Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wolf Trap Voted 'Best Outdoor Concert Venue'
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuff Trucks plus Monster Trucks
Zvents
Friday, July 16 7:30 p.m.
at Stanislaus County Fairgrounds: FoodMaxx Arena, Turlock, CA
It's a race against time for more than 50 "stump jumpers" on an obstacle course filled with bumps and jumps - with two rotations around the track! Three classes will compete for quickest time: (1) Local Tuff Trucks, (2) Pro-Arena Trucks and (3) Quads (four-wheel motorcycles).
Local Tuff Trucks often have the suspension system changed out to provide for longer travel, have bigger wheels and tires and have been stripped to lighten the weight of the vehicle. Pro-Arena Trucks have been highly modified for ultimate performance.
Special appearances by roaring monster trucks: Time Flys and Fired up.
Price: Reserved seats: $8, General admission - adult: $6, General admission - child (12 and under): $4 (+Fair admission)
Ticket info: Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.com, the fair's website www.stancofair.com, by phone at 1-800-225-2277 or at the Fair office at 900 N. Broadway, Turlock.
Friday, July 16 7:30 p.m.
at Stanislaus County Fairgrounds: FoodMaxx Arena, Turlock, CA
It's a race against time for more than 50 "stump jumpers" on an obstacle course filled with bumps and jumps - with two rotations around the track! Three classes will compete for quickest time: (1) Local Tuff Trucks, (2) Pro-Arena Trucks and (3) Quads (four-wheel motorcycles).
Local Tuff Trucks often have the suspension system changed out to provide for longer travel, have bigger wheels and tires and have been stripped to lighten the weight of the vehicle. Pro-Arena Trucks have been highly modified for ultimate performance.
Special appearances by roaring monster trucks: Time Flys and Fired up.
Price: Reserved seats: $8, General admission - adult: $6, General admission - child (12 and under): $4 (+Fair admission)
Ticket info: Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.com, the fair's website www.stancofair.com, by phone at 1-800-225-2277 or at the Fair office at 900 N. Broadway, Turlock.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Dwight Yoakam to perform in Salinas during Rodeo Week
The Californian
Ria Megnin
The California Rodeo Association and David Drew Productions will present The Centennial Rodeo Music Stampede with Dwight Yoakam on July 17.
Yoakam will perform at Salinas Municipal Stadium/Rodeo Fairgrounds, 175 Maryal Drive, Salinas. Gates open at 6 p.m.; show starts at 7 p.m.
Cost is $22 plus box fees or $47 plus box fees for VIPs.
Tickets are available at the Salinas Sports Complex Box Office, 800-549-4989 or 831-722-6500 or www.tickets.com.
Ria Megnin
The California Rodeo Association and David Drew Productions will present The Centennial Rodeo Music Stampede with Dwight Yoakam on July 17.
Yoakam will perform at Salinas Municipal Stadium/Rodeo Fairgrounds, 175 Maryal Drive, Salinas. Gates open at 6 p.m.; show starts at 7 p.m.
Cost is $22 plus box fees or $47 plus box fees for VIPs.
Tickets are available at the Salinas Sports Complex Box Office, 800-549-4989 or 831-722-6500 or www.tickets.com.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Zac Brown Band to play Oklahoma City’s Zoo Amphitheatre Sept. 16; tickets go on sale June 26
Brandy McDonnell
BAM's Blog
Country group Zac Brown Band will be bringing its increasingly acclaimed live show to Oklahoma City’s Zoo Amphitheatre on Sept. 16.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 26, the venue announced today.
Tickets will be available at www.zooamp.com and Tickets.com. For more information, call 364-3700.
The Atlanta-based band has developed a reputation for an electrifying live show, particularly after playing a scorching cover of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” during last year’s Country Music Association Awards.
“I was so thrilled with that performance,” Oklahoma-born superstar Reba McEntire recently told the Associated Press. “I thought it was very gutsy of them, too, not to do their single, but to do a live performance. It was a showstopper. They do go against the grain a lot. They’re kind of renegade in a way, but they back it up.”
The band is coming off a series of three high-profile performances in the last week: Wednesday at the CMT Music Awards, Saturday at the CMA Music Festival and Sunday at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.
In addition, Brown & Co. have the momentum of three No. 1 singles, a recent Grammy win and two albums in Billboard’s country top 10 on their side. Their most-recent album, “The Foundation,” continues its slow burn at No. 3 with 2 million copies sold, and the new two CD, one DVD live set, “Pass The Jar: Live” is No. 9 on the charts.
The group takes a blue-collar approach, Brown told the AP before playing CMA Music Fest and Bonnaroo over the weekend, and feeds off the energy of the crowd. They always know in minutes if the show’s going to go to another level.
“You feed off the crowd,” he said. “Whatever they give you, as much as they’ll give you, it comes back to us and it makes this big turbine of energy in the room. We’ll know stepping out how much they want to give us. It gives us that extra. Literally when we get done playing we’re exhausted. We’re covered in sweat and we’re soaked and we feel like we’ve given them their money’s worth.”
BAM's Blog
Country group Zac Brown Band will be bringing its increasingly acclaimed live show to Oklahoma City’s Zoo Amphitheatre on Sept. 16.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 26, the venue announced today.
Tickets will be available at www.zooamp.com and Tickets.com. For more information, call 364-3700.
The Atlanta-based band has developed a reputation for an electrifying live show, particularly after playing a scorching cover of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” during last year’s Country Music Association Awards.
“I was so thrilled with that performance,” Oklahoma-born superstar Reba McEntire recently told the Associated Press. “I thought it was very gutsy of them, too, not to do their single, but to do a live performance. It was a showstopper. They do go against the grain a lot. They’re kind of renegade in a way, but they back it up.”
The band is coming off a series of three high-profile performances in the last week: Wednesday at the CMT Music Awards, Saturday at the CMA Music Festival and Sunday at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.
In addition, Brown & Co. have the momentum of three No. 1 singles, a recent Grammy win and two albums in Billboard’s country top 10 on their side. Their most-recent album, “The Foundation,” continues its slow burn at No. 3 with 2 million copies sold, and the new two CD, one DVD live set, “Pass The Jar: Live” is No. 9 on the charts.
The group takes a blue-collar approach, Brown told the AP before playing CMA Music Fest and Bonnaroo over the weekend, and feeds off the energy of the crowd. They always know in minutes if the show’s going to go to another level.
“You feed off the crowd,” he said. “Whatever they give you, as much as they’ll give you, it comes back to us and it makes this big turbine of energy in the room. We’ll know stepping out how much they want to give us. It gives us that extra. Literally when we get done playing we’re exhausted. We’re covered in sweat and we’re soaked and we feel like we’ve given them their money’s worth.”
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tickets.com to Present at Internet Retailer's Mobile Commerce Conference
The American consumer's mindset is changing. Consumers are increasingly relying on mobile phones not only as phones but also as devices for obtaining information and conducting transactions—be that buying movie tickets, purchasing merchandise or checking flight times.
Internet Retailer's first annual Mobile Commerce Forum: Mobile Commerce Enters the Mainstream, will present a cross-industry view of how marketers are driving business results using the mobile channel. The conference agenda will bring together different industries so they can learn from each other and travel this fast-rising growth curve together. Featuring ticket sellers, travel and hospitality companies, retailers, and entertainment and digital service providers, it will present speakers who will share their experience in developing and executing successful mobile commerce initiatives.
Sheri Fink, eCommerce & Strategic Alliances, will be speaking on behalf of Tickets.com to share the experience of developing the Tickets.com mobile site and the unique challenges the team faced throughout the mobilization process. The conference will present a cross-industry view of how marketers are driving business results using the mobile channel.
Designing for mobile
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Two schools exist when it comes to web page presentation on mobile—design a mobile site separate from the e-commerce site or let the mobile device reflect the e-commerce design. Whichever approach a marketer adopts, the m-commerce and e-commerce teams need to know the pluses and minuses of each. This session will explore the strategies of two mobile players who will explain why they made the choices they did, and help attendees know which approach is right for their own products and services. It also will feature a usability expert who will look at how to test to make sure the site is displaying properly and how to test navigability and usability of a mobile design and of e-commerce designs adapted for mobile.
Learn more >
Internet Retailer's first annual Mobile Commerce Forum: Mobile Commerce Enters the Mainstream, will present a cross-industry view of how marketers are driving business results using the mobile channel. The conference agenda will bring together different industries so they can learn from each other and travel this fast-rising growth curve together. Featuring ticket sellers, travel and hospitality companies, retailers, and entertainment and digital service providers, it will present speakers who will share their experience in developing and executing successful mobile commerce initiatives.
Sheri Fink, eCommerce & Strategic Alliances, will be speaking on behalf of Tickets.com to share the experience of developing the Tickets.com mobile site and the unique challenges the team faced throughout the mobilization process. The conference will present a cross-industry view of how marketers are driving business results using the mobile channel.
Designing for mobile
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Two schools exist when it comes to web page presentation on mobile—design a mobile site separate from the e-commerce site or let the mobile device reflect the e-commerce design. Whichever approach a marketer adopts, the m-commerce and e-commerce teams need to know the pluses and minuses of each. This session will explore the strategies of two mobile players who will explain why they made the choices they did, and help attendees know which approach is right for their own products and services. It also will feature a usability expert who will look at how to test to make sure the site is displaying properly and how to test navigability and usability of a mobile design and of e-commerce designs adapted for mobile.
Learn more >
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Mobile Commerce Daily: Thirteen MLB teams launch mobile ticketing initiatives
Dan Butcher
Mobile Marketer
Major League Baseball Advanced Media’s Tickets.com has incorporated the ProVenueMobile ticketing service for all 13 of its Major League Baseball clients.
The 13 MLB clubs on the Tickets.com client roster using ProVenueMobile include the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals.
ProVenueMobile powers client-branded ticket transactions to be made 24/7 from select Internet-enabled mobile phones through each club’s mobile Web site, offering fans the option to digitally receive unique bar-coded tickets directly to their mobile phones.
Mobile Commerce Daily’s Dan Butcher interviewed Sheri Fink, head of ecommerce and strategic alliances at Tickets.com, Costa Mesa, CA. Here is what she had to say:
What is the strategy behind the partnership between Tickets.com and the 13 MLB clubs?
Tickets.com is at the vanguard of mobile technologies and Web site mobilization in the ticketing and admissions service industry.
The MLB clubs are very sophisticated and have games that appeal to a mobile-savvy audience.
We are excited to offer these innovative services to 13 MLB clubs as well as a wide variety of other clients.
What challenges does ProVenueMobile address for these teams?
ProVenueMobile enables the teams to sell tickets up to the last minute. Fans want convenience when they are purchasing tickets and arriving at events.
