The Shift Toward League- and Team-Owned Ticketing Has Begun

The Shift Towards League- and Team- Owned Ticketing Has Begun

Sports Business Journal reported in October that the National Football League is exploring ‘revolutionary changes to its ticketing business’ –including possibility consolidating control of all tickets at the league level and assuming ownership of its own platform– come March 2027 when existing deals with Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, and Sports Illustrated Tickets are set to expire.

While the NFL prioritized sponsor and fee share revenue during its last round of ticketing-related negotiations, the belief is it will take greater control of the ecosystem moving forward. The league recognizes fans no longer value season tickets the way they once did, nor do they want to sit in a frill-less upper deck at the same frequency, and knows it needs full access to the levers that power marketing and promotional support to keep stadiums full (see: MLB’s efforts with Tickets.com).  

“The ability to trace a [digital] ticket wherever it is and to have stronger identity attached to the data enables [rights owners] to act on it,” Frédéric Longatte (CEO, SECUTIX) said in an exclusive interview with JohnWallStreet over the summer. 

Pivoting from the status quo will also enable the NFL to regain command of –and the revenues associated with– the secondary market. 

“Who is in better position to enforce [technical resale requirements and capitalize on the fans’ engagement] than the leagues and teams,” Longatte said.

While the idea of a rights owner maintaining complete control of ticketing distribution may sound far-fetched to U.S. sports executives, it’s already happening abroad. Teams and federations across Europe –including UEFA and FIFA– have built or licensed technology and brought operations in-house.

The landscape is undoubtedly different across the Atlantic. Most teams and leagues/federations in continental Europe manage their own ticketing business.

“You don’t have a dominant [third-party] distributor, like Ticketmaster,” Longatte said. There are “regional and national distributors.” 

There’s also no secondary market for sporting event tickets. Governmental regulations prevent it. So, fans unload seats on the rights owner’s resale channels.

But the belief is teams and leagues in the U.S. will inevitably follow suit–and likely sooner than later.

“We [are starting to] see some cracks [in the establishment’s foundation] happening,” Longatte said. “Last year, there was a Cricket World Cup. It was the first time that any large-scale global tournament was delivered on U.S. soil without Ticketmaster [participation].”

The International Cricket Council assumed the responsibility.

FIFA distributed a number of seats to the 2025 Club World Cup too (see: club, sponsor, VIP tickets). Ticketmaster’s existing venue contracts protected its right to distribute inventory to the general public.

Those cracks will get larger this summer when the World Cup arrives in North America. Many Americans will experience a rights owner-controlled and branded ticketing ecosystem for the first time.

There are a multitude of reasons for teams and leagues to own ticketing technology. Their desire to collect valuable fan insights is top the list.

“By controlling ticketing, rights owners can trace all of their tickets and get all that related fan data under their control,” Longatte said. “Meaning knowing where the ticket is, whose hand it is in at all times, and which value transacts.”

They can also gain context on the fans’ experience before, during, and after arriving at the stadium (think: ticketed pre-game tailgate parties).

Rights owners with their own ecosystem can enhance the fans’ experience interacting with the organization too (think: ease purchasing, transferring, and/or using tickets).

And, at least in theory, provide faster support should something go awry. 

“They don't depend on a very large player with many other things to do,” Longatte said.

Then, there is the financial upside associated with the investment.

“At the moment, there are a lot of actors in the U.S. making a lot of money that should rightfully either be distributed to the franchise or league, or to the benefit of the fan,” Longatte said.

These are professional resellers operating across the multitude of non-officially licensed sites.  

Regaining control and operation over the secondary market will enable rights owners to eliminate that leakage and command a portion of resale fee proceeds. It should allow them to be nimbler with pricing and how they go about selling primary market inventory too (think: segmented groups with custom offers). 

Few of SECUTIX’s enterprise-level clients struggle to sell seats. Instead, they’re focused on growing revenues at largely sold-out events, and the advanced tech enables the sale of more than just ducats.

For example, a team or federation might “combine the ticket with a merchandising bundle, an insurance product, or coupons for beer,” Longatte said. At that point, “it’s not [just] a ticket anymore, [the purchase becomes] a small Amazon experience.”

Ancillary products and services can ‘easily’ increase customer spending by 10%-15%.

Of course, cutting out 3^rd party ticketing partners also means retaining 100% of the fees generated (less software license fees). For context, distributors typically charge 6%-12% of the purchase price.

For fans, greater rightsholder control should translate into more reasonable fees across both primary and secondary ticket markets.

That’s doesn’t mean big four leagues and teams are going to pivot towards this new model overnight. Each has primary ticketing agreements in place with large established entities, existing venue agreements, and counts on secondary market sponsorship dollars (think: official resale platform).

But the belief is a move towards O&O platforms is inevitable.

As new venues are constructed there will be opportunities for teams to reconsider their ticketing options. And once one brave property makes the move and finds success, others will quickly follow suit.