A twitter friend brought this to my attention last week. I was at the beach getting some much needed R and R but felt that I should weigh in on it today.

According to this article by Al Branch over at Ticket News, Ticketmaster is advancing bills in Florida and Minnesota that would effectively give them greater control over concert presales. You can read the full text of the article here. Now, just the fact that Ticketmaster is lobbying in support of legislation on the ticketing industry should be enough to scare you into action, but if not…

I visited the websites for both the Minnesota and Florida Legislature to get the text of the actual bills- you can view them by visiting the links below:

Minnesota HF 819: Internet Sale of Event Tickets

And

Florida CS/ HB 1287: Resale of Tickets (summary and full text)

Interestingly enough – there are two other bills making their way through Florida as well – SB 1962 (summary and full text) and SB 2074 (summary and full text).

For those of you uninterested in navigating the legalese, I will simplify the gist of the legislation:

Ticketmaster is making a power grab to limit ticket presales and re-sells unless authorized by the primary ticket seller – in many cases, Ticketmaster. So Ticketmaster, in the midst of trying to establish a monopoly on the national scale, is now simultaneously looking to eliminate competition in the presale space and eliminate the reseller market altogether.

For those of you who aren’t savvy in this space, “presales” are tickets that go on sale before they are made available to the general public, often going on sale to, for example, fan clubs. They have been an established component of the concert industry for decades, but now Ticketmaster wants them stopped. Check this language in Florida HB 1287: “requiring that a person or entity that offers to sell or resell over the internet tickets to specified public entertainment or amusement events of any kind may not offer tickets for sale until such tickets have first been offered for sale via an event-provider –authorized outlet or offering.” The Minnesota bill has a similar anti-presale tilt: “The initial seller shall not divert tickets from the initial sale to be sold in any other manner.”

In other words, if Ticketmaster doesn’t feel like allowing a presale in Florida, it won’t happen. In Minnesota, it will be ILLEGAL to have presales.

There is also language in these bills that prevents or limits tickets from entering the secondary market. While in theory (and to the average state legislator) this sounds great, it sets a dangerous precedent. Some of you may recall many moons ago when I blogged about the Seven Principles of the Ticketing Industry. Principle four is what we see in action here- “Where there are nuisances, there are regulators.” It is dastardly (and again, should cause concern) that the very same company causing all of the nuisances is the one driving regulators to action. Of course, the well paid Ticketmaster lobbyists are keeping the true grim future scenario out of the minds of the regulators deciding the fate of the issue, as seen in Florida, where the bill has passed unanimously through two committees so far. If successful, Ticketmaster will both outlaw presales and resells, gaining a pretty tight death grip on the large entertainment venues of Florida and Minnesota.

So, if you live in Florida and occasionally buy tickets to live events, read HB 1287
(it won’t take long) and get in touch with the members of the General Government Policy Council Pronto. They are listed here: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Committees/committeesdetail.aspx?CommitteeId=2469 . At least contact Representative Troutman and let him know that this legislation deserves further scrutiny and revision. Ditto for you Minnesotans: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/hmem.asp

The answer to scalping is NOT to limit presales or introduce harmful regulation into this industry. The bottom line is this: scalping takes place because the face value of some tickets is significantly lower than the market value. Until all parties involved can agree on how to make these two values close enough at onsale to discourage scalpers, the practice will continue.

In related news: The Grateful Dead may have introduced a solution to this problem. What do you think?

Last week both the House and Senate committees grilled panelists including Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino about the impending merger. Bill Wyman (@hitsville), myself (@ticketbiscuit) and a handful of others covered the events via twitter. You can check out the live stream here and here.

The Senate session was brutal. Seth Hurwitz of IMP Productions and Jerry Mickleson of JAM laid into the behemoth companies like cold assassins, and both Azoff and Rapino stayed on the defensive most of the time. The overwhelming feeling coming out of this session was that the merger would be very bad for independent promoters.

