This is Buying Sideline — the only newsletter that focuses solely on the business of sports hospitality.
In the email today:
What happens when a stadium needs a better hospitality experience, but a traditional renovation is too expensive, too slow, or too permanent?
That’s where Party Shack USA and Front Row Suites comes in. The spectator suite company designs portable premium hospitality— like the recently viral Ohio State end zone suites. Their mobile on-demand product has been spotted at the Super Bowl, Big Noon Kickoff, Daytona 500, and inside/outside plenty of NFL and college football stadiums.
In our conversation with Founder and CEO Bobby Bowers we touched on everything from maximizing premium real estate inside a 100+ year old stadium to the speedy and efficient deconstruction once concert season arrives.
Here are 5 takeaways from our interview. You can listen here:
The next premium-revenue opportunity might be inside the stadium you already have. OSU initially asked whether Party Shack’s tailgate products could fit in the end zone. When they couldn’t, Bobby developed an entirely different structure. The semi-permanent installations that appeared let operators add premium inventory without waiting for a comprehensive rebuild. The result? Nine field-level suites retailing for $142,000+ and 400 premium chairbacks on top for $6,000 - or $3.7M in potential revenue. According to Bowers, the endzone structure is the first time they’ve generated profit from anything on top of the turf in the Horseshoe — 100 years of underutilized premium real estate now unlocked.
Design premium spaces around the entire event calendar. OSU needed something that looked and operated like permanent construction but could be removed in roughly a month to accommodate concerts. The endzone suites can be removed in 35 days. A recent stage tour at a Coldplay concert gave Bowers an idea to develop a system to modify the end zone structure, which he plans to introduce to OSU to save time and money.
“Sold out” doesn’t have to be the end of a hospitality strategy. If all goes to plan, PS expects to win the job remodeling 40+ OSU suites next - that are all currently sold out. Obviously the premium inventory is selling well, but that doesn’t mean a venue’s experience, revenue, and pricing are actually fully developed.
A new supplier can grow by upgrading a competitor’s product instead of replacing them. “We’re not your competitor, we’re your complementer.” It took eight years for RevelXP to agree to work with Party Shack— this season they tested a pilot program at BYU. Well, two weeks in and they’ve asked for a rate for another 12 multi-unit sites for next year. RevelXP is the established operator who brings venue access, customer relationships, sales, and service while PS brings a different premium product. Both can benefit from improving what is sold within the existing arrangement.
Premium tailgating can be a sponsorship business — not just a ticket business. The podcast is worth a listen just to hear Bowers’ pitch to the Jaguars. While providing tailgating hospitality to the Jaguars, Bobby said hospitality ticket sales were approximately breakeven. Corporate partnerships and naming-rights deals instead generated substantial revenue. The same hospitality installation can serve several purposes: hosting customers, strengthening the ticket package, and creating additional sponsor inventory.
Listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts here.
BUYING SIDELINE: THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS HOSPITALITY
How Stadiums Are Unlocking Millions in New Premium Revenue
Omar Minaya, Special Assistant to the Yankees GM, and MintPros, a fan experience and hospitality company, are packaging adult and youth sports camps in Italy for the entire family.
Their main location is Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany, with connections to the Francisco Cervelli Academy. Quagliano co-founded the Italian American Baseball Foundation, and a July 2025 development trip brought more than 100 players to clinics across Tuscany, Parma, and Bologna.
MintPros is the premium experience provider for the Yankees Legends Suite Games where fans can get autographs, pose for photos, and interact with former Yankees. The shared-suite experience also comes with premium F&B and on this night tickets retailed for $300.
One note: Minaya mentions the Yankees involvement is still evolving, but pointed to the club’s 10% stake in AC Milan, new strategic investor Apollo Global Management —which has a majority stake in Atletico Madrid — and interest from leadership as signs they’re looking to globalize their brand.
Our Take: Sports hospitality? Check. Premium experiences? Check. Youth sports? Check. Talk about our worlds colliding.
No need for a take here. This clip back in June from Buying Media Group Founder and President Kyle Scott should suffice:
Or from our August 17 Buying Sandlot (youth sports) newsletter:
We’ve talked about this on the podcast a lot, but I see the collision of pro, youth and general sports tourism and hospitality as the next sports super cycle. Towns love it because it drives tourism $. Pro leagues and teams can capitalize on the trend to produce big-time one-off events or open up new revenue lines. And youth events can take place at somewhere other than a random box in Indiana.
