The rise in the number of new facilities built for professional sports franchises has significantly increased premium seating inventories in the United States. While the increased availability of premium seating represents an attractive revenue opportunity for teams and facilities, recent economic pressures and increased public scrutiny of corporate spending on sport-related entertainment and sponsorship has made the premium seating selling and retention environment more challenging. Because the current sports literature offers little insight into the motives of premium seating buyers or how these customers use and evaluate their premium tickets, qualitative research was conducted with 15 decision-makers at Fortune 100 firms that use premium seating as part of their overall sales and marketing efforts. The results reveal that customers use premium tickets for a variety of reasons, and tickets are a critical component of overall sponsorship strategies related to sporting events and teams. Insights also are provided that will help sellers develop a better game-day experience for their premium ticketing customers and enhance sponsorship activations.