Football season is almost upon us. Training camps are preparing to open their doors, players are gearing up for the season, and Brett Favre is throwing passes to high-school kids while cursing Lebron for stealing his thunder with “the decision” of the summer. With all this going on, We here at SeatGeek decided to take a look at all 32 NFL teams and rank them based on past performance and fan support, as determined by secondary market ticket prices.

Fan support is of paramount importance to NFL franchises. A rabid crowd can act like a 12th man, flustering opponents and spurring their team to victory. With that in mind we decided to gauge fan support for all 32 NFL teams in the best way possible, by analyzing 2010 secondary market ticket sales. Secondary market ticket prices reflect how fans feel about their squad, through how much hard earned money they are willing to throw down to watch their team play. Logically, higher prices would correspond to higher expectations, and vice-versa. Fans who purchase tickets to their favorite team’s games on the secondary market would be expected to pay more to see a higher quality product on the field, and less for a lower quality team. Therefore, utilizing a complex formula, devised by our resident sports geeks, that takes into account average 2010 ticket prices, and 2009 performance on the field, named the SeatGeek Rating Scale, (S.R.S) we predicted the relative success of each of the 32 NFL teams for this upcoming season. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will break down, division by division, every team in the NFL culminating with our playoff and Super Bowl predictions.

AFC East

The AFC East was one of the most confusing divisions in football last year, with experts quibbling over what to expect all summer long. The Dolphins had come out of nowhere to win the division the previous season, the Patriots were still the Patriots, the Jets were taking the field with rookies at quarterback and head coach, and the Bills had made a big splash by signing Terrell Owens. However, as the season progressed it became clear that the division was going to be decided between the Pats and the Jets. The Patriots narrowly beat out Gang Green for the division crown, but the Jets sneaked into the playoffs at 9-7 as a wild card, and promptly stomped over the Bengals and Chargers to advance to the AFC championship game where they fell to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Because we love ticket data so much here at SeatGeek, we decided to take this opportunity to delve a little deeper into the NFL’s most recent season, and also take a look forward to the upcoming season of NFL football.

The above graph compares all four AFC East teams across three categories: how many games they won in 2009, what their average transacted ticket price for 2010 tickets is so far, and their adjusted score on the super scientific SeatGeek Rating Scale. (SRS) As you can tell, in this division there is a clear correlation between 2009 wins, and how much fans are willing to pay for 2010 single game tickets.

Buffalo Bills

In 2008, the Buffalo Bills won 7 games, the following season fans paid an average of $54.69 per ticket, the lowest in the division. However, so far in 2010, Buffalo fans are willing to spend $78.52 on tickets to see their beloved Bills play, despite the fact that the Bills lost more games last year than they did the previous season. However, before jumping to the conclusion that Bills fans’ ticket purchases are unrelated to team performance, keep in mind that our 2010 data, despite encompassing thousands of transactions, by definition only includes transactions from April, when transactions for this upcoming season began, through July. As the season draws nearer, and then during the course of the games, prices could fluctuate significantly.

In order to gain a better understanding of how NFL ticket prices fluctuate over the course of a year, we broke down this data even further.

We plotted average price for the week preceding each game of the 2009 season, against the cumulative winning percentage of the team for that season up to that point. For example, Bills tickets traded at an average price of $72.20 leading into Week 3 of the season, following a Bills win that put them at 1-1 for the year; a .500 winning percentage that the Bills would never again achieve for the remainder of the season. Tickets for the final week of the season traded for an exceedingly low price of $17.69. This is probably due to a combination of factors: The Bills were already eliminated from playoff contention; their opponent was the Indianapolis Colts, who had announced they would be resting many starters in preparation for the playoffs; and to top it all off, the game time weather at Ralph Wilson Stadium was a balmy 12°F and snowing.

Due to the Bills’ relatively lackluster performance on the field, as well as in the ticket market, they received an S.R.S score of 19.02, good enough for fourth place in the division, and 29th in the entire league.

Verdict:

Sorry Bills fans, but it takes more than getting rid of Terrell Owens to improve your team. The Bills pool of talent is still the worst in the division by far. It’s going to be another long, cold winter in Buffalo.

