About six months after a half-price e-mail discount ticket service began operating in D.C., venues that rely on it are seeing additional sales and a new, younger audience attending shows.
Goldstar Events, a Pasadena, Calif.-based firm, began selling discount tickets in D.C. last June, its first venture outside Los Angeles, according to Chief Executive Officer Jim McCarthy. The group targets individuals who enjoy live performances but are not regular theatergoers or rabid sports fans.
Venues such as theaters or jazz clubs put up a set number of tickets for sale on the company’s weekly e-mail service for free. Goldstar Events makes its money by a service charge it adds to the tickets, McCarthy explained.
Theaters are a major partner for Goldstar, but the group also markets sporting events and social gatherings, such as cooking classes. About 25,000 people in D.C. receive the weekly e-mails. Studio Theater, which began working with Goldstar in October, has sold $7,000 worth of tickets through the mailing, while Arena Stage, one of its first partners, has brought in around $40,000 worth of sales.
Nick Pietras, marketing manager for Arena Stage, said that Goldstar has brought in a different audience than the place is used to seeing in the seats.
“We have sort of gathered a Goldstar following of people who had never been here before, and now continually always go when there’s a show on Goldstar,” Pietras said.
Goldstar isn’t the first organization to promote discount tickets in the area. The Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington has partnered with other organizations such as Ticketmaster to run its TicketPlace booth on seventh Street Northwest since 1981, which provides same-day tickets for half price. Cultural Alliance did not return calls and e-mails for comment Friday.
Studio Theater splits its slow-selling tickets about equally between TicketPlace and Goldstar, said Stephen Notes, director of ticket operations for Studio Theater. He said they’ve seen a recent decline in sales from TicketPlace, which could just be a matter of audience response to the past few shows.
But Pietras said that TicketPlace still remains a steady source of sales for Arena.
“We haven’t given any less business to TicketPlace since Goldstar began,” he said.
