From...

by Stewart Deck

(IDG) -- Minor league baseball's Carolina Mud Cats have boosted attendance this year by 40%, thanks in part to a new fan-loyalty database. Bill Gunger, who oversees information technology for the Mud Cats (the AA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies based in Zebulon, N.C., near Raleigh), said the new Top Cat Club fan appreciation/loyalty program entices people back to the team's new park and draws in sponsors wanting to target ads.

The Mud Cats are one of a growing number of teams that are overcoming the difficulties of customer affinity programs at large-crowd events by using up-to-date database and scan-card technology. Now, they can instantly sign up fans and provide them with coupons to learn who's going to games and how to keep fans coming back.

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The Top Cat Club rewards fans for attending games: free T-shirts for three games and more attractive prizes for more. "We're getting 300 to 500 new sign-ups per night," Gunger said.

Personal and demographic data from sign-up sheets enters the system each night, and more is captured from questionnaires on kiosks when Top Cat Club members scan their cards at the park.

The Mud Cats bought a $75,000 system that runs on three new IBM Netfinity servers and an IBM DB2 database that also runs its ticketing, accounting and mail-order operations.

The built-in query tools in DB2 let Gunger look up data for targeted mailings and statistics to entice advertisers. "Our biggest challenge will be to figure out how to best use all the data we're collecting," Gunger said.

Ten other professional teams have similar programs, with the help of AIM Technologies Inc. in Austin, Texas.

The Oakland A's counted a 15% reduction in game no-shows, thanks to its FanCard program, said Dave Alioto, director of sales and marketing for the team.

Dave Lozow, the A's director of business services, said FanCard helped increase revenue by $200,000 last year just by converting single-game ticket buyers into season-ticket holders.

"We've had great attendance, but people have plenty of options for entertainment," said Charlie Vascellaro, public relations director at Maryland Baseball -- the owner of three minor league teams that use FanCard. "We want to make sure we don't take them for granted."