Nick Piccone
The Sixers announced today they’re partnering with StubHub. Here’s the entire press release, via Sixers.com:
PHILADELPHIA, PA – FEBRUARY 8, 2016 – The Philadelphia 76ers and StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, today announced the upcoming launch of a new ticketing platform, which offers partners a reimagined rightsholder branded experience, full market visibility, data ownership and the listing of primary and secondary ticket inventory in a single marketplace. StubHub is now the Official Ticketing Partner of the Philadelphia 76ers. Tickets will be available on the new platform in advance of the 2016-2017 NBA season.
The first-of-its-kind platform offers a slew of capabilities for partners, as well as an enhanced consumer experience that will drive conversion and sell-through, including:
• One marketplace that combines available primary and secondary ticket inventory together in one seat map, without designating tickets as primary or secondary;
• White-label experience that features the partner brand front-and-center;
• Recommendations for the buyer that best fit their search criteria, purchase history and preferences matched against all tickets available, with its new best-in-class recommendation engine;
• Real-time market data that will allow box offices to optimize pricing, while owning and controlling all buyer data;
• Shopping cart capabilities that allow a customer to purchase tickets from multiple sellers in one transaction, as well as allowing partners to bundle other goods, such as parking, with a ticket sale;
• Mobile optimization that makes ticket buying on the small screen a four-tap transaction, or allows a user to search for specific seating locations in a new way designed for a mobile device;
• Integration capabilities that enable multi-channel primary and secondary distribution, as well as primary ticketing providers to build into StubHub One, giving box offices complete choice for both back office tools and distribution.
“For over 15 years, StubHub has been a marketplace that connected buyers and sellers of tickets to live events on the secondary market, but now we are in a position to provide the industry a true end-to-end ticketing solution that combines our experience in e-commerce and secondary ticketing with a set of features that will help our partners sell more tickets,” said Scott Cutler, President of StubHub. “This new platform signifies the evolution of our company and a revolution in the industry. And we could not be more excited that the Philadelphia 76ers are joining us as our inaugural partner.”
With the partnership, the Sixers will direct all buyers to its team-branded experience on StubHub, where all single-game and resale tickets will be available for sale. As the Official Ticketing Partner of the Philadelphia 76ers, StubHub and the Sixers will work closely to optimize the ticketing experience over time, while capitalizing on their collective strengths and assets to grow the ticket buying audience and ultimately the team’s season ticket holder-base.
“We’re excited to launch a groundbreaking ticketing marketplace with StubHub that for the first time, seamlessly integrates and makes available primary and secondary seats in one marketplace, on one seating map, with one blended pricing purchase process. This game-changing platform will provide Sixers fans unparalleled access to available seats with a world-class, fan-friendly mobile experience,” said Scott O’Neil, Philadelphia 76ers Chief Executive Officer. “Equally exciting to fan-centric thinking is the data capture, pricing opportunity, and revenue upside. With StubHub and Spectra as our partners in this venture, we have front row seats to what will be a seismic shift in the business.”
Spectra Ticketing and Fan Engagement, through a series of integrations with StubHub, will continue to provide the Sixers the box office tools, season ticket holder sales, account management, and access control that will allow the team to manage its primary ticketing business and its fans as it always has, while taking advantage of the capabilities the new platform has to offer.
“We are excited to be part of this innovative solution and to work closely with StubHub and the Sixers to bring this to fruition,” said David Butler, President & CEO of Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement. “We share StubHub’s passion for innovation and serving the needs of thought-leading clients like the Sixers and their fans.”
Basically, in so many words, Sixers tickets will be available from the team directly on StubHub, as well as secondary market sellers. So… cool, I guess?