Someone Else Tried this Already

The secondary market for all sports and concerts has to be getting close to exceeding the primary market. Depending on the event, we are certain that it is (e.g. Hannah Montana). The bigger the event, the high the probability the secondary market exceeds it.

The secondary market has been there long enough and is big enough that who ever owns the primary, has to be thinking about how they can get a bigger piece of the secondary.

MLB for several years tried to contain it on a team by team basis. Each team made its own secondary exchange. Some used TicketMaster, some built their own applications and some used other third parties. There were many rules about how each exchange worked. At the end of the day, none of them worked very well. Whenever they tried to corral the secondary market, they could not. Starting in 2008, MLB made some changes. Most every team went along with Stubhub being the “official” exchange. This worked well for everyone. Many of the tickets were out there anyway. The tickets were out there because that is where the buyers were. The MLB teams just picked up a percentage of everything along the way. Essentially – MLB went to the market instead if trying to force the market to come to it. Saying they need to “authenticate the tickets” was not a good enough reason.

Now onto the NFL.

This last week the NFL announced they were creating a ticket exchange with TicketMaster so they could “authenticate the tickets and guarantee delivery". Couple this with the approach of some teams (New England Patriots) who revoked season ticket license of some fans who resold their tickets, this smells of the NFL trying to force the market to come to them.

Does anyone think this will work? It will stay this way for at least a couple of seasons. The sellers will go where the buyers are. The new marketplace cannot compete with the marketing and market-share dominance of eBay, Stubhub, TicketsNow and TicketDirect.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2008-08-06-secondary-tickets_N.htm

http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2008/08/07/NFL_set_to_initiate_ticket_exchange_effort/UPI-94221218122295/

To learn more about becoming a ticket broker, please visit www.MyTicketBiz.com

Every Big Event...

As expected before every big ticket-based sporting event, people will run scams. News reports of people discovering they are not going to get their tickets are all over the place. Attorney Generals and lawyers specializing in class action lawsuits are running over each other to defend the abused. The sadder story will start next week when people arrive in China only to find out the physical tickets they have are fake.

Now many of the people who are not getting the tickets sent to them are more victims of stupidity of the seller than bad intentions. There is some number of people out there who double sold and did not do anything about it.

Overall, this is a black eye on the ticket aftermarket and there is very little we can do. Places like StubHub who have the “FanProtect” Guarantee come out looking good because they are protecting the consumer.

For the people who were fraudulent, they have a storm coming after them from all the lawyers and attorney generals.

http://www.beijingticketscam.com/

http://www.beijingticketscam.com/

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8794075&nav=Bsmj

Prepare now for the October Boom Cycle

October is one of the most profitable months for ticket brokers. To fully take advantage of the October busy season, ticket brokers need to prepare a few months ion advance.

Major league baseball playoff tickets are still one of the most accessible tickets to procure and the demand is still very high. Greg Cox, the COO of MyTicketBiz.com says “a shrewd ticket broker can enter baseball marketplace as late as August and still capitalize on the October boom. The hardcore fan does not start thinking out the playoffs until September. Simply by thinking a month or two ahead enables us to maximize profits with minimal risks”. Mr. Cox also states “October is one of several busy seasons. We teach people how to prepare for these seasons. The goal of being a successful ticket broker is to make decent profits in off-peak and prepare your self to capitalize on the peak. This makes maximum use of our time and capital.”

To learn more about becoming a ticket broker, please visit http://www.MyTicketBiz.com

Can’t wait for October 13th

Some might say this is one way to keep the enemy at bay. Others could say you this just shows how far behind you are.

Anyone who wants to buy a ticket for the Cardinals - Cowboys game on October 12th in Phoenix must also buy a ticket to the August 7th preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints. In the past whenever the Cowboys are in Phoenix, mobs of Dallas fans come to Phoenix essentially taking away the home field advantage. We suspect the thinking behind this is one of two things:

1) The Arizona brain trust is thinking we want to keep those dirty Dallas–folk in Dallas for the weekend.
2) The Arizona brain trust realizes the Dallas-folk do not care about the ticket prices and will buy the extra ticket just a easily as the first. This way they can make money on something they could not even give away before.

We hope it is #2. We can respect that a lot more.

Keep in mind, with the new Cowboy Stadium opening up, Mr. Jones has taken the PSL cost to a new level, charging up to $150,000 per seat. An that is just for the license, not the ticket. If his fan base is willing to pay that much for a license, the preseason ticket in Arizona might not seem like that big if a deal.

If anything else, it raises the awareness, and hence the demand, for a ticket to the October 12th game. Anyone who has a ticket ready to sell to that game can now make just a little bit more.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Sticky Sweet and Green

In August Madonna will begin her Sticky and Sweet Tour. Early estimates are that the US portion could break $125. Total tour estimates are expected to be twice that. This should easily put her in the top 5 all-time US tour grosses.


1. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $162 million 2005
2. U2 "Vertigo Tour" $138.9 million 2005
3. The Rolling Stones "A Bigger Bang Tour" $138.5 million 2006
4. The Rolling Stones "Voodoo Loung Tour" $121.2 million 1994
5. Bruce Springsteen "The Rising Tour" $115.9 million 2003
6. U2 "Elevation Tour" $109.7 million 2001
7. Pink Floyd "Division Bell tour" $103.5 million 1994
8. Paul McCartney $103.3 million 2002
9. The Rolling Stones "Steel Wheels Tour" $98 million 1989
10. Barbara Streisand $92.5 million 2006
11. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill $88.8 million 2006
12. The Rolling Stones "Bridges To Babylon Tour" $89.3 million 1997
13. Madonna "Confessions Tour" $88,842,663
14. The Rolling Stones "Licks Tour" $87.9 million 2002


Concert tour grosses are a funny thing to calculate. Tours for the top acts spread to different countries and exactly how does ones agree on a standard conversion to US dollars for sales in Yen. Also, exactly how many Farewell tours did Cher have or was it just one long one? We will never really know and promoters will always try to pump up their numbers. Regardless, when a tour starts talking about $125M domestic and the tour is using the stadiums that pack in 40,000+ instead of the NBA style 18,000+, it is time to take notice.

