Quick Scene-Setter: Who's In The Room?

• Please list the primary stakeholders we should know by name, title, and best contact (GM, Director of Ops, CIO, Premium Services, Ownership reps).
• Which of those people will actively participate in decision meetings for vendor selection and pilot approval? Options: Venue GM, Director of Operations, CIO / IT Director, Finance / Controller, Head of Premium Services, Procurement/Vendor Manager, Owner Representative, Other
• Who currently controls the budget for ticketing, concessions, and sponsorship technology? Options: Venue-level budget owner, Team/ownership group, University central IT/finance, Shared responsibility, Unsure
• How do key stakeholders prefer to receive updates during evaluation—formal packet, short exec summary, live dashboard, or ad-hoc calls? Options: Formal packet, 1-page executive summary, Live dashboard access, Ad-hoc calls or briefings, Weekly written status
• Is there an identified internal sponsor or champion who will actively drive this program? If yes, describe their influence and motivation.

If a Game-Day Fails, Who Gets Woken Up?

• When a critical event-day system fails, who makes the immediate operational decision and who ultimately owns the fallout? Options: Venue GM, Director of Operations, CIO/IT Director, Shift/Event Manager, External vendor lead, Owner/Board
• Tell us about a recent event-day failure—what system failed, who responded first, and what were the immediate consequences?
• How quickly do you expect incidents to be resolved before you consider the impact to be financially or reputationally unacceptable? Options: <15 minutes, 15–60 minutes, 1–3 hours, Full event / significant loss, Depends on the system
• Who currently authorizes emergency spend (OT, vendor rapid-response, temporary hardware) during an event? Options: Venue GM, Director of Ops, CIO, Finance/Controller, Owner Rep, No single approver
• What SLAs or penalty clauses do you have with existing vendors for event-day availability or transaction uptime?

Whose OK Actually Moves the Needle?

• If leaders disagree on the direction, whose sign-off becomes the definitive 'yes' and why? Options: Venue GM, Ownership / Board, CIO/IT, Finance, Dedicated Steering Committee, Other
• Who is the economic buyer for this engagement (the person who approves capex/opex and budget reallocation)? Options: Venue GM, Finance / Controller, Owner / Investment Committee, Athletic Department / University CFO, Shared approval
• Is procurement handled centrally for your ownership group or at the venue level? Options: Centralized corporate procurement, Venue-level procurement, Hybrid approach, Unsure
• How many approval layers (proposal → legal → procurement → finance → owner) are typical, and how much time do they usually add? Options: 1–2 layers (fast), 3–4 layers (moderate), 5+ layers (lengthy), Varies by spend
• Do legal, ownership, or external partners require presentations or formal board approvals for this scope? If so, who and when?

What Would Force You To Start—Renovation & Pilot Triggers

• What specific threshold (repeated failures, measurable revenue loss, sponsor threats, or competitive pressure) would force you to greenlight a pilot or renovation now? Options: Major renovation budget approved, Repeated event failures, Sponsor renewal at risk, Competitor upgrades in market, Change in ownership/leadership, Other
• Have you initiated a pilot or renovation in the past 5 years? Describe the trigger, the scope, and the outcome.
• Which immediate post-launch metrics would you watch to decide whether to continue, pause, or stop a pilot? Options: Transaction uptime, Per-fan spend, Average queue time, Fan NPS / satisfaction, Sponsorship engagement metrics, Operational incident count
• What is your acceptable risk threshold during a pilot (e.g., number of failed transactions, % revenue impact, number of degraded events)?
• Who must be briefed and give final approval before a pilot goes live (internal and external)? Options: Venue leadership, Finance, CIO/IT, Owner/Board, Sponsor reps, Other

What Does 'Good' Look Like—Through Every Stakeholder's Eyes

• If each stakeholder could write their own scoreboard for success, what would be on the top three lines?
• For the Venue GM, which measurable outcomes prove this investment is working? Options: Increase per-event revenue, Increase season-ticket renewals, Reduce event-day incidents, Improve fan NPS, Reduce vendor count / complexity
• For the Director of Operations, list the operational acceptance criteria that must be met before scaling (uptime, staff proficiency, queue times, etc.). Options: 99.9% POS uptime, <2 min average service time, Complete staff training certification, Integrated reporting with access control, Defined incident remediation SLA
• For the CIO/IT, what integration, security, and data ownership requirements are non‑negotiable?
• For Finance/Ownership, what ROI horizon and KPIs will determine whether this is a successful investment? Options: 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, Multi-year strategic horizon
• Are there conflicting success definitions among stakeholders we should resolve now? Please describe each conflict and its impact.

