History[edit]
The original Ticketron was based in Fort Lee, New Jersey and its president was Clayton B Hulsh.[1] Ticketron unsuccessfully trialled its computerized ticketing system in summer 1967 and folded later that year.[2] The name was bought by a rival, Ticket Reservations Systems, Inc (TRS) and became the name of the service run by TRS in July 1969.[3]
Ticket Reservations Systems, Inc had been incorporated on May 4, 1965 and was based in New York. It was funded by Cemp Investments headed by Edgar Bronfman Sr.[4] It hired Jack Quinn who became president and the company started selling tickets in May 1967 from six Alexander's stores in New York and New Jersey using a duplexed Control Data Corporation 1700 computer system with terminal equipment supplied by Computer Applications, Inc. that it called "electronic box offices".[5][4] TRS initially charged 25 cents to the customer and 25 cents to the event but returned 12.5 cents to the house. It moved to a 10% charge in 1970.[3] The terminals expanded to other publicly accessible locations, such as banks and department stores.
The original software resided on a pair (one for backup) of CDC 1700 computers located on the first floor of the Beverly Hilton Hotel with a large window facing Wilshire Blvd. The system had back-up power generators in the basement to help ensure un-interruptible service. The system was designed to ensure that a given 'seat' at an event could not be sold more than once.
In 1969, 51% of TRS was sold to Control Data for $3.9 million with Edgar Bronfman Sr. and his family retaining 25%.[4][3] Former ABC television president, Thomas W. Moore became chairman of TRS.[3]
Another competitor, Computicket, owned by Computer Sciences Corporation, folded in April 1970 leaving Ticketron as the sole computerized ticketing provider in the US.[3] In 1973, Control Data bought out Cemp Investments.[4] In 1979, Ticketron starting selling tickets by phone.[6]
In addition to the better-known event ticketing system, Ticketron also provided ticketing terminals and back-end infrastructure for parimutuel betting, and provided similar services for a number of US lotteries, including those in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington and Maryland.[7]
By the mid 1980s, Ticketron had 600 outlets in 22 US states and Canada.[7] By 1990, Ticketron had 750 outlets and had a 40% market share, behind Ticketmaster with 50% of the market.[6] In 1990 the majority of Ticketron's assets and business, with the exception of a small antitrust carve-out for Broadway's "Telecharge" business-unit, were bought by The Carlyle Group who sold it the following year to rival Ticketmaster, which had been founded in 1976.[8][9]
The Ticketron name was revived in 2017 as an online ticket service Ticketron.com[10] after Ticketmaster sold the brand name in 2017.[11]