Groupon Craze Hits St. Pete Times. NFL Next?
June 16th, 2011
Especially in these lockout times, Joe’s always sniffing hard for anything Bucs-related, but Joe also devours all sorts of NFL news and business news.
What struck Joe today was seeing the exploding Groupon craze reach the hallowed halls of the St. Pete Times. You can now have the Sunday Times delivered — and purchased — for roughly about 19 cents a newspaper.
Talk about devaluing the product (or overvaluing it depending on one’s perspective). For those clueless, Groupon offers drastic discounts for all kinds of service businesses and more, and businesses pay Groupon to sell their stuff.
So essentially, the Times is giving away the newspaper. Man, the media continues to change rapidly. What’s next? The Times paying readers a couple of pennies to read a story online?
But the Groupon craze got Joe wondering when the NFL is going to get into the action, perhaps selling fans a $250 stadium concessions gift card for $125, using that as another method to drive revenue in a down economy and drive interest in attending games.
The Bucs now offer season ticket holders a discount on concessions. It’s not hard to imagine the innovators at One Buc Palace and other teams might find a way to expand on that option for the full fan base.
June 16th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Gotta love Groupon, I get the 50 bucks for 25 bucks at Feet First everytime it comes out. Also been using resturant dot com for a few years to save $$$
June 16th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Wild. Times has to be losing money just to put the paper in your hands. That’s embarassing, which is probalby why you wrote this Joe, since you love to make fun of people. Love you either way.
June 16th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Joe here,
@k24u — The slow death of newspapers is not news, nor is any newspaper immune. This isn’t a Times-specific issue, though all but giving away the Sunday paper is pretty stunning. An industry that gives its product away on the Internet can’t expect to keep selling a hand-held edition in droves. Common sense.
June 16th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Groupon has a deal going with certain music venues and vendors as well– so yes, at some point Groupon could (and probably will, especially for unsold out venues like CITS) get involved with sports next.
I live in Chicago, where the headquarters are– they sold Loolapalooza and Earth Wind and Fire tickets, most recently.
June 16th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
That’s a win-win concept that puts fans in the seats and demonstrates goodwill. I really hope the Bucs Marketing Department pays you under the table for these ideas, Joe.
June 16th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Couldn’t pay me to take the St. Pete Times
June 16th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Dave – too bad, it’s an excellent paper (one of the nation’s best, certainly the best in Florida)
D- That;s interesting, I hope they do music venues here as well.
And especially Buc’s games… I use Groupon a lot to do things I normally wouldn’t be able to… like go see a Buc’s game.
June 17th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
The Times is doing it because Newspapers are a dying media.