But I really did see how it could open up doors in a variety of capacities really just through learning, you know, how to be a great listener, how to communicate effectively, and you know, really truly truly understanding people on the other end of the line and having an empathic approach to what I do every day. So yeah, 100 % I think sales is a great entry point into any organization. My biggest thing is don't think that that's going to pigeonhole you into a sales role for your whole career, it's just going to teach you a great skill that you

carry on wherever you're gonna go next.

Sean Callanan (04:04.718)
Absolutely. You we work with a lot of people in the in digital space and sponsors, and you're always pitching, you're always pitching and selling a concept. Or, you know, you want more resources, that's all that's a, that's a sales job. For sure. Now you've been at the at the Giants longer than a cup of coffee, you know, now 19, 19 years. And I've been lucky enough to meet and have Giants on the podcast, Brian Sraabian, Bill, Bill Schlout.

Matthew Peterson (04:17.328)
You got it.

Sean Callanan (04:34.828)
What is it about the Giants culture that has people staying there so long? There's so many long tenured people at the Giants.

Matthew Peterson (04:41.932)
Yeah, I mean, I'm one of the youngest on my team, as crazy as that sounds. You know, for me, it's a combination of things. One, I think the people that work here care deeply about what we're doing. They care deeply about what the Giants mean to the community and what we're providing. So, you know, no sale is a throwaway on our end of the business, right? We really care about executing and having people walk away feeling better than they did when they walked in the door. And it's real, right? Like I've been other places where

You talk a lot about that, but you don't really execute its surface level. It's very real here. People care a lot about what we do. I work with a lot of like-minded people, know, in that light, but also just in our love for sport and our belief in kind of what sport provides people. And I think that connection amongst us is really like bonds us together and keeps us, you know, really aligned in what we do day to day. I think the Giants organization, its history, its leadership.

The success we've had on the field, which can be fleeting at times, but in other places, it really brings a lot to the city of San Francisco. And I love this city. I love what we mean to this city. So I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be here for a long time.

Sean Callanan (05:58.87)
And you did say in your time, you have sort of had the variety of roles and, and, and, and sold different things. Is that also part of it to sort of taking on that new challenge of, of selling different parts of the stadium or selling different product types or selling to different groups that sort of gives you that variety and gives you that gives you that next challenge.

Matthew Peterson (06:17.358)
Yeah, mean, my thing is I'm never settled, right? I'm always kind of like practicing for my next role, whatever that's gonna be. So, you know, even at 47 years old, I'm still always thinking about how I can be growing and what that growth can mean in terms of tie back to the giants in the community that supports us. So I'm always thinking about, you know, A, what are the different areas of the business that we could touch on? And an example is, you know, we have a cohort of employees here.

B2B sales reps that are in ticket sales partnerships and Giants Enterprises who sells our non-baseball private events and large-scale public events like concerts. We collaborate weekly in small pods and monthly as a larger group so that we can learn each other's areas of the business, right? Oftentimes those are very siloed parts of the business, but we figured, why are we raising these resources? Let's get together and learn from each other, not just in terms of who our customers are and what they're looking to get out of us.

but also in terms of our own processes and how we're successful in each of our areas so that we could bring those to life ourselves. So that's allowed me A, to constantly be learning more information, but also to pass that kind of ethos down to my team of like, never settle, always wanna grow, always get better at what you're doing and opportunities will open themselves up for you over time.

Sean Callanan (07:37.078)
And definitely the area that you're in in sales, but ticket sales has evolved tremendously. If you look back at your early sales process where you had a phone list and a stack of paper tickets and you were making the call and then putting the envelope and sending them off to, how have you gone in those as the ticket has evolved and the process has evolved to sort of adapt to these, I guess, new methods.

Matthew Peterson (08:07.054)
Yeah, I Sean, it's wild. I tell my young staff all the time, I mean, we used to have the paper order forms with the white, pink and yellow slips and you wouldn't even tell your customers where they were sitting. It was a general section or seating area of the park and that was gonna be that. And we were calling out of the white pages, you know, and they go, what's the white pages? It's kind of funny. So yeah, I've kind of seen the full spectrum and I think the funniest part to me is as we evolve,

Sean Callanan (08:25.442)
Yep. Yep.