Just in case anyone was wondering, The Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds tour took in about $54M.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Hannah Montana When not If

Guess what is more profitable – an album or a tour? While both do well, the answer is tour hands down.
So if you had a highly successful tour in 2007, a movie coming out in 2008, a new album in 2008, what do you do in 2009? Another tour.

Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana will bless us again with another tour in 2009. Anyone who was able to get tickets to any show in 2008 made out quite well. No reason to expect it would be any different in 2009. Lets just hope she stays away from Annie Leibovitz in the mean time.

If you have not become a member of the miley fan club, we encourage you to do so now. This was the only practical way to get tickets for the last tour.

FanPrice.com – Something Different

There is an interesting new site that is taking a different position on the secondary ticket market. While soft launching in January 2008, Fanprice.com officially announced its launch over the Memorial Day weekend.

What is different about them is they are “Fan Focused”. A fan comes to them looking for the seats they want and makes an offer. It is up to the seller to decide whether or not to take it. This is different from Stubhub, Ticketsnow and the other sites in that they are all focused on what the seller will take. This is the concept in reverse.

Their ability to accept volume of tickets from a file is in beta right now. They can also accommodate e-tickets. The e-tickets can be transacted until game time.

When we asked them about their advantage in the marketplace the reply was:

“The advantage is that there is actual cash on the table for your consideration. As you are well aware, you never know for sure how a particular game or event will sell. Game values can change in a moment due to weather predictions, player injuries, etc. Similarly, artists can flood a market with additional shows decreasing ticket values or make a comment in the media that decreases their fan appeal. In the end, however, YOU control whether you accept an offer or not, so if the price isn’t to your liking, you don’t have to accept it. Knowing that you can lock in profit on a set of tickets without exposure to further risk of devaluation will allow sellers to move more inventory faster and increase the opportunity cost of the money they are making. We expect brokers will continue to use both types of sales strategies for their inventory and Fanprice will be another tool in their belt for them to move inventory. “

Fanprice.com is a very different concept and we always consider someone who is different to always have somewhat of an advantage.

They are not revealing yet what the marketing plans are or how they will get eyeballs over to their site. The ticket market is a crowded and expensive place to get eyeballs online. A company needs to be well-funded to make a presence online.

We do like the fact that a place like Fanprice.com does give us another option. The more options we have, the greater the chances of us making a buck and that is what it is all about.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Ticket Scalping – Entrepreneur or Scum of the Earth

What do these have in common – used car salesperson, energy trader for Enron and ticket scalper? The answer is all three are looked down upon by our peers and society.

The used car salesperson has to fight the stereotype that they are always trying to sell someone a lemon. The energy trader was once viewed with respect, but now the secret is out that they did their part to de-rail parts of the economy and stuffed their pockets while everyone else is paying for it. The scalper is the guy who bought the ticket before you and is standing outside the stadium selling it to you for more. The same ticket you were going to buy yourself.

Whether these negative perceptions of the industry represent the reality or not, it brings up an interesting question. When you, as an entrepreneur, are considering a new business opportunity, one of the things you need to consider is how new entrants to the marketplace will affect you. You want barriers to entry to be high so not every person that comes along can start their own business and compete with you. You also want the barriers low enough so you can enter the business with your available capital and time constraints.

Imagine an industry where profits are high, barriers to entry are low, but people do not flood the industry because of preconceived notions against it. Would it be prudent to take a step back and really examine those notions for yourself? Ticket brokering, Ticket Scalping, Ticket Flipping, or whatever term you put on it, is this industry. Lets take a closer look at the components of it.

High Profits – Buying and selling tickets is a high margin endeavor. It is not unheard of to make 20%, 30%, 50% or even 300% return on your investment of certain events. There is always a good market for good seats to popular events. There are tricks to identifying what the popular events are and how to regularly find them. Once employing these tricks, one can continually make money wit limited maintenance.

Low Barriers – If you have a few hundred dollars you can be a broker. Nothing is free and these are about as low of barriers to entry as one can get, regardless of industry.

Preconceived Notions – I have bought and sold many houses. I put my time into finding them, fixing them up and selling them. Each time I do this, I put in a lot of work and capital. I get my return when I sell it. There are a couple of points of view to take on this. The first is that I am being rewarded for taking a risk and putting in my time and money. The second is one could say I am creating a false value and how dare I drive up the value of that house and make the family who eventually buys that house pay for it. I can tell you this, the vast majority of people take the first point of view and see house flipping as a person taking advantage of capitalism.

With real estate, we glorify the house flipper. We even give them cable TV shows. I have never been called a house scalper. Why is that? What exactly is the difference between flipping houses and flipping tickets?

There actually a few differences. Flipping tickets takes less capital, less time, shorter cycles and generates higher returns. Outside of these things, they are essentially the same. Buy low. Sell high.

Risks – No venture is without risk. The last thing you want to do is buy some tickets that you cannot use. The self-discovery can be expensive. It is a good thing there are inexpensive places to teach you insider’s tricks and well as offer presale codes and upcoming event information. Google “insiders guide ticket broker business” and you can find plenty. The break even on these types of material is reached fairly quickly. Avoid one or two bad decisions and you are there.

Entrepreneurs need to keep on the lookout for new ideas that others do not want to pick up or cannot pick up. Many people will always shy aware from becoming a ticket broker because they will just say “ticket scalper” and be done with it. Use this to you advantage. This is an easy industry where many people will just not enter, hence leaving more money to be made by the ones who can expand their horizons a bit.