Where Could Alignment Break Down?

• Where have prior projects here derailed because people read the same plan but meant different things? Options: Unclear roles/responsibilities, Budget reprioritization, Vendor underperformance, Staff turnover during transition, Political/ownership changes, Other
• Have you lost momentum on pilots or rollouts previously? What stopped them—resources, politics, technical issues, or something else?
• How would you like responsibilities documented and tracked to avoid misunderstandings (RACI, centralized tracker, meeting minutes)? Options: RACI matrix, Centralized task tracker (e.g., Jira/Asana), Formal meeting minutes with actions, Hybrid approach
• What are your non-negotiable red lines—items you will not compromise on during a pilot or rollout?
• If a disagreement escalates during pilot execution, who mediates and what is the agreed escalation path? Options: Project Sponsor, Steering Committee, Owner Rep, Third-party mediator, Legal/Contracts

Timing, Commitments, and How We'll Keep Each Other Honest

• If timelines slip, who typically shoulders the blame—and how do you prefer commitments to be structured to prevent that outcome? Options: Operations, IT/CIO, Vendor/Provider, Finance/Ownership, Shared accountability
• What is your desired pilot start window and target full-season transition timeframe? Options: Next 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, Aligned to next season planning, Unsure
• Which internal calendar constraints (tenant events, academic schedule, renovation milestones) are immovable and must be built around?
• What tangible artifacts do you require before sign-off (project charter, pilot metrics, go/no-go checklist, insurance certificates)? Options: Project charter, Pilot metric dashboard, Go/no-go checklist, Insurance & indemnity, Training completion evidence
• How often should steering committee meetings happen and who must attend each session? Options: Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, Milestone-only
• What contractual terms or risk mitigations will be essential (performance SLAs, liquidated damages, vendor warranties)?

Communication Rituals: The Little Things That Prevent Big Surprises

• What communication patterns in prior projects saved you—and which created unnecessary noise?
• Who prefers high-level summaries vs. operational dashboards vs. raw logs? Map each preferred format to the stakeholder roles. Options: Executive summary, Operational dashboard, Daily incident report, Raw system logs, Post-event debrief
• For urgent event‑day issues, which channels should we use (phone/SMS, Slack/Teams, email, dedicated war-room)? Options: Phone / SMS, Slack / Microsoft Teams, Email, Dedicated in-person or virtual war-room
• Who should be copied on vendor change orders, scope changes, or purchase approvals, and who must approve them?
• Would you like a pre-event readiness check cadence (e.g., 48‑hour and 4‑hour checks) for pilots, and if so who should perform them? Options: Yes — both 48-hour & 4-hour, Yes — 48-hour only, Yes — 4-hour only, No pre-checks
• How would you prefer we capture and share stakeholder feedback during the pilot to ensure continuous improvement (post-event debriefs, shared ticketing, weekly feedback forms)? Options: Post-event structured debrief, Shared ticketing / issue tracker, Weekly feedback form, Steering committee review

Opening Snapshot — Quick venue & ops snapshot

• Which venue and role are you responding for? Options: Venue name (free response), General Manager, Director of Operations, CIO/IT Director, Premium Services / Hospitality Director, Other (please specify)
• How many event dates do you manage per year (approx)? Options: 40–60, 61–80, 81–100, 100+, Unsure
• What is a typical attendance range for your events? Options: Under 5,000, 5,000–15,000, 15,000–30,000, 30,000–60,000, 60,000+
• When was your last major renovation, system refresh, or ownership change? Options: Within 12 months, 1–3 years, 3–5 years, 5+ years, Never/Not applicable
• Which revenue streams are most important to you this season? (select up to 3) Options: Ticketing/Admissions, Concessions/FOH sales, Premium seating/Club, Sponsorship activations, Merchandise, Parking/Ancillary

If the lights went out on game day — what breaks first?

