Alumnus launches fee-free website for ticket buyers; Carrier Dome among venues
David Cykiert graduated Syracuse University in 2005 with $120,000 in loans. When the New York Rangers fan tried to attend games in New York City, it cost him a fortune.
But Cykiert was committed to seeing a Rangers game and ordered the tickets 10 days in advance. StubHub charged him a 10 percent service charge and a $25 overnight shipping fee. Tickets that would have cost $50 were $80 after fees were included, Cykiert said.
In response, Cykiert launched Seatcrew, a fee-free ticket sharing website, last week, and Syracuse was one of the first areas the site opened to. Cykiert, who was deep in debt, said he sought to eliminate the extra fees many similar sites charge.
The fee-free website allows buyers and sellers to benefit from each other, and relationships can be built around the ticket-buying experience.
‘Like a bag of bricks, it hit me. This is a very inefficient system,’ Cykiert said of current ticket sharing websites. ‘It’s antiquated. It doesn’t take advantage of the fact that meeting people online is no longer a taboo.’
Seatcrew visitors create usernames, Cykiert said. These are used to build relationships with clients. When purchasing a ticket, a user first selects the venue. The Carrier Dome was one of the venues listed during the first week. Buyers can utilize a rating system for each seller and purchase from sellers they like, he said.
‘I met a guy who sells Knicks tickets professionally,’ Cykiert said. ‘He sells about 50 tickets per game. He paid $80,000 in fees just to post his tickets to StubHub.’
Cykiert said that unlike other ticket dealers, Seatcrew offers tickets with no additional charges. When you see a ticket listed at $50, that’s the price of the ticket, he said.
The Seatcrew founders aren’t concerned with profits because it is not their main job, Cykiert said. Ryan Lichwalla, a founder of the website, works up to 14 hours a day as a programmer and spends much of his free time working on Seatcrew. Brett Lemberger, founder and designer, works full time for DX Agency, an advertising agency in Edgewater, N.J.
Lemberger said the three have put in hard work to make the site function.
‘It’s been a tremendous effort. Each of us have full-time jobs outside of Seatcrew. But right now, it’s been so far, so good,’ he said.
It was difficult to find a way to make Seatcrew economically feasible, Cykiert said. The site’s revenue comes from advertisements, and that covers the maintenance costs, he said.
Cykiert said he hopes the company will become a source of income for its founders. Cykiert said although the company hopes to expand, right now their main priority is attracting users.
‘Trust us,’ Cykiert said. ‘We’re not taking any money from any users.’
Published on October 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm
