Ticket Industry Stories

The Massachusetts accountant at the center of a ticket industry lobbying controversy has retired from the accounting firm he helped create as the fallout over the matter continues to swirl.

As reported by the Boston Globe, Richard Vitale quit his post with Vitale, Caturano & Co. this week in part due to his questionable ties to close friend Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, and Vitale's involvement with state ticket brokers who hired him to lobby on their behalf on pending legislation to repeal the state's anti-scalping laws. Vitale had been with the firm for 30 years and reportedly was forced to retire, but he claimed the retirement was previously planned.

For some fans, it can be a life long dream to have season tickets to see their favorite team year in and year out. But with teams starting to use personal seat licenses (PSLs) for their season ticket holders, that fan needs to know somebody or know a guy who knows a guy just for the chance to get their hands on that license.

That’s what happened to Kyle Burks. Living in Houston, he wanted to purchase a PSL for his team the Houston Texans and found them difficult to come by. Taking out an ad in his local paper to find someone who was selling theirs, Burks found someone but ultimately found that the process was "nerve racking" and left him hoping that the man actually was the owner of a PSL.

Nick Bucci, the President of TicketsNow's EventInventory division which deals directly with brokers, has left the company, though his departure has not been formally announced.

Bucci's name and biography were still on the TicketsNow website as of today, but his absence this week at the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow broker meeting was felt. His last day was this past Friday, May 9, and his future endeavors are unknown. He did not return a message seeking comment.

As Ticketmaster fights to end the use of software that allows ticket brokers to purchase blocks of tickets from their site, such as ones developed by RMG Technologies, a recent feature by the ESPN program "E:60" revealed that the ticketing giant has profited from the use of the same technology.

Ticketmaster's highly publicized purchase of TicketsNow has led many to question whether there is a conflict of interest involved in the deal. Ticketmaster stands to profit from both the primary sale of the ticket and its resale on its secondary site.

Emphasizing that they are committed to helping brokers sell more tickets, the CEOs of Ticketmaster and TicketsNow Tuesday said that the future of their business will rest on the growing strength of their relationship with brokers.

The two CEOs, Sean Moriarty of Ticketmaster and Cheryl Rosner of TicketsNow, however, could not offer any guarantees that tickets would not continue to appear on the secondary TicketsNow website before they were offered to the public, an issue that some brokers believe undermines their relationship with the two companies.

With questions swirling around concerning the landscape of the secondary ticket market under the umbrella of Ticketmaster and its new division TicketsNow, more than 100 brokers met with representatives of the two companies today, May 13, at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas to clear the air.

Just after noon Pacific Standard time brokers mingled in the lobby outside of the hotel's ballroom where the event was taking place. Following lunch, TicketsNow President and CEO Cheryl Rosner and Ticketmaster President and CEO Sean Moriarty were scheduled to address the crowd, but Moriarty had not yet arrived and only Rosner was spotted conversing with brokers. TicketNews made a request to attend the event but was denied because it was closed to EventInventory (EI) members only. EI is TicketsNow's broker software and ticket inventory division.

A new piece of New Jersey legislation seeks to limit the selling power of ticket brokers throughout the state. Under the constraints of the proposed legislation, internet ticket resale sites would be allowed more freedoms when it comes to reselling tickets than their human counterparts.

While the bill would not outlaw or make it illegal for brokers to resell tickets to various entertainment events, it would place brokers at a disadvantage when it comes to setting the price for reselling tickets. Under the proposed bill, no ticket broker would be able to resell tickets at more than 50 percent above acquisition. However, a provision within the bill makes this stipulation moot should a non-ticket broker attempt to resell a ticket on the internet.

