A Rough Time To Be A "Marketplace"
Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events 11/8/24
Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events
Election Week.
Just kidding. I'm not touching that subject.
Three things I learned.
The empire is striking back.
It's a rough time to be in the ticket re-sale game, as discussed last week, and it is seemingly getting worse.
Vivid reported and it was grim, dropping the stock price to $3.57 at close.
SeatGeek and StubHub keeping feigning going public and can't.
A friend smarter than me is probably right: "They're mature companies. They're not growth companies anymore. And if that's the case, they have to make lots of money. And in that game, there aren't a lot of places to cut without alienating already non-loyal customers."
A dear friend just had his season tickets cancelled by the Dodgers for re-selling them. Only one problem: He's a lifelong fan, he's not a re-seller at all, and he has no recourse - likely for not using the official re-seller. The Guardians did the same to a customer we work with. Which is their right to do no matter what anyone thinks of the practice.
The game has changed, and I'm afraid the big three of Vivid, StubHub, and SeatGeek missed some of the changes along the way.
The blame this quarter is on the weak concert schedules.
Maybe. But outside of the post-Covid free-money inflationpalooza boom, there hasn't been much good news in secondary for nearly five full years now. That's a long time.
It could just be that ticket prices can't go up much further for the non A+ events. And that's who the marketplaces really need."You'll learn who people really are when they don't get what they want from you."
Read this quote on X this week. So true.
People ask you for what they want. If you say no you’re the bad guy. A few years back we hired for a VP of Sales. We looked at some local talent and some not-local. We ended up hiring a teammate who was with us for seven great years and is TicketManager family for life. It was a terrific success. But he wasn't the only candidate. We had to say no to the other finalists. One of them is a local man who has kids in school with my son. To say he doesn't say positive things about me and my family is an understatement. And, of course, he leaves out the real reason for the sore feelings. I've personally said no to a coach, dads, moms, and people in our community. It's just the sucky part of running a business."Winning is the best way to go viral."
Pat McAfee, in an interview with Uconn Head Coach and defending back-to-back National Champion Danny Hurley.
Certainly seems to be the case. Even when it doesn't happen right away.
Book suggestion: "The Perfect Pass" by SG Gwynne. To McAfee's point, the Air Raid offense was around for nearly thirty years before it took over football. People knew about it, but it wasn't until Hal Mumme starting winning with it that everyone paid attention. Enjoyable book.