Ticketmaster wins Bloom deal

State agency Bord Bia has awarded multinational Ticketmaster a two-year, six-figure contract to sell tickets for the Bloom gardening festival that the taxpayer-funded organisation stages annually.

The food export promotion agency sought bids for the Bloom ticketing contract late last year, awarding the deal to Ticketmaster, which provided the service in 2023, shortly before Christmas.

Neither party would comment when contacted on Thursday, but Bloom’s website redirects requests to buy entry to this year’s show to a Ticketmaster site.

The deal is likely to be worth well into six figures for the ticket company, which is part of global entertainment giant Live Nation.

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Bord Bia previously confirmed that Ticketmaster charged it €88,517.13 for the sale of tickets to the popular show in 2023.

Overall, the multinational received €479,662.53 for ticket sales to Bloom shows run in 2018, 2019, 2022 and last year.

In previous years, Bord Bia paid Ticketmaster between €120,000 and €143,000. The agency noted that 2023′s lower figure reflected a dip in sales from a record year in 2022 along with different pricing and reduced rates.

The State body awarded a once-off contract for 2023 but subsequently said it would seek bids for 2024′s Bloom late in the year.

Last month, Bord Bia said it had received three submissions for the contract, which runs for two years with the option to renew for a further two 12-month periods once the current deal expires.

It awarded the contract in early December, but allowed for a two-week pause until the sides agreed the deal days before Christmas. The agency did not name the other two bidders.

Bord Bia, which will receive €57 million from the taxpayer this year, stages Bloom in the Phoenix Park over the June bank holiday weekend.

Ticketmaster has the biggest share of the market for tickets in the Republic. A Competition and Consumer Protection Commission investigation found that between 2012 and 2018 the multinational netted more than €9 of every €10 spent on entry to sports, gigs and other events in the Republic.

There are no signs that its share has fallen substantially since the commission published the report in 2020.

Ticketmaster has relationships with leading sports bodies, including the GAA, the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Football Association of Ireland. It is also the ticket agent for most big concerts here, including Taylor Swift, who plays The Aviva Stadium on Lansdowne Road over the last weekend in June.