To learn more about how to make money being a ticket broker, please visit http://www.MyTicketBiz.com

A Tale of Two Cities

It has been quite a while since the Lakers / Celtics have matched up in the NBA Finals. These two teams have not met in the finals for 21 years. Despite the gap, they have had ten prior NBA finals meetings. In the 61 years of the NBA Finals, the Lakers have appeared in 29 of them and the Celtics 20. The Celtics have a much better winning percentage than the Lakers though. They have 16 trophies compared to the Lakers 14. It is amazing to ponder that these two team will combine for half of the NBA crowns.

With a rivalry this good, ticket prices reflect it of course. Courtside has some different values though.

In image-heavy LA, Courtside seats are between $17,000 and $27,000. One can get in a few rows back for about $5,000 per ticket. Average seating on lower levels runs from $1000 to $2500 per ticket.

Over on the east coast, courtside is running from $7,000 to $17,000. Ticket prices around the rest of the stadium are about the same.

NBA Playoffs are quite the bonanza for Ticket Brokers. They have everything we want:
• Multiple Games
• Accessibility
• Excellent Returns
Have a good finals!

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

NCAA Lawsuit

Ticketmaster and the NCAA were served this past week with a class action lawsuit. The suit claims the two parties conspired to force ticket purchasers to pay a non-refundable fee for the chance to buy tickets to the NCAA basketball tournament. The suit called the collaboration an illegal lottery.

The way it works is that you send in your money for the tickets and a $10 service fee. If you get selected, Tickermaster keeps all the money. If you do not they send back the amount for the face value of the tickets, hence keeping the service fee.

We have many thoughts on this:

Why not just up the service fee on the tickets purchased to cover the “service” expense and avoid the whole mess?
It is closer to a ponzi scheme rather than a lottery. Ponzi schemes would come under the same scrutiny.
If we could come up with our own lottery, we would. Good money in that.
Why is anyone getting so worked up about $10?

We can answer the last one. We have said this before. People believe they have an inalienable right to purchase tickets to an event. This is why the “scalping moniker” stays with the ticket brokering business. As long as this moniker exist, people will choose not to come into this easy money business and keep the door open for us.

http://www.hbsslaw.com/NCAA

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10838073

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=29523

http://www.wibw.com/sports/headlines/19196554.html

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

All politics are local

The players
• Salvatore F. DiMasi – Massachusetts Speaker of the House
• Richard D. Vitale – friend of DiMasi, newly registered Massachusetts lobbyist
• William F. Galvin – Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
• Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers (MATB) – people like us, but they all do this full time

MATB paid Vitale $60,000 in 2007 to work as a lobbyist. Vitale said he was a “strategist” not a “lobbyist”. In 2006, Vitale loaned DiMasi $250,000 at a very low rate for DiMasi’s condo. DiMasi could not have taken the loan if Vitale were a lobbyist.

In 2007 Vitale and DiMasi pushed through legislation that would deregulate the ticket industry. The bill has not passed the state senate yet. Galvin is investigating exactly who did what.

If one were to research the Vitale / DiMasi relationship, it would not take long to realize there was some back-scratching going on. It just happens to surface with the Ticket Broker Bill being at the forefront.

Bills like this are becoming more and more commonplace. They will continue to do so. The occasional Hannah Montana parent explosion and corrupted politician only slow the progress but do not stop it.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/17/ticket_brokers_paid_vitale_60000

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

It’s the Economy

Times are tough. Oil is $126 a barrel. Gas is closing in on $4.00 a gallon. Bread prices are up 25%. Eggs prices are up 50%.

While we are not economist, it seems pretty obvious that we are in a recession. We never actually know that we are in one until after it is over. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters with a decline of GDP. Since figures for any given quarter do not come out until months after the quarter is done, we do not know we are in a recession until it is over.

Quarterly reports aside, there is no argument that times are tough. Here is one that goes against the grain. MLB officials say attendance is 2.6 percent ahead of record-breaking figures from last season. There does seem to be some evidence that spending habits are changing a bit when it some to how they spend money getting to the game and once they are at the game. MLB does not publish beer sales so it is hard to really determine that number.

One does not have to look far to hear stories about how people are tightening their belts. We are in the middle of the concert and baseball seasons. Out own ticket sales are brisk for each. This only makes us more excited when the economy rebounds a bit.


http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jo-mlbandrecession043008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

http://sportsline.com/columns/story/10786518

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/5770530.html

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

TicketMaster again…

Some time back Ticketmaster set out to buy TicketsNow for $265M. This led to concern for ticket brokers. They feared that Ticketmaster, the originator of many tickets, would now directly affect the inventory available on the secondary ticket market. More directly, ticket brokers fear that Ticketmaster will not sell all the good seats and release them to the public via TicketsNow. Ticketmaster could essentially cut Ticket Brokers out of many of the high revenue events and listings. There have been many complaints filed by Ticket Brokers to the US Justice Department with claims of Ticketmaster monopolizing the secondary ticket market.

Ticketmaster has been quiet on exactly what it will, or will not, do.

The National Association of Ticket Brokers has recently sent a letter to Ticketmaster asking them to publicly declare their intentions and business practices as it pertains to the relationship between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow.

We fully expect Ticketmaster to push the envelope as far as they can to control the secondary ticket market. Why wouldn't they? Are they there to ensure the livelihood of Ticket Brokers or to make more money for themselves? As they push the envelope, except a lot more newsletters about the impending lawsuits.

Developing…

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

This is American Idol

We think David Cook is going to win. That means put your money on someone else. Regardless, we now look forward to the American Idol concert series. This has become a welcome addition to the summer concert tour. Each of the last couple of years this event has enjoyed very brisk concert ticket sales. Here is the rundown for the Venues. Sales start on some of the venues in mid May.