My favorite part of this session was when one audience member said to a panelist (probably Hurwitz) – ‘Dude, you were under oath!” After the cameras had quit rolling but the mics were still on. One telling moment was when Mickelson approached Azoff after the hearings in a sort of détente manner, assuming him that the testimony was not a personal attack. It is clear where the power is currently, and the consequences of upsetting the forces that be (see Pearl Jam).

Then came the House session, and it looked like Rapino had taken a crash course from Dale Carnegie. He was much more polished and convincing, helped somewhat by the undereducated committee and their softball inquiries. Robert W. Doyle, a partner with Doyle, Barlow & Mazard in DC had some excellent sound bytes, but despite his eloquent words and pointed delivery, I came out of this session pretty convinced that the merger will pass muster and Live Nation Entertainment will be born.

My favorite part of this session was when Peter Luukko (President of Comcast-Spectacor) was attempting to show that because he has his own in-house ticketing system, that Ticketmaster does not have a stranglehold on the primary market. Upon continued grilling, he revealed that his ticketing system is Paciolan, owned by Ticketmaster. Of course, the panel didn’t pounce on this, to my dismay.

Notably missing from both sessions were the voices of the artists, venues, and fans. Because of the softball treatment from the committees, and due in part to the absence of these voices, I think the merger will happen. Here’s what to expect:

 
• Ticketmaster will jettison TicketsNow. I think they will have to for approval. And I think Azoff is cool with the idea. Joe Lewi (@eventpromoter) posted to his blog that he expects this as well.
  

 

• Live Nation Entertainment will try to do some cool things with the “Amazon” storefront concept- that you can buy tickets, songs, merchandise, etc. through one portal. Rapino mentioned this in his testimony. This will be convenient, but customers should also expect to pay for this convenience. Charging for convenience is how these guys make money. Since this whole move is about control, LNE will try to build / buy a competitor in the music distribution space. They will not even approach Apple’s market share because the interface will suck.
  
• Rapino seemed to gain some support in the house hearing when he said that the new company would hire people, instead of laying folks off. The committee didn’t ask him if the new jobs would be American jobs. In fact, a source of mine, a former Ticketmaster employee, shared that Rapino’s claim was unequivocally false. According to the source, Ticketmaster has been outsourcing both development and QA activities to their Shenzen office, which opened in January of 2008 – and the new development jobs will likely be in China instead of the US, since the Chinese only demand about 30% of the salary of their US counterpart.
  
• The market will striate – with LNE owning the “top end” arenas and amphitheatres, and the middle market pursued aggressively by viable ticketing competitors such as ourselves. LNE will soon look to expand its footprint in the middle market as growth on the top end stagnates, and fears will resurface regarding their abuse of leverage.
  
• Ticket prices will not come down. This merger never was about what is good for the fans. It is about control and profit, plain and simple. Convenience fees will probably go away, but ticket prices will increase to compensate for the lost revenue.
  

 

A question I get often is: what does this mean for us (TicketBiscuit)? From a business perspective, the news of this merger has had positive effects. Venues and promoters are looking for options. They see that this much centralization of power is not good for the overall ecosystem. With our Music Liberation Fund, we’re removing the risk of switching away from Ticketmaster. And, we’re the only ticketing company continuing to invest, daily, in tools that help our clients sell more tickets. It’s always been our position to compete well, execute flawlessly, and do the right thing for our clients. And we’ll do that, merger or not.

A colleague forwarded me this article today – apparently Spirit Airline is considering making customers pay for the privilege of booking tickets anywhere other than their ticket counters in airports.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123604492886515417.html

Wow. Spirit must have some Ticketmaster folks on its board.

This is effing hilarious, and a good example of why the air travel industry is in such dire straits. I assume that Spirit Airlines either has paid up front costs for their reservation system or pays an annual licensing fee, but I doubt the cost ties directly to usage volume. I further suppose that the costs incurred by having ticket counter agents and space at airports exceeds the costs of the online reservation system.