Miami Dolphins

The 2008 Miami Dolphins came out of nowhere to go 11-5 and win the AFC East for the first time since the year 2000. In 2009 however, the team lost starting quarterback Chad Pennington early in the season, and had to move forward with the untested youngster Chad Henne. The Dolphins under Henne played well the majority of the year, but lost their final three games to finish 7-9 and out of the playoffs. Now let’s take a look at the data.

As opposed to Buffalo, over the course of the 2009 season season Dolphins prices rose from an average of $77.88 in September, to $85.63 in October, $92.24 in November, and $95.13 in December. This difference can possibly be attributed to the fact that as the season progressed the Bills dropped further and further from contention, while the Dolphins, although eventually falling short, were deeply immersed in a playoff race.

Verdict:

Uncertainty on both sides of the ball, along with a below .500 winning percentage and relatively lackluster 2010 ticket sales combine to give the Dolphins an S.R.S score of 29.65. That places them in 3rd in the AFC East, well behind the Jets and Pats, and 23rd in the league. Better luck next year Dolphins fans, because with that score, the ‘fins won’t even be sniffing the playoffs in 2010.

New York Jets

The Rex Ryan era began with a bang last season, as the Jets advanced to the AFC championship game for the first time since the Vinny Testaverde led team of 1998. With the number one ranked defense, and rushing offense in the NFL in 2009, the Jets won using the old strategy of running well, and stopping the run well. This year the Jets faithful have even higher hopes for their team; a result of multiple high profile acquisitions such as cornerback Antonio Cromartie, former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes, and 5 time Pro Bowler and former league MVP Ladanian Tomlinson.

There are some interesting trends in the week by week breakdown of the Jets’ 2009 campaign. For example, prices spiked in the week preceding the Jets’ week 4 match-up with the Saints, following the Jets’ impressive 3-0 start. Then, over the course of the next two weeks, prices dropped following consecutive Jets’ losses. It is also interesting to see the increase in ticket prices during the final two weeks of the season, as the Jets fought for a playoff spot. In fact, there is a relatively significant positive correlation between the Jets’ winning percentage during a week, and the average transacted ticket price from that week. In fact, the correlation coefficient of the Jets’ weekly average price compared to their cumulative winning percentage up to that point, was 0.68, on a scale of -1.0, denoting a perfect negative correlation, to 1.0, denoting a perfect positive correlation, with 0 meaning no correlation at all. In contrast, the correlation coefficients of the three other teams in the division were -0.21 for the Bills, 0.36 for the Dolphins, and -0.03 for the Patriots. This higher score seems to indicate that Jets fans were much more influenced by team performance in their ticket purchasing habits than fans of other teams in their division.

Verdict:

In the case of the Jets, tickets sold for the 2010 season are significantly higher than those sold for last season, excluding January tickets sold to playoff games. Clearly this is a reflection of the higher expectations of the fans, and this translates into a healthy S.R.S score of 66.18, slotting them in at 2nd in the division, and 10th in the league, good enough to snag the #5 seed in the AFC playoffs. So enjoy it Jets fans, because them being the Jets, and therefore prone to every misfortune, mismanagement, and miscue possible, success will not last long.

New England Patriots

The Patriots have consistently been one of the best teams in the NFL for almost a decade now. The Brady-Belichick dynasty has produced 3 Super Bowls championships, and division titles in 7 of the last 9 years. After winning 11 games in 2008, but failing to win the division due to the resurgent Dolphins, the Pats returned to their familiar place atop the AFC East last season. Despite an aging core of veterans, this year should be no different for the perennial Super Bowl contenders.

The Patriots had by far the highest average ticket price throughout the 2009 season of any team in their division. In fact, the lowest weekly average price for the Pats last year was $107.24, a figure that the Bills and Jets didn’t reach even during their most expensive weeks. Their season average price of $144.09 was almost twice the Jets’ average of $79.73, and almost three times the Bills average price of $54.69! Clearly Pats fans pay a premium to see their team play. However, the price does not seem to fluctuate in any particular pattern relative to the more micro-fluctuations in team performance, with a correlation coefficient of only -0.03, basically rounding to 0, meaning there was absolutely no relationship between winning percentage and weekly average price during the Patriots 2009 season.

