By Lee Gilbert | Posted on December 14, 2022 5:19 PM
Ticketmaster Looks Set To Lose Its Top Client for 9 Broadway Theatres After The Nederlander Organization Acquired TixTrack Inc and Its Ticketing Software. The End May Be Near For Ticketmaster on Broadway, a Ticketing Stalwart Since 1991
The Nederlander Group Acquires TixTrack and Puts Ticketmaster in Peril
In August of 2022, the Nederlander Organization purchased TixTrack, a ticketing software company, for $22 million in cash.
Currently Nederlander outsources all their Broadway theatre ticket sales to Ticketmaster, so the acquisition of TicTrack may spell the end of the Nederlander/Ticketmaster relationship.
Status Quo, For Now
Following the acquisition, Nederlander promised "a continued working relationship" with Ticketmaster for Broadway ticket sales, but they will likely replace Ticketmaster with their own TixTrack solution in due course.
According to industry sources, Ticketmaster is then expected to drop their commission rates to historic lows to hold on to the business. If not, they could lose their biggest Broadway client and then may face the ultimate Broadway closing, obsolescence.
The Nederlander Theatre Group: What They Own
The 9 Broadway Nederlander Theatres comprise the titular Nederlander (A Christmas Carol), the Brooks Atkinson (Six), the Gershwin (Wicked), the Neil Simon (MJ), the Lunt-Fontanne (Tina), the Palace (currently closed for the rebuild), the Marquis (Beetlejuice), the Richard Rodgers (Hamilton) and the Minskoff (The Lion King).
They also own major national venues housing Broadway tours and regional engagements include Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre and The Nederlander Theatre; Los Angeles’s Dolby Theatre and Hollywood Pantages; Washington DC’s National Theatre and more.
The Nederlander Organization also has a presence overseas with the Adelphi Theatre and Aldwych Theatre in London.
SeatGeek Was The First to Take on Ticketmaster's Hold
While Nederlander's TixTrack may be the latest company to try to knock out the monolithic Ticketmaster, SeatGeek was the first to make a dent in Ticketmaster’s seeming duopoly on Broadway.
SeatGeek, a mobile-focused ticket platform enabling users to buy and sell tickets for live sports, concerts and theater events, initially launched in 2009. The platform allows both mobile app and desktop users to browse events, view interactive color-coded seatmaps, complete purchases, and receive electronic or print tickets.
Originally conceived as a listings repository on the secondary ticketing market for ticket brokers, the once search-engine-of-sorts now functions as both a secondary marketplace and primary ticket outlet for sports teams and live event venues where they have a contract. But never the twain shall meet. In other words, when SeatGeek acts as the primary outlet, they do not allow secondary ticket brokers on their service.
While dealing primarily in the sports arena, Seatgeek performed a near miracle in 2021 by convincing Broadway stalwart Jujamcyn Theatres to ditch Ticketmaster and use them instead.
SeatGeek's Broadway theatre clients include the 5 Jujamcyn Theatres on Broadway (the St. James, Al Hirschfeld, August Wilson, Eugene O’Neill and Walter Kerr) as well as the Lloyd Webber Theatre Group in London, which they took away from Ticketmaster.
The Shubert Organization Take Charge: Telecharge
The show producers at the 17 Shubert owned theatres— occupying the most Broadway real estate— really wish they could use something other than Telecharge ticketing, but Executive Vice President Charles Flateman continues to foist his obsolete system onto all the theatres that they own.
It’s an open secret that producers don’t want to use the Telecharge service to sell tickets, but they are beholden to the system when the Shuberts are their landlord, and all of their rental agreements stipulate that.
Current shows impacted by Flateman’s militancy include Chicago, A Strange Loop, The Phantom of the Opera, Dear Evan Hansen, The Music Man and many new plays and musicals set to open in the coming 2022-2023 season.
Who Remembers Ticketron?
Actively operating from the 1960s until 1990, Ticketron was the industry leading computerized event ticketing enterprise until it was purchased by The Carlyle Group in 1990, who then sold it to rival company Ticketmaster in 1991.
While the majority of Ticketron's assets and business were part of the acquisition, a small antitrust carve-out for Broadway's Telecharge business-unit was left out. Telecharge remains a division of the Shubert Organization.
Will Nederlander's TixTrack Outperform The Shubert Organization's Telecharge?
It remains to be seen who has the better service, but in-house systems like TixTrack and Telecharge are notorious for not comparing well to third-party systems where innovation has a much higher priority.
State of Play For Other Broadway Theatres
Once the Nederlander Group migrates to TixTrack, Disney will be the only company left on Broadway still using the Ticketmaster ticket service.
Manhattan Theatre Club, Circle in the Square, Second Stage and Lincoln Center will all likely stay loyal to Telecharge, and all the Shubert owned Theatres frankly do not any choice in the matter.
Jujamcyn seems to be content with SeatGeek and the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) and Roundabout use their own respective proprietary systems, that are not great, but are quite cheap to run.
The Roundabout Theatre Group also just launched a new ticketing system called Criterion, which the non-profit will use for rentals only, preferring their own system when they are the producers on a show.
What Will Disney Do With Ticketmaster?
What will Disney Theatrical Productions (owner of the New Amsterdam Theatre) do with their two shows on Broadway? Lion King and Aladdin
Lion King is in the Nederlander-owned house, the Minskoff Theatre, so that is expected to move to TixTrack
Aladdin is in the Disney owned New Amsterdam Theatre and they will be the last vestige of Ticketmaster on Broadway, but Disney is unlikely to stay with them when there are so many alternative choices floating around.
Ticketmaster, with its exorbitant fees and poor customer service, may have run its course. All eyes will be on Disney as the one-time, well, ticket master may be put out to pasture and led off to the Broadway knackers yard when no one is looking.
Ticketmaster on Broadway May End, But May Be a Drop in The Bucket For Live Nation
Ticketmaster fans should not fear their impending Broadway demise as Ticketmaster will continue with their non-Broadway business of sports, concerts and events that nets them a cool $5 Billion per year, enough money where they could buy, or even build, their own Broadway theatres if they wanted to.
