CALABASAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“People buy luxury suites and season tickets because doing so is smart business, not because of a tax write-off,” says Tony Knopp, CEO and co-founder of SpotlightTMS (www.spotlighttms.com), and former executive at StubHub. “Corporate buyers use sports as a way to bond with their customers and prospects to drive revenue.”
Knopp was responding to a proposal by the Ontario provincial government to eliminate a tax exemption allowing businesses to write off sports tickets. Ontario currently allows businesses to write off up to 50 percent of all tickets and luxury suites for sporting events and other live performances. Knopp’s company works with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. and the Calgary Flames, among other Canadian businesses.
“Both sides need to rethink the issue, starting with calling a spade a spade,” Knopp says. “For the Finance Minister, it’s about the need to raise revenue, not about eliminating a boondoggle tax deduction. For the Senators, it’s not about losing the tax deduction for tickets – it’s about the need to continue to provide compelling events and helping their customers to maximize the business impact of attendance at Senators’ games.
“Entertaining at sporting events builds and strengthens business relationships,” he notes. “Luxury suites are becoming alternative meeting places because they provide an ideal environment for closing deals. Tax write-offs are just an added incentive. So, tax deduction or not, companies will continue to turn to sporting events because they drive real business. Life will go on, tax revenues will increase and the Senators will continue to win corporate support -- as well as hockey games.“
Knopp disagrees with the suggestion that eliminating the tax break will automatically cost teams and venues their corporate clients. “Teams in smaller markets, such as the Ottawa Senators, might initially have a more difficult time retaining their corporate suite holders if the proposal goes into effect,” he says. “But corporations can more than offset the loss of the tax credit with increased revenue from better use of their tickets and suites.”
“While the tax break may certainly be an incentive, I have yet to see a client who would cancel based on that proverbial straw,” Knopp adds. “It’s more likely they will cancel when they don't see value in the total amount invested. The average retail ticket sold is less than $50; by contrast, the average corporate ticket purchase is $265.50. It’s an entirely different ballpark.”
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WHO: |
Tony Knopp, CEO and co-founder of SpotlightTMS. Knopp provides a keen insight into all aspects of the ticket sales cycle. Prior to his leadership role at SpotlightTMS, he had more than 10 years’ experience in the sports, entertainment and Internet industries, most recently as 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 corporate ticket management 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, Knopp offers an innovative approach to forging partnerships with teams and providing solutions to corporations’ ticket management needs. | |||
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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: | |||
| Ken Greenberg | ||||
| Edge Communications, Inc. | ||||
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818.990.5001 |
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