July 1 Glendale, AZ jobing.com Arena
July 2 San Diego, CA San Diego Sports Arena
July 3 Fresno, CA SaveMart Center
July 5 Las Vegas, NV Thomas & Mack Center
July 7 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
July 8 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion at San Jose
July 9 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
July 11 Portland, OR Rose Garden
July 12 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome
July 14 West Valley City, UT The "E" Center
July 18 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
July 19 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
July 20 Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
July 22 Indianapolis, IN Conseco Fieldhouse
July 23 Cincinnati, OH US Bank Arena
July 24 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
July 26 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
July 27 Rochester, NY BlueCross Arena
July 29 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena
July 30 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
August 2 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
August 4 Long Island, NY Nassau Coliseum
August 6 Albany, NY Times Union Center
August 8 Hartford, CT XL Center
August 9 Worcester, MA DCU Center
August 10 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Center
August 12 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena
August 13 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
August 14 Washington DC Verizon Center
August 16 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena
August 17 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Bobcats Arena
August 18 Duluth, GA Arena at Gwinnett Center
August 20 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
August 21 Tampa, FL St Pete Times Forum
August 24 Houston, TX Toyota Center
August 25 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
August 26 Bossier City, LA CenturyTel Center
August 28 Oklahoma City, OK Ford Center
August 29 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
August 31 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
September 2 Green Bay, WI Resch Center
September 3 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
September 4 Cleveland, OH Wolstein Center
September 6 Bridgeport, CT Arena at Harbor Yard
September 7 Providence, RI Dunkin Donuts Center
September 8 Wilkes Barre, PA Wachovia Arena
September 10 Ft. Wayne, IN Allen County Memorial Coliseum
September 11 Evansville, IN Roberts Stadium
September 13 Tulsa, OK BOK Center

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Stubhub Changes for MLB

We have been waiting to write this passage for some time till we had some more data. We can go no longer.

Some time back MLB and StubHub entered an agreement to allow StubHub to be the online ticket reseller for MLB teams. This has lead to numerous changes that affect our lives. Overall it serves us well.

Prior to this, MLB teams had their own resale site. Some built their own, other with Ticketmaster and some with another third party. When it was like this, the team site and Stubhub competed with each other. As a ticket broker, you had to list on only one or be very diligent about removing your listings.

Now the team resale sites have been shut down. The teams have encouraged their season ticket holders to sell through Stubhub. They have also encourages after-market ticket buyers to go to Stubhub. If you are listing on Stubhub, this is good because a lot more people are buying there.

Now for the transition period. Stubhub has been cautious about accepting consignments. The goal is not to take consignments, but to accept the e-tickets from the team. The short term problem is not every team is set up to deliver the e-tickets to Stubhub. Some are now ready, but not all. The end result is we can have tickets expiring 3 – 5 days before an event when a year ago those listings were good until game day.

Soon all teams will be able to send e-tickets to Stubhub. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

More Hannah Montana fallout

The Hannah Montana bill has passed the Minnesota Senate.

Due to the uproar from many young kids, and their parents, who could not get tickets to Hanna Montana shows, a bill was passed in the Minnesota Senate making it illegal to use ticket software that enables “bots” to purchase tickets.

A “bot” is a piece of code that simulates a web request so a user does not have to sit at a keyboard and browse the site. A bot can actually simulate multiple web sessions at once. These bots are common internet items and account for a significant piece of web traffic. Bots themselves are not bad, it all depends on what they are programmed to do. Spammers use bots to find unprotected computers to hijack to send their spam from. Google and Yahoo use bots to find out what is on webpages to include in their search results.

The Minnesota House has not yet voted on the bill.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=504555

http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/17420514.html

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

The Cost of Baseball

TMR's 2008 MLB Ticket Report -

Baseball has never been more popular, or more expensive to watch. On the heels of another record-setting season, the average ticket price has gone up to $25.40, a 10.9 percent increase from last season. Team Marketing Report's 2008 Major League Baseball Fan Cost Index jumped 8.3 percent to $191.75 this season. Both increases are the highest for MLB since 2001, when tickets went up 12.9 percent (to $18.99), and the FCI went up 9.8 percent to $145.45.

Both figures were fairly stagnant from 2006 to 2007, but several teams instituted significant pricing increases this season. Twelve teams had increases of more than 10 percent, including six of more than 20 percent.

The World Champion Boston Red Sox continue to have baseball's priciest ticket. The Red Sox's average price of $48.80 is a 10.1 percent jump from last year. The team's Fan Cost Index total of $320.71 is more than $60 higher than the No. 2 team, the New York Yankees.

The FCI is a representative look at the costs for a family of four to attend a Major League Baseball game. It is comprised of four average tickets, as calculated through a weighted formula, two beers, four soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking for one car, two programs and two adult-sized caps.

The Yankees, playing in their last season at Yankee Stadium, could overtake the Red Sox for the toughest ticket in baseball. And that ticket won't be cheap. According to TMR research, the average regular ticket will cost $36.58 and the cost to take a family of four to the Bronx stadium will be $259.84. That price, however, is hardly representative to what tickets will cost via the secondary market this season.

The crosstown Mets reported a 20.5 percent jump to $34.05 as they prepare to play their last season at Shea Stadium. The Mets will play in Citi Field next season.

Going into their 100th season since their last World Series win, the Cubs' prices are reaching new highs. The North Siders will charge an average of $42.49 per season ticket this year, second in the league, while employing a three-tiered pricing structure. Fifty of the team's 81 home games are considered "prime" games, the highest pricing tier, while only six are value games.

The Red Sox, Yankees and Cubs still have good reasons for charging such exorbitant amounts, as each play in historic, cramped stadiums that double as living museums. Much like their football counterparts, going to regular season games at each of these parks are becoming more of an "event" that families take part in once or twice a season.

Regardless of the increase, baseball is still the most affordable of the top four North American sports (see TMR web site for FCI historical data for baseball, basketball, football and hockey) and 11 teams have average ticket prices under $20.