Verdict:

Due to their stellar performance on the field, and their rabid fan-base’s willingness to pay a premium for tickets, they Patriots have amassed an S.R.S score of 87.48, tops in the division, and fourth best in the entire league. Congratulations Patriots fans, once again you’ll be rooting for your team at snowy Gillette Stadium in January.

Conclusion

The AFC East is one of the most exciting divisions in football, and also one of the best values, with an overall average ticket price of $145.55 so far in 2010, the third cheapest division in football.

After taking all the stats into consideration, our fearless predictions are:

1. New England Patriots
2. New York Jets
3. Miami Dolphins
4. Buffalo Bills

Stay tuned to SeatGeek for more of the latest NFL trends, and for the rest of our NFL previews.

For more information, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at jonathan@seatgeek.com and don’t forget to like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter @SeatGeek and @SeatGeekNFL

The Los Angeles Lakers were victorious over the Boston Celtics last night by a score of 83-79, ending the Celtics season and giving the Lakers their sixteenth Finals Championship. Throughout these NBA Finals, we have been giving you game recaps, along with the listing prices for tickets on the secondary market for each game. Now that it’s all said and done, we wanted to take a look back at the transaction prices for tickets for each game, and compare the data to that of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

Both of these series featured two marquee match ups; the Stanley Cup Finals was between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks. The NBA Finals was even more of a dream match up; the Celtics and the Lakers are two of the winningest and most storied franchises in all of sports. Yet surprisingly, especially given the greater popularity of the NBA over the NHL, ticket transaction averages were greater for the NHL Finals than they were for the NBA Finals. The average transaction price for tickets for the Stanley Cup Finals was $718, compared to $699 for the NBA Finals ($633 if you exclude Game Seven).

In the NBA Finals, tickets for Lakers home games went for much more than tickets for Celtics home games. The average transaction prices for tickets in the Staples Center in LA were $817, versus $541 for games in the TD Garden in Boston.

During the Stanley Cup Finals, the average transaction price for tickets was greater for Blackhawks home games than for Flyers home games. In Chicago, the average was $810, whereas the average in Philadelphia was $626.

Television ratings to gauge each sports’ popularity aside, it is interesting to see that fans were willing to pay more for NHL Finals tickets than NBA Finals tickets. I would have expected to see the opposite, considering that basketball is generally considered a more popular sport in the U.S. than hockey.

Nonetheless, hockey season and basketball season have finally come to a close. Actually, with LeBron Mania erupting and causing the world to stop when free agency begins on July 1, basketball season is far from over. Be sure to check back with us at SeatGeek for our take on the LeBron saga, as well as for more sports news and ticketing data.

Questions, comments? Feel free to follow us on Twitter @SeatGeek or send over an email to justin@seatgeek.com.

Over the past two weeks, we at SeatGeek have looked at how Strasburg has affected ticket prices. For his major league debut, we saw a huge impact on ticket prices as average transaction prices for his start were more than double the average for the season at Washington. For his second start in Cleveland, he also had an impact on ticket prices even though it was a road start. There was a 22.2% increase for the Strasburg start over the season average at Cleveland.

How long will the Strasburg effect last? We decided to see if Strasburg is having any effect on ticket prices for his next start on Friday at home against the White Sox.

• Average ticket prices for Strasburg’s 2 starts at home are 73% greater than the Nationals season average
• Average ticket prices for Strasburg’s 2nd home start this Friday are 10% greater than the season average

• Strasburg’s two home starts were the most expensive of the Nationals recent home games.

With MLB.com’s Matthew Leach stating that Strasburg is “on a short list of the top pitchers in baseball” and with others sharing this belief, it seems Strasburg will be having an effect on Nationals tickets for a long, long time.

Part V of our ‘Buying Sports and Concert Tickets: The Expert Series‘

Do you feel like you are getting ripped off when buying tickets? We used to feel the same way, and that is why SeatGeek was created. So spend a few minutes reading this post (and the linked content) and it will save you both time and money with your future ticket purchases (even when they are not with us). We will start with the basics of using SeatGeek and then deliver some more advanced suggestions so you can buy tickets with confidence.

