Master of its tickets
Sears Centre doesn't use TicketMaster
By Mike Comerford, Daily Herald
November 01, 2006
Weekend concert-goers at the newly-opened Sears Centre may have noticed something missing — Ticketmaster.
Ambitious behind the scenes growth plans drove the Sears Centre’s management firm to provide its own ticketing service, largely an untested practice in the Chicago market.
Ticketmaster dominates ticketing services at the Chicago area’s biggest entertainment and sports venues. It handles the ticketing for venues including Allstate Arena in Rosemont, the United Center and White Sox games in Chicago.
However, the way the public buys tickets is changing.
Well over half of all tickets booked for these venues are sold on the Internet, which means less cost for the ticketing service, if not for customers.
Consequently, Hoffman Estates-based Sears Centre decided to use software and services developed by Irvine, Calif.-based Paciolan Inc. It is best-known for its sports venue ticketing for schools including Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame.
Sears Centre is managed by CCO Entertainment LLC, which also will manage the ticketing software and hardware, according to executive director Steve Hyman.
“We went this way because we wanted to control our own destiny and prices,” Hyman said. “I think our (ticket) fees will be lower.”
Perhaps counter-intuitively, Hyman says CCO is going to make less on ticket fees than if it had adopted Ticketmaster’s system.
“The primary advantage is this — I don’t want to have a third party involved in what I can charge for a ticket,” Hyman said. “If you’re growing your company, you have to have control of it.”
Ticketmaster has long been criticized for adding on service and other fees that can top 20 percent to 30 percent of a ticket’s base price, according to Gary Bongiovani, editor-in-chief of the concert-industry trade magazine Pollstar.
Fees vary widely depending on the event and demand. Promoters, venues, management and artists split the fees tacked onto base ticket prices.
The rarity of non-Ticketmaster venues in the Chicago market prompted questions about last weekend’s turnout at the Sears Centre.
Shows by Duran Duran, Bob Dylan and Lionel Richie were far from sold out, with empty seats in the upper decks being covered.
However, Hyman said the acts determine the draw and CCO anticipated “half to three-quarter house concerts.”
Indeed, Dylan drew more attendance on Friday and Saturday nights than his average draw, according to Bongiovani.
Bongiovani said he doubts many concert goers were deterred by the ticketing outside the Ticketmaster system.
Paciolan Marketing Director Shaw Taylor said venue managers such as CCO want to own their own sites so companies such as Ticketmaster cannot “divert a fan” to other sites.
Other advantages to the company are ticket promotions, packages and bundling. Sports ticket holders can be offered better deals on entertainment shows, Taylor said.
Hyman said his firm has every intention of using the Paciolan ticketing system around the country as his firm partners with Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. to build and manage venues elsewhere.
He envisions more than a dozen new venues being built and designed by Ryan and managed by CCO in the next few years.
Nevertheless, Ticketmaster isn’t hurting. On Tuesday, it reported revenue increased 17 percent in the third quarter, to $265.5 million. The firm credited success with U2 and Rolling Stones concerts.
A unit of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which is headed by billionaire Barry Diller, Ticketmaster recently announced it has exclusive ticketing rights to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
And ticketing by companies other than Ticketmaster doesn’t guarantee lower fees. A recent article in the Daily News in Philadelphia found higher fees at competitors.
Sears Centre tickets are sold at Amcore Bank outlets, by phone at (888) SEARS TIX and online at www.SearsCentre.com.
Original article published by the Daily Herald and can be viewed here.