• Tell me about the last time an event-day systems failure happened—what failed, and what did you have to do in the moment?
• Which failure modes recur most often at your venue? Options: POS outage, Ticketing/access control failure, Network/connectivity issues, Power or HVAC events, Payment gateway declines, Vendor staffing no-shows, Other
• How often do these kinds of failures occur across a typical season? Options: Multiple times per month, Monthly, Every few months, Rarely, Never
• When a failure happens, how long does it typically take to recover (from detection to normal ops)? Options: Under 10 minutes, 10–30 minutes, 30–90 minutes, Over 90 minutes, Varies widely
• What immediate impacts do those failures cause—revenue, lines, sponsor moments, ticket-holder complaints? Share the most tangible consequences.
• How does experiencing those failures feel for you and your team—stress, reputational worry, firefighting fatigue, or something else? Options: High stress/frequent firefighting, Moderate concern but manageable, Annoying but rare, Little emotional impact

Who’s really running the show — the vendor map and account reality

• If you had to draw your vendor ecosystem in one sentence, what would it look like?
• Which vendors/systems are currently responsible for each layer? (select all that apply and then name them in the next answer) Options: Ticketing/CRM, POS/Concessions, Access control/turnstiles, Network and connectivity, Payment gateway/processor, Sponsorship activation/LED/AV, Third-party staffing/OPS
• Please list the primary vendor or system name for each area you selected above (copy-paste or short names are fine).
• How many separate vendor contracts or integrations touch event-day revenue functions (ticketing, POS, access, sponsors)? Options: 1–2, 3–4, 5–7, 8+
• Who internally owns vendor coordination and troubleshooting on event-day (title/role)? Options: In-house Ops Manager, IT/CIO, External General Manager, Hybrid/shared, Other
• How simple would it be to consolidate a vendor function (e.g., move to a single POS vendor) given current contracts and politics? Options: Very feasible, Feasible with planning, Difficult due to contracts, Politically unlikely

Where revenue silently leaks — the gaps you may have normalized

• What processes or handoffs on game day do you suspect are causing the biggest revenue loss (no need to quantify yet)? Options: POS slow/declines, Poor upsell at premium, Wearables/ticket-wallet failures, Sponsor activation delays, Inaccurate inventory counts, Other
• Can you estimate the typical revenue impact of a major systems outage (range is fine)? Options: <$5k per event, $5k–$25k, $25k–$100k, $100k+
• How do you currently measure lost sales or downtimes—do you have a method or is it mostly anecdotal? Options: Real-time revenue telemetry, Post-event reconciliation, Sporadic manual logs, Anecdotal/requests from staff
• Tell me about a recent sponsor activation that didn’t hit its goals—what went wrong and how was it justified internally?
• Which data sources would help you best quantify leaks if they were available (select top 3)? Options: Per-transaction POS data, Turnstile entry timestamps, CRM purchase history, Sponsor impression logs (LED/AV), Staffing rosters & shift logs, Inventory & waste reports
• If you could fix one revenue leak this season, which would it be and why?

The human side — people, handoffs, and the places knowledge disappears

• Why do key operational mistakes keep happening even when you have processes in place?
• What is your seasonal staffing model for event days? Options: Full-time in-house ops team, Year-round + seasonal hires, Primarily temp/agency staff, Hybrid (mix of both)
• How often do you run staff training and dry-runs before the season—and what slips through despite training? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Seasonal (pre-season only), Ad-hoc or none
• When a critical staff member leaves mid-season, what usually breaks next? Options: Vendor coordination, POS reconciliation, Shift supervision, Sponsor activation, Other
• Do you have documented SOPs for event-day failure scenarios (e.g., POS outage playbook)? Options: Yes — documented and practiced, Yes — documented, rarely practiced, No formal SOPs, We rely on vendor playbooks
• How confident are you that a first-line supervisor can resolve a complex systems issue without escalations? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Not confident, Varies by supervisor

What would a flawless event-day actually feel and perform like?

