The Houston Rockets are among the elite franchises in the NBA, winning world championships in 1994 and 1995; and in 2003 the team moved into one of the premier venues in sports, the Toyota Center.
The Rockets senior director of ticket operations Josh Logan has been with franchise since 2002 and was an important part of the opening of the Toyota Center. As the ticketing landscape continueo evolve, it is his job to make sure the franchise is one step ahead. In order to do that, Logan and the Rockets look to gather as much information as possible, and one of those avenues was Ticket Summit in 2007.
“We wanted to see what was out there,” he recently told TicketNews.
Impressed by the conference last year, Logan will once again head to the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from July 23 through the 25 for Ticket Summit 2008. And once again their mission will be one of fact finding and learning. As the line between the primary and secondary market continues to blur, the Rockets are looking to be on the forefront of the future of ticketing.
“[The secondary market] is becoming more clearly part of the business,” he said.
The team is looking at the possibilities of creating their own place for fans to come to buy and sell tickets to their games.
“We want to create a secondary marketplace branded and sold on our own site,” he said. “We want them to come to our site, whether primary or secondary.”
Ticket Summit is the largest tradeshow in the secondary ticketing industry and has grown each year since it began in 2006 with venues now playing a major part, including Lowe’s Motor Speedway, American Airlines Center, Jobing.com Arena and the Toyota Center.
“Venues and sports teams will definitely be a highlight of Ticket Summit 2008,” Executive Director of Ticket Summit Molly Martinez said. “With an expanding market and increasing opportunities for partnership, Summit attendees will have a prime opportunity to discuss growing niches in this ticket marketplace.”