Matthew Peterson (08:36.484)
you know, who's it more painful for? Like our customers have a hard time adapting to all of it as much as we have a hard time adapting to it. But the level of efficiencies we're operating with today is astounding. I mean, it's wild to think how inefficient we were in the past, how much information we have at our fingertips now, the speed at which we can operate really allows us to scale our business at a level that we've never been able to before. And, you know, things are changing daily right now in terms of technology.

AI and all these things that are out there. So I'm excited to see where it goes, you know, because, you know, from where I was back with the Tucson Sidewinders in 1999 to today, you what's it going to look like in 2035, 45 and on? It's exciting. It's exciting to think about.

Sean Callanan (09:22.094)
And definitely, I I think I remember hearing from Russ Stanley talking about the time when the Giants had a lot of full season ticket and was like, let's keep everyone on the full season ticket and that migration to do so many plans. How do we break up our products? That sort of era to now where you've got customers that are in an on-demand society, especially in San Francisco, you can touch a button on an app and anything will come to you. How is that, I guess,

Yeah, change your, both your ticketing process, but also that that sales process to understand, you know, that your customers, you know, definitely change over those 20 years.

Matthew Peterson (10:00.293)
Yeah, I I kind of attribute some of it to stubbornness, if I'm being honest. I mean, we were the last team in the league to offer full season only. And it was until 2019, it was until COVID that really we had anything front facing outside of full season tickets. So you kind of like juxtapose that against today where we have full season, half season, quarter season, but then we also have six levels of flex membership. We have a flexible premium club. Like we just busted the doors wide open on this stuff.

It allows us to custom tailor every package we have to the customer need. And that was the end game was like, look, we don't want to have any objection we can't overcome, right? Outside of moving out of the area or illness or death, right? Like those are the only things that we want to be able to get in our way to selling a package. So we really took an aggressive, radical approach to changing what we're doing and it's paying off significantly. So.

One of the things we did in addition to creating Flex membership was taking traditional full season, half season, and quarter season and providing unlimited exchange for those customers. So those customers can swap in and out of games as they need throughout the season. And really the net result of that for us has been an extremely high usage rate and utilization score for our customers. And there's a direct correlation between utilization score and renewal rate.

So when we were able to get our utilization score back up into the 85 plus range, now we're sitting at a 92, 93 % renewal rate, which is gonna allow us to stabilize that piece of our revenue so that we can grow other areas at the margins. So what we're trying to do is really squeeze everything to the infield as far as our seasoned members and then get creative with what we can do in kind of that ancillary seeding in and around the margins.

Sean Callanan (11:50.542)
Absolutely. then how much is, mean, again, initially, when you're in sales, people think, you've got to go get new customers. But there's just as much in, like you said, renewal, but making sure that your current customers know those utilization opportunities, those swaps, how they can upgrade and how they can feel, know, it's customers, part customer services, part value of the seasoning. How much of you think is the sales window sort of moved post purchase and post

post signing up, but making sure that they stay on board.

Matthew Peterson (12:24.652)
it's huge for us to make sure they know all the features and benefits of their products. And we have a lot of season ticket members that have been here for the full 25 years of the ballpark. So they're kind of used to things being one way. So education through our client retention team is a massive part of what we're doing right now to make sure there's no missed opportunities. So there's several ways in which a customer can utilize tickets that they're not able to utilize themselves. And we want to make sure that they have plenty of time leading up to those games to choose what they want to do, whether it's resell.

Return we have a return policy for a certain number of games that they can actually use this credit toward the renewal or exchange out I think hugging the customers we have today is is paramount. I think it's equal if not greater to winning new business It spurs new business through referrals and other things so it's a huge part of what we do every day is making sure we're kind of holding on to those customers doing right by those customers and making sure that

We're able to communicate to them. We hear what you're saying and we're responding with new policies, new products that are gonna fit what you're looking for.

