Introduction

In my Business Administration class at HACTC one of the requirements in our

class is to complete all virtual business reading quizzes, math quizzes, and sims. Every

student put a lot of time and effort into this assignment. We started in late September

and ended in early May we worked on it little by little and put it into our weekly schedule

so we didnt get behind. This online program helped many to see new interests and

paths for their futures.

 Ticket Pricing
In the online virtual business program, the first lesson I did was ticket pricing. Ticket

pricing includes the amount of money charged for one unit, ticket prices should reflect

what customers are willing to pay. You need to use yield management pricing which is

setting different prices for goods or services in an effort to maximize revenue when limited

capacity is a factor, basically each category of seats should have different prices

depending on the quality of where you are sitting so the owner will exceed in a high

revenue. Revenue is the money collected in sales, for this instance ticket pricing.

In this lesson I had to assign a price to each category of seats (lower level-middle,

lower level-sides, middle level-middle, middle level-sides, lower level-middle, and lower

level-sides) to a football game, of my choice of date and who was playing. The goal was

to make a profit of $425,000 or greater at the end of one game. By acceding this goal I

needed to make sure the seats were full by

making sure the prices werent too high,

although the prices cant be too low or else

I wouldnt make the profit. I successfully

ended with a profit of $499,489 after trying

multiple times before hand.

I learned some knowledge in this era of work and how difficult it can be by doing

ticket pricing lesson one on the virtual business program. In order to make sure youre

business doesnt go bankrupt you need to maximize the revenue by using skills of yield

management pricing. I enjoyed this lesson and may even be interested in this kind of work

in the near future.

 Stadium Staffing
In the online virtual business program, the second lesson I did was stadium staffing.

This lesson was about staffing and the number of staff I needed to hire. It specifically

focused on ushers and security. Ushers help attendees find their seats in an orderly fashion

so that everyone can be seated on time. If customers who purchase the least expensive

seats are allowed to move to the best seats then the expensive seats become devalued,

and no one will pay top dollar if they can just move because there are no ushers. Security

helps prevent fights, fans throwing objects onto the

field or at each other.

In the stadium staffing lesson I looked to see

how many fans were coming, in my case there were

13,926 fans on September 30 coming to watch a football game. However, I rounded up to

14,000 to make it easier to divide. The capacity for ushers was 400 attendees per staffer. I

divided 14,000 by 400 and got 35 so I hired 35 ushers. The capacity for security was 300

attendees per staffer, I divided 14,000 by 300 and rounded it up to 47 so I hired 47 security

guards. The goal was to make sure no fans moved to better seats, no fines (fights or trash),

and costs of ushers and stadium security was less than $200,000. I completed the goal and

didnt get any fines, no one moved seats, and the cost of the two staffs was $183,823.

I continued my learning in virtual business, and more particularly in stadium staffing.

If you dont have the right amount of ushers and security guards you could get very big fines

that could lead to undergoing your business from being bankrupt. The fines could include

trash being left or even hospital bills from fans getting hurt so in this case stadium staffing is

very important.
 Ingress and Egress
In the online virtual business program, the third lesson I did was ingress and egress.

Ingress is the flow of fans into a stadium, egress refers to the flow of fans out of a stadium.

Traffic flow, parking, and moving fans through the gates are challenges at any event.

Eliminating bottlenecks, which are choke points that tie up the easy flow of traffic, on foot or

vehicle. Fans can park in the main parking area or satellite parking. Satellite parking are

parking lots far away from the main venue, fans are bused over to the main event.

In the ingress and egress lesson, I had to control the amount of ticket takers, parking

cashiers and parking attendants to work on the day of the event. By doing this I had to see

how many fans were attending the event, in my case there were 18,000 fans attending.

Each category of workers had a capacity of number of staffers. I divided 18,000 by the

capacity of ticket takers and got the number of employees to hire. The parking cashiers and

attendants I only had to divide 8,250 by the capacity to find the amount of employees to

hire. I also had to control parking, deciding how many number of satellite lots and buses per

satellite lots. Each main parking lot can hold 8,250 cars, (18,000-8,250=9,750). Each

satellite parking lot can hold 1,680 cars, (9,7501,680 6). I had 6 satellite parking lots. Each

bus can hold about 1,000 fans so I need 2 buses per satellite long.

I learned new material in this online virtual business program. I enjoy math, and

there was a lot of it in this lesson. Parking is an extremely important part of an event. It

takes fans longer to get into an event than to get

out of it. If I didnt have enough buses or parking

lots I could get sued for them not making it to their

show or if cars were crashed into each other.

 Parking
In the online virtual business program, the fourth lesson I did was parking.

Parking includes the main lot and satellite lots, if the fan decides to park in one of the

satellite lots they will get bused over to the event. Fans will complain that stadium

parking is too expensive when compared to other options, such as public transportation.

Public transportation usually includes subways and trains.

In the parking lesson, I had to control the main lot price and the satellite lot price.

Parking revenue for a game greater than $270,000 was the goal. I couldnt really do

math in this lesson, so instead I just paid attention to the comments and my profit of

parking the games before. I tried 4 games before ending up with setting the main lot as

$22.00 and the satellite lots as $16.00 which completed my goal with a parking revenue

of $273,174.

I learned how to set the price for the main parking lot and satellite lots, it was a

game of guess and check instead of actual calculations but I still had to complete the

goal at hand. If I overpriced the main lot people would park in the satellite lots, and if I

overpriced the satellite lots they would park off campus and take public transportation.

And if I underpriced it I wouldnt a big enough profit ultimately leading to bankruptcy.

 Concessions
In the online virtual business program, the fifth lesson I did was concessions.

