Spectra by Comcast Spectacor Announces Client Community Awards From Annual PACnet '16 Conference

IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 9, 2016) - Spectra by Comcast Spectacor, the experts in hosting and entertainment, today announced its Ticketing & Fan Engagement division has recognized five clients as recipients of its annual awards from PACnet '16, an annual community conference held Feb. 21-24, 2016 at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa in Newport Beach, Calif.

The Fox Theatre, Atlanta (The Fox Theatre), MetroTix and Michigan State University (Michigan State) were recognized as Star of the Year award winners, while the Indiana University (Indiana) was acknowledged as Rookie of the Year and UC Irvine was honored with the second-annual Founder's Award. Each organization was recognized Feb. 23 during the annual awards keynote.

Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement executives Kim Damron, Chief Operating Officer, and Steve Demots, Senior Vice President of Sales, announced The Fox Theatre, MetroTix, Michigan State as recipients of the 2015 Star of the Year Awards in their respective genres. Each organization was acknowledged for exceeding expectations, achieving exceptional results by improving the customer experience through innovative programs, showing overall success in ticketing, marketing and fundraising, and embracing Spectra's technologies and services.

"We are thrilled to honor The Fox Theatre, Atlanta, MetroTix and Michigan State as recipients of our prestigious Star of the Year awards," said Kim Damron, Chief Operating Officer of Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement. "Each organization is a thought leader and have enhanced all facets of their business and operations by implementing new technology, services and programs to better serve their customers."

The Fox Theatre was recognized as the Star of the Year from performing arts for their achievements in ticketing, eCommerce, marketing and fundraising. The Atlanta-based theatre enhanced their main website and also updated their mobile eCommerce site to create a better experience for their patrons. The Fox Theatre attained one of the highest online adoption percentage across all Spectra clients with more than 85 percent of their patrons purchasing tickets online and fulfilling their tickets digitally. Additionally, The Fox Theatre leveraged Google Ad Grants to implement Search Marketing campaigns for fans to discover their events, achieving a 30% increase in incremental revenue in 30 days, and a $25:1 return on ad spend.

Acknowledged as the Star of the Year from the pro sports, arenas and ticket partners genre, MetroTix was recognized for their continued excellence in ticketing, operations and marketing. MetroTix rolled out a newly-designed website to better display events for fans, and also reformed their eCommerce site to make the purchase experience for customers more seamless. MetroTix also led the website redesign of their anchor tenant the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis, and consulted on the redesign of The Muny's website, a performing arts amphitheater in St. Louis. MetroTix recently partnered with carbonhouse to integrate with Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement's ticketing services via an API to tie together front and back-end data into MetroTix's management system, seamlessly populating event information and links to purchase tickets. MetroTix had a record-setting year in 2015, selling more than 1.5 million tickets and bringing on a major new client, Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, adding numerous NHRA and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events to this St. Louis based ticket partner's portfolio.

Michigan State was presented with the college athletics Star of the Year award and recognized for their overall excellence in ticketing, marketing, fundraising and student ticketing efforts. Michigan State continues to be one of the top performing institutions for online adoption across the board for tickets sales, with 90 percent of Spartan fans and donors purchasing tickets and processing donations online. Michigan State also had 100 percent of their student tickets fulfilled online and delivered digitally. Michigan State leverages Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement's Ballena Technologies Seats 3D partnership for football, basketball and hockey, enabling fans to select their seats via an interactive 3D rendering of Spartan Stadium, the Breslin Center or Munn Arena. Additionally, Michigan State is a leader in the social media and marketing space, utilizing all of Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement's services to sell tickets, engage Spartan fans and promote the hundreds of events to over one million annual attendees hosted by the university.

Indiana was recognized as this year's Rookie of the Year, an award given to one of the 50 newly-installed Spectra organizations who embraced new technology and services offered by Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement. In their first year of the partnership, Indiana increased online ticket adoption from single digits to over 40 percent, and also implemented an online student sales strategy that offered a seamless, user-friendly digital process. Indiana also had a record year fundraising, processing donations online for the first time, increasing revenue by more than $400,000 and exceeding their budgeted goal. Additionally, Indiana formed strategic partnership integrations with StubHub and SeatGeek, and Ballena Technologies which was recently acquired by Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement.

"We are honored to recognize Indiana University as our Rookie of the Year for the dedication and commitment of their entire staff to embrace our new partnership and become a model institution," said Steve Demots, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement. "Indiana implemented numerous technologies, strategic partnership and best practices that led to a record year in online ticket sales and fundraising in only their first year leveraging an entirely new business model."

UC Irvine was honored as the recipient of the second-annual Founder's Award, presented by Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement (formerly Paciolan) founder Jane Kleinberger. The award recognized UC Irvine's great strides achieved not only in the past year, but since partnering with Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement in 2011. The spirit of the award encompasses an organization that implements new technologies and strategic initiatives, remarkably utilizes a budget to generate revenue and a continued willingness to leverage new services to enhance the fan experience.

For the fifth straight year since partnering with Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement, overall revenues for UC Irvine's Athletics Department was up, and in particular ticket revenue increased significantly. Since 2011, UC Irvine has seen a 92% growth in ticket revenue, and a 40% increase in external events. UC Irvine's attendance and ticket sales are already up 30% from last year at only the halfway point of the current fiscal year.

"I am pleased to recognize and honor UC Irvine, and their entire staff, with the second-annual Founder's Award," said Jane Kleinberger, Founder of Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement. "This award signifies the great strides UC Irvine has made under the leadership of Mike Izzi and Phil Wang the past five years since partnering with Spectra. They have implemented new and innovative technologies, driven revenue through thought-leading strategies, and continue to enhance the fan experience in all facets of their business."

PACnet '16 was the largest PACnet to date, including more than 750 Spectra clients, strategic business partners and attendees, highlighted by eight keynote speakers, 190 presenters and 60 sessions during the four-day community event.

About Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement 
Spectra's Ticketing & Fan Engagement division is a leader in ticketing, fundraising, marketing, and analytics solutions with over 35 years of experience. Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement enables college athletic programs, arenas, professional sports, and performing arts clients to sell more than 120 million tickets per year.

About Spectra
Spectra by Comcast Spectacor is the expert in hosting and entertainment, partnering with over 300 clients at 400 global properties to create memorable experiences for millions of visitors every year. Spectra's expertise is embodied within three divisions: Venue Management (formerly Global Spectrum), Food Services & Hospitality (formerly Ovations Food Services) and Ticketing & Fan Engagement (formerly Paciolan). Learn more at SpectraExperiences.com.

Comcast Spectacor is part of Comcast Corporation, a Fortune 50 media and technology company that operates Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa., in addition to Spectra, Comcast Spectacor owns and operates the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center venue. Visit us at ComcastSpectacor.com, PhiladelphiaFlyers.com and WellsFargoCenterPhilly.com for more information.