• If you woke up tomorrow and everything ran perfectly on event days, what would be different at noon after the game?
• Which three outcome metrics would make you call a pilot or season a success? Options: Per-fan revenue ($), POS uptime (%), Average transaction time, Sponsor activation delivery (%), Fan NPS/CSAT, Reduction in incident volume
• What is an acceptable uptime target for revenue-critical systems on event day? Options: 99.99%+, 99.9%, 99%, 95–98%
• What level of improvement in per-fan spend would meaningfully change your budget conversations? Options: 5%–10%, 10%–20%, 20%+, Unsure/need data
• Which trade-offs would you accept to get those outcomes (e.g., temporary longer setup time, vendor consolidation, short pilot with intense oversight)? Options: Vendor consolidation, Short, intensive pilot, Higher upfront cost for stability, Temporary game-day operational changes, Other

What’s actually stopping that vision — the real constraints and politics

• What internal or external barriers have stopped you from fixing these gaps in the past? Options: Budget/CapEx limits, Contractual vendor restrictions, Leadership alignment/politics, Staffing capacity, Integration complexity, Other
• How long does your procurement or approval cycle typically take for operational changes? Options: Immediately/within weeks, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6+ months
• Who are the gatekeepers for operational change (titles or groups) and how do they usually respond to risk vs reward?
• When vendor consolidation or platform change is proposed, what objections do you hear most often? Options: Loss of specialized features, Staff resistance, Sunk-cost of current systems, Integration risk, Sponsor concerns
• How much runway (time + budget) would you realistically need to test a meaningful fix in a pilot? Options: 1–2 events, 1 month, 2–3 months, Full season
• If you could remove one political or budgetary barrier today, which would you remove and what would you change first?

Pilot readiness — what we’d need to prove change works

• If we proposed a focused pilot to eliminate your top failure mode, how willing would you be to run it? Options: Very willing, Open with caveats, Reluctant, Not willing
• Which pilot scope would be most useful to you? Options: Single event day, Series of 3–5 events, A specific revenue stream (e.g., concessions), Full operations pilot (holistic)
• What data access would you be comfortable sharing for a pilot (select all that apply)? Options: Per-transaction POS data, Turnstile timestamps, Sales reconciliation reports, Sponsor activation logs, Staffing rosters
• What operational approvals or access would be required to run a pilot (network credentials, vendor cooperation, shift managers)?
• What success gates would you insist on to greenlight a pilot moving to a broader rollout? Options: Metric thresholds (revenue/uptime), Sponsor signoff, Leadership approval, Operational handoff plan
• Realistically, what internal timeline would you be operating on to decide after a pilot? Options: Within 2 weeks of pilot, 1 month, 2–3 months, Longer/Unsure

Artifacts & evidence — the paperwork and signals that speed decisions

• Which of the following artifacts can you share to help us map current state quickly? Options: Current vendor list & contracts, Event-day run-sheets, POS transaction schema, Network topology diagram, SOPs / failure playbooks, None readily available
• Do you maintain a post-event incident log or RCA (root cause analysis) archive we can review? Options: Yes, centralized and updated, Partial logs exist, Occasional notes but not structured, No
• Who should we ask for technical access and documentation (name/title/email)?
• Which KPIs do you already track that we should use as baseline (select all that apply)? Options: Per-fan revenue, POS uptime, Average transaction time, Sponsor impressions/deliveries, Fan NPS/CSAT, Inventory shrinkage
• Finally — what one thing would make you feel we've captured the true current state after this assessment?

Start Here — Tell Us About Your Venue

• How many events do you host per year (including games, concerts, and private events)? Options: 40–60, 61–80, 81–100, 100+
• Which best describes your venue (pick all that apply)? Options: Professional stadium/arena, Collegiate facility, Multi-purpose events center, Mixed-use with retail/food venues, Other
• What recent changes or upcoming triggers prompted you to explore a new operations & technology approach? Options: Major renovation, New ownership/leadership, Competitor installed new tech, Season-ticket renewals slipping, Sponsor pressure for ROI, Other
• Tell us briefly about the last major event you managed—what went well and what kept you up that night?
• Who is the single person we should keep in the loop about this discovery process?

If We Were Being Honest — What's Broken Today?

• If your ownership or board saw a list of every event-day failure in the past year, which incident would embarrass you most and why?
• Which recurring event-day failure modes cause the biggest revenue loss or fan friction (select all that apply)? Options: POS outages, Ticketing/access failures, Network/WiFi instability, Vendor no-shows or short-staffing, Concessions mis-picks/stockouts, Other
• How often do revenue-impacting operational incidents occur across your season? Options: Almost every event, Several events a season, Occasional (1–3 events), Rarely/once in a few years
• When these incidents happen, what’s the immediate human reaction—who takes ownership and how does it usually feel to the team on the floor?
• Describe one example of an incident in the last 12 months and what you did to recover. How long did it take to get back to normal?

Who Really Decides — and Who Will Fight It

• Which stakeholder’s disagreement has historically derailed projects here more than any other? Options: Owner/board, General Manager, Director of Operations, CIO/IT, Finance, Premium Services/Sponsorship
• List the people/groups who will need to sign off on a pilot and a full rollout (title or role is fine).
• Who is the primary economic owner of concessions, premium sales, and sponsorship revenue (one per category if different)?
• Who tends to raise the hardest questions about vendor consolidation or staffing changes (select all that apply)? Options: Legal/compliance, IT/security, Facilities/engineering, Labor/union reps, Finance, Commercial/sponsorship
• Tell us about a past project where a stakeholder unexpectedly blocked progress. What was their concern and how was it resolved (or not)?

Money, Metrics, and the ROI That Gets the Board's Attention

• If you could put one metric in front of the board tomorrow and expect budget approval, which metric would it be and why?
• What are your target percentage goals for incremental per-fan revenue, reliability improvement, or sponsorship ROI during a successful pilot? Options: Per-fan revenue +5–10%, Per-fan revenue +10–20%, Downtime reduction 50%+, Sponsor ROI uplift measurable within season, Other/unspecified
• Which KPIs do you already track reliably today (select all that apply)? Options: Total per-fan spend, POS transactions by terminal, Gate throughput, Dwell time in concourses, Sponsor activation metrics, None of the above
• Where do you have the largest blind spot in measurement that prevents you from proving ROI?
• How quickly does the business expect to see measurable ROI from a pilot before they re-evaluate funding? Options: Within first event, Within 1 month, Within the season, At season end, Unsure

The Ghosts in Your Tech Stack

• Which single system—if it failed on game day—would cause the most severe operational collapse? Options: Ticketing/access, POS/payment processing, Network/WiFi, Staffing/roster system, Backoffice reporting, Other
• Map the external vendors and internal systems you rely on most (ticketing, POS, payments, access control, comms). Which integrations exist today?
• Which integration gaps or data handoffs have caused reconciliation headaches or lost revenue?
• How ready is your IT team to provide integration access—APIs, service accounts, or DB extracts—within a 4–6 week pilot window? Options: Fully ready, Somewhat ready, Need approvals, Not ready
• How do you currently manage data ownership and reporting responsibilities between vendors and internal teams?

Staffing, Training, and Who Stays When the Lights Go On

• Who on your ops team is mission-critical to keep through a transition, and why would losing them put the project at risk?
• How would you describe your current staffing model on event day (select best fit)? Options: In-house full operations team, Hybrid in-house + contracted vendors, Mostly contracted vendors, Volunteer/seasonal-heavy model
• What are your biggest concerns about staff turnover during a vendor or systems transition? Options: Loss of tribal knowledge, Union/work-rule disputes, Training overload, Morale drop, Other
• How do you currently onboard and certify event-day staff for new systems or procedures? Give an example of a recent training cycle.
• Do you have roster constraints (union rules, contractor limits) we should know about before designing a pilot? Options: Yes — union constraints, Yes — contractor limits, No constraints, Unsure

What Success Actually Feels Like (Not Just Numbers)

• Describe one specific fan experience moment that, if it happened consistently, would make you feel this project was a win.
• What are the non-financial signals your leadership cares most about (select all that apply)? Options: Faster entry times, Fewer fan complaints, Improved sponsor activation visibility, Cleaner concourses, Fewer staff escalations
• How important is improving sponsorship reporting and activation as part of this initiative? Options: Critical — top priority, Important — secondary, Nice to have, Not a priority
• What level of event-day reliability would make you comfortable moving from pilot to a season-scale contract (describe in plain terms)?
• If we delivered the technical integration plus staffing support, what cultural or organizational changes would you still need to make for this to stick?

What's the Fastest Path From Pilot to Season-Scale?

