LOS ANGELES - Ticketmaster plans to launch a website next year where people can resell tickets to pro football games, the latest push by the event ticketing company into the lucrative secondary ticket market.
The company signed a multiyear deal with the National Football League that includes branding and promotion for the site, Ticketmaster said in a statement being released today.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
West Hollywood-based Ticketmaster already operates separate, so-called ticket exchange sites for 18 NFL teams, which allow ticket holders to resell their game tickets online.
The latest deal moves those teams and adds four others to the new portal set for debut sometime next year, said Ticketmaster, which is owned by New York-based Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp.
The New England Patriots currently offer a service through Ticketmaster that allows season ticket holders to sell unwanted tickets at face value to fans on the team's season ticket waiting list.
The Patriots have largely shunned the resale market. The team has revoked the season tickets of a number of fans caught reselling their seats, and the team sued StubHub in December 2006 for allegedly inciting fans to resell their tickets above face value.
But resales are a growing slice of the ticket market for sporting events, concerts, and other events, but Ticketmaster lags other online ticket resale outlets such as StubHub, which is owned by eBay Inc., and auction sites such as eBay itself.
"It's fair to say we're an underdog in the category right now," said Eric Korman, Ticketmaster's executive vice president.
"We need to really aggressively compete to win dollars and grow ahead of the competition."
Ticketmaster plans to guarantee the resold tickets, which are sent to buyers electronically, just like it does with its regular primary ticket sales.
