Special Events-The Opportunity for the Resale Market
Posted on September 5th, 2008By Cheryl Rosner in Executive Corner
Last night I was reflecting upon how exciting and unique special live entertainment events are, and the great opportunity these events hold for the resale market and our industry. Whether it is a “farewell” concert, sports championship or even a family event, there is a select number of these each year that can truly drive great consumer demand. One year ago, we were connecting consumers with a very high demand family event, Hannah Montana. Last week marked one of the highpoints of the year for tennis fans, the U.S. Open. This year’s Open is the single highest demand event and will be the most attended event in the history of tennis. It is also the first time that the USTA has committed to embracing the resale market, partnering with TicketsNow to provide onsite ticket resale for this milestone multi-day event.
Despite what has appeared in some industry press, so far, the event has been a success – for brokers who have responded to the unbelievable demand by tirelessly delivering their tickets and most importantly, for the fans who have gotten access to see the best and brightest talent in the sport.
It should be noted, however, there have been issues with ticket delivery – principally during the early days of the Open tournament. However, we are proud to say that we have lived up to our 100% guarantee and fulfilled every ticket order.
Our collective success is dependent upon making sure we get our consumers their tickets 100% of the time and ensuring we make every transaction a seamless, simple and positive experience. This should be an important mutual goal for us as we work together to grow our industry. Looking ahead we see many more high demand consumer events on the horizon, be it the World Series, the holiday theater season and the Super Bowl, all of which are right around the corner. Let’s make sure every event is a special one!
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you and if you have any of your own you wish to share or have questions, I would love to hear them.
- Cheryl
Popularity: 100% [?]
September 6th, 2008 at 11:17 am
I got mine from you folks, and my son got his from Stubhub. I went through a last minute fiasco, and he had zero problems. Why the issues?
September 6th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I just discovered that the Men’s Final has been moved to Monday night - i’m out of town on Monday night. have 4 great seats but it seems it’s too late to sell them; how can that be?
September 8th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Cheryl - I only wish you had communicated better with the supplying ticket brokers, the news that ticketsnow was not going to do same day sales. You cost all of us alot of money, next time let us know, when you are changing the rules.
Bill
September 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
JP, thanks for reaching out to us. We are grateful for the opportunity to help resolve your matter.
Bill and Bill, you both raise important issues, something we are working to address and will be able to discuss in more detail with everyone in a few weeks. Until then, please know we appreciate your participation on this blog and share your interest in improving the event ticketing experience for both buyers and sellers.
-Cheryl
September 19th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I don’t see how you can say that Ticketnow helps the public to see the events that they are after. All it is, is another scalper scooping up the regular priced tickets and reselling them for 5 times their value. Now I can’t afford to go to AC/DC because all of the regular tickets were somehow purchased by resellers!! Thanks for the great service.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Wendi,
At TicketsNow we specialize in connecting fans to the excitement of live events by providing secure and convenient access to hard-to-get tickets. For a highly anticipated event like AC/DC, tickets are bound to sell out quickly through primary channels. By allowing individuals to resell tickets on our carefully monitored, organized marketplace, we are giving fans another option to find and purchase tickets. TicketsNow does not set the price for the tickets on our site; prices are entirely driven by the market. Ultimately, we aim to provide maximum selection to create the best consumer experience possible.
-Cheryl
October 18th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I simply can’t believe how much you are all profiteering money grubbing jerks. How is it possible that you as a subsidiary of ticketmaster designate a portion of tickets to yourselves to jack up the price on 30 seconds after they go on sale, when they are obviously not sold out yet? You can’t apply supply and demand economics to rationalize your decision to rip off the band’s loyal fan base, but then again Cheryl, and cohorts, you can afford a $1200 ticket to a show..oh wait… you probably get them comped for free so you can spew more b.s. about how jacking your prices is fair. Take some econ classes instead of referring to someone elses homework, and be a little more fair like i said you money grubbing selfish jerks. 60 seconds isn’t enough time to have sold them all… you have pictures of these “super ticket operations” post them? no pictures? better stop daydreaming ignoramus.
October 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I am prompted to post seeing tickets to Phish’s reunion concerts in March 2009 being “scalped” for five times face hours after they went on sale and most fans were closed out. Worse, Ticketmaster was rubbing this auction in the faces of the loyal fans like us who were shut out, sending a link to the auction as an email attachment and noting ironically that “we noticed you had not completed your order and wanted you to be aware of these miracle tickets being scalped.” Well, of course, we had not completed our order because we were shut out within minutes of on sale.
While I suppose you people think you’re doing the Lords work by bringing in scalping out of the shadows and making it supposedly legitimate for supposed fans to trade unwanted tickets safely, I think you are morally suspect. Scalpers s*ck, plain and simple, whether it’s some guy or some corporation, or especially a Ticketmaster affilitate who’s already running the original sales. Whoever bought tickets this morning with no interest in going to those shows and shut out a legitimate fan so they could flip the tickets hours later for a cool $400 profit sucks. If I were the artist (or if these are Phish mail order tickets, those scalped tickets should be CANCELLED. Actually , leaving scaping to the risks of the market rather than legitimizing it would ultimately be better for everyone but you, ticketmaster and scalpers.
I dare you to either post this or respond. I’ll be waiting with great interest.