• What is the single most important proof point a pilot must deliver to avoid political or budgetary delays?
• What pilot scope would you consider acceptable (select all that apply)? Options: Single marquee event, Series of smaller events, Week of back-to-back events, Subset of concessions/concourses, Premium areas only
• Who needs to be explicitly included as owners of pilot success on your side (roles or names)?
• Which risks would force a pause or stop to a pilot (select all that apply)? Options: Fan safety incidents, Major revenue loss, Network/security breach, Union action, Sponsor contract issues
• What would a realistic go/no‑go decision timeline look like after completing a 1–3 event pilot? Options: Immediate (within week), Within 1 month, At season review, Depends on data quality

Opening the Doors: Data, Access, and Privacy

• If a vendor asked for full read/write access to your ticketing and POS databases tomorrow, what would your immediate reaction be? Options: Approve with oversight, Approve limited access only, Require legal/IT review, Refuse
• Which compliance or privacy rules constrain how we can use fan payment and ticketing data (select all that apply)? Options: PCI/DSS, GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, Contractual sponsor restrictions, Internal data policies, None/applicable
• What standard data extracts or dashboards do you already produce for finance, ops, and sponsorship teams?
• How do you prefer to share technical access for a pilot—API keys, service accounts, SFTP extracts, or on‑site VPN? Options: API keys, Service accounts, SFTP extracts, On-site VPN, Other/unsure
• Who is the best technical point of contact for integration planning (name/role and preferred contact method)?

Next Steps — What’s Reasonable Right Now?

• If we left this conversation with only one commitment from you, what would it be?
• How ready is your organization to launch a pilot in the next 8–12 weeks? Options: Ready — just need contract, Ready with approvals, Need 1–2 months prep, Need 3+ months
• Which stakeholders should attend the pilot kickoff to avoid rework later (select all that apply)? Options: GM/Owner rep, Director of Operations, CIO/IT, Head of Premium Services, Sponsorship lead, Labor/HR rep
• What internal obstacles would make scheduling a kickoff difficult in the next quarter?
• What communication cadence and forum works best for you during pilot execution (select one)? Options: Weekly operational check-ins, Bi-weekly executive reviews, Daily 15-min standups during events, Ad-hoc as issues arise

Kickoff — What’s top of mind for your next season?

• What single issue would you say is the most urgent to solve before your next event season? Options: Revenue gaps, Frequent system outages, Sponsor renewal concerns, Staffing/operations reliability, Other
• How many events do you manage each year, and which event types create the most operational stress? Options: 40–50, 51–70, 71–100, 100+
• Who on your team is currently responsible for day-of systems performance (ticketing, POS, access)?
• If you had to pick one emotion that best describes how you feel about this upcoming season (confident, anxious, hopeful, guarded), which would it be and why? Options: Confident, Anxious, Hopeful, Guarded
• Quick pulse: how satisfied are you today with your venue’s ability to convert fans into per-event revenue? Options: Very satisfied, Somewhat satisfied, Neutral, Somewhat dissatisfied, Very dissatisfied

Why are you still tolerating that risk?

• Many venues accept intermittent outages as ‘part of game day’—what would change for you if a single outage cost a major sponsor or key premium buyer? Options: Immediate procurement review, Demand vendor penalties, Prioritize redundancy spend, Escalate to ownership, Other
• How often in the last 12 months have ticketing/POS/access failures impacted sales or entries? Options: Never, 1–2 times, 3–5 times, 6+ times
• Tell me about the last time a system failure happened—what went wrong, who scrambled, and how long did recovery take?
• When outages happen, what are the immediate downstream impacts you see (choose all that apply)? Options: Lost concession sales, Gate backups/long queues, Negative social media/sentiment, Sponsor complaint, Staff overtime/penalties
• How prepared do you feel your current vendors and staff are to run a controlled recovery during an outage? Options: Highly prepared, Somewhat prepared, Ill-prepared, No plan

Where is revenue quietly leaking?

• If you had to point to the single largest source of revenue leakage today, what is it? Options: Inefficient concessions/POS, Poor ticket resell capture, Untracked sponsorship activations, Underpriced premium inventory, Other
• Which revenue streams do you currently measure consistently (select all that apply)? Options: Tickets, Concessions, Merchandise, Premium seating, Parking, Sponsorship activation
• Where do you lack reliable, event-level data that prevents you from optimizing pricing, placement, or staffing?
• How often do you reconcile expected versus actual per-fan revenue after events? Options: After every event, Monthly, Per season, Rarely/never
• Can you share an example where a missed data point led to a lost commercial opportunity or misallocated staffing?

Who really holds the keys?