Five teams have FCI totals under $150. The newly-rechristened Tampa Bay Rays are the best bargain in baseball with an FCI of $136.91, thanks in part to free parking for cars of four or more people, but the Arizona Diamondbacks, last year's surprise winner of the AL West, will have the cheapest average ticket at $15.96. The Rays and the Pittsburgh Pirates ($17.07) were the only teams with no price increases. The San Francisco Giants (up .3 percent) didn't change prices, but re-distributed some seats, giving them a lower average price ($22.06) than was reported last season.

The Washington Nationals are moving into the eponymous Nationals Park this season, and with that move comes expected increases. An average Nats' ticket is expected to be $25, up from $21.11 during their last year at RFK Stadium.

A family of four going to the Anacostia River park should expect to pay about $195.50, and that's if they get the cheapest parking option of $15. If the team improves in the NL East like they did in the FCI standings (from 24 to 15), plenty of fans will shell out that money to watch the District's team.

Several teams near the bottom of the FCI had turnaround seasons in 2007, including NL pennant winners Colorado, and the Milwaukee Brewers. AL contenders, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, continue to be one of the best bargains in baseball, with an FCI of $140.42, the second-cheapest outing in baseball.

The Kansas City Royals, perennially at the bottom of the FCI, jumped up a few spots, thanks to a 21.1 percent increase on tickets, from $14.48 to $17.54. The Royals' FCI concurrently went up 22.5 percent to $151.16.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

A Tradition You Might Like

More and more NBA teams have started a new tradition. To get season ticket sales for next year they are giving you the option to start this year. The gimmick is that you pick your seats for next year, but you get the seats starting this year’s playoffs. Depending on the team, you might not even have to pay for all the seats till after the playoffs.

This is a good situation for anyone looking to broker NBA tickets.

A few facts to keep in mind:

• NBA playoffs potentially have 16 home games
• Each of the games is one of the higher profit games you can have

Selecting one of the top four seeds in each conference gives you pretty good odds of securing some home field advantage seats. This is not without risk. In 2006 the Dallas Mavericks went to the NBA finals. In 2007 they had the NBA-best record heading into the playoffs (67 wins). They were guaranteed home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They lost in the first round to Golden State 4 games to 2.

While the Mavs 2007 season is an anomaly, carefully consider this going into this years playoffs.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

State of Baseball

One must read the following article on the state of baseball.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/other_mlb/view.bg?articleid=1080264

If anyone was wondering if the Mitchell Report was going to have a negative impact on MLB ticket sales, the answer is a load and clear NO. Let’s look at MLB total attendance over the last few years

2003 67,630,052
2004 72,968,953
2005 74,385,295
2006 75,997,622
2007 79,493,687
2003 2007
Number of teams exceeding 4M attendance 0 1
Number of teams exceeding 3M attendance 5 10
Number of teams exceeding 2M attendance 19 24
Number of teams exceeding 1.5M attendance 25 28

The expectation is that ticket sales will exceed 81 million in 2008.

In short, prices are skyrocketing but so is demand. Even the Tampa Bay Rays have increased attendance by 300,000. Hopefully $81,000 for a season ticket plan will remain an anomaly in New York, but considering it has gone up in price 81 times over 35 years, other team might be a decade of so behind.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Tigers are Roaring

Early ticket sales for the Detroit tigers are going fast. During the first weekend of single game ticket sales, there were nearly 202,000 sold. They have also sold over 26,000 season tickets. This is an increase of over 8,000 from last year.

Tiger Stadium has a capacity of 52,400. Over 81 games the potential attendance could be 4,244,400. From that potential capacity - 2,106,000 are already sold to season ticket holders. This means they sold nearly 10% of the remaining inventory on the opening ticket sales weekend. Not bad.

From our own inventory of Tigers tickets, we have sold over 45% of the. We are also at 70.5% of the breakeven point. We also have several big ticket and Saturday games left. This could be the earliest we ever break even on a team.

The Tigers have put a good product on the field. The team consists mainly of young home-grown talent. It seems like the fans see this and support it.

For those considering investing in another team, we encourage you to consider the Tigers. It could be part of an inventory that will be in demand for some time.

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/sports-27/1204502961298710.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/03/detroit_tiger_singlegame_ticke.html

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Good time for Yankees tickets holders

This year really begins a huge upswing for Yankee season ticket holders. The stars are aligned on several fronts:

• The Yankees are good
• The Red Sox are better
• The Rays do not suck
• The All-Star Game
• This is the last year in Yankee stadium

The Yankees are good – One can ask the question – When was the last time they sere not good? Valid question. Regardless, when a team comes to play every year, it is good for ticket brokers.

The Red Sox are better – Some die-hard Yankee fan is going to send me a 5 page essay on why the Yankees are better than the Red Sox, but until the Yankees beat the Red Sox in the ALCS and win the World Series, I stand by my statement. Red Sox /Yankees is baseballs biggest rivalry. There is a strong argument it is the best rivalry in all of sports. Regardless of where is stands in the pecking order - the better the teams, the more intense the rivalry. All of this translates into higher priced ticket sales.

The Rays (formerly Devil Rays) do not suck – For years the Rays were a poor draw. We were lucky to break even on these. The Yankees fan is one of the more knowledgeable fans out there. Many know the Rays have some of the best young talent in baseball. They also know there team has been beat by other teams with low payroll and young players. The Rays are not quite the pushover anymore.

The All-Star game- This is held in Yankee stadium. Season ticket holders get first dibs on seats. A nice premium package to go with everything else this year.

This is the last year in Yankee stadium – above all else, this will drive ticket process sky high. The farewell to Yankee Stadium movement is in full swing. Prices for the last weekend and the final Old-timers game are nearing Opening Day prices.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Patriots draw a line

The New England Patriots have filed suit against StubHub, saying the company encourages people to break the state anti-scalping law and the team's rule against reselling tickets for a profit. They have also filed suit against over 50 season ticket holders who they claim sold their tickets on StubHub.

The Patriots are drawing a line in the sand against resellers and the websites that support it. This is contrarian to the onslaught of states that have softened the ticket reselling laws over the last few years.

