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SeatGeek adds name, expertise to MLS sales training center

SeatGeek has expanded its relationship with Major League Soccer to sponsor the league’s National Sales Center in Blaine, Minn., and help expand the center’s curriculum.

The facility, now called the MLS National Sales Center Powered by SeatGeek, for six years has been the home of a selective ticket sales training program for MLS executives. The roughly four-month program, the first of its kind developed by a major pro sports league, provides participants with in-depth training on ticket sales methods and has placed more than 200 account executives with 22 MLS clubs since its formation.

SeatGeek’s involvement expands upon a leaguewide partnership it struck with MLS to create an open ticket distribution platform. The New York-based company will provide content, data and personal appearances by senior executives to help burnish the sales center initiative. Discussions on the National Sales Center sponsorship began during negotiations in the past year regarding the larger league partnership.

“We’re at a real point of change in this industry, with the advent of all sorts of new technologies, social selling, and so forth, and this project allows us to really get in at that training level, and help bring about change in the industry for the better,” said Jeff Ianello, SeatGeek executive vice president of client partnerships.

The arrangement is unique in several respects: Among them, it represents a corporate naming-rights deal for a program that doesn’t have a significant public-facing presence, and SeatGeek, which built itself as an aggregator of secondary ticket listings, is now helping train executives on the nuances of primary ticket sales.

But even before the arrival of the MLS deal and a companion agreement with Sporting Kansas City that will involve primary inventory, SeatGeek was already in the midst of transition. A deal last year with Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement allows for the listing of primary inventory from hundreds of Spectra clients on SeatGeek’s platforms.

“We believe that the people we train are going to be some of the future decision makers in our industry, whether or not they stay in soccer,” said Bryant Pfeiffer, MLS vice president of club services. “We get them at a really important, formative stage in their career. So we believe there is a lot of value to SeatGeek in having an important seat at the table like this.”

MLS runs three sessions a year at the National Sales Center. More than 200 applicants typically vie for 20 to 25 slots each session.

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