NO TICKET REQUIRED — The Veritix Blog

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ve probably noticed that we talk a lot about our paperless ticketing platform, Flash Seats®. If you want to learn more about Flash Seats, click here to view a video that explains what it’s all about.

In case you don’t have time to watch the video, we’d like to share with you some of the great benefits of the Flash Seats system:

• Flash Seats makes it easy for every fan to manage their tickets online. It’s a paperless ticketing system that is simple, safe, and it’s backed by the teams and venues that use our system.
• Fans can buy great seats, which are transferred instantly to an online account, on the Flash Seats marketplace. No waiting. No shipping fees.
• Fans can easily sell seats right up until the start of an event.
• Fans can transfer seats to anyone with flexibility, all via email.
• Flash Seats eliminates paper tickets. Fans just swipe any form of electronic I.D. (credit card, driver’s license, etc.) at the gate to enter the arena with ease and convenience.
• Flash Seats virtually eliminates lost or stolen ticket issues.

To find out more about Flash Seats, go to http://www.flashseats.com.  

Last week, Sports Business Journal, one of the most influential sports business publications in the industry, announced the winners of its Annual Sports Business Awards.

One of our valued clients, the Cleveland Cavaliers, was nominated in the category of Professional Sports Team of the Year. Congratulations to the Cavaliers! As the ticketing partner of the Cavaliers, we see their commitment to their team, their fans, and the city of Cleveland every day, so we weren’t surprised to see them recognized for their efforts.

We were happy to see that one of the reasons the team was nominated is “innovation at the heart of its business strategy with increased fan adoption of the team’s paperless ticket product.” The Cavaliers were an early champion of our paperless ticketing platform, Flash Seats®, which offers fans convenient, easy entry into games and a secure, online secondary market. Recently, more than 60% of fans attending a Cavaliers playoff game used Flash Seats, making it the largest paperless sporting event ever in the United States.

As part of their nomination, the Cavaliers were also recognized as one of the best performing teams in average attendance, overall revenue and local television ratings. Another highlight is their increased global presence because of a sponsorship with China’s largest beer maker. As their nomination shows, the Cavaliers are a team full of innovation, creativity and talent.

Congratulations again to the Cavaliers! You deserve this recognition, and we wish you many more years of success.

In his recent address to shareholders, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino indicated the company is moving away from the secondary ticket market, and focusing its efforts “to capture more of the upside and our first goal is to figure out how to price the house right.” He believes if Live Nation can figure out a ticket’s true worth and set that price right from the beginning on the primary side, it will virtually eliminate the secondary market.

While we have a great deal of respect for Mr. Rapino and his team, we believe his logic is flawed. Here are a few reasons why:

• Ticket value is based on market value. The price of a ticket can only be set based on how much a fan is willing to pay for the ticket. In his remarks, Rapino suggests that capturing the upside is as easy as “just convincing the band that the front row is worth $400, not $100.” That sounds fine, except that you have to be able to find a fan who will spend $400. If fans don’t believe the tickets are worth that much, they won’t pay it. Real market value—not a perceived value assigned by a ticketing company, artist or promoter —will always dictate the price of a ticket.

• The value of a ticket fluctuates, much like a stock. A fan’s perceived value of a ticket can change in real-time. Factors, such as the public perception of the tour at a given time, critical reviews, off-stage conduct of the artists, economic conditions, and even weather at a certain time of year, may affect the value of a ticket. What fans are willing to pay at one moment in time may not be the same at another moment in time.

• Fans want options when it comes to managing their tickets. Despite Rapino’s assertions about the secondary market, fans have demonstrated that they want and will use a secondary market. Fans want a place to buy tickets to a sold-out show or get rid of tickets they can’t or don’t want to use. The power of the secondary market is that it’s an open and competitive marketplace where fans can set the real-time prices they are willing to pay or accept for tickets.

Obviously, we’re pro-secondary market. As the only company with a patented, secure, online marketplace where fans can buy, sell and transfer tickets, we believe the secondary market is an important and essential element of our ticketing platform. (We’re in good company.  It’s an economic fact that a secondary market always enhances a primary market. Whether you look to NASDAQ or the World Bank, they acknowledge that a secondary market increases transparency and efficiency.)

