Tulsa expanding its entertainment ticket business

How'd you like to get a ticket from the city? That might sound like a bad thing, but these aren't traffic tickets. These tickets are the good kind, sporting events, and concerts, and ballets

Friday, March 31st 2006, 12:36 pm

By: News On 6

How'd you like to get a ticket from the city? That might sound like a bad thing, but these aren't traffic tickets. These tickets are the good kind, sporting events, and concerts, and ballets and the like.

As News on 6 reporter Steve Berg reports, the city of Tulsa is getting serious about the ticket business.

The Performing Arts Center and the Convention Center have sold their own tickets to events for awhile, but now the venture has a name, MyTicketOffice.com.

John Scott: "When we decided to expand the operation and expand the breadth of events that we sell tickets for, that's when we decided we needed to put a separate name on it."

But MyTicketOffice.com isn't just their ticket office, they've attracted new partners, like the Claremore Performing Arts Center and the Oklahoma City Stage Center, along with several other venues, which pay fees to Tulsa to access the network.

John Scott: "Another beauty of the system is that we can increase revenue that accrues to the city simply by attracting more partners to the network."

The benefit to the partners is the chance for more cross-marketing opportunities than they would have alone and a central location that's makes them easier for people to find.

Andy Donkin: "As the citizens of Tulsa and Oklahoma know where to go to look for their tickets, you get more and more traffic at the site, which means you get more and more energy at the site, which means you can do different things with sponsors. It's potential new revenue generation, and there's a lot more events that can be posted on the site."

Besides the Internet, a kiosk will be in place at the Convention Center. If it works, they might put other kiosks around town.

But will fans who jump at the chance to buy ballet tickets make the leap to a rodeo? John Scott: â€œI know lots of sports fans that have other interests than just the sports that they follow, but that is the value is that they'll be there if it happens to capture their interest, then the opportunity is there."