SANDY, UT --
Utah's world-class sports and entertainment venue, Rio Tinto Stadium, has partnered with Veritix, the industry leader in end-to-end electronic ticketing and relationship marketing applications, to provide its revolutionary Flash Seats digital ticketing technology for several Stadium events, launching Friday for the upcoming May 9 Eagles performance, the building's first-ever concert.
Flash Seats®, which also launches in time for the 2009 Real Salt Lake regular-season, allows Rio Tinto Stadium and RSL to present a convenient paperless method of ticket delivery to the venue's customers and fans. The Rio Tinto Flash Seats® website for purchasing Eagles tickets is now live at riotintostadium.flashseats.com, while the opportunity for customers to digitally manage tickets for other Rio Tinto Stadium events will be added in the near future.
"One of the most exciting aspects of this new partnership is the win-win outcome for our fans and our consumers," said Bill Manning, President, Rio Tinto Stadium and Real Salt Lake. "Flash Seats' virtual ticketing technology provides us with valuable data to better serve our customers and further strengthen the relationship our outstanding venue has with the surrounding community."
Veritix' innovative Flash Seats paperless technology eliminates the need for a ticket holder to carry a paper ticket for venue access. Instead, customers enter one or more credit card numbers into an online account, and use any of those as identification to enter the event. Upon arriving at Rio Tinto Stadium, customers simply swipe their credit card through a hand-held device, which prints a colorful, commemorative seat locator. The entire process allows fans quick access into the Stadium without the concern of forgotten, lost or stolen tickets.
Real Salt Lake and its venue are the first among Major League Soccer entities to adopt this technology, joining the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets, offering for the first time an end-to-end paperless ticketing method to customers in both the primary and secondary marketplaces.
With the Flash Seats technology, Rio Tinto Stadium and RSL also have introduced a secondary marketplace that provides ticket holders a safe and convenient environment to securely sell or transfer their virtual tickets to others over the Internet via the riotintostadium.flashseats.com site. Recipients will be assured that the tickets are valid, as electronic Flash Seats® tickets cannot be duplicated or counterfeited.
This gives Rio Tinto Stadium exclusive control of its secondary tickets and helps protect customers from fraudulent activity, something no other third party, secondary market company or ticket broker can provide. Further, because paperless tickets exist in a virtual state, they can only change hands via a digital sale or transfer that is facilitated by the Flash Seats system, which means the Stadium is able to capture information about those who actually attend the event.
By integrating its primary and secondary ticketing platforms via the Veritix solutions, Rio Tinto Stadium can maintain a single database containing accurate, detailed customer information. This enables teams and venues to develop rich behavioral profiles based on a fan's entire attendance history.
"Rio Tinto Stadium and Real Salt Lake are dynamic and forward thinking when it comes to their customers and fans. said Jeff Kline, Veritix President. "By applying advanced consumer technology to ticketing, it makes it easier, faster, and more convenient for fans, while creating a safe, secure, team-branded secondary market experience."