StubHub in initially released a statement saying

"StubHub is a champion for the rights of fans to be able to gain access to tickets for events they want to see and a platform to sell the tickets they cannot use.Every individual is subject to our user agreement which obligates them to abide by their local and state regulations with respect to ticket resale,"

Since then, it has filed a countersuit saying the Patriots have violated the Massachusetts antiscalping law and is trying to create a monopoly.

As part of the legal wrangling, The Patriots won a case to have Stubhub turn over a list of 13,000 names of buyers, sellers and bidders of Patriots tickets. What the Patriots are planning on doing with this data is yet to be known.

While the Patriots and Stubhub are fighting each other in court, the politicians are trying to rewrite the laws in Massachusetts.

This essentially comes down to Patriots vs. eBay, since eBay bought StubHub last year. While ticket reselling still has a shadowy appeal to most, when presented in terms of a free market, most people are sold on it quickly.

Developing…

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2006/11/23/patriots_sue_ticket_reseller_in_effort_to_fight_scalping/

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/12/21/stubhub_hits_back_at_pats_in_battle_over_ticket_resales/

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/10/19/patriots-may-cancel-tickets-for-using-stubhub

As always, if you have any stories about some of your deals, please send them to stories@MyTicketBiz.com

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Pitchers and Catchers Report

Last week was the first week for pitcher and catchers reporting for spring training. Depending on the team, everyone else is joining them this week.

For us, this means ticket sales are starting to heat up. February and March are really the best month for MLB ticket sales. Fans are willing to pay a premium this early in the season and whenever the team announces the start of single game ticket sales, you can expect to sell 10% of you inventory that day to fans who were unable to get tickets though regular means.

One team that has a favorable schedule this year is the Houston Astros. They are one of the rare NL teams that will host the Red Sox and the Yankees this year. A scheduling oddity indeed. There are still full season packages available as of this writing.

Also the Oaklands A’s are once again offering their big game package to all the games with high demand. You might want to check this out also.

So if you have not posted your MLB seats, do so soon.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

Return to Normalcy

Not too long ago, parents in North Carolina were suing everyone to get their Hannah Montana tickets. The fervor seems to have died down a bit

Representative Drew Saunders (D) has introduced HB1418 regarding “Resale of Tickets via Internet”. The bill states the following:

nothing shall prohibit the resale or offering for resale via the Internet of an admission ticket, at any price, to an athletic contest, dance, theater, concert, circus, or other amusement, if the organizer of the event or the operator of the location where the event is occurring authorize admission tickets to the event to be resold for more than the price printed on the face of the ticket. If such resale is authorized, any admission ticket to the event may be resold or offered for resale through any Web site if the Web site's operator guarantees a full refund of the amount paid for the ticket

While it is taking North Carolina a while, probably due to Hannah Montana, they are joining the ever growing list of states that are relaxed there ticket reselling laws.

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2007&BillID=H1418

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

SuperBowl Time

The headline grabbing number for a SuperBowl ticket this year is $77,000. This is from some tickets on eBay. Second places, very distant second place, id $19,000. The luxury suite is going for almost a quarter of a million.

Don’t expect anyone to spring for these. There is always going to be someone posting at some astronomical level, just in case someone with more money than brains comes along.
Back down in reality, the average ticket price on the aftermarket is still a very impressive $4,000. A very good number considering the face value is between $700 and $900. The fact that we have two marquee teams from large cities does not hurt.

The NFL distributed roughly 70,000 tickets to Sunday's game according to the following:
• 17.5 percent to the Patriots
• 17.5 percent to the Giants
• 5 percent to the host team (Arizona Cardinals)
• 34.8 percent to the other 29 teams
• 25.2 to media, NFL sponsors, and fans (via lottery.)

It is interesting to compare ticket prices to the 1986 SuperBowl where the face value was $75 and the aftermarket averaged $500.

For us, the SuperBowl is more of a side show. Getting a ticket so one can actually get in on the action is next to impossible. It is better for us to focus on more accessible events.

I am a Millionaire Now. It is Different Than I Thought it Would Be

I am a millionaire, but I don't feel like one. Perhaps the better way of saying it is it does not feel like I thought it would. Let's get back to that a little later.

First a bit about me and the family. I am a forty-one year old white male. Married for 12 years with two kids- a nine year old girl and a seven year old boy. I have an undergraduate degree in finance and went to night school to get an MBA. I have spent my entire career working in information technology (IT). Most of that time has been programming. I have a few stints in management, but it didn't take.

My wife works at home and has done so since our daughter was born. She volunteers at the kid's school quite a bit. I also keep her busy with a lot of the business activity. Our kids attend public school. We were going the private school route for a few years. When both were going to be all-day students, the bill was $18,500 for the year. By the time they are be in 2nd and 4th grade, the bill will be $21,000 and that was if tuition stayed the same. Fat chance on that.

I have started my own company. The dream was to have a big operation where I would have 50+ people working for me and spend my time running the business and helping bring in new clients. Four years into it, we are considered successful, but the big dreams have turned out to be little dreams. I have a few people working for me but the majority of revenue is still billing my own hours.

I come from a middle class home. My father worked for the federal government and never made more than $25,000 a year. I went to public schools. I am smart and my grades always reflected that. I graduated high school in the top 10% (barely). My father passed away when I was in high school. While there was life insurance, it was not much. My mom had to go back to work after staying home to raise the kids for 20 years

My career and savings started when I was 22 and graduated from college. 18 years later I can see several things:


I made some great decisions
I made some bad decisions
I made good decisions with bad results
There has been good luck and bad luck, which came whether intended or not Inaction that should have been action.

Some Good Decisions

Student Loans - I never had any. My undergraduate was paid for by scholarships and out of pocket. My employer paid for the MBA. I did not go to a big school, although I could have. The decision to go where I did, McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, was made out of finances. They offered a scholarship that covered tuition, books and a room. I was on my own for food. A little help from mom and some part time work took care of that.

