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Ticketmaster, Seahawks Extend Partnership
CenturyLink Field – CenturyLink Field
Ticketmaster is still the big dog in NFL ticketing, with Seattle being the latest market to re-up with the behemoth.
The official announcement came today that the Seahawks and CenturyLink Field will be extending their agreement with Ticketmaster for primary and secondary ticketing. In the past two months the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Tennessee Titans, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have all extended their agreements with Ticketmaster, par for the course for most teams.
The competition for the rights to ticket the events may be heating up though, as the New Orleans Saints and, more recently the Dallas Cowboys, chose to go with SeatGeek, opting out of the league-wide standard agreement with Ticketmaster.
The deal between the NFL and Ticketmaster was extended in 2017, meaning TM’s Presence software will soon be incorporated into the teams’ host venues. Presence is the integration of different technologies into one digital pass that expedites entry and waiting times; facilitates better communication between fans, staff and organizers; and gathers data.
Tyler Kirby, VP of ticketing for the Chiefs, said that the transition to Presence would also affect concerts hosted at the stadium, as the team has moved to mobile-only as the method of entry for most non-sports events.
“Our Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran concerts this year will both be 100 percent mobile entry,” Kirby said in a blog post. “We also utilize mobile-only for many of our other fan events, allowing us to protect the integrity of the ticket to those that are the intended guests to that respective event.”
The digital ticketing of NFL games hasn’t been all hearts and flowers though, as last year on Aug. 31 a server issue affected a number of preseason games.
CenturyLink Field has a number of shows coming up this year, including Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Beyoncé/Jay-Z and Ed Sheeran, whose touring schedule recently forced several games to be moved to Saturdays.