Everybody hates them. I know it, you know it and Ticketmaster knows it. But here’s the deal, they are the only company that can handle Hot Tix and here’s why:
1) Ticketmaster is the ONLY ticketing company that can handle a big on sale, i.e. on-line, phone and walk-up for a particular event, say Joffrey’s Nutcracker or The Addams Family. That is thousands of people all buying at the same time for the same event via three different sales methods. That is why lots of theatres use them, including some of our smaller venues.
2) It is my understanding, although I am certainly not privy to the contracts people make with Ticketmaster, that Ticketmaster does not allow sales through other ticketing systems. i.e. a Ticketmaster house cannot sell their tickets through other on-line ticket brokers. I don’t see their tickets for sale on other on-line brokers, so I have to assume that is true.
3) We sold over 60% of our Hot Tix last year to Ticketmaster houses. Hot Tix cannot sustain itself without those theatres.
4) Ticketmaster has consistently worked with me over the past year to keep our fees low, and they have sent out e-blasts to their lists promoting Hot Tix.
5) It has come to my attention that some of our fees might be out of whack and I will work to fix that.
Deb
3 comments:
But isn't this saying that everyone gets a bad deal, because some have chosen a bad deal?
When did it come to your attention that the fees are out of whack? Because it's all over the Dimensions report. I went back and reread what I have last night.
Is there really no way to use the collective leverage of the entire community to better serve it's needs (and serving the needs of our patrons better very much helps all of us.)
Ticketmaster is not the only place than can handle those types of events.
If it was the report wouldn't have mentioned others by name.
If you showed most of the ticketmaster houses better options that didn't gouge their patrons do you think any of them would convert? That right there could be leveraged with ticketmaster.
But as it currently works, it's a bad deal for everyone but ticketmaster. Especially in small houses, where the theatre gets half of the revenue of a full price ticket, patrons are paying pretty much full price and the league gets what, 50 cents.
How can that possibly be the best option?
I would love to hear how Ticketmaster has worked to keep those fees low though, because from my experience they've just gone up.
I (and many other folks out there) could custom create a ticketing system that could handle the ticket volume of the Beijing Olympics let alone a "small" event like Wicked or the like - TicketMaster is crap and they convince everyone that they somehow are doing something very difficult (they are not)...for the price of a standard credit card transaction (less then 4%) tickets could be handled online for every venue in Chicago through a custom system/server that could be run out of any small office...TicketMaster is a dinosaur that is somehow still in existence by insisting they are still relevant – everyone needs to realize this isn’t the 1970’s anymore, TicketMaster is antiquated and a major rip off.
Dan Abbate, Gorilla Tango Theatre.
Deb, there are choices and hope you are open to learning about them over time. Where is it articulated in our League philosophy that members are entitled to be pushed around treated like a bait farm for a predator which gives nothing back.
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