Paciolan

Market position

Paciolan describes itself as the number one ticketing provider in college athletics, with more than 160 college clients in North America and over 500 live entertainment organizations served overall. Contemporary press coverage of the 2017 sale described it as one of the largest ticket sellers in the United States. Clients cited publicly include the University of Southern California, San Diego State University, the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, the University of Nebraska, Purdue, UCLA, Oklahoma State University, the University of Arizona, Kansas Athletics and East Tennessee State University.

Paciolan positions itself as a single supplier spanning ticketing, fundraising, marketing and customer engagement rather than ticketing alone, and claims the leading share of college athletics ticketing with more than 160 college clients. Client testimonials from athletics administrators at UCLA, Oklahoma State, Arizona and Kansas cite the company's domain knowledge of college athletics fundraising and ticketing, day-to-day account support, and pricing tools that allow inventory to be repriced multiple times daily. At the time of the Learfield transaction, the acquirer's rationale was the ability to bundle ticketing with its existing college sports advertising, marketing and digital services.

Technology

The platform covers ticket inventory management, demand-based and seat-level pricing, an interactive seat map for seat selection, mobile-friendly checkout, digital ticket delivery via text or digital wallet, and self-service ticket transfer, resale, renewal and account management. It is complemented by fundraising, marketing and data/analytics services, including attendance-tracking data integrated with Oracle Eloqua and data quality processes for consolidating duplicate patron records. The original Athletics System of the 1980s bundled ticketing with accounting and budgeting, purchasing, payables, receivables, payroll, support group, sports information, financial aid, academic eligibility, strength training, summer camps, recruiting, scouting, athletics management and inventory control modules.

Go-to-market

The company sells directly to athletic departments, performing arts organizations, and arena and professional sports operators, supported by client-partner relationships, published case studies and success stories, and content marketing on ticketing, fundraising and digital marketing best practices. It runs a weekly training video series, participates in industry webinars with associations such as NACDA and INTIX and with partners including Google, and maintains a customer community with toolkits and a member portal. Under Learfield ownership, ticketing is positioned alongside the parent's college sports media and marketing services.

College athletics departments, performing arts organizations, and arenas and professional sports venues in North America. Historically the company also served motorsports venues and attractions such as the Polynesian Cultural Center and Atlantis Submarines of Hawaii.

Geography

Paciolan serves clients across North America and is headquartered in Irvine, California. At the time of the 2017 Learfield transaction it employed about 300 people, including roughly 20 in Exton, Pennsylvania, and it operated through South Philadelphia-based Comcast Spectacor.

History

Paciolan Systems, Inc. was founded in 1980 in connection with work for San Diego State University and the University of Southern California, and its earliest clients included USC, San Diego State University, the University of Illinois, the University of Washington and the University of Nebraska. Two employees were hired in the first year, and cofounder Cary Thomas left in 1981 before returning in 1984 as the company's sole salesperson until 1988. A 1982 contract with USC to build a campus-wide financial system led to the formation of a separate corporation, Paciolan Financial Systems. Early compensation used a Royalty Distribution system that allocated revenue to the individuals involved in generating it; this was replaced by salary and bonus tied to semi-annual performance reviews by 1989. The company diversified beyond college athletics starting in 1986 with racetrack ticketing for International Speedway Corporation, the Polynesian Cultural Center in 1988, and Atlantis Submarines of Hawaii in 1989-90. Subsequent ownership changes involved entities including Ticketmaster New Ventures Holdings, Inc. and Freeway Merger Sub, Inc. Comcast Spectacor made an equity investment in 2004 and acquired the remaining stake from a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment in 2010; the business was later folded into Comcast Spectacor's Spectra division. In June 2017 Comcast agreed to sell Paciolan to Learfield, and it subsequently operated as Learfield's ticketing and fan engagement division under the Paciolan name. A collection of the company's early records, spanning 1978-2020, is held in Special Collections at the USC Libraries.