Sean Callanan (13:31.982)
And how much, you know, speaking to a lot of ticketing folk, they're very much the best friends of the people in the data and the BI space in understanding the utilization, understanding, you know, who's turning up, when they're turning up, how much has that been a relationship that's grown for you and your department, you know, over the past 10 to 15 years?

Matthew Peterson (13:51.441)
It's grown tremendously. mean, even in the past five, I would say that relationship between sales analytics and marketing, the glue between those three units has been a huge part of the success that we're seeing right now. you know, prior to a pitch being thrown this year when no one really knew what to expect from the team, we were already on pace to really crush a lot of record sales records that we had. And I attribute it back to those things exactly, right? Sitting down with them.

you know, early in the sales cycle, even, you know, guys were coming up on the next sales cycle already and digging into the data and saying, what's the data telling us right now? Like what, you know, where are our customers going with their money? What are they saying they like or don't like? What changes do we need to make ultimately? And then obviously working with marketing to kind of shape a story around what we're doing. But, you know, we meet weekly. My sales operations manager meets with them daily.

just to make sure we're not missing anything, right? Like it is so fluid and fast moving. We want to make sure we're on top of every piece of data that's coming in year in and year out.

Sean Callanan (14:56.366)
And that ability to act on that data, but that data and those, I guess, insights are coming through faster at all times. Like now you've got machine learning, you've got trigger points that are popping up. How do you balance that piece of what we can automate, whether it's be a text message or an email to also keeping that personal service that, again, a lot of your members

and lot of your season ticket, long time season tickets, they're expecting a sales rep or someone to call them. How do you balance that piece?

Matthew Peterson (15:32.689)
Yeah, it's interesting. Our full season buyers, and I'll say to some extent our half season buyers, tend to be our longest tenured. And every year they rank their customer service and having a personalized service person as either the second or third biggest benefit of being a season ticket member. So we never want to take that away. Russ was kind of radical when he created what we call our Client Retention Account Management Team. We were one of the first teams to have a fully dedicated service team for their season ticket members.

So we're not doing away with that anytime soon. I think, you know, it's a lot of our newer, younger customers that are coming online. They're more apt to buy online than they are through a rep. They're also more apt to self-service online than deal with a rep. So we're finding this new generation of customers that are way more comfortable living in that virtual space and not needing the personalized attention and service. So I think it's kind of figuring out where those camps are.

and not over indexing too much on either, right? Like keeping yourself, having an open mind that, hey, maybe there is some automation with our older customers that they can tolerate and we'll build more efficiencies, but there might also be points with these kind of younger, less tenured fans where a call is gonna benefit them and us. So it's pretty impressive what we're able to do at scale right now in terms of service touch points, sales touch points and everything else, whether it's using

Sean Callanan (16:33.581)
Yeah.

Matthew Peterson (16:58.896)
AI bots or targeted email and paid social and all these things. We're reaching a massive audience every day, 24 hours a day.

Sean Callanan (17:09.614)
Absolutely. And then you talked a little bit briefly about, I guess, what marketing is trying to do and sort of what they're pitching to the wider audience or what it's like to come to Oracle Park, what it's like to be at a game, why you should be at a game. How do you align what they're messaging from a messaging point of view, a fan engagement point of view into what your ticket sales message is and how you do, I guess, outreach for sales.

Matthew Peterson (17:37.681)
mean, it's a great question because we're not always congruent. I mean, there are definitely times where, you know, marketing's thing is you got to put the lowest possible price point on everything because that's going to attract more eyeballs and more clicks, right? Well, that's not always what we're trying to sell. Sometimes we're trying to sell high touch experience, high end product that doesn't fall into that camp. So I think it's a little bit like a tango, right? We have to work together. They're right some of the time and we're right some of the time.

It's a lot of AB modeling, going out with different types of messages and kind of seeing what resonates ultimately. But we do work hand in hand with shaping the messages. I everything from the content that we're creating from a written standpoint, the images we want to use, the color schemes and branding pattern, like all of that stuff is something we work on together to make sure it resonates. So a premium marketing piece is going to look vastly different than a group sales, which is going to look vastly different than a memberships. And that starts with understanding who our audience is.