So the airline is, in effect, penalizing consumers for utilizing a more efficient means of transaction. WTF? I can follow (but not necessarily agree with) the thinking behind charging fees for checked baggage or in flight refreshments. These things drive up costs. But not online booking.

What if other industries followed suit? Fees for online banking? For booking hotels online? For using the drive thru at restaurants? For pumping your own gas?

The parallels to live entertainment are obvious. I have often wondered why so few promoters and venues choose to flip the common fee arrangement on its head. That is, charge fees for a box office (ticket counter) sale but offer incentives (no fees) to purchase online. We have a couple of clients who do business this way, and their online sales represent over 90% of their total ticket sales. Self Service is more efficient.
If customers and computers are doing the work, it frees up your resources to grow the business. Our system is one of the few ticketing systems out there with the flexibility to allow venues and promoters to set the fee structure that their customers see (completely independent of the per ticket fees we charge for providing ticketing services). In essence, it empowers businesses to encourage the self service option.

It’s time for more businesses to embrace a shifting paradigm. Encourage the efficient transaction and grow your business the right way, instead of taking the easy route and squeezing your customers who self serve.

Oh, and Spirit, if you guys want to REALLY grow revenues, you should try an online check-in fee, a boarding fee, or even a “seat bottom cushion flotation device” fee.

Geez.

Most of you have probably seen the press release by now, but for those who have not, we made a very big announcement today. Essentially, we’re allocating $10 Million dollars to contribute to America’s live entertainment venues and promoters to help keep them independent.

What does “independent” mean? Basically, not involved contractually with Ticketmaster and/or Live Nation. In my opinion, Ticketmaster has done more harm than good in the live music space as of late. The most recent troubling revelation was that Ticketmaster allegedly used its secondary ticketing subsidiary, TicketsNow, to inflate ticket prices for high demand concerts. Ticketmaster has denied any wrongdoing and an investigation is pending. But the whole thing just looks bad.

And now the impending merger with Live Nation. Live Nation enjoyed relatively favorable customer relations until earlier this year. Many folks (including us) were rooting for Live Nation’s new ticketing platform at launch. We know that they’re competitors. But competition is good in this market. It keeps talent accessible and fees low. But our cheering, like that of many, turned to jeering upon first learning that Live Nation’s fees were as high – if not higher – than those of Ticketmaster. And based on the experience of many a Phish fan, the Live Nation ticketing systems were seemingly insufficient for a massive onsale event.

From a business standpoint, the merger makes great sense. It makes sense because TM’s and LN’s previous competitive stance toward each other would have ultimately ended in mutual destruction. It makes sense because they have complementary strengths. It makes sense because Wall Street loves it; the stock price of both companies jumped at the mere rumor of the merger.

I will also acknowledge that this deal will be good for some. Major headlining acts will benefit. Management companies could benefit. Advertisers could benefit. But make no mistake about it: in this relentless focus on financial benefit and the money to be made, music fans, independent musicians, independent venues, and independent promoters, in my opinion, will lose out. In short, this deal will represent the largest consolidation in the history of the live music industry.

Consolidation means fewer choices and higher prices for fans. And that’s what the Music Liberation Fund is meant to fight against.

Is there something in it for us? Yes. Are there strings attached? Sure. But we’ll make all of that perfectly transparent to those who qualify for fund proceeds. The bottom line is that artists, fans, venues, and promoters need a choice. And with any luck, the MLF will help ensure that they always have one.

This is the second article in a series where we pick the brains of live entertainment promoters to discover their tips and techniques for staying successful amidst worsening economic times. If you’ve got some good tips you’re willing to share, please email Eric Housh or DM @ticketbiscuit.

Sequoia Slentz is an independent promoter that does events all over the country through his company CleanBox Entertainment. He is the booking agent for the “Killer’s of Comedy” which features comedians from the Howard Stern show.  Sequoia also books all of the West Coast Shows for “The Fab Faux,” a Beatles tribute band featuring Will Lee from David Letterman’s show and Jimmy Vivino from Conan O’Brien’s. 

