Jeffrey Pope’s idea for a St. Petersburg startup that challenges ticketing giants began three years ago in the lead-up to a Tampa Bay Lightning playoff game.
It was Game 6 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, and Pope, a season ticket holder, wanted to sell an extra lower bowl ticket. At face value, the ticket was $550.
“I had to get rid of the ticket and didn’t want to make money. I just wanted to put [it] up there and get my money back,” Pope said.
After putting the ticket on Ticketmaster, the final buyer paid well over $900.
At the time, Pope was a senior engineer at Barstool Sports. Though the digital ticketing industry is infamous for fees and high prices, Pope said the “outrageous” spike in price, which he, as the seller, had no control over, was the last straw.
Pope created a “rudimentary” site listing all his available tickets for friends and family.
“You could go in there and look at the tickets available, and they could make me an offer,” Pope said. “It wasn’t anything special, just a side pet project at the time.”
Pope kept slowly building onto the site, inviting other season ticket holders to list their tickets — but the consistent traffic and background inventory needed were never guaranteed.
After being laid off from Barstool last year, Pope decided to go full time with what is now Fango, a startup on a mission to revolutionize the ticketing industry by making the buying experience surprise-free and cost-effective for buyers.
Pope launched the Fango model to the public last month. He said it is built on full transparency and avoids charging hidden fees and unreasonable prices so buyers can enjoy local sports games, concerts and other events.
Gaining consumer trust remains a challenge.
“We’re not going to have hidden fees. We have small fees, but unlike other competitors, we show you our fees instead of hiding them behind the ticket price,” Pope said. “People [find it hard to believe] that we want to be affordable, but we do — and we want to be local.”
To tackle the inventory issue, Fango partnered with a white glove service for brokers. From there, Pope said they are building the app with his vision in mind: bringing the community together and making game day more affordable.
Fango raises its seller’s price by 7.5%, which is “way below” the industry standard, according to Pope. He said the increase aims to cover various costs while remaining competitive. But as they reach financial milestones, Pope said this is the highest Fango prices could ever be.
“[Big ticketing companies also] do dynamic surge pricing,” Pope said. “So, when there’s a lot of traffic, like for the Lightning game, [Ticketmaster’s] fee was 45% higher just because it was a high-traffic event.”
The site also features interactive seat maps, local ads, price transparency at checkout and Tampa-area events only — for now. According to Pope, the goal is to offer area-specific sites throughout the country, fully customized for each city.
“We’re focusing more on sporting events [right now] because it’s easier,” Pope said. “But obviously [for] big events [coming to the area], we’re going to put time and effort into [them] as well.”
So far, Pope has self-funded the startup. As the sole engineer with a team of six, Pope has taken on two partners as minority owners but doesn’t want to give up equity just yet. He wants to see how far they can take Fango first.
“We might even take losses on tickets, but what we want to do is take all the stress away when you’re going to a game here in Tampa Bay,” Pope said. “We want to [become] that Michelin star for sports fans.”
