Box Office Services and Policies
IU Auditorium has a full-service box office to support ticketed events. Our professional staff will guide you
through the ticketing process, from important decisions such as ticket prices and scaling of the house to final
reconciliation. The Ticketmaster box office provides ticketing services for all events at the Auditorium and
will assist in coordinating ticket setup for your event. This guide is intended to acquaint you with our various
box office services and policies and advise you on the kinds of decisions you will make regarding tickets for
your event.
General Information
Location
Indiana University Auditorium
1211 East Seventh Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
IU Auditorium Box Office Hours
Monday-Friday: 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
The Auditorium Box Office is also open three hours prior to the start of any ticketed event at IU Auditorium.
The box office is closed on national holidays, the week of IU spring break, and during the IU winter break.
Contact Information
Maria Talbert, Managing Director (812) 855-2300
Brian Oakley, Assistant Director for Events (812) 856-3037
Ben Harris, Director of Ticketing and Sales (812) 856-4806
Jesi Evans, Ticketing Operations Manager (812) 856-0349
Box Office (for general public) (812) 855-1103
Auditorium main telephone (812) 855-9528
Auditorium Fax (812) 855-4244
Features
All ticketed events serviced by our box office
Nationwide Ticketmaster distribution
Website listing free of charge for ticketed events
Box office reports available upon request
Special requests can be arranged (group sales, off-site ticket sales, etc.)
Box office fees included in facility rental fee
Phone Orders
Phone orders are processed by Ticketmaster. A convenience charge will be added to tickets purchased
through Ticketmaster. Tickets may be purchased by calling (800) 745-3000.
Auditorium Seating Capacity
Pit* 46*
Orchestra 2,012
Balcony 1,142
Total 3,200
*Pit is available for sale at discretion of Auditorium management.
Wheelchair and companion seating are available in all seating levels.
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Ticket Setup
Ticket setup is prepared with the Director of Ticketing and Sales, usually by email as soon as an event is
confirmed. The following sections outline information that you will need to provide in order for the box office
to successfully set up tickets for your event:
Ticketed vs. Non-ticketed
Events at IU Auditorium can be ticketed (charged), ticketed (free), or non-ticketed. During the booking
process, you will need to determine if your event will issue tickets, and, if so, whether those tickets will be
free to patrons.
Ticketed events, regardless of charged or free, have a higher Daily Facility Rental Charge than non-ticketed
events. The Daily Facility Rental Charge is the fee for utilizing the facility. The rental charge covers a 24-
hour period.
Non-ticketed Event: $1,250
Ticketed Event: 10% of Gross box office receipts* ($1,750 minimum)
*Gross box office receipts is the total amount earned from ticket sales, not including additional
charges above the base ticket price such as facility fee.
Concerts and other similar events are usually ticketed and are charged the Ticketed Event rate.
Some organizations, such as Union Board, often decide to issue free tickets as a means of crowd
management for events that are certain to draw large crowds. In this case, such events are
charged the “Ticketed Event” rate as well (here amounting to $1,750) in order to cover box office
costs such as personnel and ticket stock.
Opting to ticket your event may offer certain advantages, such as increased marketing
opportunities, influence over ticket availability, and added preparedness in terms of crowd
management.
Event Name, Date, and Time
The Managing Director or Assistant Director for Events will work with you to finalize the date and time of
your event.
General Admission versus Reserved Seating
While general admission is customary for certain events (such as lectures and speeches) and often practical
for free events, many patrons prefer reserved seating simply because it provides an equitable manner for
distributing tickets and seating patrons. IU Auditorium management reserves the right to require reserved
seating in cases where safety or ticket demand dictates.
Ticket Text
The Director of Ticketing and Sales will advise you as to what fits and looks best in terms of ticket text.
Generally speaking, you will have some parameters within which to work:
There are up to 26 characters available per line, including spaces.
Font size on tickets typically adheres to the pattern below.
The last few lines of the ticket may be reserved for certain standard information, such as the date
and time.
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Prices
When setting ticket prices for your event, please remember that there will be a facility fee added to all ticket
prices. For events where the highest priced ticket is $15.00 or below, the facility fee is $2.50 per ticket. For
events where the highest priced ticket is $15.01 or above, the facility fee is $3.50 per ticket. Free ticketed
events do not incur a facility fee charge per ticket.
For example, if you want to charge patrons $12.00 to attend your event, set the ticket price at $9.50, as the
addition of $2.50 per ticket will make a total of $12.00. If you want to charge patrons $20.00, set the ticket
price at $16.50. We recommend that you advertise the price as the total (in this example, $12) as opposed
to the base ticket price as the total price is what will be displayed on the ticket.
