City seeks agency for Chevy Centre ticketing

By David Skolnick

City seeks agency for center tickets

The city received inquiries from major national ticketing companies about the center.

YOUNGSTOWN —¬†The city gave the Chevrolet Centre’s ticketing agency a month’s notice that it is terminating its contract.

The city-owned center used GetTix.Net as its ticketing agency since it opened in October 2005. The company is owned by Global Entertainment Corp., the Arizona company that managed the center until October 2007.

The city is seeking proposals from companies interested in the center’s ticketing services. Proposals for that work must be submitted to the city by 4 p.m. next Friday.

The city plans to decide on what company will be the center’s ticketing agency “pretty quickly,” said Kyle Miasek, its deputy finance director.

As part of the city’s agreement with GetTix.Net, it has to give the company a month’s notice that it’s ending its contract, Miasek said.

The board of control on Thursday authorized James Floyd, a Youngstown attorney hired by the city to help with center issues, to officially inform GetTix.Net about the decision.

The city received calls from major national ticketing agencies including Ticketmaster and Tickets.com asking for information about the proposals, Miasek said. GetTix.Net also made an inquiry, he said.

A transition from GetTix.Net to another company would probably take only a few weeks, Miasek said.

The city parted ways in October 2007 with Global Entertainment Corp.

Since then, JAC Management Co,, run by Eric Ryan, an event promoter from Struthers, has managed the Chevrolet Centre.

The city wants to keep Ryan’s company handling the day-to-day operations of the center and have a national company provide support in marketing, event booking, risk management and insurance, administration and financing.

The city will choose between SMG and Global Spectrum, both of Philadelphia, for that job by early next month.

Global Spectrum is not affiliated with Global Entertainment Corp.

The company selected to help run the center will not be involved in the decision-making process to hire a ticketing agency for the facility, Miasek said.

Front Row, a Global Spectrum sister company that handles ticketing, asked for information about the city’s ticketing proposal, Miasek said.

skolnick@vindy.com