The Big Winner

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The NBA Finals are here. My Mavericks started out by sucking, but still kicking Shaq's no free throw makin' ass, but the real winner here by some accounts seems to be American Airlines.  The fat cats at the hemorrhaging airline will have every game played in their house, with the American Airlines Center in Dallas, and the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

So...so friggin' what?  I really do not in any way understand how this will help them sell any more tickets, ever.  In fact, I can't imagine a bigger waste of money.  If someone could please explain to me, how, just by seeing a name, this moves someone closer to buying a ticket, please enlighten me.  I think I may be the only one who doesn't get it.

Does seeing the name make someone not compare ticket prices?  Would someone actually, when buying a ticket, stop and say, "You know what, I know the AA ticket is 20 dollars more than Delta, but, hey, AA sponsored a stadium.  They can have the extra money!"

Just this first quarter American Airlines has lost 162 million dollars.  Wouldn't it work a little better if they took the 237 million dollars they've spent on these two stadiums and offered a better customer experience.  Maybe they could take a page from Jet Blue's playbook and offer free wireless.  Or maybe they could hire flight attendants that gave a shit.  Or they could make a seat that feels like a lazyboy. (Or they could be like Southwest and start a blog - which is actually surprisingly interesting)

When almost every traveler has the ability to jump online, and see everyone's price in front of them, you have two choices:  Make the product remarkable, or engage in a price war.  In a price war, you're assured to lose more times than you win because eventually, you have to draw the line.  If you spend the money on building a fanworthy experience, more people are more likely to gladly pay the price you set.  Just seeing a sign for your business doesn't have that effect, and never will.

And, yes I know, they probably did get SWEET tickets, but it's probably still not worth it.