ProVenueMobile provides the ultimate convenience—the ability to purchase tickets anytime, anywhere. It enables fans to buy tickets on the way to the ballpark using their mobile phones.
With Tickets@Phone mobile ticket delivery, fans can also have the tickets delivered directly to their mobile phones without ever having to wait in line at the box office or will call.
ProVenueMobile is open to all mobile phones without requiring fans to download an application.
This allows anyone with an Internet-enabled mobile phone to purchase the teams’ tickets quickly and conveniently just by going to their Web sites.
What demographic is this targeting?
Mobile ticketing appeals to a broad audience. We are currently working with the baseball teams to build a strong mobile fan base.
We have clients in the concert and performing arts industries who are using ProVenueMobile as well.
We are seeing mobile ticketing become especially popular with smartphone users.
How do baseball fans complete a ticket purchase via their mobile device?
Baseball fans simply go to their favorite team’s Web site using their mobile device and select the game for which they would like to buy tickets.
Then, they log into their MLB.com account where their customer information is stored or enter their payment information if they’re a first-time customer.
Fans select their preferred delivery option, make their purchase and then receive a confirmation of their transaction.
If Tickets@Phone mobile ticket delivery is chosen, the ticket bar codes are sent directly to their mobile phone via SMS or MMS.
The ProVenueMobile product contains all of the security features and added functionality available on the teams’ private-label Web sites.
This seamless compatibility with mobile phones enables fans to purchase tickets using promo codes, if applicable, on the teams’ mobile sites.
Mobile transactions are conducted in real time via the ticketing system, so reporting and ticket inventory display up-to-date numbers.
Why is mobile bar code ticketing better for fans and the teams?
Mobile bar code ticketing offers an improved fan experience by providing the ultimate convenience for ticket purchase and delivery. It saves fans time by enabling them to enter the ballpark without waiting in box office or will call lines.
And, because most people carry their mobile phones all the time, the potential for lost or misplaced tickets is greatly reduced.
From the teams’ perspective, mobile bar code ticketing improves the fan experience, enables the teams to sell tickets up to the last minute, reduces operational costs—due to having fewer people in will call and box office lines—and increases revenue by enabling fans to enter the ballpark earlier where they can begin purchasing food, beverages, and merchandise instead of waiting in line outside.
It is also better for the environment because it saves paper and reduces printing.
How are Tickets.com and the 13 teams getting the word out about this mobile ticketing platform?
Several of the teams are already advertising this new technology via in-stadium announcements, signage, Yearbook ads and programs.
MLBAM is working closely with the teams on messaging the mobile ticket purchase capabilities within the teams’ mobile Web sites.
Tickets.com is promoting it via PR and social media marketing on our company blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
Mobile Marketer
Major League Baseball Advanced Media’s Tickets.com has incorporated the ProVenueMobile ticketing service for all 13 of its Major League Baseball clients.
The 13 MLB clubs on the Tickets.com client roster using ProVenueMobile include the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals.
ProVenueMobile powers client-branded ticket transactions to be made 24/7 from select Internet-enabled mobile phones through each club’s mobile Web site, offering fans the option to digitally receive unique bar-coded tickets directly to their mobile phones.
Mobile Commerce Daily’s Dan Butcher interviewed Sheri Fink, head of ecommerce and strategic alliances at Tickets.com, Costa Mesa, CA. Here is what she had to say:
What is the strategy behind the partnership between Tickets.com and the 13 MLB clubs?
Tickets.com is at the vanguard of mobile technologies and Web site mobilization in the ticketing and admissions service industry.
The MLB clubs are very sophisticated and have games that appeal to a mobile-savvy audience.
We are excited to offer these innovative services to 13 MLB clubs as well as a wide variety of other clients.
What challenges does ProVenueMobile address for these teams?
ProVenueMobile enables the teams to sell tickets up to the last minute. Fans want convenience when they are purchasing tickets and arriving at events.
ProVenueMobile provides the ultimate convenience—the ability to purchase tickets anytime, anywhere. It enables fans to buy tickets on the way to the ballpark using their mobile phones.
With Tickets@Phone mobile ticket delivery, fans can also have the tickets delivered directly to their mobile phones without ever having to wait in line at the box office or will call.
ProVenueMobile is open to all mobile phones without requiring fans to download an application.
This allows anyone with an Internet-enabled mobile phone to purchase the teams’ tickets quickly and conveniently just by going to their Web sites.
What demographic is this targeting?
Mobile ticketing appeals to a broad audience. We are currently working with the baseball teams to build a strong mobile fan base.
We have clients in the concert and performing arts industries who are using ProVenueMobile as well.
We are seeing mobile ticketing become especially popular with smartphone users.
How do baseball fans complete a ticket purchase via their mobile device?
Baseball fans simply go to their favorite team’s Web site using their mobile device and select the game for which they would like to buy tickets.
Then, they log into their MLB.com account where their customer information is stored or enter their payment information if they’re a first-time customer.
Fans select their preferred delivery option, make their purchase and then receive a confirmation of their transaction.
If Tickets@Phone mobile ticket delivery is chosen, the ticket bar codes are sent directly to their mobile phone via SMS or MMS.
The ProVenueMobile product contains all of the security features and added functionality available on the teams’ private-label Web sites.
This seamless compatibility with mobile phones enables fans to purchase tickets using promo codes, if applicable, on the teams’ mobile sites.
Mobile transactions are conducted in real time via the ticketing system, so reporting and ticket inventory display up-to-date numbers.
Why is mobile bar code ticketing better for fans and the teams?
Mobile bar code ticketing offers an improved fan experience by providing the ultimate convenience for ticket purchase and delivery. It saves fans time by enabling them to enter the ballpark without waiting in box office or will call lines.
And, because most people carry their mobile phones all the time, the potential for lost or misplaced tickets is greatly reduced.
From the teams’ perspective, mobile bar code ticketing improves the fan experience, enables the teams to sell tickets up to the last minute, reduces operational costs—due to having fewer people in will call and box office lines—and increases revenue by enabling fans to enter the ballpark earlier where they can begin purchasing food, beverages, and merchandise instead of waiting in line outside.
It is also better for the environment because it saves paper and reduces printing.
How are Tickets.com and the 13 teams getting the word out about this mobile ticketing platform?
Several of the teams are already advertising this new technology via in-stadium announcements, signage, Yearbook ads and programs.
MLBAM is working closely with the teams on messaging the mobile ticket purchase capabilities within the teams’ mobile Web sites.
Tickets.com is promoting it via PR and social media marketing on our company blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
“Yo Gabba Gabba!” bringing first live tour to Tulsa Nov. 5
Brandy McDonnell
BAM's Blog
Children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!” is bringing its first live tour to Tulsa’s BOK Center, the venue has announced.
“Yo Gabba Gabba! Live: There’s a Party In My City” will sing and dance into the BOK Center Nov. 5.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 26. Prices are set at $30.50 and $40.50.
Tickets will be available online at www.bokcenter.com, at Arby’s Box Office, at all Tickets.com outlets, or by calling (866) 7BOKCTR.
The “Yo Gabba Gabba!” tour is hitting cities across America just after the release of the show’s first CD, “Yo Gabba Gabba! Music is Awesome!,” which will be on shelves Oct. 20. W!ldbrain and S2BN Entertainment have collaborated to present “Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! There’s A Party In My City.” The show’s first live U.S. tour kicks off Nov. 14. The tour features music, animation, games, singing, dancing, and special musical guests.
The live touring show “Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!: There’s a Party in My City!” features DJ Lance Rock, and everyone’s favorite cast of characters: Muno (the red Cyclops), Foofa (the pink flower bubble), Brobee (the little green one), Plex (the magic robot), and Toodee (the blue cat-dragon). The one-of-a-kind live event offers audience members of all ages the opportunity to witness their favorite characters come to life with the magic words, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” Special guests will rock their favorite “Dancey Dance” moves and join the party on stage for the Super Music Friends Show. Legendary rapper Biz Markie will teach kids how to beat box with Biz’s Beat of the Day and surprise Super Music Friends and Dancey Dancers at every stop.
BAM's Blog
Children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!” is bringing its first live tour to Tulsa’s BOK Center, the venue has announced.
“Yo Gabba Gabba! Live: There’s a Party In My City” will sing and dance into the BOK Center Nov. 5.
Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 26. Prices are set at $30.50 and $40.50.
Tickets will be available online at www.bokcenter.com, at Arby’s Box Office, at all Tickets.com outlets, or by calling (866) 7BOKCTR.
The “Yo Gabba Gabba!” tour is hitting cities across America just after the release of the show’s first CD, “Yo Gabba Gabba! Music is Awesome!,” which will be on shelves Oct. 20. W!ldbrain and S2BN Entertainment have collaborated to present “Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! There’s A Party In My City.” The show’s first live U.S. tour kicks off Nov. 14. The tour features music, animation, games, singing, dancing, and special musical guests.
The live touring show “Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!: There’s a Party in My City!” features DJ Lance Rock, and everyone’s favorite cast of characters: Muno (the red Cyclops), Foofa (the pink flower bubble), Brobee (the little green one), Plex (the magic robot), and Toodee (the blue cat-dragon). The one-of-a-kind live event offers audience members of all ages the opportunity to witness their favorite characters come to life with the magic words, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” Special guests will rock their favorite “Dancey Dance” moves and join the party on stage for the Super Music Friends Show. Legendary rapper Biz Markie will teach kids how to beat box with Biz’s Beat of the Day and surprise Super Music Friends and Dancey Dancers at every stop.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tickets for Eminem, Jay-Z Concert at Comerica Park go on sale June 25
Detroit News
Adam Graham
Tickets for Eminem and Jay-Z's Sept. 2 mega-concert at Comerica Park go on sale at 10 a.m. June 25.
Tickets cost $49.50, $79.50 and $99.50 and will go on sale through Tickets.com, Livenation.com, the Comerica Park box office and select Meijer stores. Tickets will be available for purchase by phone at (866) 668-4437, and additional information is available at (313) 471-6611.
The Eminem and Jay-Z concert is part of a two-city tour in which the superstar rappers are playing each other's hometown baseball stadiums. The duo will perform at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sept. 13.
Adam Graham
Tickets for Eminem and Jay-Z's Sept. 2 mega-concert at Comerica Park go on sale at 10 a.m. June 25.
Tickets cost $49.50, $79.50 and $99.50 and will go on sale through Tickets.com, Livenation.com, the Comerica Park box office and select Meijer stores. Tickets will be available for purchase by phone at (866) 668-4437, and additional information is available at (313) 471-6611.
The Eminem and Jay-Z concert is part of a two-city tour in which the superstar rappers are playing each other's hometown baseball stadiums. The duo will perform at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sept. 13.