And is that the same audience we're trying to attract right now? So it's a fun process. mean, and it's fun to not agree. It's okay to not agree, to sit down in a room and at the end of the day, we usually come to some pretty solid compromises.

Sean Callanan (18:48.206)
Absolutely. I mean, it's very hard to get that brief of let's talk to all Giants fan because all Giants fans are not equal. They're not, you know, some just want that experience of sitting in the bleachers with a hot dog and have a great day. And like you said, that premium seating experience, which is effectively, you know, the sports stadiums arms race, like everyone's looking over their shoulder of what are they doing? You've got, you know, you've got the chase center just down the street offering, you know, what they're offering for for basketball and concerts. How do you

keep leveling up that premium experience for Giants fans, both from, you in the facility, but also, I guess, ancillary benefits.

Matthew Peterson (19:27.322)
Yeah, mean, Sean, it's all we're talking about right now, to your point. You know, and as a 25 year old building, we know we need to continue to push the envelope to catch up to those facilities. I think it's two things. One, you know, obviously what I mentioned before, understanding what the customer is looking for is key. I think staying within yourself a little bit is important as well. We're not the NBA and we shouldn't try to become the NBA, right? Like we're our own organism.

And baseball has a uniqueness to it that that is an NBA NFL, etc. And that doesn't take away from what they're doing. It just means we're different and need to attract fans differently. With that said, I think if we would have built the park today versus in 2000, it would look wildly different in terms of the layout. We would have 50 small clubs around the building instead of having two or three big ones. So a lot of that segmentation and trying to create

different pockets around the ballpark with like bespoke or unique experiences. Like that's the direction we're headed right now. And that's what our fans want to see more of is how is my club more exclusive and different from that club? So our cloud club is a great example of that, that we built up on the suite level. We gutted six suites and built this really great space with absolutely spectacular views of the waterfront and the field. But we really built it knowing that the fans that are going to be in the club.

aren't really paying attention to baseball. They're there for the action inside the space itself. So we made the experience in the space constantly evolving as well. So we actually have themes and we will switch out artwork and food and beverage and everything almost on a monthly basis to make sure we're keeping the experience fresh for those guests and really creating just a completely unique experience. So that space as an example, we have 61 seats out front.

We'll have 150 people in there on a given night. So 90 people almost will just have lounge access. They won't even have a seat for the game. And they're absolutely fine with that. So like that type of fan behavior is guiding how we're thinking about things moving forward where yes, we're gonna have those fans that wanna sit right behind home plate, want access to the creme de la creme, the food and drink. We're also gonna have those fans that just wanna be in a cool space somewhere and don't really care about what's going on in the field other than they're a part of it, you know, and adjacent to it.

Sean Callanan (21:48.332)
Yeah, it is almost, you you're not selling premium seat, you're selling premium experience. And that's what they want. There is baseball in the background, but you're there to be seen at the baseball, but you're more there to be seen in, you know, in that that club specifically and have that experience. And so, you know, there people who are who are looking for that they want they want to pay for that experience or to pay for that access. And that's, you know, the opportunity.

One of things I did want to know, like we spoke that sales is an entry point into the world of sports. What's your advice to people who want to work in sports and sales and, you know, because the sales space now is vastly different from when you entered, you know, like I said, like you said, with the white pages and a stack and a number of phone calls, what's it like working in a sales team in 2025?

Matthew Peterson (22:40.164)
You know, it's different. think employees' expectations of roles have shifted. And, you know, there's a lot of negative rhetoric about it. I'm not going to get into that aspect of it because I don't believe that. I think it's just different when I meet people where they are. I think for me, the biggest piece of advice I have for people coming in is like the same advice I gave would give to my younger self if I was in college, which is take advantage of all these really smart people that have great experience around you and what they're saying. Like, don't discount

Sean Callanan (22:52.91)
Mm-hmm.

