The region's top concert promoter and FleetCenter officials areintrigued by Ticketmaster's plan to let consumers print tickets toevents on their home computers, they say.
"I think it's a great idea, a fabulous idea. Anything that makesit easier for the consumer is terrific," said Don Law, who runs DonLaw Co., a division of SFX Entertainment of New York.
He books events at Tweeter Center, BankBoston Pavilion, and othervenues.
"I can see us moving in that direction," said Matthew Whelan,FleetCenter's director of ticket operations. "Our Internet sales arejust going through the roof. This could be the next logical step."
The system, which Ticketmaster hopes to start rolling out inApril, would allow the company to e-mail a ticket with a bar code onit to the customer. The customer could then print out the ticket andgain admission to the concert or sporting event by running the ticketunder a scanner.
Only a handful of arenas have scanners, and none do locally. ButTicketmaster officials yesterday indicated they would help defray thecost of setting up scanners, which cost about $100 apiece.
With such a system, consumers could avoid express-mail deliverycharges and long lines at will-call windows. A customer buying a setof tickets could e-mail individual tickets to friends.
The system, Ticketmaster said, would allow it to avoid postagecosts and to earn additional revenue, by selling advertising spacealong with the ticket.
The tickets might be accompanied by directions to the venue anddiscount coupons for nearby restaurants and stores, said TomStockham, executive vice president of Ticketmaster-Online CitySearch. "We're really pretty optimistic about the potential," hesaid.
If successful, the system should accelerate the sale of tickets online.
Whelan, at FleetCenter, said that 35 percent of single tickets forBruins and Celtics games are sold on line, while 50 percent ofconcert tickets are sold over the Internet. A year ago, he said, 30percent of concert tickets were sold on line.
The Ticketmaster system would appear to do little to deterscalping. And it would make it easy for a ticket holder to print outmultiple copies and, in effect, scalp the same ticket many times. Thebar code system, though, lets only the first person who shows up atthe event enter.
Ticketmaster officials and Whelan said the system may actuallydeter fraud. Once consumers realize a ticket can be printed multipletimes, Whelan said, they would be wary of buying tickets from someonethey don't know.
Initial testing indicates Whelan is right, Stockham said.Customers are already reluctant to buy tickets from strangers, headded, but that concern rises dramatically when someone tries to sella sheet of paper with a ticket impression on it.
"People are really reluctant about that," he said.
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