Tickets.com Integrates its ProVenueMobile™ Product with all 13 of its Major League Baseball Clients
Tickets.com, a leading global provider of integrated ticketing solutions, announced that it has incorporated the ProVenueMobile™ ticketing service for all 13 of its Major League Baseball clients. ProVenueMobile enables full-circle, client-branded ticket transactions to be made 24/7 from select Internet-enabled mobile phones through the club’s mobilized web site.
ProVenueMobile marks a milestone in the admission services industry as the first mobile ticketing technology allowing fans to browse listings and make real-time purchases from their mobile phones without the need to “click to call” to finalize the transaction. To maximize the potential of ProVenueMobile, the MLB clubs that utilize the proprietary Tickets@Phone® technology will offer fans the option to digitally receive unique barcoded tickets directly and securely to their mobile phones for a 100% mobile—and green—ticket-buying experience.
"We are proud to be at the vanguard of website mobilization for Major League Baseball clubs,” said Derek Palmer, Chief Commercial Officer, Tickets.com. "Being able to offer our sports clients a product that enables brand differentiation and secure mobile ticketing from start to finish is essential in today’s increasingly digital marketplace. We understand that our MLB partners want to be at the forefront of this exciting new era in ticketing.”
The 13 MLB clubs on the Tickets.com client roster using ProVenueMobile include: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals.
“It was really important for our organization, and the other teams that I’ve talked with, to offer a mobile ticketing platform to fans,” said Carl Rice, Senior Director, Facility Management & Information Technology, Chicago Cubs. “In addition to purchasing tickets from their mobile phones, fans can opt-in for team updates and other features. Sports enthusiasts are early adopters of new technologies, and they’ll find that ProVenueMobile offers a valuable way to stay connected to the team.”
ProVenueMobile marks a milestone in the admission services industry as the first mobile ticketing technology allowing fans to browse listings and make real-time purchases from their mobile phones without the need to “click to call” to finalize the transaction. To maximize the potential of ProVenueMobile, the MLB clubs that utilize the proprietary Tickets@Phone® technology will offer fans the option to digitally receive unique barcoded tickets directly and securely to their mobile phones for a 100% mobile—and green—ticket-buying experience.
"We are proud to be at the vanguard of website mobilization for Major League Baseball clubs,” said Derek Palmer, Chief Commercial Officer, Tickets.com. "Being able to offer our sports clients a product that enables brand differentiation and secure mobile ticketing from start to finish is essential in today’s increasingly digital marketplace. We understand that our MLB partners want to be at the forefront of this exciting new era in ticketing.”
The 13 MLB clubs on the Tickets.com client roster using ProVenueMobile include: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals.
“It was really important for our organization, and the other teams that I’ve talked with, to offer a mobile ticketing platform to fans,” said Carl Rice, Senior Director, Facility Management & Information Technology, Chicago Cubs. “In addition to purchasing tickets from their mobile phones, fans can opt-in for team updates and other features. Sports enthusiasts are early adopters of new technologies, and they’ll find that ProVenueMobile offers a valuable way to stay connected to the team.”
Monday, June 21, 2010
STG Announces Snoop Dogg & Ice Cube and Mark Kozelek
BroadwayWorld.com
Seattle Theatre Group (STG) announces the following concerts going on sale this week.
Snoop Dogg & Ice Cube
How The West Was One Tour
Date: July 14, 2010 @ 7:30pm
Venue: Paramount Theatre (All Ages)
Price: $45.00 not including applicable fees
Seating: General Admission (flat floor) & Reserved Seating (balcony)
Ticketing information: Online at Tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box office (M-F 10am-6pm), 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) 784-4849, or online at STGPresents.org.
Iconic in stature and in essence, Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. has carved out a permanent place in musical history. Undeniably, the rapper, producer, actor, entrepreneur, coach, husband and father affectionately called Snoop Dogg, has performed the most unique balancing act that hip hop has ever witnessed. Never short on vision, drive or ambition, the sharp talking wordsworth has managed to redefine and reinvent himself over the course of his fifteen year career, each time revealing a distinctive cache from the depths within. His rhythmic cadences are classic in nature and his demeanor is as laid back and effortless as the brand extensions he has created for himself.
Known to be one of the Most Important figures in rap history, Ice Cube began his career with the Notorious West Coast Gangsta Rap Group N.W.A two decades ago. At the height of the group's success, Ice Cube broke away to start his own solo career. His initial release, "Amerikkka's Most Wanted" (Priority, 1990) sold over a million copies. His sophomore solo effort, "Death Certificate"(Priority, 1991), a concept album about the fall and rise of the black man, debuted at #1 on the R&B Album chart, #2 on the Top 200 album chart and went on to sell over two million copies. His impressive musical career also includes the multi-platinum success of both his double album "War and Peace," and hit albums "Lethal Injection," "Bootlegs & B-Sides," "The Predator," and the gold certified, independently released "Laugh Now, Cry Later." Ice Cube has sold over 10 million albums to date.
Mark Kozelek
of Sun Kil Moon & Red House Painters
Special Guest: Tiny Vipers
Date: September 7, 2010 @ 8:00pm
Venue: Town Hall (All Ages)
Price: $18.00 in advance, $20.00 day of show, not including applicable fees
Seating: General Admission
Ticketing information: Online at Tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box office (M-F 10am-6pm), 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) 784-4849, or online at STGPresents.org.
With a two-year-old Red House Painters record sitting on the shelf, unable to find release due to legal ramifications, Mark Kozelek broke four years of recorded silence with the Rock 'n' Roll Singer EP. Released in 2000 under his own name, the half-hour disc featured interpretations of three Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers, a John Denver cover, and a couple new songs of his own. The EP seemed to divide longtime fans and critics into two camps. Some felt that the long period of no new material shouldn't have resulted in a batch of covers, while others were impressed with Kozelek's straight-faced reinterpretations that revealed a surprising amount of depth at the heart of AC/DC's songs. Kozelek also spent a fair amount of time during 1999 and 2000 arranging Take Me Home: A Tribute to John Denver and two benefit compilations for the Shanti Project, a San Francisco-based AIDS relief organization. He was also cast in the role of a bass player with a predilection for high-school females in Cameron Crowe's critically acclaimed Almost Famous, which hit theaters in 2000.
ABOUT STG:
STG is the 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization that operates the historic Paramount and Moore Theatres in Seattle, Washington. Our mission is to make diverse performing arts and education an integral part of our region's cultural identity while keeping these two landmark venues alive and vibrant. STG presents a variety of shows from Broadway, off-Broadway, dance and Jazz or comedy, concerts of all genres, speakers and family shows - at both historic theatres in Seattle and at venues throughout Puget Sound and Portland, Oregon.
Seattle Theatre Group (STG) announces the following concerts going on sale this week.
Snoop Dogg & Ice Cube
How The West Was One Tour
Date: July 14, 2010 @ 7:30pm
Venue: Paramount Theatre (All Ages)
Price: $45.00 not including applicable fees
Seating: General Admission (flat floor) & Reserved Seating (balcony)
Ticketing information: Online at Tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box office (M-F 10am-6pm), 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) 784-4849, or online at STGPresents.org.
Iconic in stature and in essence, Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. has carved out a permanent place in musical history. Undeniably, the rapper, producer, actor, entrepreneur, coach, husband and father affectionately called Snoop Dogg, has performed the most unique balancing act that hip hop has ever witnessed. Never short on vision, drive or ambition, the sharp talking wordsworth has managed to redefine and reinvent himself over the course of his fifteen year career, each time revealing a distinctive cache from the depths within. His rhythmic cadences are classic in nature and his demeanor is as laid back and effortless as the brand extensions he has created for himself.
Known to be one of the Most Important figures in rap history, Ice Cube began his career with the Notorious West Coast Gangsta Rap Group N.W.A two decades ago. At the height of the group's success, Ice Cube broke away to start his own solo career. His initial release, "Amerikkka's Most Wanted" (Priority, 1990) sold over a million copies. His sophomore solo effort, "Death Certificate"(Priority, 1991), a concept album about the fall and rise of the black man, debuted at #1 on the R&B Album chart, #2 on the Top 200 album chart and went on to sell over two million copies. His impressive musical career also includes the multi-platinum success of both his double album "War and Peace," and hit albums "Lethal Injection," "Bootlegs & B-Sides," "The Predator," and the gold certified, independently released "Laugh Now, Cry Later." Ice Cube has sold over 10 million albums to date.
Mark Kozelek
of Sun Kil Moon & Red House Painters
Special Guest: Tiny Vipers
Date: September 7, 2010 @ 8:00pm
Venue: Town Hall (All Ages)
Price: $18.00 in advance, $20.00 day of show, not including applicable fees
Seating: General Admission
Ticketing information: Online at Tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box office (M-F 10am-6pm), 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) 784-4849, or online at STGPresents.org.
With a two-year-old Red House Painters record sitting on the shelf, unable to find release due to legal ramifications, Mark Kozelek broke four years of recorded silence with the Rock 'n' Roll Singer EP. Released in 2000 under his own name, the half-hour disc featured interpretations of three Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers, a John Denver cover, and a couple new songs of his own. The EP seemed to divide longtime fans and critics into two camps. Some felt that the long period of no new material shouldn't have resulted in a batch of covers, while others were impressed with Kozelek's straight-faced reinterpretations that revealed a surprising amount of depth at the heart of AC/DC's songs. Kozelek also spent a fair amount of time during 1999 and 2000 arranging Take Me Home: A Tribute to John Denver and two benefit compilations for the Shanti Project, a San Francisco-based AIDS relief organization. He was also cast in the role of a bass player with a predilection for high-school females in Cameron Crowe's critically acclaimed Almost Famous, which hit theaters in 2000.
ABOUT STG:
STG is the 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization that operates the historic Paramount and Moore Theatres in Seattle, Washington. Our mission is to make diverse performing arts and education an integral part of our region's cultural identity while keeping these two landmark venues alive and vibrant. STG presents a variety of shows from Broadway, off-Broadway, dance and Jazz or comedy, concerts of all genres, speakers and family shows - at both historic theatres in Seattle and at venues throughout Puget Sound and Portland, Oregon.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Ticket prices announced for Tom Petty’s Tulsa show; tickets go on sale Saturday morning
BAM's Blog
Brandy McDonnell
Prices for the BOK Center’s second anniversary concert featuring Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have been confirmed by the Tulsa venue. Tickets go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The second anniversary show, featuring special guest ZZ Top, is set for Sept. 23.
Ticket prices are set at $39.75, $59.75, $79.75 and $119.75.
Tickets will be available online at www.tickets.com, www.livenation.com and www.bokcenter.com, at Arby’s Box Office, at all Tickets.com outlets, or by calling (866) 7BOKCTR.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are touring to support the band’s first album in eight years, “Mojo,” which was released this week.
