Ticketmaster CitySearch has joined the Mariners to try
to sell "unsold baseball tickets" on-line, according to
CNNfn's Steve Young (see THE DAILY, 7/19). Ticketmaster
CitySearch CEO John Pleasants: "Our partnership with the
Mariners, and also with a company called 'At The Moment,'
creates a NASDAQ-like or bid-ask situation for ticketing.
... The launch of this service, we believe, is the first of
its kind in major league sports. What it enables consumers
to do is go online and participate in a real live
marketplace. We've been trying it now for three different
games. Tickets at the lower levels are going for higher
prices, ... and tickets that have been at some of the upper
decks are actually falling and going to lower prices. It
creates a real online supply and demand situation." On the
Web site, consumers select a specific section they are
interested in and check on "the current price." Pleasants
said prices "move both up and down, as opposed to a
traditional auction where prices just move in one
direction." Pleasants stated the business model for this
service "remains the same" as the "core business" of
Ticketmaster, charging a service fee. Pleasants, on taking
the program national: "We're very excited by these results
and, of course, we have many other of our clients ... who
are calling in and asking for this type of thing and asking
for what the results are. So, it's the kind of thing that
we think we will be expanding" ("Digital Jam," CNNfn, 7/26).
