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City brings admissions tax to the web Cleveland is getting 8% of the profits from sales on Flash Seats, which could mean a windfall with LeBron James back in town By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com
Cleveland’s admissions tax is being applied in a new venue — cyberspace. In a move that might be the only one of its kind in the United States, the 8% tax is being deducted on a secondary market — Flash Seats, the digital ticketing company oper-
ated by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s Veritix. At the city’s urging, Flash Seats began collecting admissions taxes on for-profit sales for a Lady Gaga concert that was held at Quicken Loans Arena on May 18 — two days before the Cavs won the NBA lottery and almost two months prior to LeBron James announcing his return. The 8% charge only comes
into play when a buyer pays more than face value for a ticket on Flash Seats, since an admissions tax is applied at the original point of purchase. The tax is especially significant now, with the Oct. 30 tipoff of the 2014-15 Cavs season approaching. And while the rare application of the admissions tax was years in the making, the city’s timing was fortu-
itous, since Cavs home games easily are fetching the highest prices in the NBA on the secondary market. Vivid Seats, a Chicago-based secondary-ticket marketplace, said Cavaliers games at The Q are producing median and average sales prices of $216 and $385, respectively. The second-largest figures in the two categories are $165 (the median norm for Los Angeles Lakers
home games) and $291 (the Houston Rockets’ 2014-15 average). Will Flaherty, director of communications for SeatGeek, said the New York ticket search engine estimates that Flash Seats could produce $20 million in sales for Cavs tickets in 2014-15. Flaherty said 30% of that total, $6 million, could be the result of profits because of See TAX, page 9
HUNT FOR TECH TALENT IS ‘CRAZY’ And employees of other Northeast Ohio businesses often are targets of search By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
The fight for tech talent is getting rough. Sure, Silicon Valley’s tech titans have long practiced the art of poaching — recruiting employees from other companies, even when they’re not actively looking for jobs. But nowadays, a growing number MORE INSIDE of Northeast Ohio companies are doing the same thing, according ■ Local tech salaries to several people who spoke are comparable to with Crain’s. national norms. They say it’s necessary ■ Amazon subsidiary to go after other comsets sights on talent panies’ employees here. Page 33 given how hard it has become to fill a growing demand for technical talent — especially software developers. And the rise of LinkedIn has made it much easier to study potential job candidates and get in touch with them. For instance, Paragon Consulting just hired a full-time recruiter tasked with hunting for developers with experience using Microsoft’s .Net framework. That often means looking in other cities or other companies, because few local people with .Net experience are looking for jobs, said John Ours, director of technology at the web development firm in Mayfield Heights. “I used to run an ad and get applications from the same chronically unemployed people that I usually get. I don’t even get See HUNT, page 33
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