City Launches New On-Line Events Ticketing Platform

Seen as controversial to some Mosaic Place has announced its new ticket service is up and running as well as ready for customers.

On Wednesday the official word went out that sasktix.ca was up and running.

Sasktix.ca is not just the event ticketing service for Mosaic Place but it is designed for use in multiple facilities and multiple sized events - such as churches, other hockey rinks, schools, on-line event registration, recreation facilities, cultural centres and special events - that take place in Moose Jaw and anywhere else in Saskatchewan where a ticketing service is needed.

“We can do all that stuff,” said Ryan MacIvor district general manager for Spectra Venue Management.

Spectra is the company selected by the City to operate and provide management services for Mosaic Place.

With the service now up and running the City wants potential clients and customers to see what they are offering. It is a ticketing service far superior to what it has replaced.

The service, which was born in the ashes of the Ticket Rocket fiasco, is nothing like its predecessor as it is powered by a long time participant in the event ticketing industry - Paciolan - which has a proven track record in the market, MacIvor said.

MacIvor pointed put Paciolan was chosen as Mosaic Place’s after an exhaustive search and a review of the ticketing service proposals submitted.

MJ Independent was able to confirm industry giant TicketMaster also submitted a proposal but in the end the bid was rejected by the three member independent selection committee.

“They are an industry proven leader, they are not a small start up and this deal has lots of opportunity for the City and the facility,” he said. “It’s an industry proven platform that works.”

Unlike the scandal plagued Ticket Rocket, which left thousands of ticket holders and hundreds of venues out millions of unrefunded tickets for events cancelled in the wake of the COVID - 19 pandemic, the deal with Paciolan will see the venue hold the money and not the contracted ticketing service.

Additionally the City did not just contract Paciolan to provide services for Mosaic Place but they bought the franchise rights for the entire province.

Franchise rights which will see the new ticketing system, market itself throughout Saskatchewan. A ticketing system that will include franchise fees and related funds flowing from other communities back into Mosaic Place and helping to reduce the taxpayer subsidy.

“It’s owned, managed and controlled by the City of Moose Jaw,” he said, adding there is great potential to the sasktix.ca system.

The reason why sasktix.ca was launched and publicly announced perhaps months before large events are allowed to take place is they want to let potential clients know that there is a system up and running and ready for them to sign on.

“It’s a good news story for the community.”

Already the system has seamlessly integrated local facilities such as the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre. Sasktix.ca is now the on-line ticketing portal for the cultural centre but if people want to use the existing box office the service will be available as usual with ticket purchasers at the Cultural Centre unaware and not noticing any change.

What the new on-line ticketing service offers is a means to purchase tickets on-line and then use their smart phone to enter the event.

Fans can purchase mobile tickets, have them delivered via text message, scan them upon entry with their phone or seamlessly transfer or exchange tickets for events they cannot attend. This contactless technology also enables fans to safely enter the venue without the need to print or touch paper-based tickets.

Asked about the sensitive area of the over $200,000 in gift certificates provided by the City to ticket purchasers in the wake of the Ticket Rocket Fiasco MacIvor never shied away from the questions and said the system allows them to be easily used without additional efforts to use them. The system will allow gift certificate recipients to enter the certificate’s serial number and use it.

A selling point in the new system is not only can the gift certificates the City issued as a moral gesture to ticket purchasers be used at Mosaic Place events but if the gift certificate holder wants to redeem them for tickets to events at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre they are free to do so.

“It is just one of the functionalities of the system,” he said, adding the new ticketing system offers more than the previous ticketing system did.

“It will all depend on what the client wants,” he said.

One of the new services that can be offered is event ticket insurance. Such insurance would guarantee refunds unlike the old system.

Asked if the lull in large events allowed the system to be more effectively rolled out and tested MacIvor said that ticketing systems can be rolled out during events taking place but the lull did give the venue added time when testing. The system has been tested and is now up and running.

It is something Mosaic Place is not only doing with its ticketing system but throughout the facility he said with repairs and upgrades on-going to ensure when they can hold events again they are ready to do so.

“When we are allowed to hold events again we need to be ready right away to do so,” he said.

One of the things the new system will be used for is booking free public skating at Mosaic Place next week. With students off on a week’s break Mosaic Place is offering free daily public skating from February 16 - 19 (inclusive). There is a need to preregister to attend with registration for the free skating through the sasktix.ca web-site.

Although he could not list all of the features the new ticketing system will offer MacIvor said what functionality to integrate is up to the client, promoter or clients of the system.

“There is a lot you can do with this platform.”