A new feature we started rolling out over the weekend is Seat View. Basically, it lets you get an idea of the view you’ll have from a given seat. This feature will only be available for sporting events and will be rolled out gradually across all sports. Currently, almost all NHL games have this feature.

On supported events, you will see a little camera icon () next to seat sections. All you have to do to hover your mouse over the camera and an image will be shown to you. Not all sections will have images due to a lack of strict naming conventions on the part of ticket resellers, but most will and we’re always working to improve accuracy so please report issues!

Finally, a quick screenshot:

Update: After a very long night, NBA seat views are up as well:
http://sports.ticketstumbler.com/new-york-knicks/2009-4-15/new-jersey-nets-at-new-york-knicks-12787/

Update 2: MLB seat views are now up!

That’s right folks, it’s a going-out-of-business sale here at TicketStumbler and ALL DATA MUST GO! (even though we’re really staying in business; semantics!)

We thought it would be really cool to build a free, easy API. So we did. What you do with the data is up to you, but we hope you use it to make something awesome! To get started, read the API Documentation.

This API was brought to you so speedily (3 days development time!) with the help of wapi. Thanks for the great (also free) software, Alberto!

Today on Techcrunch, Michael Arrington added his thoughts about the secondary ticket market, specifically referring to Trent Reznors’ comments.

Pricing tickets is very, very hard. Demand for an event peaks just before it occurs, then falls to zero as it begins, like food that has gone bad. Changes in the economy have a dramatic impact on ticket prices, too. A good ticket broker is thinking about the quality of the event, the date of the event, the venue, the seat locations and the state of the local economy when pricing tickets. And if they do it wrong, they eat their inventory and take a loss.

The benefit to the artists and promoters is clear – brokers create a smooth demand curve for tickets. When an event doesn’t do well, no one feels bad for the brokers. But when tickets for a hot event go for four or five times the face value of a ticket, everyone points to the brokers and says they’re greedy. What they don’t realize is that the broker has paid so many people along the way for those tickets, they’re probably only making a 10% margin on their investment. And that’s when things go well.

Arrington, who used to be the COO of Razorgator, is dead on. I’m going to copy and paste Tom’s and my comments from the Hacker News discussion (a news site devoted to startups) on the topic and add some elaboration.

The vast majority of people are never going to understand supply & demand. They’ll always feel entitled to face value prices while ignoring basic market realities. The Chicago Cubs experimented a few years back with a variation of an auction format for primary ticketing and it completely bombed. Now, instead, they have vested interests in most of the broker shops populating the area around Wrigley Field including roof top tickets. Similar end result, different method.My favorite stories relate to when an artist gives out tickets for a free show then becomes enraged when a secondary market forms for them. Their problems would be a lot bigger if a market never formed to begin with… Update: a perfect example of this is Jay Leno

Also, if the team/fan is really concerned with certain people being excluded due to prices, they should hold a lottery based on cell phone verification. Or make tickets will-call pick up only (photo ID and purchasing credit card required). But even methods like this can be gamed and often lead to more headaches. The interesting part about all of this is the opposite is happening for most teams and artists:

http://ticketstumbler.com/new-stuff/2009/03/08/reillys-right-tickets-are-cheap/

Additionally, Tom added:

Nobody is buying tickets so kids can’t get them. They’re buying them to re-sell them at a higher price because there is a market for tickets at that price. They’re not buying them to hoard them for a rainy day or something.The reality is, for most events you can get tickets for face value, through the primary provider, if you do so in a remotely timely fashion. The other reality is that for most events that have a large secondary market you can get tickets well below face value.

Real “scalpers”, the people who stand around at games, are providing a service. They are selling tickets for cost + a convenience fee to be paid by whoever found it too inconvenient to get tickets earlier (or felt like “playing the market” or whatever).

The biggest problem with the ticket industry isn’t the secondary market, it’s the lack of transparency from not only Ticketmaster but from the promoters, artists and teams associated with them. And while there are still many events that completely sell out, the majority do not. For event goers this means deals can be had. Also, in recent congressional hearing, the CEO of Ticketmaster, Irving Azoff, testified that Ticketmaster only sells 60% of its total tickets. Meanwhile MLB attendance is expected to drop a staggering 20%. For teams and artists in this economy, the real challenge is the empty seats and canceled tour stops.

