NUMBER:  9710081588
      AUTHOR:  Hemmer, Andy
       TITLE:  Crown and other venues choose Select-A-Seat.
      SOURCE:  Cincinnati Business Courier. v14 n19, Sep 12, 1997, p. 2. 
               1/4 pages
   PUBLISHER:  Cincinnati Business Courier
STANDARD NO.:  0882-8881

 TEXT:
 Magazine: Business Courier Serving the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky 
 region; September 12, 1997

                  CROWN AND OTHER VENUES CHOOSE SELECT-A-SEAT                
 -------------------------------------------

                  Rival of TicketMaster lands several clients

 A homegrown Cincinnati ticket agency is taking on behemoth TicketMaster and 
 has added some noteworthy clients while expanding into markets in Dayton,   
 Louisville and beyond.

 MSAS Inc., a Cincinnati company coowned by local attorney John Tafaro and   
 operating as Select-A-Seat, has added the soon-to-be-renovated Crown,       
 Bogart's, Playhouse in the Park, the Syndicate and Miami University's       
 football and basketball programs to its roster of 47 clients.

 Select-A-Seat Area Manager Tammy Gentile said the privately held company's  
 revenue has increased from $1.1 million to $7.6 million during its six-year 
 existence.

 Those revenue figures could increase by 20 percent annually, based on 
 growth programs such as Select-A-Seat's expansion in Dayton and new 
 business       generated from clients like the Crown, which will reopen in 
 early October.  Riverfront Coliseum, the Crown's former moniker, was Select-
 A-Seat's first  client.

 Select-A-Seat is opening several sales outlets in Louisville before the end 
 of this year and is eyeing other Midwestern markets that Gentile said she   
 couldn't announce yet.

 In Dayton, Select-A-Seat has increased its outlets from one to eight in     
 recent months.

 Tafaro and a group of local investors formed MSAS after industry giant      
 TicketMaster of Los Angeles acquired the assets of New Jerseybased 
 Ticketron in 1991, merging the industry's two largest players.

 TicketMaster has dominated most markets nationally, including Cincinnati, 
 It still holds several major accounts, including Reds and Bengals games at  
 Cinergy Field. The Riverbend facility uses both services.

 TicketMaster has 90 sales outlets in the Tri-State area, compared with      
 Select-a-seat's 34 throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

 Select-A-Seat charges venues a one-time setup fee of $100, with no annual   
 fees, while TicketMaster often charges about $150 annually, several local   
 promoters say.

 Select-A-Seat generates most of its revenue through service fees charged to 
 venues for tickets bought at sales outlets or over the phone; credit-card   
 purchases carry service fees charged to the buyer. TicketMaster's average   
 service fee is $2.50; Select-A-Seat's service fees range from $1 to $2.50   
 less per ticket than TicketMaster's, Gentile said.