I caught up with Sequoia the first time on January 20th, four days before the scheduled Fab Faux show at the Orpheum in Los Angeles. “At this point last year, I had sold this show out- 1400 tickets – without spending a dime on advertising,” he told me, continuing, “this year, I’ve done it all – radio, mailers, you name it, but to no effect.” Four days left until show time, and Sequoia had almost half of the house left to sell.

This tale is all too common lately- promoters struggle to sell tickets in the face of an economy that has forced people to eliminate line items from their budgets. Line items that are typically seen as discretionary, such as concert tickets, are often the first things to go.

The next time I talked to Sequoia was last Thursday, January 29. The Fab Faux show did not sell out, but he did move enough tickets to make money. I asked him to share his secrets for success.

Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate!

The thing about the economy is that it impacts almost everyone, and that includes venues, radio stations, hotels, and many other businesses. This opens up incredible opportunities. “The idea is to spread the deficit around. Radio stations need to sell ads. Hotels need to fill rooms. Venues need shows. We all need each other, we gotta help each other out,” Sequoia states. He advises to negotiate with the venues for discounted rates, and with radio stations for discounted air time or ticket giveaways. “Radio stations have an incredible amount of inventory, and they’re willing to deal to sell them all.”

Working with Hotels was effective for Sequoia as well. As part of his effort to increase sales, Sequoia struck a deal with the Kyoto Grand Hotel to offer discounted tickets to hotel visitors. After the deal was sealed, he was approached by four other hotels wanting to ink similar partnerships. “If these guys have empty rooms, they’re losing money – so again, you can help each other out.” He says to also negotiate for inclusion in email blasts sent from the hotel, venue, or radio stations to their respective customer or fan lists. “It’s free and easy – most of the time they will be glad to.”

Being creative also helps. For this last show, Sequoia approached a Professor of the Music Institute and convinced the professor to give his class extra credit for attending the show and writing a paper on it.

Use the Tech Tools

Sequoia uses email marketing religiously. “I’ll use it to communicate with my lists, and I used promo codes to give folks the opportunity to buy tickets at a discount price.” While promo codes are a very effective way of generating sales and tracking marketing effectiveness, Sequoia cautions against the “double pitch.” “If I send an email out on the on-sale date, and someone buys a ticket at full price, then I send that person another email closer to the date announcing half price tickets, one of two things will happen. Either they will become trained to wait for the discount, or worse, they will get mad and not buy any more tickets at all. Both are bad, obviously.”

He says the way to avoid the double pitch is through careful customer management or third party surplus ticket sellers. “I used a surplus seller for this show and it ended up putting an additional $3k in my pocket at the very last minute. I was very happy with it.” Surplus sellers have opt-in databases of people who agree to be notified when discount tickets become available, so the dangers of discounting are mitigated.

Pay attention to the details

“The littlest mistakes can kill your operation. In 2008, I put the tickets for the Fab Faux show on sale in early October, and the show sold out without me spending a dime in advertising. This year, I put them on sale a month later- in November.” While this may sound harmless to the lay person, Sequoia says it was probably a key factor in the slow sales. “Sure, all of the bad economic news was weighing on people’s minds, but also, in November people are thinking about Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and travel, and mentally budgeting. The entire frame of mind changes.” He advises that promoters pay close attention to on-sale dates and times, and the trends of how the tickets move. “I’ve already put the tickets for the October 2009 Show on sale,” he added.

Stick it out

Business will continue to be tough for promoters, with recent estimates saying that the economic recession will last well into 2010. But while the business is admittedly tougher, Sequoia says it’s actually good for his operation. “We’re learning a lot and having to become better and more creative. Not all promoters will come out of this, but if you can stick it out, you will be positioned securely.”

Visit CleanBox Entertainment on the Web

CleanBox News Blog

Dear musicians, promoters, managers, artists, and especially fans:

Tonight I read this breaking news on the Wall Street Journal Online:

Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. are close to a merger, people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that would consolidate two of the most powerful forces in the music industry under one roof.

