We have a Major Junior A hockey team that we broadcast, that approaches 3,000 attendance/game. They can't "paper" the rest of the 4,000 plus seats arena, as the city charges them a fee per occupied seat, even for giveaways (idea - sponsor could cover that fee for the giveaways).
Have an 11,600 attendance county fair/exhibition coming up in one month. Want to use our interactive hockey skills tent (complete with artificial ice) as a tool to get more people buying more tickets for the team. Ideas please.
Just in case you haven't already considered these, Andy...
What about reaching out to the 3000 who attend regularly and recruiting them to bring a friend, to introduce someone who's never attended a game to the fun of watching your team play live?
Your sponsor idea is a good one, too. If it's too much for one entity to bite off, perhaps a group would be willing to take it on. Your county association of Realtors, perhaps? One of the service clubs? Maybe all the local car dealers, or a subset (such as GM/Goodwrench service centers)?
Never heard of anyone having an interactive hockey skills exhibit at a county fair before, but then I don't live in Canada. Do visitors to the fair bring their own skates and sticks, or do you provide these? Is it a kids' promotion, or does it attract people of all ages? Just curious. I suppose a "lottery" type promotion is out of the question. What about tying in a local charity? For instance, "for every ticket sold, we'll donate [$] to ___________"
The Spokane Symphony puts on a free concert every Labor Day. At that concert, they go after new season ticket subscribers by offering season tickets at half-price (to first-time buyers only) - provided they buy them then-and-there. Drawing from this, perhaps the hockey team could put on some sort of exhibition to draw a crowd, and a similar offer could be made to those attending.
Look at some really good minor league baseball operators and see what they do. Typically, they are promotion genuises.