"Ticketmaster Introduces Paperless Ticket(TM) Saving Time and Trees"

West Hollywood, CA (NEWSWIRE) May 13, 2008 -

-- Ticketmaster is taking the next big leap in ticketing technology with Paperless Ticket(TM).
-- Fans will no longer have to stand in line to pick up tickets at will call.
-- Fans who ordered tickets can simply present venue door staff their credit card, along with a valid photo ID, and they'll be given a receipt and granted immediate access.
-- No tickets will ever exchange hands.
-- Paperless Ticket(TM) only is available through Ticketmaster.com or through Ticketmaster charge-by-phone.
-- The entire process is quick, secure and simple.
-- Paperless Ticket(TM) was unveiled for Tom Waits' new "Glitter and Doom" Tour on May 7, 2008.

"Ticketmaster continues to evolve the services we offer to our clients, artists and fans," said David Goldberg, Ticketmaster's executive vice president. "Paperless Ticket(TM) is the next big leap in that effort. It's only fitting that we launch a program like this with an artist like Tom Waits who always looks to provide a great experience for his fans," he continued. "With Paperless Ticket(TM) there is no waiting in will call lines. All it takes is a single swipe of a credit card at the door of the venue and a photo ID check by door staff that leads to a quick, secure, and simple way to experience live entertainment."

In what could be considered a boon for both companies, and further indication of the validity and growing influence of the secondary ticket market, StubHub and viagogo will be the official secondary ticketing companies for Madonna's upcoming Sticky & Sweet world tour.

The tour, which is in support of Madonna's new hit album "Hard Candy," will likely be one of the top concert draws of the year, and in fact the tour is already the 10th most popular overall ticket event, according to TicketNews's exclusive weekly ranking. StubHub is the official "fan-to-fan" ticket exchange, while UK-based viagogo is the official premium seat and secondary ticketer for the British and European markets, except in Germany and Italy. The tour is the first one under the singer's landmark 10-year, $120 million deal with Live Nation.

The Queen of Rock & Roll rolled into the third position on TicketNews's exclusive top events charts for the week of May 5 - May 11, 2008. With an overall power score of 4.99, Tina Turner trailed only top-seeded Neil Diamond, who earned a power score of 8.23, and Wicked, which earned a 5.03.

Other Top Events this week included the New York Yankees, who fell a position to fourth place with a score of 2.85 and Jersey Boys, which held steady in fifth place with a 2.40 power score. Cher leapt from thirteenth to sixth place this week with a power score of 1.85, and the Boston Red Sox slid three positions to seventh place with a score of 1.60.

Although Live Nation will not divulge the specific financials in its deal with Jay-Z that were leaked to the New York Times, reportedly by his handlers, the company did release some interesting information about the global arrangement. The Times said the 10-year deal was worth about $150 million compared to what Live Nation reported last October in regard to its first Live Nation Artists deal with Madonna, which was for 10 years and $120 million. Its 12-year deal with U2 had no dollar sign attached to it, but it was probably worth more than the Madonna contract, and perhaps a shade less, if not more, than the Jay-Z contract.

Jay-Z's 10-year deal encompasses touring, ticketing, secondary ticketing, merchandise, sponsorship, endorsement, DVD, television broadcast, VIP, fan club and website, publishing and recordings.

In a move designed to calm some of the concerns of their ticket brokers, Ticketmaster and TicketsNow will hold a one-day conference in Las Vegas with brokers on May 13 where CEOs Sean Moriarty and Cheryl Rosner will answer questions about their companies' relationship with the secondary ticket industry.

The two companies, which merged after Ticketmaster acquired TicketsNow in February, have drawn criticism from brokers who question their business practices. The National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB) last month called on the two companies to answer a series of questions about their intentions and address broker confidentiality and other concerns. In the strongly worded letter from the NATB, lead counsel Gary Adler wrote that continued concerns by brokers forced his group to seek answers.

Peter Chantel, the former Chief Financial Officer of music merchandiser Signatures Network, Inc. (SNI) has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against his former employers alleging that he was dismissed partly because he had knowledge SNI was “engaged in several fraudulent and unlawful practices” involving ticket distribution. The lawsuit also names SNI’s new parent company Live Nation as a defendant.

