Nebraska Athletics Combines Development, Ticketing

“In regards to taking care of our customers, we want to be the Disney of athletic development and ticketing.” – Diane Mendenhall, associate athletic director, Nebraska Athletics Development and Ticket Operations

Randy York N-Sider

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In the vast majority of college athletic departments, a development group deals directly with the program’s donors and a ticketing staff makes sure fans receive their reserved seats. Development focuses on fund-raising, and ticketing serves as the transactional arm that keeps Nebraska fans filling Memorial Stadium, Pinnacle Bank Arena and the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

For nearly a century, that’s the way it’s been at Nebraska and just about everywhere else in collegiate athletics. But not anymore. A pioneer in blending those two entities, Nebraska decided 18 months ago to combine development and ticketing into one department that strives to make the experience of giving and receiving seamless for donors, season ticketholders and fans.

Today’s N-Sider explains the strategic rationale behind simplifying the Huskers’ overall fan experience. Another N-Sider will follow to explain why Nebraska Athletics created a system and made it a priority to focus directly on the Student-Athlete Experience.

In his fourth year as Nebraska’s director of athletics, Shawn Eichorst provided the vision to combine development with ticketing, enabling Nebraska to blaze new trails to serve donors and ticketholders jointly and simultaneously.

Nebraska Well Positioned to Provide the Best Student-Athlete Experience

Nebraska Athletics administrators Marc Boehm and Diane Mendenhall are the catalysts for creating the new culture and making it a reality. Both have focused on using the new structure as a platform to enhance the student-athlete experience and to enable unique ways for all qualified student-athletes to benefit from new NCAA legislation.

Seizing such opportunities are not only expected, but necessary to continue Nebraska’s well-positioned mission to provide the absolute best student-athlete experience in all of college athletics. Being one of very few self-sustaining intercollegiate athletics programs in the country (without receiving any university subsidies or state tax dollars), the development and ticketing department is Nebraska Athletics’ largest source of revenue.

With the majority of season tickets tied to a donation, Nebraska wanted to blend cultures and create a comfortable space for donors and ticketholders to interact with NU’s staff. “It’s wonderful that Shawn had the vision and was willing to invest in a customer-friendly environment across the street from Memorial Stadium,” Mendenhall said. “It’s a beautiful space for our development and ticketing staffs to work and a great location for our customers to visit.”

Mendenhall Accepted the Opportunity to Return to Nebraska Athletics

The space was developed to create communication and collaboration between development and ticketing, so Nebraska can continue to serve its loyal fan base at the highest level possible. “We purposely don’t have a separate ticketing area and development area,” Boehm said. “They’re comingled. They’re all in one. You’ll see a person that used to be in the development office next to the transactional ticket space. Two doors down, you’ll see a ticketing person who faces the development space more than the ticket windows.”

It’s all by design. “To force constant collaboration, our new space includes glass, so everyone can see and interact with everyone else on the team,” Mendenhall said. “We want to be the best in providing unparalleled customer service and in order to do so, we needed to blend the two groups and transform a space to create that environment. It’s truly exciting to see it working.”

Mendenhall moved from her first Nebraska Athletics’ stint to lead a change of culture at the University of Nebraska Alumni Association. Having accomplished that mission while serving as the organization’s executive director, she then accepted the opportunity to return to NU Athletics and help lead the transformational challenge that she faces and embraces with Boehm.

Nebraska's Service Goal: Take Care of People So They Always Come Back

“Nobody embraces customer service better than Walt Disney,” Mendenhall said. “We want to be the Disney of athletic development and ticketing. We want to take care of the people so they always come back. If we do that, we will help fulfill the mission of Nebraska Athletics.”

Trying to achieve that joint goal from two separate departments is inefficient and does not provide the service “our fans deserve,” Mendenhall said. “We have to blend it and make it as seamless as possible. The essence is communicating and collaborating, so we can take care of all our customers’ needs."

Ticketing can be viewed as transactional, but Mendenhall prefers it to be relationship-based. "For us, it’s working, primarily because we have great people," she said. "Every time we interact with our donors and season ticketholders, we not only want to serve them, we want them to be as happy as they can be with their interaction with us. Whether you're a single-game buyer or a million-dollar donor, we want you to have the best experience possible.”

Humble, Hard-Working, Respectful Nebraskans All Stick Together

With that kind of spirit and confidence, Nebraska is going above and beyond to serve more than 17,000 donors who support 595 student-athletes with a smile and an appreciative nod to their customers on a daily basis.

The theme is tried and trusted and resonates with There is No Place like Nebraska and the primary truth inherent in the phrase: “At Nebraska, we all stick together,” Mendenhall said. “Nebraskans are humble, hard-working and respectful. They’re also proud, loyal and progressive. In development and ticketing, we have been entrusted with a great responsibility to take care of the great people that help us provide our student-athletes with the best experience in all of college athletics.”

As Nebraska continues to serve as a proud pioneer in college athletics, “we can’t stand still,” Boehm said. “We need our donors, ticketholders and fans now more than ever!”

Editor’s note: The second of this two-part series – entitled Nebraska Focuses on the Student-Athlete Experience – also will be published on Huskers.com.

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