The Pepsi Center in Denver announced last week that it would not be renewing its ticketing contract with Ticketmaster, instead it will be teaming-up with the arena’s own in-house ticketing company, TicketHorse.
Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE), which owns the Pepsi Center, founded TicketHorse in 2006 in order to create one source for tickets to all the sports teams and venues the company owns, which includes Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the Colorado Rapids, and the Paramount Theatre. The venture utilizes Flash Seats paperless ticketing technology developed by Veritix.
Unfortunately for KSE, the Pepsi Center signed a 10 year contract with Ticketmaster when it opened in 1999, so the company had to wait until last week in order to add the Pepsi Center to its list.
The addition of Pepsi Center events will also be quite lucrative for KSE. Instead of sharing ticket sale profits with a middleman like Ticketmaster, KSE will now collect every cent of every ticket sold.
Because of the switchover, all tickets for Pepsi Center events will now be exclusively sold through TicketHorse. This includes concerts, as well as Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche tickets.
The Pepsi Center’s move away from Ticketmaster marks the second venue to drop the ticketing giant this month, following the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
A Ticketmaster spokesperson did not return a message seeking comment on the Pepsi Center’s decision.
In a recent press conference, KSE’s Executive Vice President, Paul Andrews, explained the benefits of TicketHorse.
“In short, TicketHorse will create Colorado jobs and provide an easy to use platform for the consumer,” Andrews said. “The systems allow patrons to purchase, sell and transfer tickets instantly.”
Last Updated on July 23, 2009
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I think more and more venues with the means to break free of the Ticketmaster/Live Nation monopoly and create their own ticket provider will do so. What is happening with the ticketing industry now reminds me of what was happening with broadcast rights in sports in the mid-to-late 90’s. Up until that time, the majority of teams sold their broadcast rights to a third party , usually a regional station (Fox Sports, Comcast, etc). Once the Yankees started YES, teams began to realize that there was more money in doing their broadcasting in-house, and collecting all of the revenues rather than just a portion through selling the rights. Currently the NFL is the only major sports league that does not have such arrangements because of their massive national TV deals. But if you look at MLB, about 25-33% of team ownerships also have significant stakes (if not complete ownership) of their broadcast partners, and have reaped significant revenue increases as a result.
Prior to the 90’s, the thinking was that you needed the third party to handle your broadcasting, much like the thinking within the ticket industry was that you needed to partner with someone like Ticketmaster to do your ticketing. With the technological advancements over the past decade, it is becoming easier for smaller companies to provide software solutions to venues like the Pepsi Center, and allowing them to do all their ticketing in-house, which allows them to keep all of the ticket revenues rather than simply taking a payout that allows Ticketmaster to profit off Pepsi Center customers. As well, it also allows the Nuggets and Avalanche complete control over their customers and the way they market and promote their events.
Overall, more and more venues who care to explore their options will begin to see that independently handling ticketing in-house will provide greater revenues, as well as control over the customer experience.
Just a quick comment on one thing mentioned in the article, “Instead of sharing ticket sale profits with a middleman like Ticketmaster, KSE will now collect every cent of every ticket sold.”
The truth is, the Pepsi Center is already getting every cent of ticket sales. TM gets NO part of actual ticket revenue and instead makes it’s money only on the fees collected for sales done through TM. In fact, the Pepsi Center, if it’s like other arenas, is getting a cut (probably 50%) of the Ticketmaster service charge. So they receive all the ticket money, a portion of the service charge money and all of any “facilty fees”. The only other thing Ticketmaster might receive revenue from is fee on any secondary market tickets that go through it’s TicketExchange…. and the venue has to approve and gets a cut of that. Part of TM’s contract or understanding with any venue is that it takes the criticism and doesn’t let the little secret out.
There’s nothing wrong with KSE wanting to take everything in-house on their own system. It’s normal for a business to want to maximize profits (some call it being greedy but I disagree) but that part of the above article or press release is disingenuous. It will be interesting to see if they LOWER any fees & charges now…. bet they don’t.
Disclaimer: Used to work at Ticketmaster and administered contracts. Don’t anymore and I compete against them in a particular market. (Not a broker.) And yes, I gripe about concert prices & charges too – always have.
these are OUTRAGEOUS!!!! ON TOP OF A “FACILITY FEE” NOW I HAVE TO PAY A CONVENIENCE FEE????? KSE IS A RIP OFF.
Just like every other ticket outlet out there, their so called convenience fees are outrageous. When is this going to stop!!!!!!
On a $318 purchase for tickets – they charged $65 – complete rip off……
If you think this will result in lower ticket prices, think again. Tickethorse just charge me $22.50 in “convenience fees” for using their services. Ticketmaster was already usury, but even they didn’t charge so much.
Tickethorse is just another scam to go along with your $8 beer and your tax subsidy paying for their arena. Vultures.