Matthew Peterson (23:09.614)
our opinions or what we're trying to teach you, take it seriously. Sales is not a throwaway field. It's not something that because you feel like you have a good personality, you're gonna be great at, right? Like there is a skillset involved with it. There are things you need to learn and you need to practice a lot, right? I mean, there's so many baseball parallels. You can talk through resorts about reps and the greatest defensive players in baseball are out there taking infield every day before their game.

that's how salespeople need to think is practice, have an awareness of what you're doing well and not doing well, and be your own biggest critic and cheerleader at the same time. And I think if you want it and you're comfortable in your own skin and you're willing to, again, accept no as an answer and get it back on the horse and get back to it, you could be really successful in this field. And as your network grows over time, the job becomes easier.

You know, just call it what it is. The more successful you are early in your career in sales, the easier it's gonna get for you because people are gonna trust you, they're gonna like you, they're gonna wanna buy from you. And that's the best possible position you could put yourself.

Sean Callanan (24:19.278)
Absolutely. And like you said, doesn't pigeonhole you in the world of sales. It gives you a valuable skill, but also gives you a real opportunity to see the inner workings of the team because they're seeing sports from the outside and then working in a front office and understanding what is the thing that moves the needle. And obviously if you can sell things and bring in revenue, you'll be kept along the way and you'll be given other opportunities.

I've seen a lot of people go from that space, either like yourself, stay in the space and continue to grow and continue to take on your challenges or, you know, completely change direction and change departments because you show that you can work well in a team and deliver. And that's the key things in sales.

Matthew Peterson (25:07.76)
Well, Sean, I'll tell you, especially I was talking to a group sales rep about it this week. Group sales specifically, which tends to be kind of like the runt of the group in terms of how people view it, right? Even though it's paramount to the success of our ticket sales department. But those people interact with every department in the company almost on a daily basis, right? So they're working with in-game entertainment, ballpark operations, security, you name it, they're working with those groups hand in hand every day.

And so I was saying, a great opportunity, right? You get to meet all these people from these different groups around the company and pick their brains about what they do, get to know them better, build trust with them. That opens up opportunity within your own walls to start to say, maybe I want to work in that department, you know? And I actually have an understanding of it instead of just kind of throwing a dart at the wall. I can't tell you how many people say they want to come in and do marketing. We all said that when we wanted to come in. I think a lot of people see it when they come in and they go, maybe that's not for me, but maybe.

in-game entertainment or social or something else different is. So, 100%.

Sean Callanan (26:11.072)
And how has the sales process as far as, you know, I guess making those inbound sales change from, you know, a bit more manual to more, you know, email marketing, digital marketing, like you said before, paid, how much more of you are sort of leaning on some of those as those initial capture points.

Matthew Peterson (26:31.364)
Yeah, I we're almost exclusively web inquiry at this point. We still do have a phone number you can call, but very few people do. You know, look, the obvious, helps us capture a ton of data, which is phenomenal. I think people that take the extra step to click through typically are more invested in the buying process. You know, all that has allowed us to build up a much bigger base to work off of in terms of prospects and leads. One of the tools that we're currently using is an AI

sales bot tool that we're basically repurposing any leads that don't materialize back into for outreach from Rachel Silva, who's our sales bot. That, as an example, allows us to funnel through 50,000 leads that would otherwise go untouched after initial outreach through nurturing campaigns or win back campaigns and really allowing us to maximize these areas of business that were just being ignored previously, right? We didn't have the bandwidth to accomplish these things.

So pretty much everything now is automated to an extent. We haven't dove head first into a lot of the sales enablement for reps specifically. So we're looking at some things right now that are AI driven that will help them with efficiencies. I would say our sales reps for the most part now operate in a very similar way to what I did outside of the fact that the leads are laid out with a lot more information and in a lot more succinct fashion than a yellow pages or white pages like I was operating off of.

I'm a firm believer that if I can get a rep to call them, it's always going to be my preference. I just think when you hire great people and they can make personal connections, you're always going to have more success. But we have limited bandwidth. We only have so many sales reps that can call so many leads. So we got to find ways around that to automate.

Sean Callanan (28:22.126)
And so that sort of touches to the future of ticketing and some of the trends that we're starting to see now. What are some of the things that, and you've adapted to a lot of change in your tenure at the Giants. What are some of the things that are in next 12 to 18 months that excite you about the world of ticketing and sales?

