EXCLUSIVE: Broadway’s box office union, which is in contract negotiations with the Broadway League, claims that the industry’s embrace of TodayTix Group represents an unfair labor practice.
The Treasurers and Ticket Sellers Union — Local 751 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — accused the League and two of its largest landlord members, the Shubert and Nederlander Organizations, of “unilaterally changing terms and conditions of employment…concerning the distribution of theater tickets.” The complaint was filed with the National Labor Relations Board in connection with TodayTix, the 11-year-old, easy-to-use app for buying tickets to Broadway shows and other cultural events.
Broadway Journal obtained complaints by the union via Freedom of Information requests. They’re revealing of TodayTix’s market heft and how competition can ruffle feathers — and arguably undermine contracts — in the heavily-unionized live-theater industry.
When TodayTix launched in December 2013, the company fulfilled orders by dispatching “runners” to buy tickets at the box office and “concierges” who distributed them outside Broadway theaters at showtime. Customers could select sections of each house but not specific seats.
“Our goal is to work with everyone in the industry,” TodayTix CEO and co-founder Brian Fenty told me in 2015. “The theater owners have been the slowest to come around.”
Coinciding with the industry’s comeback from the pandemic, TodayTix negotiated access to ticket inventories. The electronic integration permits its customers to finally pick seats, bypassing the box office and traditional outlets such as Telecharge and Ticketmaster.
In NLRB filings this year, the union said that the League and the landlords dragged their feet in response to the initial complaint — by “delaying in providing…information requested by the Union a) concerning the sale and distribution of theater tickets via TodayTix and b) concerning the diminution of Local 751 represented employees…”
TodayTix, which also operates in the U.K. and Australia, said on its website that it’s raised nearly $90 million of venture capital. It’s been on an M&A tear, acquiring the digital ad agency Arthouse; the immersive production company Secret Cinema (which presented a James Bond experience in London); the review-aggregating site Show-Score; and the ticketing companies Goldstar, Encore and Broadway Roulette.
TodayTix declined to comment for this story. So did the Shubert and Nederlander Organizations, the Broadway League and Local 751. The NLRB said that while it investigates all complaints, most are settled by the parties themselves. The union’s four-year contract expired in August 2023, but was effective for another year at the same terms.
Fenty and co-founder Merritt Baer met as teenagers at the French Woods performing arts camp in the western Catskills. While working at an investment firm, Fenty was impressed by the large crowds braving the elements outside the Theatre Development Fund’s TKTS booth in Times Square. “There was no ability to explore and discover theater and art and culture on your phone,” Fenty recently told Mike Gelb on the Consumer VC podcast. “If we could create a great experience for consumers using technology, imagine the audiences we could reach.”
TodayTix customers were initially limited to buying tickets for the day of performance. Now, customers can buy up to a year in advance. The company accounts for as much as 20 percent of sales for some performances, per Broadway box office sources.
According to the union’s expired contract with the Broadway League, only box office treasurers and assistant treasurers represented by Local 751 may “distribute tickets for brokers, theatre parties and group sales.” The contract made an exception for “electronic access to the common inventory for single ticket broker sales through Broadway.com.” (Known for its pricey commissions and priceless domain name, Broadway.com is owned by the John Gore Organization, a busy presenter of Broadway tours and co-producer of Broadway shows.)
The union contract didn’t make a similar exception for electronic access via TodayTix. Although the company is not normally thought of as a “ticket broker,” which the state of New Jersey defines as a reseller that “charges a premium” over the price printed on a ticket, some of the language in the contract is antiquated. Headings include “Ticket Sales By Computer or Other Technological Devices” and “Advance Telephone Sales or Other Sales Utilizing Technological Devices.”
In exchange for the Broadway.com exemption, the League agreed in the contract to increase minimum box office staffing when a musical plays in any of Broadway’s 15 designated “musical houses,” out of 41 total.
About 20 percent of theatergoers who participated in the League’s 2022-23 demographic study bought tickets at the box office — a number that’s stayed pretty consistent for decades. As online ticket sales have soared and buying over the phone all but disappeared, Broadway’s treasurers and assistant treasurers say they serve as human ambassadors for their shows, particularly for tourists new to New York.
