By Alfred Branch, Jr.
Seeing all the recent acquisition activity in the sector, Houston ticket broker Northside Tickets is getting all gussied up in hopes of attracting a buyer.
The privately held, 16-year-old company is working on completing 500 venue-specific websites that it claims will give Northside Tickets an edge in accessing thousands of tickets to concerts, sporting or other entertainment events around the country. Among the arenas that Northside has created websites for are New Jersey’s Continental Arena, Seattle’s Key Arena, Dallas’ Reunion Arena and Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena. . .
Northside hopes that by “building up the bottom line and adding a large number of season tickets and a large number of new websites,” eBay or another deep-pocketed suitor will snap it up. The company said it will entertain offers, but may wait until all 500 websites are completed to improve its odds for acquisition, and Northside is also prepared to buy Premium Seat Licenses to any major professional sports team to further help with a take over.
The company did not crack the list of the top 20 secondary ticket sellers for the week ending June 5, according to Ticketnews.com exclusive industry ranking.
“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to see the next move for growth to StubHub or eBay is buying out 100 of the largest brokers in the country to add 400 million more in sales a year,” said the company in a prepared statement. “Acquiring these brokers with the very best season tickets, and multiple successful websites, is the best direction they can go in.”