I noticed that many of my friends upon graduation were paying off student loans. Every month they were paying a couple of hundred dollars. For them this went on for years. I was saving my money instead. This provided a good foundation for later.

Avoiding bad debt - I can remember one day talking to a friend who was about to get married. He had $8,000 in student loans, $10,000 in car debt, $3,000 in credit card debt and was about to get a loan to pay for his portion of his $30,000 wedding. He never told me exactly what he wound up paying for the wedding but I bet his portion was half. Here is a guy who is 25 years old and $36,000 in debt and all he has to show for it is a car and a marriage certificate. He was going to be paying that off until he is in his thirties and then start saving. I had a ten year head start for savings on him.

While I have had car notes, they were never huge and never more than three years. I put as big a down payment as I could. I have bought more used cars than new cars.

I pay off the credit card every month. I do charge everything I can. This maximizes the points. The bill has often been higher than what I want it to be. My wife and I have had more than our share of fights when I opened the credit card statement. In the end I made sure the balance never got up and we never paid interest or fines.

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker who told me she had $75,000 in credit card debt. This fascinated me because we had similar jobs with similar pay and are similar ages. How can I have so much and her so little? Her answer was it started small when she was in her 20's. She and her husband would carry a balance this month and go on vacation instead of paying for it. That balance never got paid. The next month they had an $800 car repair, adding to the balance. They had a cycle of accumulating bad debt for 15 years that resulted in $75,000 of debt.

Ground rules with the spouse - Before we got engaged, I wanted to go over finances with my then-girlfriend. I discovered she had $2,800 in credit card debt. I let it be known that we were not going to get engaged until she got it off the credit cards. She applied for and received a debt consolidation loan at a much more reasonable rate. This started the groundwork very early for us about what would be good and bad financial decisions.

My wife is not a money person. She is a spender and consumer. She impulse buys regularly while I seldom do. My saving has often been countered by her spending. I could have been a millionaire many years ago if she viewed money like I do. The things we do for love.

While we have fought, and will fight again, over money and spending, there have always been some ground rules. No credit card debt, do not touch the savings unless for another investment, save every month, try to avoid spending on the big things.

We have taken trips, bought clothes, had nice meals and remodeled kitchens. We temper these things. I try to delay these expenses and question if we really need all of it.

One thing that works for us was we created a separate checking account for her. Every month we transferred money into that account. Birthday gifts, baby gifts, wedding showers, clothes and her pocket money all came from there. These were the items that would get out of hand. More than once she was giving a wedding or baby shower with other people. It always seemed that one of the others would go out and spend an outrageous amount. The $400 dollar cake was my favorite. They would through the receipts in a pile, add them up and divide. Three showers in a month totaling $450 can bite you quickly. When these types of expense would come from our savings, she treated it like there was a bottomless well. When she had to pay from her own account, she started budgeting. The account literally saved our marriage.

Buy a house early - I bought my first house when I was 25. I paid $52,000 for it. It is a 2 bedroom /1 bath with 1100 square feet. I lived in it for 5 years. Four years being single and one after we got married. I still own that house today. It has been a rental property the rest of the time. By the time we moved out, I could rent it to cover the note and then some. As time went by and property values rose so did rents. This house is now paid off and is valued at $210,000. I collect $850 a month in rent. I could get a little more but we have a good tenant who pays on time and doesn't call much.

That single decision is now responsible for nearly 15% of my net worth and provides around $6000 a year positive cash flow (minus taxes and insurance).

Maximize 401K - We have put as much in to our 401Ks as we can. These accounts are now worth over $200,000 and the returns have just been average. I have changed jobs several times. Several of these 401Ks are now in IRAs. This money is taxed-deferred, encourages savings and adds up over time.

Save every month - Shortly after college I opened a mutual fund account. I started putting $100 a month into it. After a while I upped it to $110. I got another fund and started adding $50 a month into it. Over the course of time, those monthly investments became $800 a month. But over the course of time, these mutual funds are now worth $180,000.

Look into making money outside of your job - There are lots of ways to make money on the side. We have gotten in and out of direct-marketing companies. We have bought and sold on Ebay. I have been to dozens of foreclosure auctions. These are only a few of the items I have looked into. I have invested hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars over the course of time. Multiple times I had to make the decision that this was not worth my time or any more of my money and had to cut my losses.

In the end I have found side incomes that bring in an extra $30-$40K a year. There are a ton of get-rich-quick ideas out there. Many of the things you will come across are scams. Some only work for certain types of people, usually not the type of person I am. What I currently do, I stumbled into. I stumbled into it because I was looking into something else that did not work. Every opportunity you see, book you read, seminar you attend will spurn some other thought and idea. The challenge often becomes evaluating what is the best match for your skill, capital and time.

Hobbies - I know guys who play golf every weekend. Others go hunting or fishing. While we all need our hobbies, often these hobbies dominate our lives and finances. Golf is not cheap. Even the cheapest green fees can run up the hundreds of dollars a month for the avid player. Add in balls and clubs and it can really get up there. If you are making $70K a year and have two kids and spending $300 a month on golf, it is time for a financial re-evaluation. If golf is more important than wealth keep it up, but you are not going to make it to the millionaire club that way.

Let's not just pick on the golfers. Hunters, boaters and shoppers have equal if not more outflow. I see hunting leases for $2000 a year. $500 pair of shoes. $17000 boats. If you want to save, you eventually need to decide - hobbies or wealth?

I started my own business - I could have easily just worked for someone else or gotten a job in a big IT shop somewhere. Instead I put myself out there to accept contract gigs. There were times where it was just me. Luck plagues the diligent. I sought out opportunities where I could bring in other people. Since I was incorporated, I could do that. I knew a bunch of programmers and could get them better rates that anywhere else. I kept thin margins, but making $4K a year off of someone is better than making nothing.

Starting your own business enables multiple opportunities outside of the obvious profit centers. There are so many expenses that I used to absorb that I could now deduct from my taxes. Office supplies, mileage driving to client, etc.