• Do your current decision-makers and procurement owners have the same definition of ‘acceptable reliability’ and ‘sponsor ROI’? Options: Yes—aligned, Mostly aligned, Not aligned, Unclear who decides
• Who are the non-negotiable stakeholders we must win alignment with for a pilot (select all that apply)? Options: General Manager, Director of Operations, CIO/CTO, Premium Services Director, Legal/Procurement, Owner/Board
• Describe any recent internal disagreements about technology investments—what were the sticking points and what compromise (if any) was reached?
• How quickly can your core decision group approve a pilot budget, on average? Options: Within days, 1–2 weeks, 3–4 weeks, Longer than a month, Depends on season
• If we needed executive sponsorship to accelerate a rollout, who would be the ideal champion and why?

What would a flawless event day actually feel like?

• Imagine your best event ever—what three outcomes tell you it was flawless (revenue, wait times, sponsor feedback, etc.)?
• Which fan-experience signals matter most to you and your stakeholders (select up to three)? Options: Average concession transaction time, Queue length at gates, Net promoter score (NPS), Mobile order adoption, Premium seat renewal intent, Social sentiment
• What target metrics would make you comfortable declaring a pilot ‘successful’ for revenue, operations, and sponsorship respectively?
• How would you prefer success be reported during a pilot—real-time dashboards, post-event reports, or executive summaries? Options: Real-time dashboards, Post-event detailed reports, Executive summaries, Combination
• If fans left the venue raving about the experience, what three behaviors would you expect to see in the weeks after (renewals, referrals, social shares)?

If we could measure success in one metric, which would you pick?

• Would you prioritize margin per fan, reliability (uptime), or sponsor ROI if you could only pick one to improve first? Options: Margin per fan, Reliability/uptime, Sponsor ROI, Fan experience/NPS
• What percentage improvement in that metric would make a solution undeniably worthwhile (provide a number or range)? Options: 1–5%, 6–10%, 11–20%, 20%+
• What is the minimum pilot duration you would need to feel confident that observed improvements are real and repeatable? Options: 1 event, 2–3 events, Full event season, Multiple seasons
• How will you know improvements are sustainable after our team steps back—what governance, reports, or responsibilities must be in place?

What’s stopped previous change efforts?

• Most teams attempt improvements and stall—what single factor has derailed past vendor or process changes for you? Options: Staff turnover, Vendor integration failure, Insufficient executive buy-in, Budget constraints, Operational disruption
• When a project hit a roadblock previously, who typically tried to fix it and what did they actually do?
• How much operational uplift (training, oversight, staffing) was required in those attempts, and was that level realistic for your team? Options: Minimal, Moderate, Heavy, Unclear
• What contingency steps would you expect our team to include to reduce the chance of a similar failure during pilot?
• Are there cultural or political dynamics inside your organization we should anticipate and navigate? If so, who should we talk to first?

How would you pilot without risking the game?

• If you could design a pilot that guaranteed no negative fan-impact while testing full capabilities, what constraints would you impose?
• Which systems must remain untouched during a pilot and which can be swapped or routed through our platform (select all that can be modified)? Options: Ticketing, POS/Concessions, Access control, CRM/Season ticket systems, Sponsor reporting feeds, Inventory systems
• What staffing model would you prefer for the pilot: your team running with our oversight, a blended ops team, or our team running event-day operations? Options: Your team with our oversight, Blended ops team, Our team runs event-day ops
• What minimum acceptance criteria would you require to move from pilot to broader rollout (list specific thresholds for revenue, uptime, or fan metrics)?
• How should remediation be handled if pilot targets aren’t met—pause, revise and retest, or proceed with mitigations? Options: Pause and diagnose, Revise and retest, Proceed with mitigations, Other

Are you ready to scale — or still testing?

• If the pilot meets its goals, which of these timelines best matches how quickly you'd want to scale to full season management? Options: Next event cycle, Within 1–3 months, At season break, Next season
• Scaling often fails for mundane reasons—what operational handoffs or contracts must be in place for you to feel comfortable expanding?
• Which integrations would be non-negotiable for scale (select all that apply)? Options: Ticketing provider, POS vendor, Access control, CRM/AMS, ERP/finance, Sponsor reporting platforms
• Thinking of risk allocation, which of these would you expect the vendor (us) to accept during scale: uptime SLAs, remediation commitments, or revenue guarantees? Options: Uptime SLAs, Remediation commitments, Revenue guarantees, Shared risk model