According to the text of the lawsuit, Chantel claims that SNI violated the terms of its artists’ contracts by “fraudulently charging overhead costs to artists for production of merchandise through the creation of a shell company,” as well as “dumping concert tickets to ticket brokers without authorization from the artists,” which, in addition to violating the company’s contracts, may be deemed a violation of both state and federal law. The lawsuit continues, alleging that SNI’s CEO Dell Furano and Chief Operating Officer Phil Cussen, upon being informed by Chantel of the questionable practices of SNI, refused to act and retaliated against Chantel, causing him undue stress which contributed to a back condition.

Alan Seiden, a New York basketball legend and former ticket broker, died Saturday, May 3, two and half years after suffering a debilitating stroke. He was 71 years old.

Seiden first starred on the basketball court in the mid-1950s for the Jamaica (NY) High School team, leading them to the New York City title in 1955, and he was also the leader of the St. John's University team that won the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) title in 1959. He was inducted into the St. John's Hall of Fame in 1986 and won the Frank C. Haggerty Award as a Most Valuable Player in Metro-area sports the year he lead St. John's to the NIT championship.

Ecommerce and online auction house giant eBay Inc. reported a healthy 22 percent increase in net income to $460 million, or 34 cents per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008, compared to $377 million, or 27 cents a share for the same period a year earlier.

First quarter figures also showed a 24 percent increase in revenue to $2.19 billion, up $424 million from the same period last year. Revenue growth was driven primarily by the Marketplaces division's net transaction revenues; the ongoing expansion at PayPal, Skype; and the company’s global classifieds business.

The legendary Neil Diamond has edged the hit musical Wicked out of the number one position in TicketNews's exclusive top events rankings for the week of April 28 - May 4, 2008. Diamond rose up from his second place finish last week to oust "Wicked" from its month-long run in the top slot. Diamond's 9.16 power score, which was nearly triple his score from last week, was more than double "Wicked"'s 4.67 score this week.

Other Top Events this week included the ever competitive New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in third and fourth place with power scores of 3.10 and 2.54, and the second most popular musical, Jersey Boys, in fifth place with a score of 2.15.

With the Thursday filing of financial documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, it appears that rapper Jay-Z and Live Nation have finalized a 10-year contract estimated to be worth $150 million.

News of the pending deal broke last month, while Jay-Z was beginning his current, sold out tour with Mary J. Blige. The deal, which resembles the mega-deal Live Nation signed with Madonna last year, calls for Live Nation to pay millions for Jay-Z’s future tours, three albums and to set up a new division at the company for rapper called Roc Nation.

In the state of Massachusetts, like many states before it, ticket resale laws have been a combative political issue, but with many states lifting the regulations on reselling tickets, the Bay State may be the next in line. But, a controversy has erupted over some of the behind-the-scenes moves designed to assure passage of a repeal bill.

In November, Democratic state Rep. Michael Rodrigues proposed a bill that would allow for licensed individuals to resell tickets without regulating price as long as the seller offers full guarantees to the consumer.

"Qwest Center Omaha Renews Ticketmaster Partnership"

OMAHA, Neb. (PRNewswire) May 2, 2008 -- Qwest Center Omaha has renewed a long standing partnership with Ticketmaster, the world's leading live entertainment ticketing and marketing company. Ticketmaster will continue to provide sales and marketing services for Qwest Center Omaha's full roster of entertainment and sporting events.

Ticketmaster has acquired the assets of SLO Limited, Inc., a leading provider of VIP ticketing services to major touring artists and special events. The company was founded in 2002 by industry veteran Shelley Lazar, who is also its CEO. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SLO has provided ticketing services for acts for years and in the past five years has been providing VIP package services to fans. Various membership packages are available through its Executive Ticket Club, with prices ranging from $5,000-$20,000. SLO's clients are the acts, who provide the tickets. Regular ticket prices, facility fees, taxes, service charges and delivery charges are extra.