Ticketmaster has agreed to pay “about $265[M] for TicketsNow Inc., the country’s second-largest Web site for reselling tickets to concerts and sports events,” according to Ethan Smith of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The move is “designed to let Ticketmaster and its clients tap the explosive growth of the so-called secondary ticket market.” The cash offer comes after Ticketmaster’s largest client, Live Nation, “said it plans to stop doing business with Ticketmaster at the end of this year to start a competing ticketing service.” Ticketmaster President & CEO Sean Moriarty said that the company “plans to share revenue from its new division with clients that own venues or promote events.” He noted that the move “highlights a shift in the way ticket resellers are perceived, both by the public and by concert-industry participants.” Moriarty: “Clients who five years ago were not willing to allow a ticket to be resold now want a piece of it.” AEG President & CEO Tim Leiweke said that he “welcomed the deal as a way for venues and performers to participate in a market they previously couldn’t access.” Leiweke: “We get to go back to the artist and say, ‘Now, we can capture that revenue for you, instead of StubHub.' That’s a big deal for us” ( WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/15 ). BEIJING '08 : In a Q&A with the WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Mei Fong, BOCOG Exec VP & Secretary General Wang Wei when asked about the "massive demand" that crashed the BOCOG's ticketing site within hours of its launch in October, said, “I think Ticketmaster (which was handling the sales in a joint venture with a Chinese partner) is the world’s biggest and most experienced agency -- they did the Athens Games -- but they underestimated the overwhelming demand of the Chinese people. The lesson learned from this is, we used international norms for Olympic Games, and IOC policy, but we have to understand the ground in China. The lesson applies to other things” ( WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/15 ). BRONCOS: In Denver, Tim Hoover reported a bill sponsored by Colorado state Sen. Lois Tochtrop would allow ticket holders for any state sports team to “sell their season tickets for any price they can fetch and to whomever they please.” Tochtrop said that the bill was “prompted by the Broncos’ crackdown last year on fans who were selling their season tickets online or through brokers.” Tochtrop: “These (tickets) are the Broncos season-ticket holders’ property. It’s not the Broncos’ property.” However, Broncos Exec Dir of Ticket Operations Kirk Dyer said that the tickets are “‘revocable licenses’ that the franchise can take back for any reason.” The team has revoked some season tickets for violating resale policies, but Dyer said the number of those fans was “definitely less than 100.” Dyer: “The bottom line is we don’t want to see our fans pay more than what the ticket is worth” ( DENVER POST, 1/13 ).
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