New Orleans Saints Legend Drew Brees Details Why He Became An Investor In Sports Illustrated Tickets

Former New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees details why he became an investor in Sports Illustrated … [+] Tickets. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

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Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has many reasons for why he’s invested in Sports Illustrated Tickets.

The secondary ticket marketplace is only three years old, but has made some notable headlines in its infancy. Outside of announcing Brees as an investor in May, Sports Illustrated Tickets became just one of three officially licensed channel partners of its NFL Ticket Network, joining established brands such as Ticketmaster and SeatGeek.

The sell and appeal of Sports Illustrated Tickets is simple — there are no fees and its transparent pricing. Brees explains this is a major reason why he became involved with the company.

“First off, we are a ticketing platform that is fan first, meaning everything that you see is the price that you get,” Brees says in a one-on-one interview. “Unfortunately, the ticketing industry is typically not that way, right? You click on the ticket price and by the time you get this fee and that fee at the end of it, it’s about twice as much of what you thought. That’s not the way we do business.”

The 45-year-old — who has become a businessman following his retirement from the NFL after the 2020 season — says that Sports Illustrated Tickets is a “fan-first” company.

“We are fan first, we are transparent and we have access to tickets for every NFL game, every major concert and live event in the country,” says Brees. “I think we’ve established ourselves as being certainly one of the most iconic and respected brands in the industry — Sports Illustrated in general. But now with SI Tickets, I think we’re quickly becoming a go-to place for tickets for any live event in the country.”

While Sports Illustrated Tickets is operated separately from the iconic magazine — they lease the SI brand name — they’re able to leverage the history of the brand into fan-first experiences at stadiums. SI Tickets recently announced a multi-year partnership with Kraft Sports + Entertainment which features sponsorships with the New England Patriots, New England Revolution and Gillette Stadium. Their newest partnership will see SI Tickets partner with the Cincinnati Bengals.

SI Tickets CEO David Lane explains what exactly the “Sports Illustrated Experience” is at these games.

“We’re creating a Sports Illustrated experience,” says Lane. “You’re going to walk into the Sports Illustrated pavillion and homage to the Patriots with covers and articles and memorabilia. Every fan can get their own Sports Illustrated cover from the game as a commemorative to take with them. For the Bengals, it’s the same vision. How can we help Bengals fans have a great experience at every game here? Not only are we partnering with the Bengals as the official fan experience partner, but we’re doing it for the first time — watch parties at the stadium.

“Bringing 1000’s of fans to watch these marquee games. The first one is going to be the matchup on that Sunday, second week with the Chiefs. This is a Sports Illustrated ticket experience where you’re going to walk in with Bengals cheerleaders, the mascot, pictures with several former Bengals players, walk onto the field. Get your own Sports Illustrated cover. Where you would look at that and say, that feels authentic. That feels like a Sports Illustrated experience.”

The “Sports Illustrated Experience” is a big sell for the brand, which is still in its infancy. Lane did not mention the exact teams that SI Tickets will have future partnerships with, but he mentions that they’re talking to multiple teams across all the major sports — NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS.

Brees’ responsibilities as an investor include “educating” the fans on what SI Tickets is all about — which is the transparent nature of the brand.

“I think the main thing is just educating the fans as to exactly what our ticketing platform is all about, the transparent nature of it,” explains Brees. “The fact that the price you see is the price that you get and the fact that we’re just looking to do things differently. We’re looking to do things better. We want to be the go-to ticket marketplace for fans when it comes to any major live event in the country.

“We’ve got relationships with all the teams, all the venues and so we take great pride in we’re continuing to grow, we’re continuing to gain support, more and more partnerships. The partnerships with the Patriots and with others that we’re announcing very soon. We are extremely excited about the growth and the scalability.”

The former Super Bowl MVP and 13-time Pro Bowler mentions how he was featured on the Sports Illustrated cover “eight times” during his career and how it was a big reason why he wanted to be associated with SI Tickets when the opportunity came about.

“First off, Sports Illustrated is an iconic brand and one in which my entire life — it was a dream to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” says Brees. “When I was just a little kid, hoping to get a chance to play at the next level, I was fortunate to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated eight times, which is pretty amazing. I have a lot of those commemorated in my office. My wife framed them up for me and I look upon those with a lot of pride. They’re just unbelievable moments in my career and just to be a part of a brand like that, it’s amazing when the opportunity came along to be an investor, a partner, an ambassador for Sports Illustrated tickets.”

While Lane wouldn’t detail the exact numbers showing the growth of SI Tickets on a year-by-year basis, he did mention that the company is growing “exponentially” faster than they anticipated. The SI Tickets CEO also explains that they’re not trying to put other ticket marketplaces out of business, but simply give the fans a transparent and “better” experience when it comes to buying tickets.

“The company has been growing, accelerating exponentially greater than where we thought it would be at this stage in our life cycle with these types of opportunities and partnerships,” says Lane. “Now we’re starting to get access and the market — especially the rights holders — are starting to see that we can be a better partner than a vendor.”

Brees not acknowledges how big the partnership is with the NFL Ticket Network, but also continues to hammer home the “transparency” of Sports Illustrated Tickets.

“It’s massive, it’s a massive statement,” says Brees of SI Tickets’ partnership with NFL Ticket Network. “I think level of respect and I think just justification as to what we’re trying to accomplish is taking platforming and the fact that we’re got the credibility with the NFL partnership. We’re part of the NFL Ticket Network, just one of three companies. We’re trying to do it the right way. We’re trying to be as transparent as possible. I think fans appreciate that.”

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