In 2022, Barclays Center announced their seven year partnership deal with SeatGeek as their official ticket seller for the venue, but earlier this month called off their contract and went back to their original ticket seller, Ticketmaster.
According to New York Times, the reports were “immediately clear” and that both BSE Global or SeatGeek would not comment about whether there were any raising concerns with ticketing that might have suggested the switch back to Ticketmaster.
Billboard went ahead to dig a bit deeper for the source behind this switch, and concluded the issue to be about “recurring technical issues” SeatGeek would have as far selling seats for the Barclays Center.
According to Brooklyn Vegan, sources told Billboard that a Genesis 2022 date that was scheduled at the Barclays Center was canceled due to suffering from technical issues only after going on sale and never coming close to hitting the promoter’s sales goals in which they intended to have for their clients.
After the Senate hearing for both Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, they were both called “a monopoly” in the game for venues when it comes to ticket sales. SeatGeek’s CEO Jack Groetzinger goes on to testify by stating major venues “fear losing Live Nation concerts if they don’t use Ticketmaster.”
And follows by quoting:
“Live Nation controls the most popular entertainers in the world, routes most of the large tours, operates the ticketing systems and even owns many of the venues,” Groetzinger states “As long as Live Nation remains both the dominant concert promoter and ticketer of major venues in the US, the industry will continue to lack competition and struggle.”