That’s right cats and kittens, TicketStumbler now includes theater tickets! You can access these tickets at the brand-spankin’-new subdomain created just for ‘em:

http://theater.ticketstumbler.com/

When we first started TicketStumbler, we planned to stick to sports tickets for quite a while – they’re what we know best and what we thought were the most popular. However, the day we launched we were already seeing searches for concert tickets (despite the site not saying anything about concert tickets!). That prompted us to add concerts. Then it became apparent to us that this whole “theater” (I prefer “theatre”) thing was pretty popular, too. I wonder what the secondary market will start selling next… whatever it is, we’ll be on top of it!

In Rick Reilly’s [1] column this week, he writes that because of the recession, season ticket holders are dumping their tickets for ten cents on the dollar. He starts with a hypothetical $100 and browses the internet to see how many events he can go to before “spending” it all  [2].

Let’s start with a little NBA. You’ve heard the average NBA ticket is $48.83? Pah! I could’ve bought a ticket to the March 27 Nuggets at Mavericks game for $1.99. No lie. A very good NBA game for less than actual nuggets (McDonald’s, $3.29). Events: One. Money left: $98.01. I would’ve had to pay a little more to see the Raptors-Rockets on March 3—$3. Maybe I’ll sue. Events: Two. Left: $95.01.

It’s not just NBA tickets.

Wizards at Spurs on March 6? Would 99 cents be within your price range? True, it’s a balcony corner seat at the blimp-hangar known as the AT&T Center in San Antonio—which means you’re practically in Waco—but so what? Or, that same day, I could’ve taken in a little NASCAR—for six bucks. That’s how much it would’ve cost to see the Friday qualifying for the Kobalt Tools 500 near Atlanta. No, it ain’t the race. It’s faster than the race! Last year, the pole winner was Jeff Gordon. Six bucks? Are you nuts for nets? How about a night at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, March 25? OK, it’s pricey: $14.56 (eBay), but Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are scheduled to play. What do you want, a post-match loofa? (We’ll work on it.) Events: 8. Left: $49.96

This trend has become more apparent as the recession has progressed. Discounted tickets started springing up towards the end of the NFL football season when you could buy Lions, Bengals or Rams tickets for $5-$20. It wasn’t just the terrible teams either. The Arizona Cardinals – the team that went to the Super Bowl – had problems selling out their first playoff game. As did the Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers. The NFL had to extend their local television blackout deadlines multiple times…for playoff games.

We expect this trend to continue through baseball season and likely even longer. Most baseball games don’t sellout anyway (unless you’re the Yankees, Red Sox or Cubs) and now seats will be available for a fraction of their face value. Broadway sales have been off. Further tests include summer concert sales and NFL season ticket renewal rates, but the early signs are bad. Each of the major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR and the NHL) have had layoffs. Luxury tax concerns caused one of the strangest NBA trade deadlines in recent memory.  And while the NBA is quick to point to their increase in attendance, the number is misleading.  Those attendance numbers are for paid attendance not actual attendance. One only has to look at the empty stands and lifeless corporate suites to understand what’s happening: season ticket holders are skipping out and corporations consider their suites sunk costs.

The NBA took out a $175 million loan to help half the league. The NHL  has done something similar. Teams are hurting. In an effort to get someone…anyone… in to the arena, teams have heavily discounted their tickets and introduced myriad packages and deals. The NHL’s Florida Panthers are promising free tickets to some of their customers if the team misses the playoffs. The NBA’s New Jersey Nets are giving away their tickets for free. Baseball’s Minnesota Twins are offering season tickets for $250.

Events aren’t selling [3]. How else could you explain a company with a monopoly throwing themselves in to a ill-conceived merger that would obviously be met with waves of lawsuits and opposition. Why would the monopoly company’s CEO rail against their quasi-wholesalers? Desperation. Entertainment is pure disposable income [4].

I write this all not to complain – there’s enough recession screamers out there -  but to observe. For someone who has never had the opportunity to see their favorite team play or who has always wanted truly great seats to a game, now’s the time to do it.  And I say that not as the co-founder of a ticket search engine and directory, but as a fan.  Shop around on Craigslist, Ticketmaster, Livenation and maybe even TicketStumbler too [5]. Call the teams up and see if you can get a deal. I organized a Bruins game for my college’s alumni group and was able to get tickets for half-off. Look for deals; they’re everywhere.

[1] Yeah, I know.

[2] His calculations unfortunately leave out fees and shipping. As more teams move to e-tickets, these will hopefully be reduced considerably.

[3] Of course, there are numerous exceptions.

[4] I’ve read numerous articles saying that during the Great Depression, movie ticket sales actually increased as people wanted an escape.

[5]