I read this article today about the University of Missouri’s football attendance. Which is only about 47% of what they announce. LINK

Turns out that’s really common in college football programs. I think it’s really common with every industry, including swinger parties. We’ve been to lifestyle events before where the promoter hyped the event by saying it was “selling out” or that “tickets were going quickly” yet the place wasn’t anywhere near full at the actual event.

That sucks when you’ve gotten a hotel, a babysitter and driven a state away only to find out you’re partying with only 15 other couples.

I have an obsession with running a transparent event. 

Young Couple’s Party’s last event had exactly 70 couples in attendance. That was the number of tickets that were scanned at the door. No doubt about it, there were 70 couples there.

Leading up to a YCP event, you always know a few things…

#1. How many tickets were available.

#2. How many tickets have sold.

#3. A real time party roster that is composed of only paid ticket holders.

That’s unique. I don’t think any other company does that. Here’s why this hasn’t been copied…

It can really fuck you over sometimes.

Our last event in Des Moines, Iowa, was harmed by this commitment to transparency. Iowa had one of the worst winters in history, much worse than Chicago’s. At least once a week for two months, the state would have a major snowstorm making travel nearly impossible. The Iowa party did not have a ticket transfer policy, so people would have had to purchase a ticket to an event they weren’t confident they would even be able to drive to.

The attendee list was pretty small, and visible right there for the world to see on our website. There were obviously a ton of tickets available, and anyone perusing the website knew there was no real sense of urgency to buy. The party wasn’t huge, and it wasn’t going to sell out. So why buy early?

So many didn’t buy a ticket. We ended up with only 27 couples at that event, or about half of capacity.

Had I hid all that information about tickets available and number ticketed and simply kept saying “It’s blowing up!” or “It’s selling out!” more people would have purchased tickets.

When you’re transparent, you cannot create a false sense of urgency. Your cards are on the table for the consumer to see.

The Chicagoland event has been established long enough that the transparency helps it. Everyone can see that the event will likely sell out, the next event “Men’s Shirt” on April 12th is already over half sold out.

Transparency is a double edged sword.