StubHub was profiled on ABC's "Nightline" on Wednesday, with the net's Neal Karlinsky noting the company has "become the ultimate middle man, revolutionizing the way people get tickets." Host Terry Moran said the company is "connecting those who want tickets with those who have them without the middle men and when buyers and sellers set their own prices for the hottest events, well, it's free market capitalism at its most entertaining." StubHub President Chris Tsakalakis said StubHub is "a marketplace where buyers and sellers can interact and sell and buy tickets." Karlinsky said Tsakalakis' "unyielding belief is that the world of ticket sales is horribly broken, backwards, even fixed." Karlinsky noted eBay-owned StubHub "isn't just a random place for second-hand ticket sales," now having official partnerships with 28 MLB teams. Karlinsky: "On the other end of the spectrum, supply and demand is tested in a very big way." StubHub CMO Ray Elias said, "There's a lot of irrational stuff that happens on StubHub." Karlinsky noted StubHub "makes its money taking a cut of the action -- a big cut -- 15 percent of the price from sellers, 10 percent from buyers." Karlinsky: "What they offer in return is security, security from that shady guy selling a ticket on the sidewalk. Security from fraud because they ensure that the tickets you are buying from that online stranger are real and really will show up on time" ("Nightline," ABC, 2/6).