Brandy McDonnell
Prices for the BOK Center’s second anniversary concert featuring Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have been confirmed by the Tulsa venue. Tickets go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The second anniversary show, featuring special guest ZZ Top, is set for Sept. 23.
Ticket prices are set at $39.75, $59.75, $79.75 and $119.75.
Tickets will be available online at www.tickets.com, www.livenation.com and www.bokcenter.com, at Arby’s Box Office, at all Tickets.com outlets, or by calling (866) 7BOKCTR.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are touring to support the band’s first album in eight years, “Mojo,” which was released this week.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Dynamic Ticket Pricing: Coming Soon to a Stadium Near You
Authority Tickets: Secondary Ticket News
Kelly
San Francisco is always a little bit ahead of the curve, in everything from haute cuisine to public policy. Now, according to Tickets.com, the hometown Giants are setting a trend when it comes to ticket pricing by employing a dynamic system that moves up and down depending on a variety of criteria such as dates, times, and opponents.
It’s a practice commonly found in the secondary ticket market that is making headway in the primary arena thanks to the Giants and other early adopters. And it’s only going to gain more traction in the coming years as consumers get more accustomed to a model that is also standard fare for hotels and airlines.
As Russ Stanley, managing vice president of ticketing sales and services for the Giants, sees it, “This is coming on very, very quickly. Within five years, I think everybody’s going to be doing this. Everybody in the industry is looking at it closely and evaluating it. I’m getting at least a call a week about this [from other teams], probably two.”
The Giants teamed up with Texas-based startup Qcue Inc. to begin testing the dynamic model last season and chalked up an additional $500,000 in revenues earned on a limited number of games. This season, they are looking to bring in seven figures worth as they expand the program to every game at AT&T Park.
The Houston Astros, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, and Cleveland Cavaliers are all testing the waters for themselves either this year or next.
What remains to be seen is how fans will react. For many, their hometown teams are their lifeblood and have been for generations. Getting a calendar and buying tickets ahead of time is part of the annual ritual. If prices can’t be determined in advance or fluctuate too much, some fans may push back against their favorite franchises.
The highest risk demographic is that of season ticket holders. If a dynamic system drives the face value of tickets to a price point below what they paid, then the incentive for buying a package up front is eliminated. So far, that problem has been avoided by keep a watchful eye not to let prices drift that low and by offering additional value to the packages such as access to the team.
“I simply wouldn’t be doing this if it meant putting our season-ticket holders at risk,” Stanley said. “At least half of what we’ll sell all year will be through season tickets, so we absolutely have to protect that.”
Chris Hutson, co-chief executive for Turnstyles Ticketing, has his doubts: “I don’t begrudge anybody trying this, but not at the expense of traditional, blood-and-guts ticket selling. I’ve seen every gimmick in this business and we, as an industry, tend to rely on things like this too much instead of good old-fashioned elbow grease. There are so many variables in [dynamic pricing], and I’m not sure we’ve thought through them all. What happens, for example, if [Tim] Lincecum doesn’t pitch in a particular game after somebody’s paid an accelerated price to see that game?”
Filling the stadium and filling the coffers are two goals that can sometimes be at odds. Teams are now looking to dynamic pricing as an answer to both.
As technology – particularly computer modeling – has advanced over the years, some teams have used it to determine audience analysis by inputting factors like when the game will be played, who will be playing, and what the weather will likely be. A true dynamic system takes that another step further by implementing the system season-wide, year-on-year.
The Qcue algorithm uses similar criteria, while also taking the secondary ticket market’s prices into account, to recommend price shifts. The client team can go with that recommendation or consider other factors and set their own price. The Qcue system feeds into the team’s existing ticketing system, as it does for the Stars and Giants through Tickets.com.
Qcue’s chief executive Barry Kahn boasts,“What we’ve done is create a software platform that performs very high-end demand and sales forecasting. Obviously, we’re huge believers in dynamic pricing, but with or without that, that information is still very valuable. That’s the foundation, and from there, we’re proving value and revenue upside.”
Their main rival, Digonex Technologies Inc., is working with the Cavaliers and will soon announce another NBA partnership. The company sees a bright future for the dynamic model.
“Consumer acceptance of dynamic pricing has definitely changed,” said Rex Fisher, Digonex vice president of business development. “We all have greater access to information, and we’ve simply been conditioned that many products are priced subject to change.”
The Cavaliers added six figures to their revenue line last season, too.
Mike Tomon, the Cavs’ vice president of sales, believes that there’s more to it than just money: “Even more than the additional revenue, dynamic pricing has helped us engage the fan and be relevant by offering them the right product at the right price at the right time. That helps with building fan engagement and loyalty.”
Consumer education is one part of the two-pronged approach to respectability for the new model. Surveys and explanations are being offered, along with the tried-and-true ideal of locking in your price now so you save money.
As more fans latch on to the idea, so will more teams. Tomon continued, “It simply makes all the sense in the world to have a true value-based offering that’s derived from fan behavior. This is coming to a head in sports, and with good reason.”
Kelly
San Francisco is always a little bit ahead of the curve, in everything from haute cuisine to public policy. Now, according to Tickets.com, the hometown Giants are setting a trend when it comes to ticket pricing by employing a dynamic system that moves up and down depending on a variety of criteria such as dates, times, and opponents.
It’s a practice commonly found in the secondary ticket market that is making headway in the primary arena thanks to the Giants and other early adopters. And it’s only going to gain more traction in the coming years as consumers get more accustomed to a model that is also standard fare for hotels and airlines.
As Russ Stanley, managing vice president of ticketing sales and services for the Giants, sees it, “This is coming on very, very quickly. Within five years, I think everybody’s going to be doing this. Everybody in the industry is looking at it closely and evaluating it. I’m getting at least a call a week about this [from other teams], probably two.”
The Giants teamed up with Texas-based startup Qcue Inc. to begin testing the dynamic model last season and chalked up an additional $500,000 in revenues earned on a limited number of games. This season, they are looking to bring in seven figures worth as they expand the program to every game at AT&T Park.
The Houston Astros, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, and Cleveland Cavaliers are all testing the waters for themselves either this year or next.
What remains to be seen is how fans will react. For many, their hometown teams are their lifeblood and have been for generations. Getting a calendar and buying tickets ahead of time is part of the annual ritual. If prices can’t be determined in advance or fluctuate too much, some fans may push back against their favorite franchises.
The highest risk demographic is that of season ticket holders. If a dynamic system drives the face value of tickets to a price point below what they paid, then the incentive for buying a package up front is eliminated. So far, that problem has been avoided by keep a watchful eye not to let prices drift that low and by offering additional value to the packages such as access to the team.
“I simply wouldn’t be doing this if it meant putting our season-ticket holders at risk,” Stanley said. “At least half of what we’ll sell all year will be through season tickets, so we absolutely have to protect that.”
Chris Hutson, co-chief executive for Turnstyles Ticketing, has his doubts: “I don’t begrudge anybody trying this, but not at the expense of traditional, blood-and-guts ticket selling. I’ve seen every gimmick in this business and we, as an industry, tend to rely on things like this too much instead of good old-fashioned elbow grease. There are so many variables in [dynamic pricing], and I’m not sure we’ve thought through them all. What happens, for example, if [Tim] Lincecum doesn’t pitch in a particular game after somebody’s paid an accelerated price to see that game?”
Filling the stadium and filling the coffers are two goals that can sometimes be at odds. Teams are now looking to dynamic pricing as an answer to both.
As technology – particularly computer modeling – has advanced over the years, some teams have used it to determine audience analysis by inputting factors like when the game will be played, who will be playing, and what the weather will likely be. A true dynamic system takes that another step further by implementing the system season-wide, year-on-year.
The Qcue algorithm uses similar criteria, while also taking the secondary ticket market’s prices into account, to recommend price shifts. The client team can go with that recommendation or consider other factors and set their own price. The Qcue system feeds into the team’s existing ticketing system, as it does for the Stars and Giants through Tickets.com.
Qcue’s chief executive Barry Kahn boasts,“What we’ve done is create a software platform that performs very high-end demand and sales forecasting. Obviously, we’re huge believers in dynamic pricing, but with or without that, that information is still very valuable. That’s the foundation, and from there, we’re proving value and revenue upside.”
Their main rival, Digonex Technologies Inc., is working with the Cavaliers and will soon announce another NBA partnership. The company sees a bright future for the dynamic model.
“Consumer acceptance of dynamic pricing has definitely changed,” said Rex Fisher, Digonex vice president of business development. “We all have greater access to information, and we’ve simply been conditioned that many products are priced subject to change.”
The Cavaliers added six figures to their revenue line last season, too.
Mike Tomon, the Cavs’ vice president of sales, believes that there’s more to it than just money: “Even more than the additional revenue, dynamic pricing has helped us engage the fan and be relevant by offering them the right product at the right price at the right time. That helps with building fan engagement and loyalty.”
Consumer education is one part of the two-pronged approach to respectability for the new model. Surveys and explanations are being offered, along with the tried-and-true ideal of locking in your price now so you save money.
As more fans latch on to the idea, so will more teams. Tomon continued, “It simply makes all the sense in the world to have a true value-based offering that’s derived from fan behavior. This is coming to a head in sports, and with good reason.”
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tickets.com attacking Ticketmaster dominance with open cloud systems
Companies believes that partnerships will lead to industry innovation
By Jon Brodkin, Network World
There are few monopolies as total as the one enjoyed by Ticketmaster. When's the last time you purchased a ticket online without paying Ticketmaster's $10-plus "convenience fees"?
Ticketmaster has beat back every competitor's attempt to displace it from the top of the online ticketing industry, but John Rizzi, vice president of product management and strategy at Tickets.com, is hopeful that a partner ecosystem based on new cloud computing technologies can eat away at Ticketmaster's dominant market share.
Tech arguments: Public vs. Private cloud
In a speech at the Cloud Leadership Forum, a conference hosted by IDC and IDG Enterprise, Rizzi took a few shots at Ticketmaster while acknowledging his own company's struggles to compete.
Tickets.com began with the idea of connecting to many different ticketing systems, like an aggregator site, but the approach failed because it lacked a critical mass of tickets to sell.
"The dominant player in the industry far and away is Ticketmaster and they had no intention of letting us sell tickets online for them," Rizzi said. "They wanted to do it themselves."
With Ticketmaster, "anybody who's bought tickets online knows how ridiculous the fees are. You pay a convenience fee. You pay an order fee, you pay a fee to print the tickets at home. This is a very hard model to compete with and we've tried to compete with it, other companies have tried to compete with it, and it's not working."