Matthew Peterson (28:42.99)
Yeah, I mean, I think getting more efficient with our pricing models is pretty exciting. You know, the amount of Wall Street executives that are now in the ticketing space viewing tickets, each individual ticket like an asset, as opposed to looking at sections or even rows. That's exciting. You know, I think that allows us a lot of upside and being really, really pinpointed and strategic with how we price things.

Sean Callanan (29:01.358)
Mm-hmm.

Matthew Peterson (29:10.96)
Because look, when you're in ticket sales, scalability is limited, right? If you're selling out games, how much further can you push that envelope? Well, you have to get into those details. So I think some of the AI enablement around that and the really, really intelligent minds behind some of the modeling are going to take ticket sales to a level that it's never seen before. So that's probably number one on my list. The other is using AI more effectively for service.

And I think service, especially in ticket sales for groups and suites can be a burden sometimes to sales reps. It's their least favorite thing to do, right? They love to sell, they love to close, but they don't love all the service touch points following. I think using AI to learn our business inside and out and have those answers available to anyone with the click of a keyboard is something that I'm pretty excited about. And that's…

going to take time for us to develop to make sure that we do it the right way and that information is not only robust but accurate. But I think it's going to be a game changer for us to have that at our disposal. And look, we've seen it, right? We've seen it with organizations like Satisfied, stuff that have chat bots. But the level of sophistication is through the roof right now in how far it can take these customers in their service journeys. And I really think that's going to change

the customer experience for the better, but also allow our reps to focus more on selling day to day, is my objective.

Sean Callanan (30:43.999)
Absolutely. mean, at the moment, you hear the term surprise and delight and it's sort of left to a sales rep to either connect the dots or realize something and then either send a message or a cheeky upgrade or something that really makes really big impact for something that's relatively minor and doesn't cost a lot. What we've now got the ability and what will be coming is surprise and delight at scale. And like any time a rep opens up or it'll…

you know, there'll be a light flashing that says, Hey, press this button to send this offer or send this upgrade or let this person know that the fan themselves will still feel like it's a one to one, you know, benefit for benefit for them. But you know, if, machine learning and AI and all of these things can go, Matt is he turns up at every Friday night and this he will be here next Friday night. I will make sure we'll send him a voucher or something like that. I think that's the bit that

you know, the fans will pump up their chests, be part of that piece of, the giants love me. I think they are the bits that are exciting in that space.

Matthew Peterson (31:49.083)
Yeah, and understanding the customer 360. I mean, that's the piece that we've been missing that we're working on, but MLB is also working on is understanding the customer spend across the entire ballpark and even outside of it on merchandise and other things. Because to your point, surprising to like a mean a variety of things to that customer, but we need to understand their buying patterns and what they like and what they're doing. that building out that infrastructure to understand they usually arrive around this time.

They always buy a Sheboygan at this particular concession stand. They bought a Devers jersey on this day. Those deliverables become hyper-personalized. And it used to be, it was kind of funny. People would always think, seems big brother-ish, right? Well, look, cat's out of the bag. Everybody knows this is happening everywhere you go right now. So it's in the execution and it needs to seem genuine at the end of the day. You're delivering this because you care and because you know that this is what they care about.

Sean Callanan (32:49.914)
yeah, absolutely. Everything else that we're consuming is personalized. You know, we don't get shown films on Netflix. We don't like, we don't get ads that we, that we're not interested in. We, the algorithm doesn't service things we're not interested in. So you're right. It is becoming a, an expectation that, you should be serving me things and, and giving me more things that I want. really do appreciate you taking the time. I, you know, I still call AT &T, but it's now Oracle Park is one of my favorite ballparks to

Matthew Peterson (33:13.616)
course.

Matthew Peterson (33:17.945)
Yes.

Sean Callanan (33:20.701)
to watch a game of baseball. was lucky enough to actually play a game of softball there back in 2015 with the SEAT Conference. it was a lot of fun and a great memory. Matt, I want to get to the Sports Geek Closing Five. Do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

Matthew Peterson (33:26.465)
Very nice.

