TJ Chambers
A shorter note this week, in part because of the publication elsewhere (https://www.theticketingbusiness.com/2024/11/21/viewpoint-show-me-the-money/) of the Op-Ed: ‘Show Me The Money!’
I’m grateful to TBNews for the opportunity to present some thoughts about who is actually financing the live entertainment ticketing sector – cheat code: that’ll be the audience, the ticket-buyers, weeks, months or years in advance of the events.
Additionally, why are the (B-2-C) ticket retail agencies and/or (B-2-B) ticket solution providers advancing ticket receipts to event Rights Owners (whether Artists, Promoter-Producer, Venue etc.) before event maturity?
And what can possibly go wrong with the mingling of escrow and operational funds by those ticketing platforms.
Anyway, more elsewhere, or I’ll re-post here next week.
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Separately, in the midst of what passes for a cold snap in the UK (not really comparable to continental Europe or North America – but sufficient to f*** up the fragmented, failing and exorbitantly-priced national railway network), I travelled north to join friends and former colleagues from Kaizen Ticketing, Synchro Systems (aka Ticketmaster Sport) and Two Circles to celebrate the life and works of Chris Belt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-belt-21842211/) who has decided after 45+ years of ticketing many, many events, venues, and tournaments across the UK and internationally to take some time with his family and experience a little of the whole wide world.
Chris is that rare breed of a successful ticketing system salesman who only ever sold what the platform could reliably and robustly deliver – and never promised the esoteric, bespoke or ‘soon-come’ upgrades that were never going to happen or would never have positively impacted the business.
His international experience and deep sector knowledge combined with a genuine enthusiasm to work with clients for their benefit, never afraid to put in the hours, often above and beyond, meant that he was universally welcomed at sites and genuinely liked by everyone whoever worked with him.
A true gentleman, and we are all better for having known and worked alongside him.
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As a side note, whilst in Stoke, I was asked why my scribbling was typically so ‘angry’ – for which I apologise if these posts only come across that way. Hopefully they are saying something more.
But if there is ‘anger’, I suppose it reflects my cultural year zero ‘1976’ – here I’m not referring to the basic three-chord punk rock, but the clarion call then sounded for a radical change of art, fashion, music, politics, sexuality and business practices that has informed some of my generation and which continues to reverberate.
Or maybe it’s because I have access to too much ‘green ink’.
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Lastly, the Ticketing Business Forum (https://www.ticketingbusinessforum.com/) has announced the creation of an Advisory Panel, which already includes (but with others being added): Carolyn Sims (https://cmsaconsultancy.com/); Chris Carey (https://ffwd.events/); Edwin Suk (https://www.stage-entertainment.nl/); Emily Tuffin (https://sportstravelhospitality.com/); Griselda Foguet (https://www.dorna.com/); Hugh Gledhill (https://www.layeredreality.com/); Jasper Hope (https://www.rcrc.gov.sa/); Jerome Thibaud (https://www.jeromethibaud.com/en/); Jim McCarthy (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcmccarthy/); Katy Raines (https://www.indigo-ltd.com/); Lesley Li Zhang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleyzhang/); Mark Brooks (https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/); Martin Austin MBE (https://www.nimbusdisability.com/); Paolo Monguzzi (https://www.juvefc.com/); Sarah Bagg (https://reworkconsulting.co.uk/); Shah-Zeib Ahmed (https://www.glosancon.com/sports); and Su Jella (https://www.tennis.com.au/).
The idea behind the creation of this august assembly is to help shape the #TBF25 agenda, to ‘bring unrivalled insights into every facet of discovery, sales, and fan engagement’ and to ‘re-imagine the entire ecommerce ecosystem, from marketing and discovery to pricing, CRM, analytics, and loyalty.’
I look forward to attending their curated panels and sessions and to networking with some of you in Manchester next April (28th – 30th April, 2025).
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Until next time.
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TJ_Chambers 