Officially Not The Best Deal In Town

The secondary ticket and event market has gained acceptance throughout most of the general public and teams, leagues, and major events are entering the hospitality market. Corporate Events Group is constantly approached by both sides, the events to be a re-seller of their “Official Packages” and the consumer with questions about the validity and security of such partnerships.  What have we found?

Unfortunately, many of these “official” partnerships are neither exclusive nor in the best interest of the consumer. Take this article on the “official” partners of the World Cup and Olympics for instance.  From reading this article, most patrons are frightened into only purchasing packages from firms that are deemed “official” by the event which are usually overpriced, rigid, and not relaying the facts to the consumer.

The first example given is the Vancouver Olympic games, where the reader is given the situation:  “Let’s start with the 2010 Winter Olympics.  CoSport is the only company authorized to sell Olympic tickets in the United States, and right now they’re sold out of them. While there is a chance that some tickets will be released this fall, the only way to get them now is by purchasing a travel package. A recent search on CoSport’s Web site pulled up several packages, including $5,136 a person for three nights at the Pan Pacific Hotel and a choice of three events including the coveted Feb. 12 opening ceremony.”  This statement, to any corporate veteran of the Olympics, is totally laughable. First, this does not take into account the enormous amount of tickets that are given to the participating countries, which are then sold to corporate partners and many ticket brokers…many of which are actually quite reliable (believe it or not).  Second, each sponsor gets a large allotment of tickets which are available as they’re sold by the sports marketing firms these sponsors use. And third, this statement does not take into account the thousands of sellers of  tickets on open aggregator sites including StubHub, Viagogo, and many others.

Tickets and rooms for the Olympics are readily available from sponsors, countries, and VANOC (though they’ll never admit this) and can be had at any time leading up to the games.  These “Official” partners are no more than events firms that bid on the right to re-sell packages and cut the games into the bottom line on packages. CoSport did handle the primary sales in the place of Ticketmaster, who did the primary sales for Beijing and recently signed London, however the claim to being the only show in town is false.  If you find a better deal from a credible source, they’ll do nothing but try to scare you that it’s not “official,” even though they know better and it may not be in your best interest.  Michelle Higgins could have dug a little deeper to give the full picture to potential travelers to the Olympics and World Cup.

The Super Bowl is not much different.  The NFL, which only controls a very small fraction of the tickets (less than 10%), bid out the right to be an “Official Reseller” of their Super Bowl and Hospitality inventory.  To be a partner, firms must agree to exclusively sell the “Official On-Location” tickets and hospitality, regardless of whether or not it is in the best interest of the clients.  Meanwhile, each NFL team receives allotments of tickets, which totals more than 50% of the available tickets- sponsors also receive tickets.  These are all credible resources for tickets to the Big Game. However, if you signed on to be an “Official” partner it does not matter if you can get a better deal from a team or a sponsor…you must sell the NFL’s inventory and only the NFL’s inventory regardless of the price and access from other resources.

The Official Partner market will continue to grow and flourish as there are already deals for the NCAA Tournament, The Rose Bowl, The Super Bowl, The Pro Bowl, The NFL International Series, and the Kentucky Derby.  Please do your homework and ensure you are getting the best deal as there are many instances when these official packages are the best for our clients.  However, please do not be duped by scare tactics and PRwrite-ups like the one offered by Michelle Higgins of the New York Times.

Have you had good or bad experiences with unofficial partners? Do you think this article has a negative impact on the consumers frame of mind going into these major events? Please share!

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