In an unprecedented move by any sports team and sponsor pairing, the Phoenix Suns in conjunction with US telecoms giant Verizon are offering free mobile data to people who buy tickets to see them play.

In an attempt to target a younger audience, the Suns is giving free data to Verizon customers when they buy a ticket to a game, allowing them to earn up to a whopping 11 gigabytes of data. The incentive means that Suns fans who are Verizon customers can earn almost double Verizon’s “XL” sized plan which is up to 12 gigabytes of mobile data a month. If they’re not lucky enough to be a Verizon fan, the ticket buyer can ‘gift’ the data to a customer they know.

How it works is that the extra data is added to the front of the ticket buyer’s phone plan for the month and if any data is left over, it is rolled over to the next month. The amount of data also varies depending on which ticket is bought, for example; one seat in the upper bowl of Talking Stick Resort Arena earns 0.5 gigabyte while a seat in the lower bowl earns one gigabyte of data.

If they’re a massive fan and buys a ticket to three games, they’ll be looking at six gigabytes which isn’t bad considering the usual going monthly data allowance in other countries (ie; UK) is 4-5 gigabytes a month.

The promotion is an interesting precedent and could make its way into the UK market if deemed to be a success. This could mean fans could stand to win big across numerous sports considering how many teams are sponsored by the likes of O2 and Vodafone.

Phoenix Suns President Jason Rowley said the initiative is a way in which they can target those that rely more on mobile phone data including the younger market.

“Data drives a lot of behavior these days. Sports fans watching the game in the arena or at home are also utilizing their mobile device to download stats and stream playbacks.”

Verizon is running the program with the Suns on a trial basis as part of its “FreeBee Perks” program but if successful, the initiative could be implemented as part of a number of promotions across a variety of industries.