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Ticketmaster to get Chevy Centre contract
The ticketing company is guaranteeing $125,000 to the city.
YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control is to approve a five-year deal today with the nation’s largest event ticketing agency to handle those responsibilities at the Chevrolet Centre.
Officials with Ticketmaster and the city signed a letter of intent with a final contract subject to approval by the city’s law department.
Ticketmaster sweetened its original deal guaranteeing $125,000 — or $25,000 in revenue annually to the city over the life of the five-year contract.
The proposal submitted two weeks ago by Ticketmaster didn’t have any guaranteed money.
The other provisions from that proposal remain:
The company will give the city between 25 percent and 40 percent of its surcharges with the higher percentage for more expensive tickets.
Ticketmaster’s proposal states it can generate $942,000 over five years to handle the center’s ticketing.
Ticketmaster estimates it will sell about 80,000 tickets for center events in its first year with annual increases of 3 percent in sales.
The company is based in West Hollywood, Calif., and has offices in Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Besides its telephone and Internet operations, Ticketmaster has 126 ticket centers, primarily in Giant Eagle supermarkets, in Northeast Ohio.
Ticketmaster was among nine companies to submit proposals to the city two weeks ago to be the Chevrolet Centre’s ticketing agency.
City officials were pleased with a number of the proposals, said Kyle Miasek, deputy finance director.
But Ticketmaster stood out because of its competitive proposal and major national presence, Miasek said.
Once the city law department signs off on the deal, Ticketmaster’s proposal said it can take over the center’s ticketing responsibilities in 10 to 15 days.
Ticketmaster will replace GetTix.Net, the Tempe, Ariz., company that has handled the center’s ticketing since the facility opened in October 2005.
The city receives none of GetTix’s surcharge, as much as $7 per ticket, nor any of the $3 handling fee on each order for events at the center.
GetTix’s proposal to stay at the center called for the city to receive 60 percent of service charge revenue.
In a Feb. 14 e-mail to Miasek, included with GetTix’s proposal, Richard Floco, the company’s president, wrote that he’d heard a decision to go with Ticketmaster was made before the process started.
Miasek said that wasn’t the case.
The city has yet to hire a company to help operate the center.
The city has proposals from Global Spectrum and SMG, both of Philadelphia, for that responsibility.
The city is still evaluating and discussing the two proposals and expects a decision in the near future, said Finance Director David Bozanich.
skolnick@vindy.com