It seems everyone in the ticketing business knows Corey Gibbs. He is the sports savant who is a combination of family man, bon vivant, whisky connoisseur and somehow connected everywhere in far less steps than the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Oh, one other thing. Over the past few years he also commuted from Texas to Pennsylvania while obtaining his Ph.D from Wharton. So, in a rare first paragraph correction, let us start again: It seems everyone in the ticketing business knows Dr. Corey Gibbs.

Prior to, and while obtaining his Ph.D, Corey built his network of relationships to obtain and deliver tickets for high demand events such as college football, major golf championships and all professional sports. He also observed the way in which the business evolved as ticket marketplaces such as Vivid Seats or StubHub slowly took control of the customers, leaving the ticket sellers to be acquisition of supply with no relationship to the ultimate consumer of the tickets. It does not require any significant education to understand when you give control of your customers away to an unrelated marketplace, the next step is to watch as that market begins to build its own supply network at which time you become irrelevant. This is lesson one in any business school playbook: Do not give a third-party control of your customers because they will not give them back.

Corey, recognizing the twinning trends of markets taking control of consumers as they continued to increase service fees per ticket sold saw an opportunity. The world has been built on two immutable principles: Throughout history, much of the world was built by men attempting to impress women, and everybody loves a good deal. As Corey is already married to Caroline, a wonderful and accomplished woman, he went to work on that good deal thing. As do most people who are highly educated, this journey began with two simple words: what if?

Here is what he figured out: using his network of connections Corey could source tickets to almost any high demand events. So, what if instead of paying retail rates plus marketplace service fees there was a different economic model for businesses which purchased considerable numbers of tickets to entertain clients? How could Corey supply that need and deliver tickets at a lower price without compromising the quality of the seats of the caliber of the service?

For Corey, what if turned into Elite Entertainment Experiences, LLC. His solution was both elegant and obvious, although obvious often reveals itself only after someone has finally seen what was always there for the taking. What if, instead of charging a service fee on every ticket there was no service fee at all. What if, the price of the ticket paid by the user was the same price as the price Corey paid to acquire the ticket? And, what if, the relationship was not between the buyer and an impersonal internet-based marketplace, but instead was the way it used to be: a personal connection with the customer so there was knowledge of where they liked to sit, what events they might want to see they did not even know were coming, and what additional benefits such as travel arrangements or dinner reservations they would like included.

If the tickets were being sold at Coreys cost and there were no service fees paid, how could Elite Entertainment Experiences operate? It is a tiered membership-based organization with a set fee designed to deliver tickets at a discount of 13-15% from alternate options after paying the membership. There is an annual fee to buy up to $250,000 of tickets at cost, and additional fees for use at higher levels with a membership fee limit at $1,000,000 in tickets. Any tickets acquired beyond $1,000,000 are included in the membership at that level. Those who buy $1,000,000 annually in tickets can expect to save more than $150,000 after paying Elite Entertainments membership fee. Even those who buy at the $250,000 level will likely save $75,000 or more annually after paying their membership.

Members buy tickets at Coreys wholesale cost with no additional fees attached. They also benefit from Coreys knowledge and technology which helps time when tickets are best acquired, using historical knowledge of when ticket prices hit their peaks and valleys. But, more than price, expertise is critical. You need to know more than the price of a ticket. Someone also must know which ticket is better than another because they understand the venue. It does not matter how much money you have saved if you arrive and find your seat is directly behind a pole. Corey and his team know the difference between the Four Seasons and Four Seasons Landscaping.

The key idea behind Elite Entertainment Experiences is that the usual markup on tickets is more than 25%. An Elite Entertainment membership fee tends to be less than 12%. That difference provides an immediate discount in which the cost of tickets which grows as the volume of tickets acquired by any member increases.

Here is our conversation in both video and audio format:

I am a big fan of innovation and a bigger of fan of innovators. The key to success is the capacity to deliver. In this case, there is a long history in the ticket world where Corey has succeeded in building access to tickets. His new model uses that access to pioneer a new way to deliver tickets in curated fashion, at wholesale rather than the present method in which all markets simply operate as an open bazaar without guidance of which to buy or where value lays. I believe in Coreys vision of a narrow client base with high touch service for a set membership fee rather than luck of the draw event by event. It makes sense for companies who are buying tickets continuously. Innovation is relentless. It will be fascinating to watch how this move will be met in the marketplace by competitors.