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Leagues and Governing Bodies

StubHub Execs Remain Optimistic Of Renewing Ticketing Deal With MLBAM

StubHub execs Thursday said they are "cautiously optimistic" of extending the company's landmark secondary ticketing deal with MLBAM. The existing five-year deal, worth an estimated $60M in annual fees and revenue guarantees, expires after this season and has been a key factor in helping accelerate the growth and acceptance of secondary ticketing in sports. But the deal has not been universally embraced within baseball, due in large part to listings on StubHub often undercutting primary market ticket prices. Execs from StubHub and MLB, including members of MLB's Ticketing Review Committee, have spent months working on a potential new deal that would seek to take the overall ticketing landscape into account. StubHub Dir of Business Development & Partnerships Danielle Maged said, "We are very committed to a renewal and are cautiously optimistic. We would love to have a renewal. We think the MLB partnership has been really successful, helping grow the fan base even in a recession, and it's something that has provided a lot of efficiency to the fan." Some type of final decision is expected within the next several weeks, as MLB teams will soon commence ticket sales efforts for the '13 season. Maged said that there has been a "back-and-forth" dialogue with the Yankees, who have been among the most vocal detractors of the StubHub alignment. Maged: "We're committed to make it work with them, and we would hope they would continue to be a partner." Specific terms within the ongoing StubHub-MLBAM talks are not known, but the ticketing marketplace remains firmly against implementing price floors or other artificial controls, a stance it has held generally throughout its decade-plus existence. MLBAM declined to comment.

CREATING NEW PLATFORM: Meanwhile, StubHub Thursday outlined plans to create a new platform for outside developers to access its application program interface (API). The open API program would work bi-directionally, in which StubHub links and data would appear on third-party sites, and third-party digital products would also be infused within StubHub's online and mobile experiences. Initial efforts have begun with existing StubHub business partners, notably ESPN, where over the past two weeks a wide variety of StubHub ticket listing and venue data has been infused within ESPN.com pages. But StubHub intends to broaden the platform by the end of the year. Financial terms were not disclosed, and may not be based on a universal, preset revenue-sharing formula, such as what exists in other third-party development venues such as iTunes. The StubHub effort also extends recent efforts by the company to include more social and event discovery tools within the site.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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