UNC Basketball Lottery

Overview

The University of North Carolina Athletics Department had observed a decrease in student attendance at men’s basketball games, which they attributed to a lack of student engagement despite the success of UNC’s basketball program. Students at UNC had to enter a ticket lottery for the chance to attend men’s basketball games, and despite receiving enough entries per lottery game to fill the seats of the student section, attendance was rarely at full capacity.

Our team set out to uncover where the breakdown was occurring that led to empty seats despite more than enough demand. We used four primary methods to uncover issues:

• Stakeholder interviews with Athletics department staff

• Analysis of data from the ticket office including:

  • Lottery entrants and attendance records from the previous four seasons

  • Data on use of the “Turn It Back” program which allows students to surrender tickets they’ve won. Tickets surrendered were available to other students through an in-person “Turn It Back Line”

  • Data on use of the “Stand-by Line” which allows students to fill empty seats at game time

• A web-based student survey

• Semi-structured in-person student interviews

Pain Points

Through our research, we uncovered three primary problem areas:

1. Awareness: There was a lack of process awareness and understanding amongst students. Many were not aware of the Turn It Back or Stand-By programs

2. Communication: Students had difficulties receiving communications from the Athletics department

3. Rewards: Their was a sense of frustration at the lack of rewards for loyal and/or senior fans

Recommendations

Our team created recommendations concerning each of the key findings listed above. Below is a sample of recommendations:

Awareness

• Create a video resource explaining the lottery system to be shown at new student orientation sessions

• Create a virtual waitlist in lieu of the “Turn It Back” program. Students would sign up to be placed on the list in the event they did not receive tickets through the lottery. Surrendered tickets would automatically be redistributed

• Rework the lottery entrance flow. It utilized a unique PIN that no other UNC systems used; most other systems used single sign on. This created a unique barrier to entry for the lottery

Communication

• Create an email address exclusively for basketball communications. Students frequently reported that communications went to their spam folder

• Send emails reminding students to register for each game, rather than relying on them to check the schedule proactively

• Design more visually appealing and informative emails

Rewards

• Implement a deduction system for students who fail to use or return tickets won through the lottery

• Give senior students weighted priority in the lottery system

• Reward students who attend non-lottery games with a weighted chance of winning tickets to lottery games.

Outcomes

We delivered our findings and recommendations to the Athletics department and provided an implementation plan and timeline. The department was excited to have a data-driven strategy for enhancing the program.