Ticket price predictor SeatGeek has added another tool to its collection of ticket buying aids, called team pages, which give fans and brokers a wider view of trending ticket sales.
SeatGeek’s new team pages track ticket sale data for the 30 Major League Baseball and 32 National Football League teams, allowing potential buyers to see easily how prices are trending. Visitors to the page can see the average price of tickets over the past week and compare that with the average price over recent months. The average ticket price for the team’s next game also is displayed, along with its comparison to the face value of the ticket and a general price range for that game.
Fans can see the highest and lowest ticket prices paid for the season to date and learn how variable prices have been for their team. Top selling home and away games are displayed to provide insight on which games have been the hottest all season.
Once visitors decide on a specific game, they can click on a “find tickets” link to view ticket prices from major resellers like StubHub and TicketsNow.
The most prominent, and informative, feature on the page is the ticket prices graph, which tracks team ticket sales for the entire season. Here potential buyers can see whether a team’s average ticket price is trending up or down, in relation to external factors. For instance, a well-performing team tends to reflect its success in higher ticket prices, as can be seen on SeatGeek’s Minnesota Twins ticket prices page.
As co-founder Russ D’Souza sees it, the team page graphs “are the most exciting part of these pages. It’s really cool to see how win streaks or poor team performance can get reflected in ticketing data.”
Also new to the site is the MLB leaderboard, which ranks teams by their average ticket prices over the past week. Plans are also in the works to track more professional sports leagues, as well as musical artists, in the near future.
Over the past several months, D’Souza and co-founder Jack Groetzinger have noticed that fans and the media alike are interested in price trends and the factors that influence them. “When a player gets traded, musician releases a new single, or a team goes on a winning streak we can immediately see the impact in our ticketing data,” D’Souza told TicketNews. “We’ve noticed that two audiences find this data really compelling. First, sports and music fans are interested to see how other fans view their favorite teams and bands. In addition, blogs and publications are always looking to quantify fan sentiment.” SeatGeek’s team pages grew out of their efforts to respond to this demand.
Founded in 2009, SeatGeek is a ticket search and price forecaster which offers consumers research-based price predictions. These predictions give users the potential to buy concert and sports tickets at the lowest possible price by estimating the optimal buying moment. The company aggregates data from major secondary ticket sellers and combines this information in an algorithm with other contingency data, such as weather, area events, and playoff status of opposing teams. The algorithm results in a forecast of where prices might be heading for a particular event. When prices are moving down, fans can receive email alerts which will suggest the best time to buy. The company Web site claims over 85 percent accuracy on its pricing predictions.
D’Souza is pleased with the new direction the company is taking with its team pages, and with SeatGeek’s development over just the past year. “When we launched, it wasn’t clear whether all fans cared about data the same way we did. It’s been really exciting how we’ve gained awareness among sports fans and reporters who regularly turn to our blog for insights into fan sentiment. We want to further empower fans and brokers with our data and are always interested in hearing new ideas.”