Work Hard - whether I was working for myself or someone else, I was always a hard worker. I came in a little earlier and stayed a little later. I did not whine if I had to come in on the weekend. I accepted responsibility and sought allies. I took the blame and shared the credit. I became valuable wherever I was. This set me up for higher pay when I worked for someone. When I went out on my own guess who the first clients were - people who used to work with me. They knew they would get a certain level of productivity out of me.

Things I wish I did

Increase the monthly investment - There were long periods of time (5-6 years) where I left the monthly investment in the mutual funds alone when my income went up. I should have increased the monthly payment into them each time my pay went up.

Buy and move into more houses - I look at the house I bought when I was 25 that is now worth $210K and regret not repeating the process. My wife and I could have moved 2 - 3 times more and bought a house each time. This would have left us with a bigger trail of rental properties all well on their way to being paid off.

The single best beginners way to build a real estate empire is to buy a house, live in it, buy another, move into that and rent out the former. Fixed rate loans for the owner of the house is still the cheapest way to get a loan. It also avoids the extra loan costs of buying investment property.

Things I cannot control

Luck - This goes both ways. The house I bought when I was 25 was in an area that has not suffered from urban decay. I cannot predict how a neighborhood will get that disease. It could have just as easily turned out to be a bad neighborhood. Fortune smiled there.

Just like that was good, I can account for $250,000 I have invested back into my business that I have not received a return on. I have hired several sales people who did not work out. Each one of them drew a salary, submitted expenses, hired outside support and took people away from billable efforts all to help close a sale. While these are things you do to grow a business, you want to them to actually grow the business.

My business has grown more from my efforts than anyone I paid to do it. Was it my bad judgment in evaluating their sales talents or I did not give them the support they needed? I cannot rule it out. Were they not putting their all into it? I cannot rule that out either. When they were hired, everyone thought it was a good idea, the approach was sound and we communicated regularly. I just never got the result I wanted. It was a good decision that had a bad result.

The Dot Bomb era - I had a lot of technology stocks. There was a point in time where my and my wife's IRA was worth $160K. This was in early 1998. A year later they were worth $60K. There is a reason I primarily invest in S&P 500 index funds today.

I used to consider myself a "very aggressive" investor. Not any more. Losing $100K in the market will do that to you.

What it is like to be a millionaire

Having over a million dollars in net worth is a good place to be. It sounds oversimplified but being a millionaire is better than not being one. It is not the penultimate financial goal that I once thought it was. I am not retiring and picking up golf any time soon.

I still worry about cash flow. So much is tied up in real estate, mutual funds and the business that I cannot get to a lot it without tax consequences. I still drive an eleven year old car. We eat at the same places. We still argue about the credit card statement. I still buy the generic pasta at the grocery store because it is 15 cents cheaper. I am not going to "summer" in Europe or buy a Mercedes. That is not how I got here. If I make those types of lifestyle changes, I might not stay here. I have splurged on a few things. I have "invested" in my baseball memorabilia collection and we took a nice vacation.

I do sleep better knowing I have some flexibility and assets working for me. There are people I work with that have a couple of thousand in the bank, even more in credit card debt and live from check to check.

I have over $1.4 million in assets. This includes everything. If I get 5% return on them, that is another $70K added onto the amount in the next year. The same people I just references are years away from saving $70K much less $70K in a single year. That is what a lot of people make in a year. That is my return when I do nothing.

It was not positive linear growth every month. Many months went backwards or stagnant. Remember, I saw my market values drop $100K. There was over $250K invested back into the business. To save a million dollars you to need to be out there and take a chance. Not all of them are going to work. Hopefully a lesson learned pays dividends down the road.

Having the money allows me to look at different investments. Doors that were shut are now open. I just have to be smart. I can consider different options. In the end that is what I am really after - the options to control what I want to do and on my terms.

Someone Heard the Cry

This is inevitable.

A State Representative from Tennessee is planning on introducing legislation to restrict ticket brokering in his state.

The Hannah Montana tour provided some motivation from some of Curry Todds constituents for him to engage in some discovery about what to put in to his bill.

The main target of the bill seems to be brokers that use ticketing software to buy extra tickets to an event. He is also talking about having brokers put up a $500 registration fee or a $10,000 bond.

The Honorable Todd, who is a stereotype-breaking Republican, had the following to say about the ticket brokering business - "We need legislation that would keep anyone from profiting from the sale of tickets whose service does not directly benefit the artist, the promoter or the consumer, Why should anyone who has not contributed toward the event benefit from it?"
We are unaware if he is introducing any legislation restricting house flipping, HGTV for broadcasting shows about house flipping or oil traders.

With the amount of public outcry from parents who had tales to tell about how they could not get Hannah Montana tickets, Mr. Todd leads the first of what is sure to be several State Houses that will have legislation introduced in 2008 restricting ticket brokering. We must keep in mind that the trend for several years was the other way – for the states to repeal laws that restricted ticket brokering. For several years now a free market mindset, with the help of lobbying groups employed by eBay, has taken over the thought process.

The Hannah Montana effect cannot be ignored for the short term. But the cry of “injustice” from the grass roots will die out. We are not talking about apartheid. We are talking about ten-year-old girls who did not go to a concert.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.

The Price of Perfection

There is a debate to be had about who got into a bigger uproar last week – Giants Fans or Patriots Fans.

With the New England Patriots trying to finish a perfect season, this became the hot ticket for all of Massachusetts. Unfortunately for them they had o go on the road to see it. The game was played in the Meadowlands – home of the Giants and Jets.

With such a historic moment, Patriot fans were willing to shell out for premium dollars. The only thing missing was Hannah Montana playing at halftime. There were multiple reports of ticket being sold at 15 times face value. One suite was listed for $26,000 for the game.

More than one Giants fan paid for their entire season last Sunday. Time to reread the section in the manual about “rabid fans”.

To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.