The Basics:

• Find us at SeatGeek.com
• Search for tickets using our search box (by team, artist, venue, or city)

• Find tickets (here I searched for Yankees tickets)
• Scroll to find a date and match-up that fits your needs

• Sign-in to view forecasts
• Buy now or wait to buy depending on forecasted prices and our corresponding recommendation

Advanced Features:

• Sort by best deals
• You can sort by percent of face value to find the best value tickets

• Sort by price low to high
• If you are on a tight budget, this will give you the lowest possible prices by aggregating tickets from all major secondary ticket sites

• Use interactive seat maps
• “The idea is simple: aggregate all of the tickets for events and visualize their value on the stadium’s seating chart” to quote Andrew Mager in his ZDNet SeatGeek post

• View historical price graphs – located on the bottom right of the event’s page
• Fulfill your curiosity by tracking the % of face value trends over time – if that is not enough check out our Blog which features tons of ticket data

• Use ticket search and email alerts
• If you are a regular reader of our blog you know not to go to a single marketplace – use ticket search engines and supplement this with email alerts to find the best deals

• Use our forecasts so you know when to buy
• Check out our homepage and sign-up for our newsletter to learn about the hottest deals in your area

Don’t forget that a basic knowledge of the primary ticket market and secondary ticket market (as discussed previously in this blog) will improve your overall buying experience.

So now you know the ins-and-outs of buying tickets on SeatGeek. Note, that if you already own season tickets we have a great tool to help you manage your ticket portfolio (but that discussion is for another day).

Still have questions? Comment below or email me at chad[at]seatgeek.com.

Conventional wisdom states that baseball fans are a fickle bunch. It takes very little for a team to alienate a large fan base when losing, or conversely to capture the hearts and minds of a city when on a winning streak, and nothing captures the imagination of baseball fans like a no-hitter. There are few professions whose performance can be quantified as precisely as that of a major league baseball player, and in a game based on failure , (even the best hitters fail to get a hit 65-70% of the time) it is rare to see a player achieve absolute perfection. On that day, there is absolutely nothing the pitcher could have done better than he did. Perfect games and no hitters occur so rarely there have only been 20 perfect games in Major League history dating back to 1875. Because of the unique and exciting nature of no-hitters, they are often front-page news the following day, garnering a lot of attention from local and national media outlets alike. Here at SeatGeek, we looked over our data from the back-to-back-to-back no-hitters that have occurred over the course of the 2010 season, to determine whether the buzz generated by a no-no manifested itself in higher ticket prices for the following games, starts, or home starts for the pitcher.

The first of the three no-hitters occurred on April 17th 2010, and was thrown by Colorado Rockies hurler Ubaldo Jimenez, on the road against the Atlanta Braves. The average ticket price for that game was $32.69. Jimenez’s next start was at Washington, and average ticket price was $42.96. His first home start following the no-hitter was against the Diamondbacks the following Monday, and tickets sold for an average of $33.98. The average ticket price for a Colorado Rockies game in the week following Ubaldo’s no-hitter was $47.67, as opposed to an average price of $51.77 for a 2010 Rockies ticket sold March 1st through June 3rd 2010.

From looking at this data it does not appear that pitching a no-hitter increases interest in a pitcher’s subsequent start, or interest in the team for the week following the perfect game. However let us now take a look at the two perfect games thrown in 2010.

On May 9th 2010 Oakland youngster Dallas Braden took the hill and promptly sent 27 straight Tampa Bay Rays back to the dugout hit-less for the first perfect game in 2010, and the 19th in Major League history.

Disregarding the price of a ticket to the no-hitter, (because no fan knows when purchasing a ticket that a no-no will be pitched) it appears that tickets for Braden’s following start, (a Friday night game in Anaheim) and his next home start, (Wednesday May 19th vs. Detroit) both traded for a lower price ($38.26 & $40.72 respectively) than the average price for an A’s game this season through June 3rd ($55.47). Similar to the Jimenez case, Braden’s perfect game did not radically alter A’s ticket prices in the subsequent week.

Now onto Roy Halladay’s perfect game, thrown last Friday night May 28th against the Florida Marlins in Miami.

(A few notes regarding the Halladay’s data set. He is next slated to start at home Friday night June 4th against the San Diego Padres. The game has yet to take place, so the average price for a ticket sold for that game may still fluctuate. Additionally, as a week has not yet passed since Halladay’s perfect game, the data in that column only consists of 6 days of Phillies ticket sales, up through June 3rd.)

