BONUS: Industry Takes on StubHub's IPO (Round 1)
Hi.
I haven’t had time to get through the StubHub prospectus yet, but I did ask around about what people thought.
Here are some takes.
I’ll get my notes together later.
More takes as I get them.
“I will be shorting, not tickets but StubHub stock!” -Scott Friedman
Love this one:
"It is fascinating timing as the ticket marketplace segment has become crowded with the growth of affiliate sites.
A lot of new investments in the space and potential legal changes, such as all-in upfront pricing, are helping to level the playing field.
That being said, tickets are moving more and more to a full distribution model, so the long-term potential in the space is not small" - Mike Guiffre, consultant and never wrong.
“This isn't StubHub's first go with going public and many industry experts believe there is value for the market to have other firms scale up and offer an alternative.
If this will help a competitor more meaningfully challenge the market monopolist Ticketmaster, bring it on.
When you consider Ticketmaster's brazen pricing strategy and ticketholder restrictions policies, which reflect classic exclusionary and harmful market conduct when real competition is lacking, market participants up and down the service chain, and consumers, need another company to go public and go big. I'm rooting for all of the underdogs.” —Brian Berry, Advocacy Director at Protect Ticket Rights
The Future of Music Coalition referred me to this post.
Garrett Nolan, veteran box office…
“My thoughts are that StubHub has taken a look around and seen what Seat Geek has done as they have successfully moved into the primary ticketing space and signed several large-scale clients and they are going to try to do the same.
StubHub is stating that its profits are up 30% in 2024, and now, with this IPO, they’re gonna have some serious change to throw around to try to land primary ticketing clients. They also have relationships with a lot of teams, venues, and promoters, which will also help them out.
I feel like we’re heading towards a situation where the primary and secondary markets are consolidating so that companies are handling both types of ticketing. Ticketmaster started this business model, and it’s been successful for them, and now every larger ticketing entity will try to capitalize on it.”
I put this question to brokers in a private Facebook group.
A few responses…
A broker and consultant:
“Not worth it on so many levels
First: 2 Share class structure
Second: proceeds being used to cash out investors
Third: when you are this large, growing profits will come out of “Our”
Fees Increasing
Fourth: the constantly changing worldwide legal environment
( aside, can any of us predict 3 to 5 years from now our ability to still scalp tickets? )
Fifth: without the ability to use bots
where would most of us be?
( hint, not in the ticket business)
Six: StubHub is all about the data And
sharing/ selling it. They will be branching out into merchandise sales
Pre and Post shows, Using AI to help identify Season Ticket Holders, to teams to reclaim tickets.
All the above are reasons not to buy the StubHub IPO
There are more but my private consulting business prevents me from posting more.”
A professional reseller: “They should really put into practice everything they mentioned about retaining sellers, hassle-free payments, etc...”
Another professional reseller: “While their financials look stronger than Vivid their valuation is too high ..Also Eric Baker being given 90% of the voting rights is unfair to all the other shareholders”
In light of this IPO, I’m waiting for David C. Lowrey to drop another poll because searching Twitter for his thoughts is fun.
But this one is a banger.
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