With all due respect to random boxes in Middle America, Italy seems more fun.
In January, the Tampa Bay Rays announced a new $2.3 billion stadium with ~31,000 fixed seats opening in 2029. Renderings showed multiple clubs and hospitality spaces around both bullpens.
It was unknown how much of the capacity would be dedicated to premium seating — until now.
Multiple Legends Global job postings tied directly to the project say the organization is preparing to bring 11,500 premium seats to market. The posting described that inventory as a design that will “set new MLB benchmarks.”
The Rays also plan to open the Rays Ballpark Experience Center in 2027 to sell the vision for their proposed Tampa ballpark. Visitors will be able to explore different seating viewpoints, hospitality and premium offerings, group areas, and other elements of the stadium.
✍️ Survey: It’s Not Just What Fans Pay, But How They Pay It
As sports venues around the world continue to go all-in on premium spaces and elevated fan experiences, a new study from Alchemer, a software and services provider specializing in customer feedback and intelligence, suggests that even high-spending customers are growing wary of how those experiences are priced and delivered.
Alchemer’s 2026 Fan Experience Report Card surveyed 1,064 U.S. sports fans who attended a professional or college sporting event in the past year:
80.8% said their tickets were worth the cost or reasonably priced
43.2% were considering upgrading their ticket experience
52% of premium and suite buyers felt nickel-and-dimed
That last one compares to 50% of season-ticket holders who are put off by additional charges, price increases, or upsells while only 25% of single-game buyers feel teams overcharge.
The findings point to a familiar frustration: fans believe live sports are worth attending, but the cumulative cost of tickets, fees, parking, concessions and add-ons can sour the experience.
In other words, it’s not just what they pay, but how the total cost gets assembled.
Alchemer’s conclusion?
“Demand, market size, league economics and resale all set ticket prices, and fans know it. What fans will pay for is a number they can trust: all-in pricing shown before checkout, a clear difference between tiers, and bundles that turn parking or concessions into a known cost instead of a surprise.”
Quick take: The research suggests the issue may be as much about the path to the price as the price itself. For premium hospitality operators, the takeaway is clear: premium price points set expectations that extend beyond the physical experience. Transparent pricing, clearly defined inclusions, and fewer surprises that make the value proposition easy to digest could be just as important as the amenities themselves.
🎟️ Whose Got Tickets? I Need Tickets!
StubHub inks first NASCAR partnership with Garrett Smithley and SS GreenLight/BRK Racing. There's traditional sponsorship of course, but StubHub is also building race-weekend fan experiences including garage access and ticket upgrades. This partnership will fall under StubHub’s growing Open Distribution strategy.
AEG and Virgin Media O2 renewed a ~£200 million naming-rights deal at London's O2 Arena through 2038. Here’s the interesting part: O2 customers will receive 50% more Priority Tickets for shows at the arena plus early-access opportunities at the smaller indigo at The O2 venue. AEG says more than 3.9M Priority Tickets have been sold at The O2 throughout the partnership's history.
Nashville SC chooses SeatGeek to power entire soccer and entertainment portfolio. The deal covers Nashville SC games, concerts and other events at the stadium, and matches involving Huntsville City FC at Wicks Family Field.
Structurely has rebranded as 21X and launched a sports-focused business called 21X SPORTS in partnership with GameAbove Sports. The platform is designed to help professional teams, colleges, leagues and sports businesses generate revenue from their existing customer databases using AI across voice, text messages, and email to initiate conversations, answer questions and connect interested customers with human sales personnel. CapStone Holdings is backing the expansion.
Boston Legacy FC named Jump its exclusive fan-experience and ticketing partner beginning in 2027. Fans will be able to purchase merchandise, order concessions, and manage the matchday experience through one team-branded app. It also combines ticketing, fan data, marketing and AI-powered workflows.
🔗 Sports Hospitality Links
🤳 Follow Buying Sideline And Buying Media Group
Follow, connect, and partner with Buying Media Group— going deep on the business of sports.
Follow Buying Sideline on social:
LinkedIn | X (Twitter) | Instagram | TikTok
Connect with us on LinkedIn:
Sponsorship Inquiries:
See you on the field.