Tickets.com went on an acquisition spree in the early 2000s, buying four or five other ticketing companies. Tickets.com now sells tickets for half of the teams in Major League Baseball, and is a subsidiary of MLB.com.
Rather than focusing mostly on customer-facing technology, Tickets.com is now trying to make headway by selling ticketing systems to sports teams and other organizations. Ticketmaster still controls ticket sales of the other baseball teams Tickets.com doesn't sell for, as well as many other professional sports teams. But Rizzi believes his company's approach of partnering with a variety of cloud vendors, using APIs to connect one service to another, will drive innovation in the industry.
For example, Tickets.com partners with Qcue to provide a dynamic pricing engine to teams such as the San Francisco Giants. With dynamic pricing, an algorithm takes into account pitching matchups, weather, the opponent, day of the week and market conditions to determine the optimal price for an event. While a team like the Boston Red Sox needs little help selling tickets, and can charge whatever it wants, this dynamic pricing model has helped the Giants increase sales, according to Rizzi.
In addition to Qcue, Tickets.com is embracing a variety of partners, including Salesforce.com, StubHub, Givex and FanSnap. Rizzi believes partnerships will help differentiate Tickets.com from Ticketmaster.
"We really believe the ecosystem is what's going to drive innovation and the adoption of our ticketing platform," Rizzi said. "We're not going to be able to out-Ticketmaster Ticketmaster [alone]. Ticketmaster's systems are closed. So are the other competitors in our marketplace."
Rizzi pledged to improve the ticket-buying experience for customers, which he said has evolved slowly. He acknowledged that Ticketmaster is starting to improve in certain areas, such as allowing limited ability to choose specific seats, but in general he claimed the Ticketmaster technology is antiquated.
"Ticketmaster has conditioned this market to ignore technology," Rizzi said. "Buying tickets online, the experience is awful. It's really antiquated, it's very old, it's not very flexible. We are coming at a time where the teams are starting to realize that they want to change, they don't want to be beholden to Ticketmaster anymore."
By Jon Brodkin, Network World
There are few monopolies as total as the one enjoyed by Ticketmaster. When's the last time you purchased a ticket online without paying Ticketmaster's $10-plus "convenience fees"?
Ticketmaster has beat back every competitor's attempt to displace it from the top of the online ticketing industry, but John Rizzi, vice president of product management and strategy at Tickets.com, is hopeful that a partner ecosystem based on new cloud computing technologies can eat away at Ticketmaster's dominant market share.
Tech arguments: Public vs. Private cloud
In a speech at the Cloud Leadership Forum, a conference hosted by IDC and IDG Enterprise, Rizzi took a few shots at Ticketmaster while acknowledging his own company's struggles to compete.
Tickets.com began with the idea of connecting to many different ticketing systems, like an aggregator site, but the approach failed because it lacked a critical mass of tickets to sell.
"The dominant player in the industry far and away is Ticketmaster and they had no intention of letting us sell tickets online for them," Rizzi said. "They wanted to do it themselves."
With Ticketmaster, "anybody who's bought tickets online knows how ridiculous the fees are. You pay a convenience fee. You pay an order fee, you pay a fee to print the tickets at home. This is a very hard model to compete with and we've tried to compete with it, other companies have tried to compete with it, and it's not working."
Tickets.com went on an acquisition spree in the early 2000s, buying four or five other ticketing companies. Tickets.com now sells tickets for half of the teams in Major League Baseball, and is a subsidiary of MLB.com.
Rather than focusing mostly on customer-facing technology, Tickets.com is now trying to make headway by selling ticketing systems to sports teams and other organizations. Ticketmaster still controls ticket sales of the other baseball teams Tickets.com doesn't sell for, as well as many other professional sports teams. But Rizzi believes his company's approach of partnering with a variety of cloud vendors, using APIs to connect one service to another, will drive innovation in the industry.
For example, Tickets.com partners with Qcue to provide a dynamic pricing engine to teams such as the San Francisco Giants. With dynamic pricing, an algorithm takes into account pitching matchups, weather, the opponent, day of the week and market conditions to determine the optimal price for an event. While a team like the Boston Red Sox needs little help selling tickets, and can charge whatever it wants, this dynamic pricing model has helped the Giants increase sales, according to Rizzi.
In addition to Qcue, Tickets.com is embracing a variety of partners, including Salesforce.com, StubHub, Givex and FanSnap. Rizzi believes partnerships will help differentiate Tickets.com from Ticketmaster.
"We really believe the ecosystem is what's going to drive innovation and the adoption of our ticketing platform," Rizzi said. "We're not going to be able to out-Ticketmaster Ticketmaster [alone]. Ticketmaster's systems are closed. So are the other competitors in our marketplace."
Rizzi pledged to improve the ticket-buying experience for customers, which he said has evolved slowly. He acknowledged that Ticketmaster is starting to improve in certain areas, such as allowing limited ability to choose specific seats, but in general he claimed the Ticketmaster technology is antiquated.
"Ticketmaster has conditioned this market to ignore technology," Rizzi said. "Buying tickets online, the experience is awful. It's really antiquated, it's very old, it's not very flexible. We are coming at a time where the teams are starting to realize that they want to change, they don't want to be beholden to Ticketmaster anymore."
Monday, June 14, 2010
IDC/IDG Enterprise Cloud Leadership Forum Finalizes Agenda With Cloud Industry's Most Influential Vendor Executives and Senior IT Executives
Extending Your Business Into the Cloud
John Rizzi, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy, Tickets.com
Tickets.com isn't just considering how the cloud can augment its infrastructure - the company is becoming a cloud provider itself! By extending its rich ticket service capabilities into the cloud and creating an ecosystem for enhancement by a world of developers, Tickets.com is not only enriching its services and deepening customer ties, but attempting to move its business faster than traditional competitors. This eye-opening case study shows that the cloud isn't just about a new style of computing, but a whole new way to do business.
John Rizzi will be speaking at the conference on June 15.
John Rizzi, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy, Tickets.com
Tickets.com isn't just considering how the cloud can augment its infrastructure - the company is becoming a cloud provider itself! By extending its rich ticket service capabilities into the cloud and creating an ecosystem for enhancement by a world of developers, Tickets.com is not only enriching its services and deepening customer ties, but attempting to move its business faster than traditional competitors. This eye-opening case study shows that the cloud isn't just about a new style of computing, but a whole new way to do business.
John Rizzi will be speaking at the conference on June 15.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
One in Five U.S. Adult Consumers Now Using Mobile Commerce
Fierce Mobile Content
By Jason Ankeny
One in five U.S. adult wireless subscribers utilized mobile commerce services in the past month according to a new consumer study conducted by non-profit industry trade group the Mobile Marketing Association in partnership with Luth Research. Among 1,000 adult subscribers surveyed in mid-April, 17 percent of respondents purchased mobile applications, ringtones and related digital content, 6 percent used their phones to receive coupons or discounts and another 6 percent bought physical goods or non-mobile content and services.
The MMA notes that more than half of iPhone owners and 34 percent of BlackBerry users have purchased content for their smartphones, more than subscribers across rival platforms. Fifty-six percent of mobile content purchases were made through the subscriber's carrier, and 43 percent paid for the transaction via bank or credit card account. Regardless of transaction type, adults between the ages of 25 and 34 used their phones more than other age groups--the MMA adds that most respondents consider m-commerce to be "secure and trustworthy."
Read more on the MMA m-commerce study >
By Jason Ankeny
One in five U.S. adult wireless subscribers utilized mobile commerce services in the past month according to a new consumer study conducted by non-profit industry trade group the Mobile Marketing Association in partnership with Luth Research. Among 1,000 adult subscribers surveyed in mid-April, 17 percent of respondents purchased mobile applications, ringtones and related digital content, 6 percent used their phones to receive coupons or discounts and another 6 percent bought physical goods or non-mobile content and services.
The MMA notes that more than half of iPhone owners and 34 percent of BlackBerry users have purchased content for their smartphones, more than subscribers across rival platforms. Fifty-six percent of mobile content purchases were made through the subscriber's carrier, and 43 percent paid for the transaction via bank or credit card account. Regardless of transaction type, adults between the ages of 25 and 34 used their phones more than other age groups--the MMA adds that most respondents consider m-commerce to be "secure and trustworthy."
Read more on the MMA m-commerce study >
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Ted Nugent Unloads His Latest Tour On Hartman Arena August 8
Hartman Arena is excited to welcome Ted Nugent August 8 for one monstrous stop on his “Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead 2010” tour.
The incomparable guitar genius & firebreathing intensity of TED NUGENT have carved him a permanent place among the legends of rock. Hailing from Detroit, the guitarist's prodigious talents, earshattering volume & over-the-top onstage antics quickly earned Young Ted the moniker of "Motor City Madman," along with international acclaim.
Recognized as the world's leading guitar showman, NUGENT'S no-holds-barred career spans five decades of multi-platinum hits. From the ground breaking Amboy Dukes' "Journey to the Center of the Mind," to classics like "Stranglehold" & "Cat Scratch Fever," Damn Yankees chartbusters like "High Enough," cult classic "Fred Bear," and now “Love Grenade,” TED NUGENT'S rapidfire sonic assaults continue to sell out venues around the globe.
The sounds he wrings from his almighty Gibson Byrdland leave audiences gasping for breath & begging for more. To millions of guitar lovers everywhere, TED NUGENT is rock & roll and with Hartman Arena’s uniquely intimate seating layout, everyone in attendance will have a close-up view of this rock spectacle!
Tickets start at just $24.75 and go on-sale beginning at 10:00 on June 5 at stage1tickets.com, all Stage1 Ticket Outlets, the Hartman Arena Box Office or by calling 316-927-3999.
The incomparable guitar genius & firebreathing intensity of TED NUGENT have carved him a permanent place among the legends of rock. Hailing from Detroit, the guitarist's prodigious talents, earshattering volume & over-the-top onstage antics quickly earned Young Ted the moniker of "Motor City Madman," along with international acclaim.
Recognized as the world's leading guitar showman, NUGENT'S no-holds-barred career spans five decades of multi-platinum hits. From the ground breaking Amboy Dukes' "Journey to the Center of the Mind," to classics like "Stranglehold" & "Cat Scratch Fever," Damn Yankees chartbusters like "High Enough," cult classic "Fred Bear," and now “Love Grenade,” TED NUGENT'S rapidfire sonic assaults continue to sell out venues around the globe.
The sounds he wrings from his almighty Gibson Byrdland leave audiences gasping for breath & begging for more. To millions of guitar lovers everywhere, TED NUGENT is rock & roll and with Hartman Arena’s uniquely intimate seating layout, everyone in attendance will have a close-up view of this rock spectacle!
