The new organization in the U.S. is a partnership between the Canadian company, Rosen and Cirque du Soleil Inc., which has Outbox tickets sold for several years.
Outbox Enterprises' approach will differ substantially from those of Ticketmaster, now a part of Live Nation Entertainment Inc. Instead of listing and selling of tickets for thousands of events in a single, central site, the new company plans to offer a so-called white- label service for customers such as concert halls, festivals and sports teams to sell tickets directly to consumers from their own websites.
"The middle-man model is dead," Rosen said in a telephone interview. "You have to evolve."
Rosen, 66 years old, is in a unique position to make such statements. He built the business model that he thinks is right for a takedown.
Ticketmaster's from 1982 to 1998, Rosen gets more credit or blame than any other individual to deal with the company for the sale of tickets: a central marketplace to maintain as many events as possible, to make the tickets to major widely available through retail outlets, by phone and, eventually, online, and customers a fee for avoiding a trip to the box office
