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Ticketmaster: Merger plan will help teams

The man Peter Luukko and Dave Checketts call one of the most powerful executives in live entertainment wants his sports clients to know that Ticketmaster is working diligently to help them sell seats in a distressed economy.

Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff, who brokered the $2.5 billion planned merger between his company and top North American concert promoter Live Nation that was announced last week, says he is already ramping up initiatives to assist teams and facilities.

“This is the transformation of Ticketmaster from a technology and software company to also a marketing company, and that can’t spell anything but good news for our sports clients,” he said.

Ticketmaster expects to announce in the coming months that it has signed a deal with one of America’s biggest retailers to sell tickets in 1,600 new locations, Azoff said. He said a nondisclosure agreement kept him from disclosing the retailer.

“You could probably snoop around and find a place or two where we did a beta test,” Azoff said.

Azoff, who became CEO after Ticketmaster acquired his firm, Front Line Management, in October, is already known for a landmark deal with the biggest retailer of all, Wal-Mart. The Eagles, one of several recording artists that Azoff manages, signed a deal that made Wal-Mart’s nearly 4,000 U.S. stores the exclusive outlet for the band’s “Long Road Out of Eden” CD for a year after its release in 2007. Azoff did not elaborate on any of the other initiatives to help teams and venues. Ticketmaster has deals with more than 100 big league teams and about 160 colleges, in addition to several minor league venues.

“The biggest problem for all attractions is empty seats, especially in this economy,” he said. “Obviously we think our sports ticketing platforms are unparalleled anywhere in the world, and I think that this merger will help us sell more tickets.”

He did say that Ticketmaster is putting the final touches on a ticketing and marketing deal with the PGA Tour to help promote its charitable events. Details on that agreement were scant last week because the contract was still being negotiated, said Mike McGee, Ticketmaster’s executive vice president of North American business operations.

The merger to form Live Nation Entertainment, subject to several regulatory approvals, had some politicians screaming “antitrust.” One day after the merger was announced, the U.S. Department of Justice said it had begun investigating the deal. Ticketmaster and Live Nation officials expect the deal to close in the second half of 2009.Inside sports, the move to consolidate the public companies, which reported combined 2008 revenue of $6 billion through September, provides a much-needed jolt to teams struggling to sell tickets in one of the worst recessions in recent memory, said Luukko, Comcast-Spectacor’s CEO. He was positive about the deal, despite Comcast-Spectacor’s ownership of New Era Tickets, a Ticketmaster competitor.

“Change is good, especially in tough economic times,” Luukko said. “I don’t see any negative effect whatsoever in our business. This is a play to create more touring shows and sell more tickets. I have no fear. I welcome it.”

Tickets.com, a privately held ticketer owned by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, is Ticketmaster’s biggest competitor in pro sports, with regular-season deals for 13 MLB teams and two in the NHL, and whether it feels the same way is another question. MLBAM CEO Bob Bowman declined an interview request.

The planned marriage of Ticketmaster and Live
Nation (below) isn’t causing concern at Rio Tinto
Stadium, where Real Salt Lake is looking to
schedule concerts but bypassed Ticketmaster.

But some in the industry say that Ticketmaster would have added bargaining power as a one-stop shop for ticketing and content through the deal with Live Nation, which also owns or operates about 85 venues.

Live Nation Entertainment’s tentacles could reach deep into cross-promotions, said Allen Johnson, executive director of Amway Arena and the Magic’s new NBA facility opening in Orlando in 2010. Ticketmaster, for example, could advertise a sports event for its team client on a ticket for a concert at the local Live Nation-owned amphitheater, Johnson said. The new company’s wealth of customer data could help teams fill their buildings for concerts through targeted promotions, said Jeff Cogen, president of the Dallas Stars.

AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants play, is one of the most aggressive facilities in baseball for booking special events, and the team works closely with Live Nation’s Bay Area office for concerts.

“We are reviewing [the merger] and waiting to see what impact it may have on our business,” said Russ Stanley, the Giants’ managing vice president of ticket services and client relations.

Checketts, chairman of SCP Worldwide, has known Azoff for many years, and said their professional relationship continues to flourish after SCP-owned MLS club Real Salt Lake bypassed Ticketmaster in 2008 to do a ticketing deal with Veritix at Rio Tinto Stadium. In fact, the Eagles are set to perform May 9 at the stadium, the first of three concerts already scheduled at the four-month-old outdoor facility, which SCP officials are positioning as much for concerts as for soccer. It’s just one of many examples of how teams and promoters, regardless of their vendor agreements, often put those loyalties aside and work together to generate a profitable event, Checketts said.

 “We all get carried away when something big like this [merger] happens and everybody thinks they have the size and scope to crush everybody else,” he said. “But that ignores the reality that people have to do business based on relationships and fair payment and sharing of fees.”

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