Tickets start at just $24.75 and go on-sale beginning at 10:00 on June 5 at stage1tickets.com, all Stage1 Ticket Outlets, the Hartman Arena Box Office or by calling 316-927-3999.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Dynamic pricing has the potential to grow ticket revenue, but will consumers balk?
Ticketing’s changeup
Sports Business Journal
By Eric Fisher
Saturday, May 15, was a rather typical day of what so far has been a somewhat resurgent season for the San Francisco Giants. Star pitcher Tim Lincecum, the reigning two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, pitched eight brilliant innings in a 2-1 win over the Houston Astros at AT&T Park, pushing his record at the time to 5-0.
But the star power of Lincecum also created a noticeable spike in the club’s single-game ticket prices. Lincecum’s dominant presence helped turn a left-field view reserved seat that sold for $15 the night before into a $20 ticket on game day, a $42 lower box seat into a $50 ticket, a $105 field club ticket into a $130 one, and so on through the club’s 20 different seating categories.
Such fluid market dynamics have been the norm on the secondary ticket market for years, particularly over the last decade as that segment of the industry has experienced a historic and meteoric rise in prominence, stature and overall consumer acceptance. On the primary ticket market, many teams over the same time have embraced variable-pricing structures in which more games on popular months or days of the week and against better opponents carry higher ticket prices, though still on a preplanned, static basis.
But the Giants are among a fast-growing collection of teams engaging in dynamic pricing on their primary ticket markets, in which prices more freely move up and down each day based on a wide range of supply and demand factors.
Dynamic pricing, long a benchmark of the hotel, airline and other commodity industries, holds the potential to alter sports ticketing even more dramatically than the advent of officially sanctioned secondary ticketing, many executives and advocates say.
“This is coming on very, very quickly. Within five years, I think everybody’s going to be doing this,” said Russ Stanley, managing vice president of ticketing sales and services for the Giants.
The club, working with Texas-based startup Qcue Inc., made $500,000 in incremental revenue last season testing a small portion of AT&T Park on dynamic pricing. At least a low- to mid-seven-figure sum in additional money is anticipated this season, as the club has expanded the dynamic-pricing program to the entire ballpark for every game for single-game tickets.
“Everybody in the industry is looking at it closely and evaluating it. I’m getting at least a call a week about this [from other teams], probably two,” Stanley said.
Other teams either already active in dynamic pricing or confirmed to start next season include the Astros, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The rise of dynamic pricing, however, is not so cut and dried, and its accelerating emergence arrives with lots of uncertainty and mixed feelings.
Unlike hotel rooms, airline tickets and other similar products, consumers hold deep, often multigenerational emotional attachments to their sports teams. Those teams, which often play in facilities built at least in part with public funds, have for years also printed their price lists months in advance, creating a general expectation that those prices are set for the coming season. Each ticket price increase, as any team knows, also creates public relations issues and marketplace pushback.
And as sports fans and investors understand all too well, past performance is never a guarantee of future results. Even Lincecum lost his next start after that sparkling win over the Astros.
“I don’t begrudge anybody trying this, but not at the expense of traditional, blood-and-guts ticket selling,” said Chris Hutson, co-chief executive for Turnstyles Ticketing, a New Jersey-based ticketing services company that works with numerous pro teams and universities.
“I’ve seen every gimmick in this business,” Hutson said, “and we as an industry tend to rely on things like this too much instead of good old-fashioned elbow grease. There are so many variables in [dynamic pricing], and I’m not sure we’ve thought through them all. What happens, for example, if Lincecum doesn’t pitch in a particular game after somebody’s paid an accelerated price to see that game?”
Old problem, new solution
Dynamic pricing represents the latest attempt to answer one of the most fundamental set of questions in the sports industry: how best to fill an arena or stadium and generate the highest amount of revenue from those fans in the building.
Much of the dynamic pricing answer is not necessarily new.
Market-based pricing on the primary ticket market borrows heavily from several areas: the acceptance of secondary ticketing and its market-driven forces; a rapid embrace of computer-based analytics and research into ticketing and ticket sales; and consumers’ extensive use of the Internet to track prices in real-time for thousands of other products.
Dozens of teams, such as the Cavaliers and the Atlanta Braves, for the past several years have used various computer models that take inputs such as team opponent, day of the week, month of the year, win-loss record, weather and other factors to perform attendance modeling, representing something of an early step toward dynamic pricing.
But dynamic pricing differs from those other, related approaches on two primary points. Making the move requires a willingness to step over that emotionally charged chasm and agreeing to alter prices that historically have not changed within a given season, and then implementing the infrastructure to do so on a continuous basis.
To that end, much of what Qcue has done is reduce sports ticketing to something of a math problem. The company’s software feeds extensively on a complex algorithm that, similar to an airline or hotel model, takes in all the various pricing factors, including going rates on the secondary market, and spits back out recommended prices.
The team retains the option to agree to those recommendations, or alter them based on additional human factors the program may not have considered.
The Qcue pricing engine is designed to integrate directly into a club’s ticketing system, as the company has done with the Stars and Giants in partnership with Tickets.com. Qcue earns money on a two-pronged approach in which an upfront software fee is supplemented by a revenue-sharing component on ticket sales above a certain level deriving from the dynamic-pricing model.
“What we’ve done is create a software platform that performs very high-end demand and sales forecasting,” said Barry Kahn, Qcue chief executive. “Obviously, we’re huge believers in dynamic pricing, but with or without that, that information is still very valuable. That’s the foundation, and from there, we’re proving value and revenue upside.”
Digonex Technologies Inc., perhaps Qcue’s most direct competitor, has taken a similar approach. Seeking to leverage an existing background in dynamic pricing for e-commerce, including digital music, Digonex last fall launched a sports and entertainment ticketing division. Early this year, it began working with the Cavaliers, with another deal pending with an undisclosed NBA team.
“Consumer acceptance of dynamic pricing has definitely changed,” said Rex Fisher, Digonex vice president of business development. “We all have greater access to information, and we’ve simply been conditioned that many products are priced subject to change.”
The Cavaliers also generated an undisclosed six-figure sum in incremental revenue this past season through dynamic pricing. But for team officials, there is an even bigger prize.
“Even more than the additional revenue, dynamic pricing has helped us engage the fan and be relevant by offering them the right product at the right price at the right time. That helps with building fan engagement and loyalty,” said Mike Tomon, Cavaliers vice president of sales. “It simply makes all the sense in the world to have a true value-based offering that derived from fan behavior. This is coming to a head in sports, and with good reason.”
Protecting season-ticket holders
The top concern surrounding dynamic pricing, not surprisingly, is the potential impact on season-ticket holders, still the lifeblood of all sports ticketing. While prices do move up in high-demand situations — generating predictable complaints of teams being exploitative — it’s the downward price movements for lower-demand games that actually create the bigger business threat.
If prices drift down to points at or near what season-ticket holders paid, what then are the advantages of paying for an entire package of games? Fans have already begun for several years to cherry-pick desired games on the secondary market.
“Price integrity without a doubt has been the No. 1 discussion point or concern on this topic,” said Derek Palmer, Tickets.com chief commercial officer.
The general response from teams on that bigger question is to show additional, unable-to-duplicate value to season-ticket holders through amenities such as access to players and coaches. With regard specifically to dynamic pricing, the early adopters have generally avoided going below their season-ticket pricing.
The insertion of artificial price floors means that teams such as the Giants, Stars and Cavaliers are not practicing dynamic pricing in the truest and fullest sense. But preserving that core base of the most-loyal ticket buyers remains critical, even as dynamic pricing advances and more data and analytics become available.
“I simply wouldn’t be doing this if it meant putting our season-ticket holders at risk,” Stanley said. The Giants’ season-ticket base of 21,000 full-season equivalents, though down in recent years, remains among the largest in baseball. “At least half of what we’ll sell all year will be through season tickets, so we absolutely have to protect that.”
Even with safeguards such as that in place, plenty of skeptics remain for dynamic pricing, in large part because for many teams, low-demand games easily outnumber high-demand ones.
“For a majority of teams, you have to be very careful, and this probably isn’t a space you want to play in. And if you’re still dictating [price] floors, it’s not really dynamic pricing,” said Lou DePaoli, Pittsburgh Pirates executive vice president and chief marketing officer. DePaoli has approached the issue from several angles during prior stops with the NBA, Florida Marlins and Atlanta Spirit ownership group. “But in baseball particularly, there are more weekdays than weekends, and more bad teams than good teams. So without a really super premium on your best series, you probably aren’t going to be able to make up the [lost] revenue.”
The push going forward for dynamic pricing will largely be on two fronts: a consumer education and awareness process to enlighten the public on what dynamic pricing is and how it works, and continued improvement in ticket analytics.
On the first point, many teams have conducted extensive surveys with fans, and each of the teams active in dynamic pricing offers some type of detailed explanation as to how its system works. The general sales credo has been to “lock in and save,” in which fans waiting until the last minute run the risk of paying more for their ticket.
On the latter point, ticketing analytics continue to improve as computing power, algorithms and teams’ understanding of how best to use that research grow and develop. That maturation will manifest itself in part through more precise dynamic pricing.
“Everybody’s experimenting to understand the science and figure out the algorithms, as nobody wants to damage their pricing models with haphazard processes,” said Sam Gerace, chief executive for Veritix, a sister company to the Cavaliers and the team’s ticketing provider.
“The challenge has been getting real information as there’s no official ‘trading desk’ for tickets,” Gerace said. “But I think we’re getting smarter and ultimately getting to a situation where the traditional concept of ‘face value’ begins to fade out.”
Sports Business Journal
By Eric Fisher
Saturday, May 15, was a rather typical day of what so far has been a somewhat resurgent season for the San Francisco Giants. Star pitcher Tim Lincecum, the reigning two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, pitched eight brilliant innings in a 2-1 win over the Houston Astros at AT&T Park, pushing his record at the time to 5-0.
But the star power of Lincecum also created a noticeable spike in the club’s single-game ticket prices. Lincecum’s dominant presence helped turn a left-field view reserved seat that sold for $15 the night before into a $20 ticket on game day, a $42 lower box seat into a $50 ticket, a $105 field club ticket into a $130 one, and so on through the club’s 20 different seating categories.
Such fluid market dynamics have been the norm on the secondary ticket market for years, particularly over the last decade as that segment of the industry has experienced a historic and meteoric rise in prominence, stature and overall consumer acceptance. On the primary ticket market, many teams over the same time have embraced variable-pricing structures in which more games on popular months or days of the week and against better opponents carry higher ticket prices, though still on a preplanned, static basis.
But the Giants are among a fast-growing collection of teams engaging in dynamic pricing on their primary ticket markets, in which prices more freely move up and down each day based on a wide range of supply and demand factors.