The newly created company would be called Live Nation Ticketmaster, and would combine the world’s biggest concert promoter with the world’s dominant ticketing and artist-management company.

Recent shady and allegedly crooked activity on the part of TicketMaster through their subsidiary TicketsNow just further reinforces the inkling that many live entertainment fans have had for a couple of decades: this company seems to care little if at all for the fans. And how much of those ridiculous fees are they sharing with you, promoters? Artists? 

As for Live Nation, there was a glint of hope as they released their ticketing platform earlier this year. Then there was the Phish incident, along with those damn familiar and ludicrously high fees, which served as the one two punch of reality, letting us know that superpowers in this industry have all of their own interests aligned, and they are not with us.

The good news is, there are companies out there founded by, staffed by, and driven by live entertainment fanatics who appreciate the entire experience. This new generation of entrepreneurs is unbridled by the old way of doing business, unencumbered by overhead, and as disenfranchised and tired of the superpowers as you are. So to the musicians, venues, and promoters, here is our plea to you:

Say NO to MasterNation. Don’t buy it. get out, do research on other ticketing providers. Check us out, of course. But don’t stop there. Check out Capterra for a directory, or Google. I guarantee you’ll be surprised. Innovations like social media ticketing, viral marketing tools, and mobile ticketing are all within your reach. And ticket fees? We let YOU control them. Hell, you don’t even have to charge service fees if you don’t want to.

Visit http://www.ticketbiscuit.com, Call 866.757.8330 or email info@ticketbiscuit.com. Say NO to MasterNation and YES to the future of live entertainment.

To the fans, please realize the importance of activism here. Encourage your favorite venue, promoters, and artists to say no to MasterNation. 

Stay tuned for more updates.

Attention, executives of Sony, EMI, Universal, and Warner: please get a clue. When a fan incorporates music that you own into an online video, it means that they like it enough to add their own creative flair to it and spread it among their social networks.

Why do you discourage that? Because you don’t get a penny for everytime someone buys the song? And YouTube, for goodness sakes, could you guys not have seen this one coming?

I read this article just now about how the big four are now re-negotiating their contracts with YouTube and as a result, videos are being pulled from the site. While I can put on my “old-timey” glasses and see why they would have such a knee jerk reaction (lawyers gotta eat too, by the way), the common sense part of me is screaming WTF?!?!?!

You WANT fans. You NEED fans. Instead of discouraging the creative engagement with your product, you should embrace it and use it. Consider the case of Guitar Hero. When the original concept for Guitar Hero was being developed, the game developer struggled to get the labels to come onboard. This is what the music labels do: reject new things. Napster, anyone? But when GH 3 was released in 2007, most of the tracks saw a dramatic increase in digital sales almost immediately. I have all of the Guitar Hero games, and I own almost all of the tracks as well. Now, the labels are pining to be in on future releases. Why did sales take off? Because while gamers were rocking out in front of their TVs trying to get five stars on Reptilia, they were actually hearing the song enough to love it. Most of them had never heard it before the game was released. Takeaway: when new people hear your music, it is a good thing. These people can easily become fans and will want to buy music.

So here is my plea to the music labels: give us change. Give us leaders that are unafraid to share content and encourage fans to experiment with it. Make your artists tracks available for download on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Quit trying to get paid every time a song is played, and instead invest in artists and technology that can connect with fans and connect fans. As for YouTube, my answer is simple. Require that fans cite the source for music that is used, but do not prevent the usage of your music. You can even work with YouTube to add links to buy the tracks on iTunes. After that, have contests, promotions, giveaways – invite fans to make their own music video for some of your new acts. Create a YouTube channel and pump it through your website. Feed it to your Facebook Group. Tweet if you dare. Just get involved and get present, and listen to your fans.

In the future of the music biz, labels will find and refine talent, promoters will bring the talent to the stage, and software developers (Activision, Red Octane) and online distribution channels (iTunes, Pandora)will bridge the final interface gap with the mass public. CDs will go away. Radio will be marginalized. Fans will find and interact with music on their turf and on their terms, empowered by broadband and inspired by their social circles. This is the future, like it or not.