The facility fee added to the cost of every ticket is used for facility capital purchases and improvements. The
facility fee was introduced at the re-opening of the building in 1999, following renovations, to ensure that the
building will continue to be a source of community pride for many years to come.
Announce Date
The announcement date is the date which your event is publicly known and advertised. By this date, you will
need to have most of your ticketing details confirmed. This date is also set with the Director of Ticketing and
Sales.
On-Sale Date
The on-sale date refers to the date and time that tickets for an event are first available to be purchased by
the general public. When setting on-sale dates with the Director of Ticketing and Sales, keep in mind the
following:
The box office typically requires 10 business days to set up tickets for an event.
On-sale dates are also subject to approval by Auditorium management to allow consideration for
other events and on-sales that are happening at the venue.
Setting ticket on-sales toward the end of the week offers certain marketing advantages.
Depending on the event, Auditorium guest services staff may be present to organize a lottery and answer
any questions that guests may have about the on-sale or the event. Representatives of the event are warmly
encouraged to attend on-sales and to assist our staff with answering questions about their event.
It is the practice of IU Auditorium, in accordance with the practices of Ticketmaster and similar venues, to
hold a lottery at most on-sales. The lottery is simply a fair and equitable way to determine the order in which
each customer will line-up to purchase their tickets. Should there be more than four people in line at any
given on-sale, IU Auditorium management is required by contract to hold a lottery. In order to participate in
the lottery, ticket buyers must arrive at the box office at least 30 minutes in advance of the announced on-
sale time. No line will be recognized prior to one hour before the announced on-sale time.
Student- and Child-Priced Tickets
It is the normal practice of the Auditorium to offer only IU-Bloomington students a “student” discount. If you
wish to extend a discount to students beyond IUB students, the Auditorium management will be able to
discuss the advantages and disadvantages to doing so. Further, we discourage clients from limiting the
number of student priced tickets available as it is very difficult to monitor and guarantee a definitive cut-off. If
you wish to limit the number of student priced tickets available, please note that the best way to do this is to
only make them available in person at the Auditorium Box Office so that we can more closely monitor the
number distributed.
If you wish to make a child discount available, note that the normal practice of the Auditorium is to offer this
type of discount to children 12 and under.
Every person must have a ticket for entry. Please note that regardless of age, each person in attendance
must have a ticket, including children who will sit on parents’ laps. Children are not eligible to purchase
tickets at the IUB Student Rate.
Fan Club Sales
With advance request and Ticketmaster permission, we allow up to 10% of the house to be sold through fan
club websites. The location for these seats is subject to the approval of Auditorium management.
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In anticipation of such fan club sales, we may hold a certain number of seats as unavailable for public sale
(called ‘concert holds’). Auditorium-determined holds take priority over fan club holds.
Holds
Holds are tickets that are not available for sale to the general public. Please determine if you have need of
any ticket holds for your event beyond standard Auditorium holds. Different types of holds exist for use by
the Auditorium staff, the incoming artist(s), and the organization presenting the performance.
General Admission Events:
o Holds are typically event-specific for this type of seating. Typical holds for General
Admission events include pit seating, judges’ seats, overflow, etc.
Reserved Seating Events:
o Standard holds exist on seats in the following areas: orchestra pit, behind the sound
board, extreme sides, and other obstructed view areas
*
.
o Selected seats may be held for donors, sponsors, and other VIPs.
o There are standard box office holds and house/trouble seats
†
for all reserved seating
events.
o Union Board and other organizations typically hold seats for members of their staff and
volunteers.
o Even in the case that the performer or client requests it, pit seats are opened at the sole
discretion of IU Auditorium management.
IU Auditorium management may hold any and all of the following seats:
Forty (40) tickets in the top price level or within the first 21 rows for purchase. These tickets will be
purchased or released one week prior to the first performance of the engagement.
All pit seats. These seats may or may not be released, depending on safety factors, solely
determined by Auditorium management.
If applicable, approximately 10% of the Auditorium seats to be used for fan club sales (see above
heading ‘Fan Club Sales’).
Twenty (20) complimentary tickets within the first 21 center rows per performance. These will be
furnished to the Auditorium for use at management’s discretion.
Comps
Comps refer to complimentary tickets; these are tickets that are given to people free of charge. In
consultation with Auditorium management, and artist(s), agent, etc. when applicable, you will want to
determine if you have need for complimentary tickets.
Typical complimentary tickets may include those for the event organizer, media, sponsors, and the
artist(s). The exact number of comps can and will change as the event date nears, but the more
information available upon setup aids in planning and maximizing ticket revenue.
Price Codes
Price codes allow for tracking of ticket prices, locations, discounts, and promotions, and vary from event to
event. While certain letters are used time and time again to indicate a ticket type, they are subject to change.