Dynamic pricing, long a benchmark of the hotel, airline and other commodity industries, holds the potential to alter sports ticketing even more dramatically than the advent of officially sanctioned secondary ticketing, many executives and advocates say.
“This is coming on very, very quickly. Within five years, I think everybody’s going to be doing this,” said Russ Stanley, managing vice president of ticketing sales and services for the Giants.
The club, working with Texas-based startup Qcue Inc., made $500,000 in incremental revenue last season testing a small portion of AT&T Park on dynamic pricing. At least a low- to mid-seven-figure sum in additional money is anticipated this season, as the club has expanded the dynamic-pricing program to the entire ballpark for every game for single-game tickets.
“Everybody in the industry is looking at it closely and evaluating it. I’m getting at least a call a week about this [from other teams], probably two,” Stanley said.
Other teams either already active in dynamic pricing or confirmed to start next season include the Astros, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The rise of dynamic pricing, however, is not so cut and dried, and its accelerating emergence arrives with lots of uncertainty and mixed feelings.
Unlike hotel rooms, airline tickets and other similar products, consumers hold deep, often multigenerational emotional attachments to their sports teams. Those teams, which often play in facilities built at least in part with public funds, have for years also printed their price lists months in advance, creating a general expectation that those prices are set for the coming season. Each ticket price increase, as any team knows, also creates public relations issues and marketplace pushback.
And as sports fans and investors understand all too well, past performance is never a guarantee of future results. Even Lincecum lost his next start after that sparkling win over the Astros.
“I don’t begrudge anybody trying this, but not at the expense of traditional, blood-and-guts ticket selling,” said Chris Hutson, co-chief executive for Turnstyles Ticketing, a New Jersey-based ticketing services company that works with numerous pro teams and universities.
“I’ve seen every gimmick in this business,” Hutson said, “and we as an industry tend to rely on things like this too much instead of good old-fashioned elbow grease. There are so many variables in [dynamic pricing], and I’m not sure we’ve thought through them all. What happens, for example, if Lincecum doesn’t pitch in a particular game after somebody’s paid an accelerated price to see that game?”
Old problem, new solution
Dynamic pricing represents the latest attempt to answer one of the most fundamental set of questions in the sports industry: how best to fill an arena or stadium and generate the highest amount of revenue from those fans in the building.
Much of the dynamic pricing answer is not necessarily new.
Market-based pricing on the primary ticket market borrows heavily from several areas: the acceptance of secondary ticketing and its market-driven forces; a rapid embrace of computer-based analytics and research into ticketing and ticket sales; and consumers’ extensive use of the Internet to track prices in real-time for thousands of other products.
Dozens of teams, such as the Cavaliers and the Atlanta Braves, for the past several years have used various computer models that take inputs such as team opponent, day of the week, month of the year, win-loss record, weather and other factors to perform attendance modeling, representing something of an early step toward dynamic pricing.
But dynamic pricing differs from those other, related approaches on two primary points. Making the move requires a willingness to step over that emotionally charged chasm and agreeing to alter prices that historically have not changed within a given season, and then implementing the infrastructure to do so on a continuous basis.
To that end, much of what Qcue has done is reduce sports ticketing to something of a math problem. The company’s software feeds extensively on a complex algorithm that, similar to an airline or hotel model, takes in all the various pricing factors, including going rates on the secondary market, and spits back out recommended prices.
The team retains the option to agree to those recommendations, or alter them based on additional human factors the program may not have considered.
The Qcue pricing engine is designed to integrate directly into a club’s ticketing system, as the company has done with the Stars and Giants in partnership with Tickets.com. Qcue earns money on a two-pronged approach in which an upfront software fee is supplemented by a revenue-sharing component on ticket sales above a certain level deriving from the dynamic-pricing model.
“What we’ve done is create a software platform that performs very high-end demand and sales forecasting,” said Barry Kahn, Qcue chief executive. “Obviously, we’re huge believers in dynamic pricing, but with or without that, that information is still very valuable. That’s the foundation, and from there, we’re proving value and revenue upside.”
Digonex Technologies Inc., perhaps Qcue’s most direct competitor, has taken a similar approach. Seeking to leverage an existing background in dynamic pricing for e-commerce, including digital music, Digonex last fall launched a sports and entertainment ticketing division. Early this year, it began working with the Cavaliers, with another deal pending with an undisclosed NBA team.
“Consumer acceptance of dynamic pricing has definitely changed,” said Rex Fisher, Digonex vice president of business development. “We all have greater access to information, and we’ve simply been conditioned that many products are priced subject to change.”
The Cavaliers also generated an undisclosed six-figure sum in incremental revenue this past season through dynamic pricing. But for team officials, there is an even bigger prize.
“Even more than the additional revenue, dynamic pricing has helped us engage the fan and be relevant by offering them the right product at the right price at the right time. That helps with building fan engagement and loyalty,” said Mike Tomon, Cavaliers vice president of sales. “It simply makes all the sense in the world to have a true value-based offering that derived from fan behavior. This is coming to a head in sports, and with good reason.”
Protecting season-ticket holders
The top concern surrounding dynamic pricing, not surprisingly, is the potential impact on season-ticket holders, still the lifeblood of all sports ticketing. While prices do move up in high-demand situations — generating predictable complaints of teams being exploitative — it’s the downward price movements for lower-demand games that actually create the bigger business threat.
If prices drift down to points at or near what season-ticket holders paid, what then are the advantages of paying for an entire package of games? Fans have already begun for several years to cherry-pick desired games on the secondary market.
“Price integrity without a doubt has been the No. 1 discussion point or concern on this topic,” said Derek Palmer, Tickets.com chief commercial officer.
The general response from teams on that bigger question is to show additional, unable-to-duplicate value to season-ticket holders through amenities such as access to players and coaches. With regard specifically to dynamic pricing, the early adopters have generally avoided going below their season-ticket pricing.
The insertion of artificial price floors means that teams such as the Giants, Stars and Cavaliers are not practicing dynamic pricing in the truest and fullest sense. But preserving that core base of the most-loyal ticket buyers remains critical, even as dynamic pricing advances and more data and analytics become available.
“I simply wouldn’t be doing this if it meant putting our season-ticket holders at risk,” Stanley said. The Giants’ season-ticket base of 21,000 full-season equivalents, though down in recent years, remains among the largest in baseball. “At least half of what we’ll sell all year will be through season tickets, so we absolutely have to protect that.”
Even with safeguards such as that in place, plenty of skeptics remain for dynamic pricing, in large part because for many teams, low-demand games easily outnumber high-demand ones.
“For a majority of teams, you have to be very careful, and this probably isn’t a space you want to play in. And if you’re still dictating [price] floors, it’s not really dynamic pricing,” said Lou DePaoli, Pittsburgh Pirates executive vice president and chief marketing officer. DePaoli has approached the issue from several angles during prior stops with the NBA, Florida Marlins and Atlanta Spirit ownership group. “But in baseball particularly, there are more weekdays than weekends, and more bad teams than good teams. So without a really super premium on your best series, you probably aren’t going to be able to make up the [lost] revenue.”
The push going forward for dynamic pricing will largely be on two fronts: a consumer education and awareness process to enlighten the public on what dynamic pricing is and how it works, and continued improvement in ticket analytics.
On the first point, many teams have conducted extensive surveys with fans, and each of the teams active in dynamic pricing offers some type of detailed explanation as to how its system works. The general sales credo has been to “lock in and save,” in which fans waiting until the last minute run the risk of paying more for their ticket.
On the latter point, ticketing analytics continue to improve as computing power, algorithms and teams’ understanding of how best to use that research grow and develop. That maturation will manifest itself in part through more precise dynamic pricing.
“Everybody’s experimenting to understand the science and figure out the algorithms, as nobody wants to damage their pricing models with haphazard processes,” said Sam Gerace, chief executive for Veritix, a sister company to the Cavaliers and the team’s ticketing provider.
“The challenge has been getting real information as there’s no official ‘trading desk’ for tickets,” Gerace said. “But I think we’re getting smarter and ultimately getting to a situation where the traditional concept of ‘face value’ begins to fade out.”
Friday, June 4, 2010
Ticketing Industry News: Smartphone use drives mobile ticketing
Sports Business Journal
By ERIC FISHER
Staff writer
Ticketing thus far has been slower than many other industries to adapt to today’s lightning-quick, “there’s an app for that” digital world. But full end-to-end mobile ticketing is now rapidly becoming a widespread reality.
Tickets.com, which late last summer introduced its ProVenueMobile product with the Oakland A’s, has since expanded the program to all 13 of its regular-season MLB clients. The program builds in part off its prior Tickets@Phone effort in which bar codes good for entry into a facility are e-mailed to a ticket purchaser’s smartphone. ProVenueMobile goes significantly further by also providing real-time mobile search, seat selection and payment.
Ticketmaster provides similar functionality for BlackBerry devices, as the industry giant holds an official partnership with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Inc. StubHub, the dominant player in secondary ticketing, is putting the finishing touches on its own iPhone application. And a fast-growing collection of smaller primary and secondary ticket sellers, such as Arizona-based eSeats, similarly are embracing mobile-based ticket purchasing.
Providers of mobile ticketing systems earn their revenue from a variety of sources, such as convenience charges on purchases or revenue sharing with client teams.
“We love mobile and we’re huge believers in it,” said Derek Palmer, Tickets.com chief commercial officer. “By allowing fans to complete an entire transaction anywhere, we think this is going to spur a lot more last-minute purchasing. What’s basically happened is that we’ve opened up a major new retail sales channel, and one that people have constantly with them.”
The spike in mobile ticketing owes in part to surging smartphone sales, as well as consumers’ increasing comfort with making purchases over the devices. Market research firm Gartner recently estimated that 54.3 million smartphones were sold worldwide during the first quarter of 2010, a 49 percent increase over the first quarter a year ago. And smartphones are assuming a greater percentage of all mobile phone sales, with the devices representing 17.3 percent of all mobile unit purchases, up from 13.6 percent a year ago.
Within those rising numbers are particularly meteoric sales for iPhone and Android devices, each of which are posting triple-digit percentage sales increases compared with a year ago.
The Mobile Marketing Association earlier this month released similar research estimating that one in five U.S. mobile phone owners have used their device for a mobile-based purchase in the last month, a percentage certain to rise. And those figures are much higher for smartphone owners, as more than half of iPhone owners and 34 percent of BlackBerry owners have bought content through their devices, also suggesting greater user comfort with mobile as a purchasing platform.
Utilization of mobile ticketing thus far predictably has been small. In early tests of Tickets.com’s ProVenueMobile system, purchasing over the mobile platform has represented less than 1 percent of available single-game tickets. But a quick escalation to at least mid-single-digit percentages is anticipated.
