eBay is selling StubHub to Swiss ticket reseller Viagogo for $4.05 billion. This is not the nightmare scenario that ticketing consultant Eric Fuller outlined in his recent Medium post, in which VividSeats buys StubHub and the resale market goes from three major players to two (Live Nation and Vivid). But any consolidation leaves smaller resale players pushed to the brink as they try to figure out new ways to compete. It also creates a depressing choice for venues: relent to the heavyweights and their terms or go it alone (a la Southwest Airlines, as Eric states).

But what if I told you there was a third option, a way to change how this game is played?

In his post, Eric points out that “supply of tickets is the lifeblood of resale.” This statement is correct, but it’s predicated on the assumption that ticketing is a market of assets that can be acquired, warehoused, and dispensed at an opportune time to financially benefit the distributor (i.e., the reseller).

But what if we were able to shift the perception of what a ticket is? Instead of an asset, which can be acquired, hoarded, and dispensed to the benefit of the few with market power, what if we treated it as a license?

This is actually what a ticket is and has always been — a license to an experience. We see this when we look at some of the most egregious violations of these licenses. During Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Kyle Lowry leapt into the front row seats chasing after a loose ball. Moments later, he was shoved by a Warriors fan a few seats down who also happens to be a minority owner in the Warriors. That fan was promptly ejected from the game and banned from attending future games for a year (rightly so). If the ticket were an asset, that fan would have a claim to that seat (especially given his actual ownership stake in the team). But as it turns out, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have a right to that seat because the right to that seat is a revocable license, not an asset. If you still don’t agree with me, read the fine print on the ticket — it tells you that it’s a license.

So why has the ticketing industry allowed tickets to be co-opted as assets? The simplest answer is that the industry has not kept pace with technology capable of addressing the issues around ticket (license) management and distribution. Up until now, venues and primary rights holders had a difficult choice: effectively manage their tickets or broadly distribute them. They will soon realize there’s a third option — effective management AND broad distribution.

Technology makes it possible to change the game by giving venues more control over their tickets. They can use the resale market to reach the broad distribution they have now while also keeping track of exactly who has the license to a ticket, no matter how many times it’s shared or resold. That ultimately means a better ticketing experience for fans.

That is what we have built at True Tickets for one major ticketing platform and its venues and that is what we are building for the industry more broadly — a service that provides much-needed license management and distribution. At True Tickets, we are hyper focused on ensuring a ticket is what it was always meant to be — a license to an experience.