So quit fighting the inevitable, or else your labels and the arcane business practices you so vehemently protect will go the way of the Big 3 automakers.

But the public won’t bail you out.

Today TicketNews posted a story about the soft rollout of Live Nation Ticketing, signaling that the giant’s move away from Ticketmaster is still on course. Since Ticketmaster has extensive long term contracts in the industry, the move will take time. As one Live Nation insider put it, it won’t be like “flipping a switch.”

So Live Nation enters the event ticketing space. As a competitor of ours, I had to go check out their system. Live Nation partnered with German-based CTS Eventim to develop the interface, and on the surface it is clean and elegant. They even have a java powered seat selector like the one we feature, although ours is a bit easier to use, I think (of course that assertion is free of bias).

The event I checked out was a Temptations concert in New York. On a $66 dollar ticket the fees were over $15. High, sure, but being in New York there are probably facility fees and parking fees rolled into that amount.

Then I went through the purchase process, and was forced to create an account and provide personal info (including phone number?!?!?!) before I could complete the purchase. This is where we start to see the cloak lift, and as the industry moves away from ticketing fees as a primary source of revenue we can see that they have their intentions aimed squarely at advertising.

Look at the event page- There is a prominent Citi Cards ad. The venue is The Capitol One Bank Theater at Westbury. Rest assured after you buy tickets you’re going to get pummeled with direct mail and email from “Live Nation Partners.” The beast feeds the beast.

I’m glad Ticketmaster now has a big name competitor, but I hardly think this is good for the business. The “360” or “all inclusive” deals that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been making recently are engineered to squeeze every last cent out of the live entertainment marketplace. Exploit the big acts and venues at the expense of the customer.  Only play our acts on the radio. Sell your CD in Wal Mart. It will be a semi-profitable bloodbath between the two companies for a while, until the mass public finally realizes they’re being force fed garbage like the Pussycat Dolls and starts to embrace real music again. 

Real music won’t be dead. It will be at venues like WorkPlay, or Minglewood Hall, or Exit In. It will be at the local 1200 seat clubs being created passionately by folks who are actually good at it, listened to by folks who appreciate it, and yes, bought by those who value it.

The future of the business looks a bit like the past.

I recently started subscribing to the Lefsetz Letter. Bob Lefsetz (the author) has been publishing his thoughts for 25 years. He addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself. To say he is an expert is a bit of an understatement.

Anyhoo, Bob’s latest post is one that I think all owners of venues should read. In it, he talks about the perceived value of admission and tries to get you thinking about what it is, exactly, that keeps folks coming out to see shows at your place. Here’s an excerpt:

Music needs to be a good value.  It hasn’t been a good value for in excess of a decade.  Ever since Robert Sillerman rolled up the regional promoters into SFX.  Now prices are high.  It’s like sports.  But music ain’t sports.  And I won’t go to a baseball game on a whim anymore.  Used to be $3 and you sat in the upper deck or bleachers and got fucked up and who gave a shit about the game.  Now, you’re pissed if you go and the game is shitty. Because you paid a fucking fortune!  But, at least the teams are classic, they don’t change.  We’re trying to break acts in the music business.  We can’t overcharge.

We need some innovation.

Bob has some interesting thoughts on how to increase perceived value and pack the house without giving away tickets. Check out the full post here, and if you are in the music industry, you should mos def subscribe.

This week, Jeff and I had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Southern California to promote BattlePass and our new relationship with Roy Englebrecht Promotions. As you may remember from an earlier post, Roy is one of the nation’s top promoters, and has been promoting fights in California for almost 30 years. Next year marks the 25^th anniversary of his Battle In the Ballroom Series, for which we will be the official ticketing provider. Anyway, from this past Friday until Monday, Roy held Fight Promoter University Five, a four day seminar and experiential learning curriculum targeted at wannabe promoters. Since Jeff and I were very interested in establishing relationships with these guys, we decided to sit in on Roy’s classes.