Analyzing these figures in conjunction with our data from the previous no-hitters, we can draw some interesting conclusions.

1. Phillies tickets, on average, have traded at substantially higher prices than either Rockies, or A’s tickets so far during the 2010 season. This is not surprising due to the Phillies’ large, baseball-crazed market, roster full of big-name players, and recent success, having reached the World Series the past two seasons.

2. Despite the significant media buzz that inevitably surrounds the throwing of a no-hitter or perfect game, there appears to be very little correlation between no-hit performances and immediate fluctuations in ticket prices. This is not to say that no-hitters are completely irrelevant in the determination of subsequent ticket prices, only that more mundane factors such as day of the week, weather forecasts, time of day, and opposing teams matter much more than a pitching performance for the ages.Do No-Hitters Affect Ticket Prices?

Yesterday President Barack Obama spoke with Marv Albert of TNT about the NBA.  During their conversation Albert asked President Obama what change he would make if he was Commissioner of the NBA.  The President’s answer was that he would like to see the NBA, and all other sports leagues, make their tickets more affordable for average people.  At the 3:24 mark of this video you can watch his full response:

It’s a nice sound bite, but it’s unlikely teams will voluntarily decrease their bottom lines in the name of accessible ticket prices (would Obama suggest car companies drop their prices to make cars more accessible?). But that doesn’t mean that folks with small budgets can’t still see live events–you just need to know where to look.

Our data shows that almost 40% of tickets sold on the secondary market go for less than face value.  Ticket box offices aren’t like department stores–they don’t have sales.  If you’re looking for bargain basement ticket prices, the secondary market is the place to find them.  And we recommend using an intelligent ticket aggregator (like, ahem, SeatGeek) to make sure you can see all available tickets and identify the best deal.

(Updated) Following LeBron James’ early exit from the NBA Playoffs we starting crunching the numbers to quantify the inevitable impact on ticket prices. 

What makes us qualifed to do this? SeatGeek is the only company that uses transactional data to analyze ticket prices, and has the technology to track secondary market price movements for sports and concerts, resulting in a comprehensive picture of fan demand for all major events.

We determined that tickets prices for the Eastern Conference Finals are about 43% of the expected Cavs home game ticket prices in the same round.  Building upon this analysis many major publications picked up this story and below we have presented a roundup of articles featuring the details of this ‘LeBron James Effect’:

• With LeBron Out, Cheaper Seats Are in (LeBron James ticket price impact as discussed in the Wall Street Journal)
• Post-LeBron, NBA Playoff Tickets Are Half-Price (TIME on LeBron James and ticket prices)
• The LeBron Effect (The LeBron Effect on ticket prices at CNBC)

Update with some additional links:

• LeBron’s exit creates ripple effect (from USA Today)
• Our wallets thank you, Boston Celtics (from Bundle.com)
• LeBron James’ Absence Hurts Ticket Value (from Hoopsnotes.com)

It is also interested to see that ‘The Chosen One’ has continually lived up to his hype in terms of generating tickets sales. Will he have this same impact in a major market like New York…likely.

Please comment below if you have thoughts on this article or suggestions for future posts.

Much like the travel industry a few years back, the sports and music ticket industry is evolving at a rapid pace.  However, few people know what the term ‘secondary ticket market‘ means, even though many use this market often at sites like StubHub.  Furthermore, for novices that search with queries similar to “buying sports tickets” they get a list of online sites where they can buy tickets, but no articles on what these actually are and how they relate to more traditional options.  Many searchers  struggle with how to find discount tickets or sold out tickets (depending on their personal ticket purchasing goals).  With these issues in mind, ‘Buying Sports and Concert Tickets: The Expert Series’ was born to fill a gap in educating users about buying in both the primary and secondary ticket markets.

Why the ‘Buying Tickets’ series?

