A mix of NBA ticket sales execs and secondary ticket brokers discussed the deals they do together to move inventory during the ’15 Veritix Ticketing Symposium. The panel consisted of Suns and WNBA Mercury Dir of Membership Experience Eric Little, The Ticket Experience co-Owner Patrick Ryan, Pacers Sports & Entertainment VP/Ticket Sales Strategy Derek Throneburg and SeatGeek Exec VP/Business Development & Strategy Nihar Singhal. Here are some highlights of the conversation:
* Singhal: "We built this really great mobile app, and that's a whole new demographic I think that everyone is trying to reach. People are looking for that mobile-savvy, younger demographic, future season-ticket holders. We're finding that 80% of the people who buy from SeatGeek have never actually bought directly from the team. It's a whole new audience that we can potentially bring to teams."
* Throneburg: "We're a Ticketmaster client, but we're not naive to the fact that when people are buying (individual) Pacers tickets, they're primarily going to Google first. It all comes down to who cares where they're buying the ticket?"
* Ryan: "The key thing about working with a secondary market 'risk partner' ... we assume large chunks of inventory, sometimes in exclusive relationships. Some teams might really need the check and at least they're candid up front about that. (Other) teams, I think what they're trying to get to is elasticity. Is having a lower level ticket for a non-marquee game at $15 on StubHub driving demand or is it really just hurting the brand? What we've identified is ... the top 10 games that kind of take care of themselves. Their bottom 10 games, nothing we can do to save it. Let's focus on those middle 20 games and see where we can drive yield and attendance and work together to achieve those metrics."
* Little: "It's kind of an evolution. For us, it was taking the step at first of identifying who are the (broker) accounts that are selling the most. The more that we're able to provide resources for people to re-sell through us, then we also have a better idea of who's re-selling on our markets, even through the data they're able to provide through other third-party sites, as well. For us, too, it's setting a culture around not allowing it to just be a free-for-all as far as the new people entering the marketplace as well with our sales teams."
* Throneburg: "We try to funnel (all brokers) through one rep. Using analytics and some of the data, we're able to dive in and see who are the major players, but also who are the mom-and-pop and the kid in the basement trying to make a couple bucks on the side. A lot of times, they're college kids, which ends up being really good, and they're going to end up being our partners in a couple years, or our bosses, I suppose. ... Wrapping your arms around it enables you to get a 360-degree view of really what the market is, and then hopefully you can refine those strategies as time goes on to meet your overall corporate objectives.”
