Costco Tickets - Pollstar News

Ticketmaster and Costco are expected to announce the launch of CostcoTickets.com, a partnership that utilizes Ticketmaster’s open platform to move its inventory over Costco’s online services.

Ticketmaster and Costco are partnering to launch CostcoTickets.com this month. So far it’s basically for sporting events at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Costco launched its ticketing website with little fanfare beyond an email blast and at press time it only offered tickets to some sporting events in Southern California, like a Clippers game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and tickets to Goldenvoice’s Desert Trip festival in Indio. (“Originally $1690 per ticket, now available for the special Costco member price of $1349 per ticket!”)

Costco’s corporate communications department refused to cooperate with this article, but Ticketmaster was enthusiastic. “The partnership brings the largest global inventory of live event tickets to Costco’s massive customer base of 83 million registered members,” TM told Pollstar in a statement. “The most recent addition to Ticketmaster’s open platform reinforces that through its open APIs (application program interfaces), content owners are able to access the broadest distribution methods possible to ensure their tickets get into the hands of fans.”

Since TM has opened its API to partners earlier this year, the shift has allowed entities like Facebook and Tidal to incorporate ticketing into their businesses; Ticketmaster estimates that when it comes to Costco’s incorporation, ticketing will be the third-largest-selling segment of the company, trailing only automotive products and electronics. The impact may not be immediate; phone calls to various Costco offices, including to CostcoTickets.com itself, and a visit to the local Costco outlet in Fresno were met with surprise that tickets were now part of Costco.

A search on TM for a Lakers vs. Nets game found seats available at Costco that were sold on TM. Four tickets, 13 rows from the floor, were selling at Costco for $229 each while the entire game was sold out on TM.

However, TM said those discrepancies will be rectified at the full launch; the API is still in development mode and inventory is still being adjusted. It is also possible that Costco is getting inventory through brokers to test the website and will be consistent with TM after the full launch.

The Costco website also touts the “TicketsDirect” platform; a TM representative speculated that is a term Costco created in house.