• There is little content on purchasing tickets that discusses all major options, especially from industry experts
• At SeatGeek we have expertise on sports and music tickets – we live the industry everyday – and wanted to share our knowledge
• We are passionate about sports and music, and want to make it as easy as possible to search, find, and buy tickets
• We are personally invested in the ticketing industry, and strongly believe in the power of web based services to help users save money and time when buying tickets
• We hope to educate newcomers and refine the purchasing habits of regular buyers

The ‘Sports and Concert Tickets’ series schedule:

• The series will kick off early next week
• There will be 6 total posts that cover a full range of ticket buying topics
• Posts will be spaced out every 2-3 days (as quick as we can get input from everyone at SeatGeek)
• Posts will feature expert thoughts and advice from the SeatGeek founders Jack Groetzinger and Russ D’Souza

The Topics:

• Buying Sports and Concert Tickets 101
• Get Great Tickets at the Best Prices: Advanced Ticket Buying
• 5 Tips for Buying Sold Out Tickets
• Stop Losing Money: 5 Tips for Buying Cheap Tickets
• Buying Tickets on SeatGeek: The Buyers Guide
• Timing Your Ticket Buying: 5 Trends in MLB Ticket Prices

We look forward to sharing this ticket buying series.  In the meantime, check out SeatGeek for your sports and concert ticket needs or reach out to SeatGeek on Twitter if you have any questions or comments – we respond in a timely manner!

updates

Buying Sports and Concert Tickets: The Expert Series (Part II)

• Stop Buying Blind – A Guide to Sports and Concert Ticket Markets
• Stop Buying Blind – A Guide to Sports and Concert Ticket Markets (2/2)

The SeatGeek team presented for 700 other New York City tech followers, entrepreneurs, and developers at the May 2010 NY Tech Meetup at FIT’s Haft Auditorium.  We are very excited that we were able to demo our sports and music ticket forecasting and search site.  In case you missed the demo, we went through the process of searching and buying tickets for your favorite sports team or musician.  SeatGeek automatically generates forecasts on ticket prices, allowing our users to be smart about buying tickets – saving a lot of money in the process.

Companies:

The night featured a great lineup of companies with innovative products and services:

Goodcrush (@goodcrush) is a dating service / matchmaker for college campuses.  They have also recently spun-off a chat-roulette-esque service for college students called RandomDorm.

Zoomino (@zoomino) “is a discovery engine triggered by a keyword mouse-over. Through in-text displays, Zoomino engages readers with related content and integrated apps, resulting in extended site visits and expanded advertising opportunities.”

GameChanger “…provides free iPhone scorekeeping and statistics management tools for youth, high school, and college baseball and softball teams.”  We really enjoyed their demo and it was great to hear that they already have 6,000 users.  One interesting use case:  With future social integration, a high school baseball player could hit a home run and notify his friends about it via a Facebook status update even before he has rounded the bases.  Note: GameChanger also wrote a nice summary of the May 2010 NYTM.

Bit.ly continues to lead the way in url shortening and analytics.  They demoed their latest release and you should really check it out if you have not yet.  Super intuitive UI lets you shorten, manage, and track your efforts across the web. If you are not familiar with Bit.ly checkout in depth discussions of Bit.ly on Mashable.

Identified drives connections between prospective job candidates and companies.  Currently it is in private-beta among Stanford students and alumni.

Stickybits is a “fun and social way to attach digital content to real world objects” and provides endless use cases both personally (scavenger hunts, money tracking, etc.) and professionally.

Summary:

We had a great time at the event and would like to thank everyone involved.  I will see you next month at the new NYU location for NYTM.  For additional information on the venue change see The NY Tech Meetup Says Goodbye to FIT.  For another summary of the meetup, read Last Night’s NYC Tech Meetup which has a great discussion of GameChanger.

Reach out to us on Twitter if you want to meet in person at a NYTM event.  I will be at most of them moving forward, so you can also get in touch with me on my personal Twitter.

Today we’re running a deal on Scoop St.  We’re selling tickets for Yankees vs. Orioles games in Yankee Stadium on May 4-5 for 50% off face value.  Check out the deal: http://www.scoopst.com/scoop/28

Normally we don’t sell tickets ourselves; rather, when you look up a game on SeatGeek we pull in the inventory from all the web’s ticket sites into one place (like Kayak does for airfare).  But we’re making an exception here.  We’re using our technology to scour the web for the best ticket deals, and we’re passing along the savings we find to Scoop St customers.

Not familiar with Scoop St?  They’re one of the sites on the forefront of the group buying craze (a la Groupon).  They’re NYC-based, although they recently expanded to DC.  We’re friends with the founders, Dave and Justin, who are both razor-sharp guys.  Definitely a startup to keep your eyes on.