By Alfred Branch, Jr.
Looking to keep pace with rival Ticketmaster, StubHub today announced it signed a multi-year contract to be the exclusive secondary ticket agent for the St. John’s University Red Storm sports program. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal marks the 15th such arrangement StubHub has signed with a major college athletic department. Ticketmaster boasts having several similar deals with major colleges, but recently has concentrated on secondary ticket deals with professional sports teams. . . .
St. John’s is probably best known as a basketball school that competes in the Big East, and StubHub already has similar deals with fellow Big East Conference schools Georgetown, West Virginia and Rutgers.
“We obviously feel a strong commitment to our fan base, and formally aligning with an organization that is similarly committed to fans’ needs makes this partnership a natural one,” Chris Monasch, St. John’s athletic director, said in a prepared statement. StubHub will be known as the “Preferred Ticket Marketplace of St. John’s Athletics” and gives StubHub a foot in the door of Madison Square Garden where the Red Storm basketball team plays games. Not only will St. John’s students and fans buy and sell tickets on the site for Red Storm games, but those same fans will now be exposed to StubHub, some of whom for the first time, making them potential customers for other events carried by the secondary ticket giant.
Danielle Maged, Director of Sports Partnerships & Business Development for StubHub, said in a prepared statement that she was very grateful to partner with the university. “St. John’s was a very attractive program for us for a variety of reasons. The storied tradition, large and devout fan base for the men’s basketball program and the opportunity for branding inside Madison Square Garden at high-profile Big East Conference games were all strong draws for StubHub.”
