The LA Clippers are making it easier for fans to buy and sell tickets by partnering with Vivid Seats to facilitate secondary market sales.
The Steve Ballmer-owned NBA franchise signed a multi-year deal with Vivid Seats to integrate primary and secondary sales. Vivid Seats will work with the team’s ticketing provider AXS and provide incentives for season ticket holders—who the Clippers refer to as MVPs—to sell tickets they don’t plan to use through the marketplace. Some perks for MVPs might include ticket upgrades, unique experiences at Staples Center, and waived service fees.
The deal with the Clippers, which kicks off at the beginning of the 2018/19 season, marks the first official NBA partnership for Vivid Seats, the largest independent ticket marketplace in North America. It will enable fans to simultaneously search for and post tickets on both Vivid Seats and the AXS marketplace on Clippers.com with just a few clicks.
“This gives us an opportunity to allow fans to post to multiple marketplaces with one click of a button,” said Gillian Zucker, the Clippers’ president of business operations.
The partnership is about making things easier for Clippers season ticket holders, who have to manage their seats during one of the longest seasons in professional sports, said Zucker.
“The NBA season is a long season, it’s something we acknowledge,” she said.
Over the long term, Vivid plans to work with the Clippers to help navigate the constantly evolving world of ticket sales and game access. This deal already supports mobile buying, selling, and ticketing, and Zucker said that the team has broader visions that will further reduce friction for fans.
“We’re committed to constantly improving the experience,” she said. “As we’ve been working with [Vivid Seats], we’ve thought of new things along the way that could make the experience even better.”
The team is already considering ways to bring mobile ticketing and frictionless experiences to fans as it looks to build a new arena “over the course of the not-too-distant future,” said Zucker.