TR Circular E-C058_9th LRT Conference_2003.pdf - Florida ...

Doogan and Leitner 507
The eStore was promoted on the transit website home page and in all SBHC printed
materials that went to fans and ticket holders. News releases were sent to the cities whose teams
were contenders for the NFL’s Super Bowl. Fans purchased $4,228 (not including shipping fees)
in Commemorative 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-Day Super Bowl Day Tripper passes.
Trolley Station Manual Ticket Booths
Each day, sales kits were prepared containing round-trip tickets as well as quantities of the
appropriate Commemorative Day Tripper passes. Booth sales staff sold a total of 4,273
Commemorative Day Tripper passes (150 4-day passes; 481 3-day passes; 815 2-day passes; and
2,827 1-day passes), totaling $17,403 or 8% of the total manual ticket booth sales.
Advertising “Wraps” Generate Significant Revenue
In summer 2002, sports marketing consultant, ACME Marketing presented an unsolicited
revenue-generating proposal to the MTDB Board of Directors. MTDB approved a one-time
suspension of Policy 22 (adopted in 1981) prohibiting exterior advertising on the Trolley to
generate one-time dollars (Figure 2).
The impetus to approve this suspension was to jump-start the exterior rehabilitation of
SDTI’s LRV fleet. In 2002, about 50% of SDTI’s 123 vehicles were in dire need of repainting.
Sun, wear, and damage had discolored the “bright red” paint on more than half of the fleet.
Underneath the paint, most of the vehicles also required significant bodywork and there was only
funding available to rehabilitate six to seven LRVs.
During the Super Bowl, SDTI anticipated the entire fleet would be needed to maintain
service levels and handle excess crowds. ACME Marketing’s proposal that MTDB market a
“modified wrap” to NFL sponsors met with the Board’s approval because the wraps would serve
two purposes. First, the wraps would mask the exterior condition of up to 10 vehicles. Second,
the wraps would create a funding source that could double, or more than triple, the existing
rehabilitation dollars in FY 03. Because of security concerns and the long-standing advertising
ban, the Board set the number of cars to be wrapped at 10 and that wraps would not be allowed
to cover any passenger windows unlike most full bus wraps.
FIGURE 2 Eight SDTI cars wrapped by
advertisers generate incremental revenue.