The secondary market is as good as the information and access it provides. In other words, a marketplace where fans can go and see the real value of tickets being sold and traded is good for the artist and the fans. It allows fans to determine the value they are willing to pay to see an artist and allows the artist to better understand and appreciate the true fan. The secondary market is valuable to everyone in the supply chain of providing and delivering the live entertainment experience. It’s unfortunate Mr. Rapino doesn’t think that the secondary market is a real opportunity for all. If Live Nation had a better platform, they might be pro-secondary market, too.

Bill Sutton, Associate Director and Professor of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida, is one of the most respected sports marketing educators in the world today.  He also writes an occasional column—“Sutton Impact”—for Sports Business Journal.

In his most recent column, published May 10, 2010, he featured ticketing technology, with a particular emphasis on how the ticket database can boost the bottom line. We are excited to share that he covered Flash Seats® as one of the ticketing companies helping teams find new revenue streams. Here’s a sampling of what he had to say about Flash Seats (to read the full article, click here):

• “What I have loved about [Flash Seats] since first learning about it several years ago is the data-capture ability that enables the venue or the team to know the identity of every person in the building on any given night.”

• “The value of the data for future marketing and sales efforts along with cross-promotional opportunities is a significant revenue opportunity.”

• “Flash Seats is a ticketing solution, a database generator, marketing innovation and a revenue opportunity all rolled into one.”

Sutton understands one of Flash Seats’ most unique and compelling advantages: the ability to create an additional revenue stream by allowing teams, artists and venues to actually know who is attending their events, giving them the opportunity to market to the right fans at the right time with the right offering. He also touches on using Flash Seats as a way to eliminate fraud and duplicate tickets, along with the ability to increase show rate.

Flash Seats, which is the only patented system that allows teams to combine paperless ticketing technology in a branded, secure, online secondary marketplace, continues to grow in popularity.  We’ve issued more than 2 million paperless tickets, contributed to record-setting paperless events in sports and entertainment, and have a customer satisfaction rating of 95%. While we know and believe in the power and benefits of Flash Seats for teams, it’s nice to see someone as well-respected in the industry as Bill Sutton taking notice.

If you’re an NBA fan, spring is an exciting time of year! Since the middle of April, we’ve seen some great series matchups in the NBA playoffs. We’re also thrilled that several of our clients made it to the playoffs. Congratulations to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz, and Denver Nuggets!

We’re excited to share some news with you about the use of Flash Seats®, our paperless ticketing system, during the NBA playoffs. Throughout the playoffs, the Cleveland Cavaliers have used Flash Seats almost exclusively to sell, transfer and re-sell paperless tickets during their first and second round games at Quicken Loans Arena. We are happy to report that we continue to provide a convenient and safe platform that has proven to be a benefit to fans and teams alike.

We’re thrilled to share that the Cavs have been setting (and breaking) records for the number of paperless tickets used to enter playoff games. The previous record was 7,000 paperless tickets for a 2009-10 Cavs regular season game, but in the second round of the playoffs, game one against Boston broke that record: 12,196 fans (61% of the venue) used Flash Seats paperless tickets to enter the game. This game is the largest paperless sporting event ever in the United States!

We believe the record-breaking usage of Flash Seats in the playoffs proves that fans are becoming very comfortable with paperless ticketing and are using it more readily for their purchases, transfers and secondary market sales. The playoffs are giving us another opportunity to prove Flash Seats’ viability, convenience, inherent benefits, and ability to provide customers with a great experience.

The Flash Seats records have attracted attention within the ticketing industry and the local community. They’ve been mentioned in Sports Business Journal, TicketNews.com and Sports Business International. WOIO-TV19 in Cleveland also featured our records, and Detroit Free Press business reporter Tom Walsh recently wrote a column on Flash Seats and Dan Gilbert.

As the NBA playoffs continue, we look forward to setting new records for paperless ticketing and making Flash Seats a bigger part of the fan experience. And, of course, we wish the Cavaliers continued success!