KNOXVILLE – John Currie could have called in a favor to a corporate partner or industry connection to snag a box seat. At the very least, he could have afforded to buy a desirable ticket from the box office.
As an athletic director of a power conference university – Kansas State at the time – Currie was in Minneapolis to speak at a conference and had plenty of status as he walked out of his hotel room toward Target Field that night a few years ago.
“Instead, I figured I would just do it like a fan does sometimes,” Currie recalled in an interview with the Time Free Press. “I bought a ticket from a scalper. It was the second or third scalper I saw. I talked them down a little bit.”
Currie does not remember who the Minnesota Twins’ opponent was that night, because he never locked in on the game. He found himself roaming the ballpark and taking mental notes on what drew the attention of the fans.
The term “fan experience” is broad, but it has become a common catchphrase in major collegiate and professional sports offices, and it is coming into focus as a Currie priority early in his tenure as athletic director at Tennessee.