Mobile ticketing also is not just a consumer-facing application, either. Veritix for several years has used mobile authentication units that ticket agents wear over their shoulder to swipe electronic fan identification such as credit cards or driver’s licenses to help enable their digital ticket platform.
“We as a culture are still a little slow to let go of our physical tickets, but we’re anticipating a very quick ramp-up into more all-digital events and all-digital venues,” said Sam Gerace, Veritix chief executive.
By ERIC FISHER
Staff writer
Ticketing thus far has been slower than many other industries to adapt to today’s lightning-quick, “there’s an app for that” digital world. But full end-to-end mobile ticketing is now rapidly becoming a widespread reality.
Tickets.com, which late last summer introduced its ProVenueMobile product with the Oakland A’s, has since expanded the program to all 13 of its regular-season MLB clients. The program builds in part off its prior Tickets@Phone effort in which bar codes good for entry into a facility are e-mailed to a ticket purchaser’s smartphone. ProVenueMobile goes significantly further by also providing real-time mobile search, seat selection and payment.
Ticketmaster provides similar functionality for BlackBerry devices, as the industry giant holds an official partnership with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Inc. StubHub, the dominant player in secondary ticketing, is putting the finishing touches on its own iPhone application. And a fast-growing collection of smaller primary and secondary ticket sellers, such as Arizona-based eSeats, similarly are embracing mobile-based ticket purchasing.
Providers of mobile ticketing systems earn their revenue from a variety of sources, such as convenience charges on purchases or revenue sharing with client teams.
“We love mobile and we’re huge believers in it,” said Derek Palmer, Tickets.com chief commercial officer. “By allowing fans to complete an entire transaction anywhere, we think this is going to spur a lot more last-minute purchasing. What’s basically happened is that we’ve opened up a major new retail sales channel, and one that people have constantly with them.”
The spike in mobile ticketing owes in part to surging smartphone sales, as well as consumers’ increasing comfort with making purchases over the devices. Market research firm Gartner recently estimated that 54.3 million smartphones were sold worldwide during the first quarter of 2010, a 49 percent increase over the first quarter a year ago. And smartphones are assuming a greater percentage of all mobile phone sales, with the devices representing 17.3 percent of all mobile unit purchases, up from 13.6 percent a year ago.
Within those rising numbers are particularly meteoric sales for iPhone and Android devices, each of which are posting triple-digit percentage sales increases compared with a year ago.
The Mobile Marketing Association earlier this month released similar research estimating that one in five U.S. mobile phone owners have used their device for a mobile-based purchase in the last month, a percentage certain to rise. And those figures are much higher for smartphone owners, as more than half of iPhone owners and 34 percent of BlackBerry owners have bought content through their devices, also suggesting greater user comfort with mobile as a purchasing platform.
Utilization of mobile ticketing thus far predictably has been small. In early tests of Tickets.com’s ProVenueMobile system, purchasing over the mobile platform has represented less than 1 percent of available single-game tickets. But a quick escalation to at least mid-single-digit percentages is anticipated.
Mobile ticketing also is not just a consumer-facing application, either. Veritix for several years has used mobile authentication units that ticket agents wear over their shoulder to swipe electronic fan identification such as credit cards or driver’s licenses to help enable their digital ticket platform.
“We as a culture are still a little slow to let go of our physical tickets, but we’re anticipating a very quick ramp-up into more all-digital events and all-digital venues,” said Sam Gerace, Veritix chief executive.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
StubHub Launches Free Ticket Application for iPhone and iPod Touch Devices
TicketNews
StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, today announced that a StubHub ticket purchasing application is now available on the Apple App Store. The StubHub iPhone and iPod Touch application provides fans with the freedom to access and search the world's largest inventory of secondary market sporting, concert and theater tickets -- and make purchases -- anyplace, anytime. The application provides a mobile conduit into StubHub's dynamic marketplace where more than six million tickets are available, enabling fans to shop with confidence in a safe, convenient and guaranteed environment.
The StubHub application incorporates many of the same popular features available on the StubHub website, including access to familiar search and purchasing functionality, seat maps, detailed ticket listings, quantity and pricing filters and more. The application's navigation and user interface is tailored specifically for Apple's unique touch screen format, providing fans with a convenient, simple and intuitive way to purchase tickets while on the go, in many cases right up to the time of the event.
In addition, fans using the StubHub application will enjoy the same FanProtect Guarantee and award-winning customer service that is offered on the StubHub website, attributes that have made StubHub the "go to" source for live entertainment event tickets for millions of fans across North America.
"StubHub is all about providing choice, and access for fans," said Ray Elias, Director of Marketing for StubHub. "By extending our service and providing a rich experience in the mobile arena we are taking another step in that direction. We will continue to innovate in this space."
The StubHub application is ideal for last minute planners and travelers, with features that showcase upcoming live events based on the user's location or by their cities of choice. The application also provides social interactivity functions, enabling fans to interact directly with friends and family on ticket purchasing decisions by sending event and ticket details to a variety of email programs, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the application integrates seamlessly with iTunes, enabling fans to sync their favorite artists to the application in order to monitor and easily identify when their top events of interest are coming to town. Finally, the application allows users to tag their favorite artists or teams for quick navigation and access.
Fans can download the StubHub iPhone and iPod Touch application for free on the Apple App Store. The secure application protects users' personal information and enables fans to purchase tickets using their existing StubHub account, via PayPal, or by saving their credit card information within the application.
"The launch of the StubHub app builds on eBay's momentum in mobile commerce and expands our ever-growing portfolio of mobile applications," said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile for eBay Inc. "eBay Inc. offers more choice in ecommerce formats for sellers and buyers than any other online shopping destination. With the new StubHub app, we give consumers instant access to a wide selection of sought-after tickets right from the mobile phone."
The introduction of the StubHub app for the iPhone expands eBay Inc.'s mobile offerings. Earlier this year, eBay released an eBay app for iPad and two new apps for the iPhone: eBay Selling and eBay Classifieds. As a global leader in m-commerce, eBay Inc. recognizes that buyers and sellers are increasingly turning to mobile devices for their shopping needs. eBay Inc.'s mobile applications are available to millions of iPhone, BlackBerry and Android users in more than 190 countries and eight languages.
StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, today announced that a StubHub ticket purchasing application is now available on the Apple App Store. The StubHub iPhone and iPod Touch application provides fans with the freedom to access and search the world's largest inventory of secondary market sporting, concert and theater tickets -- and make purchases -- anyplace, anytime. The application provides a mobile conduit into StubHub's dynamic marketplace where more than six million tickets are available, enabling fans to shop with confidence in a safe, convenient and guaranteed environment.
The StubHub application incorporates many of the same popular features available on the StubHub website, including access to familiar search and purchasing functionality, seat maps, detailed ticket listings, quantity and pricing filters and more. The application's navigation and user interface is tailored specifically for Apple's unique touch screen format, providing fans with a convenient, simple and intuitive way to purchase tickets while on the go, in many cases right up to the time of the event.
In addition, fans using the StubHub application will enjoy the same FanProtect Guarantee and award-winning customer service that is offered on the StubHub website, attributes that have made StubHub the "go to" source for live entertainment event tickets for millions of fans across North America.
"StubHub is all about providing choice, and access for fans," said Ray Elias, Director of Marketing for StubHub. "By extending our service and providing a rich experience in the mobile arena we are taking another step in that direction. We will continue to innovate in this space."
The StubHub application is ideal for last minute planners and travelers, with features that showcase upcoming live events based on the user's location or by their cities of choice. The application also provides social interactivity functions, enabling fans to interact directly with friends and family on ticket purchasing decisions by sending event and ticket details to a variety of email programs, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the application integrates seamlessly with iTunes, enabling fans to sync their favorite artists to the application in order to monitor and easily identify when their top events of interest are coming to town. Finally, the application allows users to tag their favorite artists or teams for quick navigation and access.
Fans can download the StubHub iPhone and iPod Touch application for free on the Apple App Store. The secure application protects users' personal information and enables fans to purchase tickets using their existing StubHub account, via PayPal, or by saving their credit card information within the application.
"The launch of the StubHub app builds on eBay's momentum in mobile commerce and expands our ever-growing portfolio of mobile applications," said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile for eBay Inc. "eBay Inc. offers more choice in ecommerce formats for sellers and buyers than any other online shopping destination. With the new StubHub app, we give consumers instant access to a wide selection of sought-after tickets right from the mobile phone."
The introduction of the StubHub app for the iPhone expands eBay Inc.'s mobile offerings. Earlier this year, eBay released an eBay app for iPad and two new apps for the iPhone: eBay Selling and eBay Classifieds. As a global leader in m-commerce, eBay Inc. recognizes that buyers and sellers are increasingly turning to mobile devices for their shopping needs. eBay Inc.'s mobile applications are available to millions of iPhone, BlackBerry and Android users in more than 190 countries and eight languages.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Anthony Hamilton Plays The Wellmont Theatre - On Sale Friday at Noon
See Anthony Hamilton at The Wellmont on July 25, 2010
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, JUNE 4th at 12PM ET
Ticket Prices: $75.00, $55.00 & $35.00
Tickets on sale via tickets.com, wellmonttheatre.com, charge by phone 877-WELLMNT,or at The Wellmont Theatre Box Office
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, JUNE 4th at 12PM ET
Ticket Prices: $75.00, $55.00 & $35.00
Tickets on sale via tickets.com, wellmonttheatre.com, charge by phone 877-WELLMNT,or at The Wellmont Theatre Box Office
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Tickets.com as Exclusive Sponsor for the 2010 NARPACA Conference
NARPACA President Destry Puia is pleased to announce Tickets.com as the exclusive sponsor for the 2010 NARPACA Conference. “Tickets.com have been long time supporters of the performing arts industry and NARPACA is proud to welcome Tickets.com as our exclusive sponsor. David Borg and his team have been the Platinum supporters of the NARPACA Ticketing Professionals Conference and this additional support further highlights Tickets.com’s commitment to supporting the development of venues” said Mr Puia.
Tickets.com General manager David Borg said “Tickets.com is proud to support the 2010 NARPACA Conference. Delegates will get to see an exclusive preview of some of the exciting developments from Tickets.com and an insight into new industry developments”.
The 2010 NARPACA Conference will commence with a Welcome Delegates Cocktail Party at 6pm Wednesday 9th June 2010 to be held at Hotel Bravo 455 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley.
Tickets.com General manager David Borg said “Tickets.com is proud to support the 2010 NARPACA Conference. Delegates will get to see an exclusive preview of some of the exciting developments from Tickets.com and an insight into new industry developments”.
The 2010 NARPACA Conference will commence with a Welcome Delegates Cocktail Party at 6pm Wednesday 9th June 2010 to be held at Hotel Bravo 455 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley.
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