Sports and concert event ticket pricing and visualization system

Abstract

A system and method for displaying seat inventory at a venue and facilitating planning of ticket prices for events at the venue is presented. Methods to predict total revenue for an event are described. Also presented are systems and methods for determining at what price and when to release so-called ‘flex’ price tickets during an on-sale using the sales velocity and sales/inquiry ratios. Determining demand of seats from secondary markets is also described with methods to use the demand for either repricing the seats in the primary market or presenting ‘best value’ seats to a prospective purchaser.

1 - 15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A method for selecting a ticket for an event on a mobile device, the method comprising:
 initiating a survey through a user interface, under control of a processor, for a user preference for a ticket from the mobile device,   displaying a user interface for the survey on a display of the mobile device, the user interface having a criteria of selection for the ticket, the criteria for selection being at least one of a cost selector for a cost, a value selector for a value, or a location selector for a location;   selecting at least one of the criteria desirable for a user of the mobile device;   displaying a listing of price ranges for a plurality of tickets for the event on the display of the mobile device, the listing of price ranges being a first price range, a second price range, and an Nth price range, where N is an integer greater than 2;   selecting one of the price ranges from the listing of price ranges;   displaying a scale of desirability for each of the criteria for the ticket, the scale being numbered from a first integer to an Mth integer greater than 1, the criteria being at least a cost, a value, and a location;   selecting a degree of desirability for each of the criteria for the ticket; and   creating a user preference information, under control of the processor, from the selection of the criteria desirable for the user, the selection of one of the price ranges, and the selection of the degree of desirability, and storing the user preference information into a memory.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the cost selector is a lowest price ticket selector; wherein the value selector is a lowest price ticket for a location selector; and wherein the location selector is a closeness to an action of the event. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising searching a list of events on a plurality of web sites using a crawler, under control of the processor, to identify the event. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising searching a list of events on a plurality of web sites using a crawler, under control of the processor, to identify the event and using the user preference information to output a plurality of optimal tickets for the event. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising searching a list of events on a plurality of web sites using a crawler, under control of the processor, to identify the event and using the user preference information to output an optimal ticket for the event; and displaying additional information associated with optimal ticket. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising searching a list of events on a plurality of web sites using a crawler, under control of the processor, to identify the event and using the user preference information to output an optimal ticket for the event; and displaying additional information associated with optimal ticket by mousing or selecting over a seat or location associated with the optical ticket. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the additional information is a view from the seat or location. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  further comprising selecting the optimal ticket while concurrently being redirected to a secondary website offering the optimal ticket for sale. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising selecting the event using the user preference information, under control of the processor, from a listing of events. 
     
     
         25 . A method to process and select a ticket for an event using a mobile device coupled to a communication network, the method comprising:
 receiving a list of preferences from a user of the mobile device;   receiving a list of events;   filtering the list of events based on user preferences to determine a subset of events from the user preferences;   displaying the subset of events to user of the mobile device;   transferring a selected event by the user;   transferring a plurality of available ticket for the selected event;   processing, under control of a processor, the plurality of available tickets and grouping the available tickets by value;   associating, under control of the processor, each of the groupings of the available tickets with a visual representation;   displaying the available tickets based upon the groupings in a graphical representation of a venue map for the event;   selecting one the available tickets from the graphical representation of the venue map; and   initiating a process to purchase the selected available ticket by directing the user to a web page.   
     
     
         26 . A computerized method for displaying and selecting a best valued ticket for a seat to an event for sale in a market, the market is a primary ticket market, a secondary ticket market or a primary and secondary ticket market, the method comprising:
 receiving a list of tickets and corresponding prices for sale on a market, each ticket associated with a row;   identifying the tickets in the list by a price and a location of each of the seats;   generating, by a processor, a plurality of subsets of tickets for display to the user by isolating each of the subsets by a value where the value is determined based on at least the price and the location;   associating each of the subsets with a visual representation;   displaying each of the subsets with the visual representation with a venue map of the event; and   selecting for purchase one of the tickets by access to a vendor associated with selected ticket.   
     
     
         27 . The computerized method of  claim 26  wherein the venue map is a scalable vector graphic based map. 
     
     
         28 . The computerized method of  claim 26  wherein each of the subsets of tickets, visual representations, and the venue map are displayed simultaneously on the display. 
     
     
         29 . The computerized method of  claim 26  wherein displaying to the user the subset of tickets includes displaying the tickets on the venue map for visualizing seating arrangements for each of the subsets of tickets. 
     
     
         30 . The computerized method of  claim 26  wherein the best valued ticket is a lowest priced ticket for a row. 
     
     
         31 . The computerized method of  claim 26  wherein the method is provided on a mobile device. 
     
     
         32 . The computerized method of  claim 26  further comprising using a preference to select the event. 
     
     
         33 . The computerized method of  claim 26  further comprising displaying a window associated with each of the tickets for outputting additional information. 
     
     
         34 . The computerized method of  claim 33  wherein the additional information comprises price information and location information.