ATLANTA, GA – The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and Playfly Aspire have extended their comprehensive partnership through 2027 following two years of significant growth. Playfly Aspire established a fan relationship management center (FRMC) on Illinois’ campus in 2023, tasked with growing revenue across Fighting Illini ticketed events and stewarding the I FUND.
Illinois Athletics and Playfly Aspire have doubled pre-partnership football season ticket counts, selling out of inventory for the first time in over 20 years and selling out Gies Memorial Stadium’s three premium areas (Colonnades Club, 77 Club, suites) as well. Men’s basketball season tickets have also sold out for the past two years of partnership and annual I FUND contributions have more than doubled, setting an all-time record in 2024-25.
Prior to establishing an onsite FRMC, the Playfly Consulting team led Illinois Athletics leadership in a collaborative two-day ticket pricing and packaging workshop for its football program, analyzing historic sales data, premium purchase trends, market economics, and peer benchmarks across conference and local entertainment offerings. The workshop concluded with Playfly recommended pricing and seating map adjustments that contributed to more than 5,500 new season ticket sales in the first month of the campaign.
Playfly currently supports eight Big Ten partners across its suite of services (consulting, premium/hospitality, ticket sales, sponsorship sales, and multimedia rights representation): Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, and USC.
Playfly Aspire Vice President, Joe Kronander, on the extended partnership:
“Illinois Athletics’ past two seasons of growth across revenue, attendance, and engagement are a testament to the hard work, relationship building, and decades of experience Playfly Aspire has in serving the fan. We are very proud of these results that we have achieved alongside the Illini and are even more excited to extend our relationship and push toward new heights in the coming years.”
Tom Moreland, Illinois’ Chief Commercial Officer, shared his thoughts on the success of this partnership:
“Together, we have embarked on a remarkable first two years, including the highest I FUND year on record, new levels of Illini fan attendance and engagement, and record ticket revenues. These efforts continue to lay the foundation for sustained Fighting Illini excellence.”
About the University of Illinois
Founded in 1867, in Champaign, Illinois, the University of Illinois is a public land grant university that supports a student body of more than 60,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Illinois Athletics is a charter member of the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA. The Fighting Illini compete across 21 men’s and women’s varsity sports that have combined for a total of 18 national titles and 261 Big Ten titles. For tickets or to learn more about Illinois Athletics, please visit: fightingillini.com
About Playfly Aspire
Playfly Aspire is an award-winning sports and entertainment marketing firm, recognized as a top employer in the industry by Forbes and Front Office Sports. Renowned for innovative consulting, ticket sales, and partnership services, Playfly Aspire pioneered the outsourced ticket sales niche, revolutionizing with its first Fan Relationship Management Center (FRMC) at Georgia Tech in 2009. Over the past 16 years, more than 300 collegiate and professional sports properties have trusted Playfly Aspire to drive revenue, attendance, and enterprise-value growth through strategic consulting and research, sales and service training, and best-in-industry fan relationship management.
For more information about Playfly Aspire, visit: playflyaspire.com and follow us on all our social media channels, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.
For project and partnership inquiries, contact Joe Kronander at joe.kronander@playfly.com