Concessions included choosing how many stands are needed and how many

employees should be at each concession stand. Each stand cost $3,000 to open, and

the maximum employees at each stand is six. For food and drinks at the concession

stand include popcorn, ice cream, pretzels, bottled soda, fountain drinks, and chips.

Fans will complain if the lines are too long, if the prices are too high, or if you run out of

merchandize.

In the concession lesson, I had there be four stands and six employees at each

stand. I made the price for all the foods and drinks $6.00. I doubled the units to buy from

the tutorial because the number of people doubled from the tutorial to the actual sim.

The goal was to make $100,000 in concession profit. My first time running the sim I only

made a profit of $92,635. I completed the goal on my second try and got a profit of

$126,322.

I learned how to manage a concession stand, and how to calculate how much of

each product I needed so we didnt run out, I also had to make sure I had enough

employees and enough stands, along with the right costs so customers didnt get too

mad and not buy anything. I worked at the concession stand at one Dartmouth mens

hockey game on October 31, 2015

through HACTC. It was a lot of fun

and I learned a lot of real life

experience at this about concessions.

 Sponsorships

In the online virtual business program, the sixth lesson I did was sponsorships.

Sponsorships included seven businesses with all different ad budgets. I had to sell them

ads for different sizes and prices. If I asked to high they would tell me no and that I

could try again if I lower the price, but if its still too high the second time they would get

annoyed and may say forget it. Some things will get sold out and you cant sell anymore

ads, if you didnt complete the goal you would have to restart.

I have to sell ads to them to make a total of at least $1,300,000. I can sell field

level signs, ticket booth signs, scoreboard signs, skyboxes, and stadium naming rights. I

went to the target company: bright bulb energy because there ad budget was

$1,485,000 and sold as much as I could there. Then I went to target company: burger

prince because there ad budget was the second highest at $792,000.

I continued my learning in virtual business, and now I have a good idea on

bargaining. This is very useful in the real world. I once had to go with my friends to sell

ads for hockey to businesses in downtown Hanover, we had to be polite and know what

we were taking about so we looked professional.

 Promotion with Traditional Media

In the online virtual business program, the seventh lesson I did was promotion

with Traditional Media. Which was about podcasting a football game over the radio,

tv/cable, or print media (ex. Newspaper, magazines, or journals). You can ask generic

questions to help you decide which traditional media to choose and to get market

research. Some questions are How old are you? What is your gender? Or what

traditional media do you favor?

The attendance of 13,000 at a football game with traditional media spending less

than or equal to $100,000. I didnt come across any problems in this sim, I just plugged

in $100,000 in the weekly budget of TV/Cable and I completed the goal.

I continued my learning in virtual business, and now I know that the best method

of spreading information is through Cable or TV. A large percentage of people watch TV

more than they read the newspaper or listen to the radio. As generations pass

technology is becoming more and more popular.

 Promotion with Social Media

In the online virtual business program, the eighth lesson I did was promotion with

social media. Social media includes websites and services that allow users to interact

with one another through creating and sharing photos, videos, and text-based

communication. Savvy teams and bands will continue to develop effective ways to

connect with fans and cultivate new ones by being authentic and attentive in these

social media outlets, not by pushing product.

In this sim, I had to decide what event I wanted, make a headline and text, and

choose an image. You can then go through categories to help build your audience like

location, age, gender, interests and music preference. The goal was to sell 6,000 tickets

while spending only $50,000 on social media advertising. If you don't succeed at the

first concert, keep trying. Lots more heavy metal concerts are booked.

I continued my learning in virtual business; contextual advertising which is

advertising targeted to online users based upon their self-reported preferences is very

important because it helps you choose and build your audience in a more effective way.
 Picking and Promoting a Band
In the online virtual business program, the ninth lesson I did was picking and

promoting a band. Stadiums have traditionally been the go-to place for fans to see the

biggest acts in the world when they come to town. Stadiums have more seating, solid

acoustics, and a rich history. Stadium managers negotiate with promoters to bring the

acts to the stadium, working out major and minor logistical details along the way. The

objective for acts, promoters and stadium managers alike is to create a symbiotic

relationship where all can profit while delivering superior value to fans.

I booked 3 bands, two country and one classic rock all one after each other. I had

to set ticket prices, depending on the average of each artist/band, I raised the price by

$5 the better seating. Then I had to promote the band by giving a heading, a title, an

image and category of music and book the ad.

I continued my learning in virtual business, although the last sim I ran taught me

how to promote within social media I had to learn how to accurately set ticket prices so

there werent too low so I didnt go bankrupt but also not to high making people not buy

tickets, again leading me to bankruptcy.

 Player Management
In the online virtual business program, the tenth lesson I did was player

management. Player management has various components: player selection, player

development, and team building. A team that is skilled at each stands a better than

average chance at winning more often than losing.

I had to exchange football players for all the different positions including

quarterback, runningback, receiver, linebacker, defensiveback, kicker and punter. The

goal was a positive profit for a game with total salaries less than $3,000,000. I divided

3,000,000 by 7 because there was 7 positions and then I divided that number by 2

because there was 2 players in each position which calculated out to $214,285.71

which was the average price I paid for each new player.

I continued my learning in virtual business, although I dont know anything about

football I feel like if you do the math you dont need to know much. I am now more

interested in the stocks behind player management.

 Sports and Entertainment Mogul
In the online virtual business program I completed the final simulation or sports

and entertainment mogul. The goal was to get a $5 million profit in a single season. It

was very challenging and took many tries however I had to use all the knowledge I

gained from all the other Sims I finished to complete this goal.