Matthew Peterson (33:33.616)
Please.

Matthew Peterson (33:38.161)
first sports event I ever attended was, I'm going to say this out loud, even as Giants employee, was a Dodgers game. I was five years old, so was 1983. And I remember the sounds and the smells and everything like it was yesterday. And I spent my entire youth from age five until I moved out when I was 18 going to Dodgers games as frequently as I could because I just couldn't get enough of the atmosphere.

Sean Callanan (34:06.222)
Yep. Dodgers is it I mean, one of the fun facts of Dodgers Stadium is it was designed by the same designer who designed Tomorrowland. And that's why it's got its future futuristic sort of look from Tomorrowland is sort of given it some stability in sort of still being relevant. One of the things that has elevated over the years is has been the the food options and the food game at ballparks and events. Do you have a favorite food or a

Matthew Peterson (34:15.135)
I know. It looks like it. That's amazing.

Matthew Peterson (34:24.72)
Great fact.

Matthew Peterson (34:31.354)
Nice.

Sean Callanan (34:34.005)
or a go-to food or a favorite food memory at a sports event.

Matthew Peterson (34:37.282)
Yeah, the crazy crab sandwich here is my favorite thing of all time. It is made on toasted garlic bread with real crab from the Bay, perfectly cooked, and it is phenomenal and worth all the pennies you're gonna pay for it because it is not cheap. But yeah, it's probably the most unique item I've had at a stadium, and I'm very proud of it. I think it's one of the best foods in all sports.

Sean Callanan (35:02.404)
Terrific. What's the first app you opened in the morning?

Matthew Peterson (35:07.87)
man, that's a great question. It's usually the MLB app. I'm a baseball head, so I can't get enough of it. I'm always checking all the other team scores, where we are in the standings. I'm checking all that information first and foremost, even before I go to news. But after that, I go to Apple News.

Sean Callanan (35:25.41)
That's fine. That's one of reasons we get into sports, you're sports fans to begin with. Is there someone that you follow? might be a podcaster, it might be an author, it might be a colleague that's working somewhere that the podcast listeners should follow and why?

Matthew Peterson (35:43.242)
that's a great question. There's not a specific individual right now. I've been reading a lot and I'm actually reading Bill Vex autobiography at the moment and I'm almost through it. And if anybody has a chance to read that, I would highly suggest it. For those that don't know, Bill Vex was a former MLB owner that really revolutionized like promotion in sport. You think his, his ethos and brand was all about this needs to be fun and something that people walk away with.

feeling like they had the greatest experience possible. So it's really inspiring me to do business the right way.

Sean Callanan (36:18.958)
Absolutely. And then lastly, and you can answer this both personally and then maybe from a ticket sales point of view, what social media platform is your MVP?

Matthew Peterson (36:29.444)
gosh, that's a great question. I think I'm a LinkedIn guy. mean, as much as doom scrolling LinkedIn can be tiring at times, I make a lot of connections through LinkedIn. And it really has opened up the doors into not only just businesses, but personal relationships that I never would have had without it. And I'm not a big meta guy anymore or anything along those lines, but LinkedIn.

keeps me connected to colleagues, allows me to meet people at other sports organizations. I've ended up linking up with folks in almost every city I travel to to check out their facilities. So I would say LinkedIn is 100 % my go-to.

Sean Callanan (37:13.76)
Absolutely, absolutely concur. It is a great way for the sports industry to connect. I always ask my listeners to send thank yous to my guests when they listen. What is the best platform? Is it the best platform to connect with you with LinkedIn?

Matthew Peterson (37:29.39)
Yeah, yeah, LinkedIn would be great. I appreciate that.

Sean Callanan (37:32.45)
Well, Matt, I really do appreciate you coming on the podcast. Hopefully, I'll be at a Giants game sometime, sometime soon. I really appreciate the time.

Matthew Peterson (37:42.552)
Yeah, Sean, anytime. Please come out. Thank you so much for the time as well. I'd love to have you out here at Oracle Park.

Sean Callanan (37:50.094)
Thank you.