The first letter indicates price level (e.g., in ticket types AB, BB, CB, and DB: “A” indicates the
highest price level, “B” is the second price level, “C” is the third price level, and “D” is the lowest
price level.)
The second letter (and third when applicable) indicates the ticket price, and why the ticket is special
and/or different from other ticket types. (e.g., in ticket types AB, BB, CB, and DB, the second letter
‘B’ indicates that these are student ticket types, and that each includes the student discount.)
Additional codes can be added on to indicate any number of other factors. For example:
o ‘J’ type tickets indicate children’s’ price
o ‘G’ type tickets indicate group sales tickets
*
Often called “Kills”, these are seats that are not sold because the seat itself either does not physically exist (i.e. it was
removed so the space could be used for equipment) or it cannot be sold because the patron would not be adequately able
to see or hear the performance.
†
House/Trouble Seats: Seats that are put on a special type of hold for use by the Guest Services Manager the night of
show in case of problems seating patrons.
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Pre-Box Policy
Pre-Box ticket sales are those in which the event organizer checks out tickets from the box office to sell and
distribute themselves. If you decide you would like to set up a pre-box sale, you will have two options.
1. Your organization keeps the ticket sales, in which case the Auditorium will include the facility fee
and the 10% gross box office receipts in the event settlement or bill. This is the preferred method
as you will likely have many individuals and groups making checks out to your organization rather
than to IU Auditorium.
2. Your organizations brings back all ticket sales to the box office. Settlement and billing will not
reflect that any pre-box tickets were checked out as the price of tickets has been collected in full.
IU departments or organizations must first complete a Revenue Producing Activity training before pre-box
tickets may be sold by any members of the organization. Non-IU departments or organizations may only sell
pre-box tickets using cash or check.
Tickets will be dispersed from the box office in quantities of no larger than 100 at a time and a pre-box office
receipt must be signed at the time of ticket pick-up.
Note that all unsold tickets must be returned within 48 hours before the performance. For each ticket that is
not returned, the client will be responsible for paying the facility fee in addition to 10% of gross box office
receipts on all tickets which are sold or otherwise not returned. For this reason, please use care when
managing your tickets, particularly with large numbers of tickets or with multiple channels of distribution. For
these types of situations, order forms are a great organizational tool. Talk with the Director of Ticketing and
Sales for more ideas and suggestions for ensuring a successful pre-box sale.
Wraps and Audits
An audit is a report detailing the number of tickets sold for a performance, what type of tickets were sold
(student, children, etc.), the dollar value of the tickets sold, and how many tickets are still available. Wraps
refer to audits that are pulled on a regular interval in order to communicate sales progress with an event
organizer. Automated wraps are available through the TM1 reporting tool; please work with the Director of
Ticketing and Sales to set these up. The term “caudit” means combined audit, in which the audit for each
individual performance is combined into one report demonstrating the total sales information for the entire
event run (e.g., the total sales for an eight performance run of a Broadway show).
Settlement
This is the final agreement (of all income and expenses) between the Auditorium, the event organization,
and the artist’s management (if applicable). Settlement for a concert or similar event is typically done during
intermission or shortly after a performance begins, and after the box office has closed.
All receipts from ticket sales, including any advance sales, will be retained by IU Auditorium and will
not be transferred to the user until after the event is complete and all fees and other expenses have
been paid in full.
IU Auditorium will use all box office receipts to pay IU Auditorium fees (rent, labor, equipment, and
other) and additional University charges when applicable. Any balance will be transferred to the
event organizer.
The IU Auditorium may withhold additional monies from box office receipts for damages as
determined by IU Auditorium management, as governed by the Facility License Agreement..
As soon as possible following an event (and not later than forty-five days thereafter), IU Auditorium
management will forward an itemized and audited ticket statement, together with payment of any
ticket revenues less any balance owed to the IU Auditorium.
Off-site Ticketing Services
IU Auditorium can facilitate ticket sales for off-site events in two primary ways:
Ticket Printing Service $85
IU Auditorium Box office can create and print tickets for events that are free-of-charge, but where
ticketing is desired for admission or capacity regulation. In this situation, the client is in charge of
distribution.
Ticket Sales and Distribution Service
For off-site events that charge an admission, IU Auditorium Box Office can create, distribute, and
manage sales. The client receives the Gross Box Office Receipts minus the following charges.
1. Administrative Fee $85.00
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a. This covers the setup, processing, and billing hours by box office
administration.
2. Scanner Rental Fee $50 / unit
a. This covers the ticket scanners necessary to verify tickets at the door.
b. XXX scanners are available – this number is dependent on other events
happening at the Auditorium.
3. Ticketing Fee $1 / ticket ($200 minimum)
a. This covers the printing and distribution costs of each ticket.