Boxing and MMA Promoters have gotten a pretty bad rap recently, thanks largely to the antics of Don King and a few other shady characters. What I learned, though, is that promoters like Roy adhere to a few solid business principles that make them successful. Here are ten that I picked up this past weekend, that seem to drive Roy and his team.

1. Always pay attention to details. The professionally printed fight card won’t make people buy tickets, nor will the police beacons above the ring poles. But, they do convey a sense of uniqueness and professionalism. These sorts of subtle clues can influence your credibility in a big way. Which leads us to #2:
2. Credibility is everything. You have to cultivate relationships in business in order to last. The degree to which you can make and keep commitments and continuously deliver a phenomenal product at a great value is directly related to your longevity.
3. Have fun. Though Roy got a bit stressed immediately before the fighter weigh in, he always looked in control and like he was loving it. As the night unfolded, Roy took on the persona of a master puppeteer, as his meticulously crafted show unfolded to the delight of the sold out crowd. He was entertaining 1500 people, and having a ball.
   

   Yours truly with Michael Buffer. "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"

4. Bartering is good business. You have something of value. You need something of value from another businessman. In a world where cash is king, the act of bartering buoys many a small business. Roy is a mastermind at the act of trade. Professionally printed fight cards? 20 seats. Fight Staff? Internship credit at the local junior college. Even Richard Schaeffer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions (on it’s way to becoming the largest fight promoter in the country), stressed the importance of bartering. Many of their sponsorship deals for their upcoming MMA fight have some sort of trade aspect to them.
5. Do good. This one is pretty self explanatory, but for Roy, it is central to his character and his operation. If you do good, good things happen. Not just to you, but to the people around you, your sponsors, your fighters, employees, and so on.
6. Empty seats breed empty seats. Roy will barter huge blocks of seats in exchange for products or services. While the exchange itself is valuable, there is also value in his attendees’ perception of a full house. It’s like verification that they are doing the popular thing. If you went into a restaurant at lunch hour and the place was empty, how confident would you be in the quality of the meal? In a more generic business sense, find out how much of your product you can afford to give away in order to establish a sense of presence in the market.
   

   The "Winterfist" Fight sold out completely.

7. Try some crazy ideas. Jeff and I got pretty tickled hearing about some of Roy’s ideas. The most memorable was one where he set up a barber’s chair in the back of the boxing arena and ran a hair cutting promotion in the middle of a boxing match. For every crazy idea that didn’t work though, Roy had ten examples of things that did. Never be afraid of risk.
   
8. Know who your customers are. You don’t sell out 19 straight shows on accident. Roy spends no money on radio, TV, or print advertising either. What he does do is create exciting incentives for every show attendee to provide their name and contact information. Roy used a cash prize promotion, a pretty straightforward idea. But, he incorporated principles of showmanship (calling out the winner and inviting them to a ringside seat for one bout) and instant and visible gratification (the winners were paid, in the ring, in front of everyone) to make it almost impossible to resist.
   
9. Great people make a great operation. As part of the curriculum we got to watch one of Roy’s MMA fights. There were seven incredible bouts, many by fighters making their professional debut. Roy’s matchmaker, Arnold Berger, has a huge future in the business. The degree to which he spends his time and effort really getting to know the fighters was evident in the quality of the matches. The two hour show never got boring, even in between the bouts, thanks to Mike Hart, the ring announcer. Mike carried on a conversation with 1500 people with a smooth as butter style. And don’t even get me started on the ring girls. Roy hires right, period.
   
10. Passion breeds achievement, achievement breeds success. This sounds like one of those cheesy inspiration posters, but it is nonetheless true. Only through the continuous relentless dedication of themselves to producing top quality shows has Roy and team been able to enjoy the success they have. You can’t fake it in that sort of pressured environment. Without passion, you burn out quickly.

    

    Jeff and “Razor” Rob McCullough

Check out Roy’s website at www.battleintheballroom.com.