How to incorporate GA and Assigned Seating for a show
A show can offer either general admission seating - where seats aren't sold by their exact location in the venue - or assigned seating, where they are. Seating for an event almost always falls in one of these two categories, but in more unusual situations a combination of assigned and general admission seating is most appropriate.
This article describes how Arts People supports this type of event - where elements of both assigned and general admission seating are used together.
A few of the reasons why it may be helpful to have a combination of assigned and general admission for your event are:
1) There are sections in the venue that give better visibility to the stage and can be sold for more than other sections - and yet the patron's exact seat location can't be selected.
2) There are sections of the venue where the exact seat location can be selected, and other sections where it can't.
Let's look at how each of these reasons can be handled with two different seating setups.
1) Using General Admission sections:
In the first scenario described above (where some sections have better visibility than others and can be sold separately but there are no exact seat locations to display) a seating type Arts People calls general admission sections can be used.
Here's an example of how an event using general admission sections looks when it's sold to patrons online:
The pricing you choose can be based on the value you assess for the seating in each section - for example, Premium, $20, $15 Standard, and $10 Economy per seat. If a general admission sections setup sounds like it meets the needs for your event, you can then decide on the name of each section, the total seats per section, and the price of seats in each section. The total seats of all the sections should equal the total seats in the venue.
2) Assigned seating with General Admission Notes:
In the second scenario (where there are some parts of the venue where the exact seat location can be selected and other parts where it can't) the type of seating used is assigned seating with general admission notes to let patrons know that some sections of the venue are assigned and some are general admission and the seat they select won't be assigned to them.
Seats in the general admission section of the venue will be first come, first served at the event and are unassigned, while the seats selected in the assigned seating section are assigned to the patron who selected them.
Here's an example of how an event using assigned seating with general admission notes is sold to patrons online:
If the assigned seating with general admission notes setup sounds best for your needs, attach an image or pdf of the seating map of your venue to a help desk request and let your client services representative know which seats are assigned and which are general admission in the venue, the language you'd like to use to indicate this to your patrons, and the price of the seats in each section.
Reach out any time by submitting a help desk request to explore these options more with your client services representative.