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 determining a number of open seats to be allocated for sale for a given price at an event during an initial sales period using a computer aided process, the computer aided process comprising;
 placing an initial set of a plurality of open seats for sale at a first price;   storing information associated with the initial set of the plurality of open seats in a computer readable memory coupled to the computing device;   reserving at least one seat within a vicinity to each open seat from the initial set of the plurality of seats so each seat within the vicinity to each open seat from the initial set of the plurality of seats is in a hold status, the hold status is not available for sale;   identifying a first number of open seats from the initial set of the plurality of seats that have been sold or are being considered for purchase;   calculating, under control by a processor, a second number of the open seats to sell at a determined point in time based on a time dependence of the first number of open seats sold and/or being considered for purchase;   determining, under control by a processor, if the initial set of open seats placed for sale at the first price is smaller than the second number that is calculated to sell, and   if the second number of seats projected to sell is greater than the initial number placed for sale, releasing a number of the seats within the vicinity of each open seat for sale at the first price; and   outputting the number of seats that have been released.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the number of seats calculated to sell is based on sales between 1 and 3 hours after the start of the sale. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the number of seats released from the adjacent area is equal to the number of seats calculated to sell minus the number initially allocated for sale. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the initial set of the plurality of open seats comprise prime seats; wherein the initial set of the plurality of open seats is on a venue map for the event, the venue map being capable of display on a display device coupled to a computing device. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the calculating comprises predicting the number of tickets sold P at time tp, determining if P will be greater than the number of available OPEN seats (O), if the number of predicted seats that will sell is greater than the number that is available then suggest releasing additional seats where the number of additional seats is equal to P-O if available. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein predicting comprises fitting the number of tickets that will sell to an adaptive exponential functional model. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the first number of open seats considered for purchase is under an inquiry. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the determined point in time ranges from 2 hours to 4 hours. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 16  if the if the second number of seats projected to sell is less than the initial number placed for sale, releasing a number of the seats within the vicinity of each open seat for sale at the second price, the second price is less than the first price. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 16  wherein each of seats within the vicinity of the open seat is adjacent to the open seat. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising:
 placing a second set of a plurality of open seats for sale at a second price; 
 storing information associated with the second set of the plurality of open seats in a second portion of computer readable memory coupled to the computing device; 
 reserving at least one seat within a vicinity to each open seat from the second set of the plurality of seats so each seat within the vicinity to each open seat from the second set of the plurality of seats is in the hold status, the hold status is not available for sale; 
 identifying a first number of open seats from the second set of the plurality of seats that have been sold or are being considered for purchase; 
 calculating, under control by a processor, a second number of the open seats to sell at a determined point in time based on a time dependence of the first number of open seats sold and/or being considered for purchase; 
 determining, under control by a processor, if the second set of open seats placed for sale at the second price is smaller than the second number that is calculated to sell; 
 if the second number of seats projected to sell is greater than the initial number placed for sale, releasing a number of the seats within the vicinity of each open seat for sale at the second price; and 
 performing the placing, storing, reserving, identifying, calculating, and determining for an Nth set of a plurality of open seats for sale, where N is greater than 2. 
 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26  wherein the second set of the plurality of open seats being on a second portion of a venue map for the event, the second portion of the venue map being capable of display on the display device coupled to the computing device. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the computing device is selected from a computer, a mobile device, or a phone device.