Suspicions Run High at Ticket Broker Confab

Participating in a primary ticketing panel were Joe Freeman from Ticketmaster, Josh Logan from the Houston Rockets, Greg Bettinelli from Live Nation, Gary Adler of the NATB, Derek Palmer of Tickets.com, Dan DeMato from FutureTix and Jeffrey Larris from INTIX

As published in the July 23, 2008 • VOL. VII, Number 23 issue of VT Pulse

LAS VEGAS — Is it a marriage of love or convenience? That was the question of the day at the National Association of Ticket Brokers conference at the Wynn Hotel.

At the close of the Friday meeting, Ticketmaster officials had put their best foot forward to convince brokers that they would continue to play an important role at the recently acquired TicketsNow, although it could be a changing, evolving role. For their part, many of the brokers were as intrigued by the offer as they were skeptical.

“Ticketmaster is going to need us in the short term,” said broker Barry Rudin of Barry’s Ticket Services in Los Angeles. “They can’t buy every ticket, so there will be a role for those of us who choose to adapt to the new market. We know there will still be a market, we just don’t know what type of inventory is left over for the brokers.”

Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said his company would not squeeze brokers out of the fold, embracing what he described as a “partnership” where brokers continue to supply much of the inventory, while Ticketmaster brings its marketing savvy and internet reach to more eyeballs.

“Consumers are learning that tickets are always available at a price,” Moriarty said, later adding that before the TicketsNow acquisition “we knew that people would come to Ticketmaster looking for inventory and we knew we wouldn’t have what they were looking for.”

Moriarty said merging the Ticketmaster and TicketsNow platforms created a new tool “that would be very important to the consumer” where he can tell consumers “there’s always a ticket for a price. We want to give the consumers a relatively complete picture of their options.”

Transparency, explained Moriarty, would be critical for the two platforms to work together, a comment that elicited a few chuckles from those in attendance. During an earlier panel on the primary market, several brokers expressed frustration at Ticketmaster’s policy of not publicizing how many tickets are released during an on sale.

“That would be virtually impossible,” said Joe Freeman, senior vice president assistant general counsel for Ticketmaster, explaining that the company’s often contractually obligated to stay mum on ticketing inventory for its venue clients.

“One of our key advantages is our direct tie to the primary inventory,” said Derek Palmer of Tickets.com. Secondary ticketing companies that have the ability to reissue tickets through the primary provider — often through electronic delivery methods like email — will have a clear advantage over brokers who must mail their tickets.

“The way the system currently works, the only people making money from the secondary market are FedEx and Google,” said Greg Bettinelli who is overseeing Live Nation’s ticketing initiative. Bettinelli hinted that the new Live Nation platform will likely feature electronic deliverability for secondary tickets, while Tickets.com is currently working with StubHub to reissue baseball tickets sold on the platform.

TicketsNow CEO Cheryl Rosner said she expected Ticketmaster to eventually develop the means to reissue and electronically deliver tickets sold on the TicketsNow platform, but added the company is currently weighing all its options.

Freeman said the other advantage Ticketmaster will have over small brokerage firms is Internet credibility, adding that “every time a fan comes upon a questionable site, it’s an unsatisfying experience and we all lose.”

It was those calls for change that brought an air of tension over the group, who raised their grievances against a number of primary ticketing issues that made resale harder. One audience member complained that the recent Tom Waits tour’s plan to go ticketless and essentially ban resale was bad for the brokerage community. Freeman replied that Ticketmaster was purely an agent of the artist and had to meet their wishes. Another broker said it was unfair for a team to yank a broker’s season tickets if they sold them to a fan who misbehaved during a game.

At one point during a panel, TicketNetwork CEO and President John Vaccaro said he believed Ticketmaster was attempting to shut brokers out of the business. Freeman called the comment “bass ackwards” and added “we didn’t just make an investment into TicketsNow to hurt brokers.” — Dave Brooks of Venues Today