2006 Was a 'Wicked' Year According to TicketsNow Entertainment Index

2006 Was a 'Wicked' Year According to TicketsNow Entertainment Index

Yankees and Tim McGraw & Faith Hill take top honors in respective categories

CHICAGO, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Wicked, Broadway's hit musical based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, has been deemed the most coveted event ticket in 2006 according to the year-end TicketsNow Entertainment Index.

Wicked takes the Overall top spot on the Index by accounting for 5.6% of all total ticket sales this year at TicketsNow (http://www.ticketsnow.com/), the world's leading online marketplace for premium event tickets. Four Major League Baseball teams follow Wicked on the Overall sales list. The New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals account for 2.9%, 2.5%, 2.5%, and 2.0% of ticket sales respectively.

In the Theater category, Wicked easily takes the top spot with 29.5% of ticket sales, besting Monty Python's Spamalot with 8.3%. Other top theater draws this year include The Lion King, Jersey Boys, and Radio City Christmas Spectacular, with 6.3%, 6.2%, and 3.8% of sales respectively.

The Yankees, who won their division but lost to the eventual American League Champion Detroit Tigers in the first round of the Playoffs, were the top Sports buy in 2006. In that category, a total of nine MLB clubs -- Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, and Baltimore Orioles -- dominate the top 10 list with the Dallas Cowboys (#8) as the only exception.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 -- which played in 55 cities across the country -- was the top Concert event this year with 5.7% of ticket sales in the category. Following in the second spot is American Idols Live, the tour based on the popular television series, which accounted for 4.1% of ticket sales. Rounding out the category are The Cheetah Girls, Jimmy Buffett, and Kenny Chesney with ticket sales of 4.0%, 3.6%, and 3.0%.

Top 2006 Events Overall
1. Wicked 6. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
2. New York Yankees 7. Monty Python's Spamalot
3. Chicago Cubs 8. American Idols Live
4. Boston Red Sox 9. The Cheetah Girls
5. St. Louis Cardinals 10. The Lion King

Top 2006 Sports Ticket Sales
1. New York Yankees
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Boston Red Sox
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Chicago White Sox

Top 2006 Concert Ticket Sales
1. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
2. American Idols Live
3. The Cheetah Girls
4. Jimmy Buffett
5. Kenny Chesney

Top 2006 Theater Sales
1. Wicked
2. Monty Python's Spamalot
3. The Lion King
4. Jersey Boys
5. Radio City Christmas Spectacular

About the TicketsNow Entertainment Index

The TicketsNow Entertainment Index tracks proprietary secondary ticket sales on a monthly basis to provide a snapshot of entertainment trends for sports, music, and theater events nationwide.

About TicketsNow

Established in 1999, TicketsNow is the world's largest and most trusted marketplace for premium event tickets. More than 90% of all professional ticket agencies that list, buy, and sell secondary event tickets online utilize software developed by TicketsNow -- creating the most comprehensive database of secondary event tickets in the world. Named in 2006 to the Inc. 500 index of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. -- the second time in three years the company has been so honored -- TicketsNow is a premium ticket provider for USA TODAY, Fandango, and AOL; an official sponsor of the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars; an official sponsor of University of Louisville Athletics, Arizona State University Athletics, Texas Christian University Athletics, University of Cincinnati Athletics, and a corporate partner of Princeton University Athletics; a member of the Better Business Bureau; and a founding member of the NATB, which promotes the highest level of ethics in the secondary ticketing marketplace. For more information, visit http://www.ticketsnow.com/.

"Major League Baseball," "Yankees," "Cubs," "Red Sox," "Cardinals," "Tigers," "Mets," "Giants," "Orioles," "Cowboys," "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," "Monty Python's Spamalot," "Radio City Christmas Spectacular," "The Lion King," "American Idols Live," and "The Cheetah Girls," are trademarks of their respective owners. Nothing in this press release should be construed as any affiliation between such trademark owners or artists and TicketsNow or any of its products or services.

Contact:
Sarah Schorno
Pyramid Public Relations for TicketsNow
212.643.1068 x249
johnm@pyramidpr.net

Jennifer Swanson
TicketsNow
815.444.4923
jswanson@TicketsNow.com

Source: TicketsNow

CONTACT: Sarah Schorno, Pyramid Public Relations for TicketsNow,
+1-212-643-1068, ext. 249, johnm@pyramidpr.net; or Jennifer Swanson,
TicketsNow, +1-815-444-4923, jswanson@TicketsNow.com

Web site: http://www.ticketsnow.com/

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