Paciolan – Your tickets, your way.

Behind The Headlines on Venues Today

To pre-Ticketmaster clients of Paciolan, the spin off of that company to Comcast-Spectacor, which was finalized March 5, is sort of same-old, same-old. The Department of Justice made Ticketmaster’s divestiture of Paciolan a requirement of the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, a company that will become Live Nation Entertainment.

To make it even more reminiscent of the way we were, Comcast-Spectacor was 20 percent owner of Paciolan when it was sold to Ticketmaster in 2008. Now, it is 100 percent owner and will develop Paciolan along with its other divisions, which include New Era Tickets, a regional ticketing company that uses the Paciolan software.

Peter Luukko, president of Comcast-Spectacor, is excited about Paciolan’s potential to grow in the ticketing space now that it is separate from Ticketmaster again. “We’re the independent ticket company that works with all promoters,” he said.

During the two to three years Ticketmaster owned Paciolan, few changes were made. Paciolan retained its market share, Luukko said. Two years is a very short period of time and the company had long-term contracts going in. Some of those clients were ready to jump ship, however.

Daren Libonati, Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, said his RFP was on the street and he was having serious discussions with Tickets.com and Veritix, among other enablers, to possibly unseat Paciolan. Dave Butler, CEO of Paciolan, who will retain that role under Comcast-Spectacor, let Libonati float for eight months after the contract was up for renewal as he considered his options.

“We extended our RFP process to get to this point,” Libonati said, saying there will be a formal announcement of the renewal with Paciolan soon, when paperwork is complete. UNLVtickets was founded in 2001, using the Paciolan back end, and means $1-$3 million in annual revenue and, just as important, retention of ticket-buyer data for marketing purposes.

He’s excited to see Luukko and Fred Maglione, president of New Era Tickets, in the family fulltime. They have collaborated with UNLV about ticketing and technical options for years, he said. “We were all discussing where are we going next? We’ll sit home, as it turns out.”

SOLD BY THE NUMBERS

• 142 million tickets — Ticketmaster in 2007, prior to buying Paciolan
• 50 million tickets — Live Nation in 2008, now to be added to the Ticketmaster bundle
• 100 million tickets – Paciolan annually
• 12 million tickets – New Era Tickets, part of the Paciolan bundle
• 12 million tickets – TicketsWest, part of the Paciolan family
• 1 million tickets – UNLVtickets as a regional ticketing company
• 42 million tickets – Tickets.com in 2009

THE FUTURE LOOKS FAMILIAR

Luukko said this acquisition gives Comcast-Spectacor’s New Era “the scale of a bigger company. To own the full service company and the software behind it really strengthens our ability to compete and to make the adjustments we are all going to make over time as technology changes,” Luukko said.

As to another DOJ ruling that Paciolan can sell tickets on ticketmaster.com, Luukko didn’t particularly care, but he said Butler thought it was a good option “and he’s a smart man. To me, the whole world has changed. Because of the Internet, if you want to see Bruce Springsteen, you just type in Bruce Springsteen and it leads you to where you can buy the ticket. You Google the artist.”

Luukko would also like to change the name of Paciolan some day, but that’s definitely not on the table right now. “I’ve always thought this is a crazy name. I’d like to change it,” he said.

As to comparing Comcast Spectacor, Live Nation, AEG, and SMG, Luukko defined the basics. “We are in the core businesses of sports and entertainment – team ownership, venue ownership, venue management, food service provider, ticketing provider. We’re in the ‘guts of the business,’” he said.

“Ticketmaster/Live Nation certainly is a music play. AEG is a combination of both of us, but a different structure — promoter, venue management, venues, teams. SMG is venue-management only, with food. But they don’t have a Ken Young,” he said, referring to the president of Ovations Food Services, a Comcast-Spectacor company.

“We’ve made it clear we’re going to be the company that works with all promoters. The touring industry is something we’re not interested in getting into. You can’t make any money,” he said. Teams don’t make money either,” but we own them,” he said.

Jack Lucas, TicketsWest, is another Paciolan client who was about to jump ship. He came on board right before Paciolan was acquired by Ticketmaster.

“I’ll never forget that fateful Thursday when I was told about it,” Lucas said. In 23 years, TicketsWest has only has two backend programs, its legacy program and then Paciolan. “When you do decide to do a transition, it’s a major thing. You think long and hard before you put your staff, clients and everybody else through it.”

For Lucas, the critical element is ticketing software that can execute large on-sales. When he originally went with Paciolan, he identified 12 red flag items that Paciolan took care of prior to the signing, such as the import of bar codes from another native system. “That was huge for us,” he recalled.

Lucas has had “many conversations with Dave Butler over the past several weeks.” He attended the Paciolan users meeting last month (and Ticket.com’s which was about the same time in Southern California). Butler “set an agenda, a path, specific timelines, when new releases would be put out and what they would contain,” and Lucas was impressed.

Now he’s comfortable with the considerable length of time left on his Paciolan contract. He no longer fears Paciolan software will sunset and he can continue down the road as an independent. “Not everyone wants a Ford, some want a Chevy. Thank goodness people want alternatives,” he said, echoing Luukko’s assessment of the new landscape.

Where are we at today? “Paciolan is back to being an independent; Live Nation is utilizing Ticketmaster like they used to; AEG is utilizing Ticketmaster like they always did,” Lucas said.

— Linda Deckard

Interviewed for this story: Peter Luukko, (215) 389-9530; Daren Libonati, (702) 895-1003; Jack Lucas, (509) 459-6100

Originally published March 2010 on Venues Today.