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Chevy Centre ticketing proposals under review
A ticketing agency is expected to be at the center by the end of April.
YOUNGSTOWN — City officials will select a ticketing agency for the Chevrolet Centre from among the seven proposals received for the job.
The city opened the proposals Friday afternoon, and expect a company to be handling the center’s ticketing operations by April 30. A review by city officials of the proposals will begin next week.
Among those submitted proposals were Ticketmaster and Tickets.com, two of the nation’s largest ticketing agencies.
“We have two of the biggest in the country vying for this,” said Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director. “We’re pleased with the interest we’ve received.”
Other notable companies interested in the job are: New Era Tickets, a sister company of Global Spectrum — one of two companies seeking to help operate the Chevrolet Centre, the other being SMG; and Veritix, a sister company of the Cavaliers Operating Co.
The Cavs recently withdrew their interest in helping to operate the city-owned facility.
“We have the opportunity to choose and be selective,” Miasek said.
Also submitting a proposal was GetTix.Net, a Tempe, Ariz., company that’s handled the center’s ticketing since the facility opened in October 2005.
City council gave the administration the go-ahead Wednesday to give GetTix.Net 30 days’ notice of terminating its contract.
The existing deal with GetTix.Net allows the company to charge handling fees for its online ticketing with none of that money going to the center, Miasek said.
GetTix.Net’s proposal calls for the center to receive a portion of the handling fees, he said.
SMG doesn’t have a ticketing sister company. Robert L. Cavalieri, the company’s senior vice president for business development, said it would preferable to hire the company that would help operate the center before selecting a ticketing agency.
Under that scenario, the national company would have input in choosing the ticketing agency.
The city expects to make a decision on SMG and Global Spectrum by early April.
The city may ask the national company it selects to assist with the ticketing decision, Miasek said.
Todd Glickman, Global Spectrum’s vice president of business development and client relations, said his company wants the best deal for the city and believes New Era offers that.
skolnick@vindy.com