Chicago Cubs
“Tickets.com has performed very well for us during crunch periods. The virtual waiting room helps manage the incredible amount of traffic we get every year.”
Carl Rice
Senior Director, Information Systems and Special Projects
Chicago Cubs
Profile
One of the most beloved sports teams in the country, the Chicago Cubs are the 2007 champions of the Central Division of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) National League. The team has hosted its home games at historic Wrigley Field since 1916, frequently playing to capacity crowds at the 41,118-seat stadium.
The Challenge
Every February, when the Cubs commence ticket sales for the coming season, fans clamor for the opportunity to watch their Cubbies at one of 81 regular season home games. And inevitably, demand for tickets far exceeds supply. So much so, in fact, that the Cubs must place limits on the number of tickets customers can purchase in an effort to provide equivalent “best ticket” availability for all Cubs’ fans.
The Solution
Tickets.com provides the Cubs with a full suite of ticketing services. Through its products and services, Tickets.com enables ticket sales on the Cubs branded website, at the Cubs’ box office, at two toll-free phone numbers for in-state and out-of-state callers, and at Chicagoland Tickets.com outlets. Regardless of the sales channel, consumers have access to the same ticket inventory.
In order to accommodate the high demand for Cubs’ tickets during peak sales periods, a virtual waiting room is used for all Internet orders. Thirty minutes prior to the on-sale, the virtual waiting room begins accepting customers who have a valid www.cubs.com account. While there, they receive a message informing them of when they will get into the purchase flow. When sales begin, customers are randomly selected from the virtual waiting room to purchase tickets.
“The virtual waiting room helps manage the incredible amount of traffic,” said Carl Rice, senior director, information systems and special projects, Chicago Cubs.
During the purchase process, customers are asked to enter a verification code that appears on their screen. This reduces system loads and helps to prevent the use of computer-based scripting language by individuals and ticket scalpers who try to gain an unfair advantage in the online transaction. The ticketing system cancels orders made by those who use these automated programs.
With other competitive systems, fans receive error messages if the system is overwhelmed, requiring them to start the purchase process over again. In the worst-case scenario, the high demand crashes these competitive systems, and ticket sales are suspended.
Key Successes
The Tickets.com system is capable of handling high transaction volumes without faults and at unsurpassed transaction speed. During the past three seasons, with virtual waiting room in use during peak sales periods, the Tickets.com system handled up to 321 transactions per minute during the 2005 peak, up to 461 transactions per minute in 2006, and 478 transactions per minute in 2007 – nearly a 50 percent increase between the first and third years. “Tickets.com has performed very well for us during these crunch periods,” said Rice.
Additional Benefits
On Friday, February 24, 2006, the Cubs broke an MLB record off the field. The team sold 597,571 tickets, establishing a franchise and MLB record for the most tickets sold in a single day. At the time, Frank Maloney, director of ticket operations, stated that "we are quite pleased with the results. The Tickets.com and MLB Advanced Media systems handled the extraordinary demand very well."
For more information, please contact our sales department:
Toll Free – (888) 397-3400
International – +1 (608) 437-3568
www.tickets.com
sales@tickets.com
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