It’s a small ticketing company tucked into the offices of the Intrepid Theatre Co., with a client list that is starting to cover the city.
But Victoria’s Ticket Rocket has a goal to make a big splash beyond its home base in the box-office game.
The company, a full-service ticket operation with back-end support and its own proprietary software, is starting to make a name for itself at smaller local venues and special events and what would be considered second-tier sports leagues.
Ticket Rocket anticipates doing more than $2.5 million in business this year.
Ticket Rocket was launched this spring, but traces its roots to a chance meeting of Victorians in New Zealand during a World Cup rugby game in 2011.
Victoria natives Chris Noel and Matt Davey met through friends in Dunedin New Zealand and developed a friendship that grew into a realization their business backgrounds could come together. Davey had established a ticketing service called Ticket Direct in New Zealand while Noel had been working on a ticket-upgrade software application.
“Between Victoria, which we had in common, and the fact I was working on ticketing, we hit it off. We started thinking there was something we could do together,” says Noel. Ticket Rocket is the product of Davey’s back-end system and Noel’s company, Hipwood Digital, which builds a “more mobile-friendly service” that expands on the existing
ticket system.”
Both acknowledge it’s a tough business to crack, given the dominance of Ticketmaster and in-house vendors Select Your Tickets, used by Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, and the Royal and McPherson Theatre Society’s box office system.
Noel said going up against Ticketmaster and places like B.C. Place and Rogers Arena is daunting given the money needed to buy into that space, but he is sure that from a technology standpoint they can compete.
As for in-house ticket operations, Noel doesn’t see them as competitors. “They don’t own their own software and we would like to be in a scenario where we would be their back-end provider,” Noel says. “Ticket Rocket can live as a branded box office ticket provider, but it could also sit in behind the scenes of someone else’s branded box office like Select Your Tickets or the McPherson.
“Our hope is they see value in partnering with someone across the street from them rather than someone out of San Diego, and we could tailor a solution just for them.”
Victoria seems to be both a good starting point and useful a testing ground for the company as it hones its system and processes.
Noel said Ticket Rocket has more than 20 local arts venues as clients as well as popular sports franchises, the Victoria Shamrocks lacrosse team and Victoria HarbourCats baseball team. And there are some restaurants, such as the Heron Rock Bistro and the Crooked Goose which have used the service for special events.
“We are targeting the second-tier cities where we’re not competing with Ticketmaster for large sponsorship dollars,” Noel said.
The Shamrocks and HarbourCats are “ideal teams for us, where we can provide a higher-end ticketing service, but at price points that are much more competitive,” hesaid. “It’s not a $5 surcharge on an $8 baseball ticket, for example.
“Victoria is an ideal-sized market for what we’re going after,” said Noel. “Being able to walk people through what we do face-to-face definitely makes a difference.”
The local factor played heavily in the Harbourcats’ decision to switch to Ticket Rocket for this baseball season.
“We were looking for a solution in our ticketing area, it was a pain point,” said HarbourCats general manager Jim Swanson. “The previous company was good, but it wasn’t local and there was no one on the ground here. Ticket Rocket has been a tremendous partner and they are extremely hands-on.”
While the transition to a new system hasn’t been without the odd snag, Swanson, who welcomed 4,627 people to the home-opener last week, said it’s been the right move.
“Having people who can come down and help us with any issues around technology, process, execution is tremendously helpful for everybody,” he said. “It’s been reassuring to have a group that whenever we need someone we can have them here in 15 minutes.”
For Ben Peterson, co-owner of the Heron Rock Bistro and Crooked Goose, ease of use played into his decision to use the company as a payment option for a series of brewmaster’s dinners.
“It’s a bit unusual to pre-pay for a dinner, but we wanted a special-event feel to it and we felt a proper ticket is representative of that,” Peterson said. “I researched a few competitors, including some of the biggest, well-known ticket hosting sites and Ticket Rocket fees are very reasonable and their new site layout is easy to navigate and easy to use.
“Combined with the local aspect, and their hands-on customer service, partnering with them was a no-brainer.”
Ticket Rocket is hoping to take their made-in-Victoria model and expand to other cities.
The team, which includes Donna Lee in Los Angeles and Sean Toohey in Victoria, is looking for cities that offer a similar profile to Victoria.
