CALABASAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“The British public deserves transparency in the Olympic ticketing sales process, and there is no reason they can’t have it now -- not at the conclusion of the process, as proposed by the London 2012 Organizing Committee.”
So says Tony Knopp, CEO and co-founder of SpotlightTMS (www.spotlighttms.com), formerly of StubHub and AEG. The London Olympic Organizing committee, LOCOG, has declined to provide a detailed analysis of approximately seven million tickets that have already been sold for the 2012 Games.
LOCOG has been criticized for potentially damaging public trust by being unnecessarily secretive about ticket sales. Knopp believes such criticism is warranted. According to Knopp, a leader in the U.S. ticketing industry, the data is available, but officials have chosen not to be transparent. “The issue is not that the organizing committee members can’t provide a detailed analysis of ticket sales,” he says. “It’s that for some reason, they’ve chosen not to and it’s difficult to understand why. If everything is on the up-and-up, as it very well may be, why take the PR hit?”
The organizing committee claims that 75 percent of all tickets will be sold to the British public, promising fairness and affordability in allocation and pricing. But Knopp is not buying it. “If they have the data and it supports what they claim, then why not release it? Why not cut off the bad press? Every day, we see companies or people within them trying to stifle transparency in ticketing. More often than not, it turns out they are doing so to cover up sub-optimal or outright unethical behavior.”
LOCOG’s critics, including the London Assembly, maintain that there is too much secrecy surrounding the allocation and pricing of tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which they claim is shutting out locals from purchasing tickets at affordable prices. “The British people are footing the bill for the $14.6 billion London 2012 Games,” Knopp says. “At the very least, they deserve to know if they have a shot at getting tickets to the Games, especially for the Men's 100 meter final and other popular events. The data is available.”
London Assembly members want an accounting of how many tickets have been sold so far and at what price, to determine if a disproportionate number of tickets have been sold at higher prices. The Assembly first asked for the information at the start of 2011, and says that other Olympic committees, including Sydney’s, were able to provide the data in a timely fashion.
“Surely, with advances in ticketing technology over the past 12 years, LOCOG has the capability to provide the analysis now,” Knopp says, noting that for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, customers manually completed order forms that were returned by mail and scanned using optical character reader (OCR) technology. The 2002 Winter Olympics marked the first time that initial ticket requests were handled through the Internet. “Advances in ticketing technology, especially the maturation of Internet ticket sales, should result in much better accounting and transparency, but, for some reason, that hasn’t been the case for London 2012,” he notes.
Britons will get their next opportunity in April to purchase tickets for the London 2012 Games. “If LOCOG wants to regain trust from the people who are paying for the 2012 Olympic Games, the organizing committee must make its ticketing sales process completely transparent before the next round of sales begins,” he says. "Based on our experience, those opposed to transparency are the most likely to be misusing the tickets they manage. Where there is smoke, there is often fire. I hope that’s not the case here and that it’s just a matter of poor communication. If so, then my recommendation to the committee is to eliminate any cloud of suspicion and make the data available now.”
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WHO: |
Tony Knopp, CEO and co-founder of SpotlightTMS. Knopp provides a keen insight into all aspects sports and entertainment. Prior to his leadership role at SpotlightTMS, he had more than 10 years’ experience in the sports, entertainment and Internet industries, most recently as department head of StubHub’s corporate sales team. It was while at StubHub, where he worked with Fortune 1000 corporate customers, that he saw a void in the marketplace for a solution that could measure the business impact of companies’ investment in luxury suites and tickets. So he left the secondary ticket marketplace and co-founded SpotlightTMS with another StubHub sales executive, Joe Greiner. Melding his business background with his passion for sports and technology, Knopp offers an innovative approach to forging partnerships with teams and providing solutions to corporations’ in today’s economic times. |
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WHAT: |
SpotlightTMS (www.spotlighttms.com) is an enterprise SaaS provider that enables companies to maximize the business impact of sports and entertainment ticket investments while maintaining compliance standards. Its SpotlightTMS™ application is currently in use managing millions of dollars in entertainment investments by companies that want to manage their entertainment asset investments in a simple, transparent way. SpotlightTMS includes a business impact engine that allows companies to drive and measure direct business outcome, such as ensuring utilization, assessing sponsorship effectiveness and measuring ticket use as a driver of revenue. The company is based in Calabasas, Calif. |
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HOW: |
To speak with Tony Knopp, contact: |
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| Ken Greenberg | ||
| Edge Communications, Inc. | ||
| 818-990-5001 |