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Active gets bought!

Scott AlexanderScott Alexander
in Community Forum 🏠

First it happened with WTC, being bought by a private equity firm, now it's Active!

http://www.thestreet.com/story/1205..._ven=YAHOO

What did we learn from WTC and now what do we expect with Active.com being scooped up?

Discuss.

Comments

  • robin sarnerrobin sarner
    Maybe their crappy service and antiquated computer code will improve.
  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    I hope Mike Reilly was bought out and WTC shows a little independence on who they select for race sign-up services.
  • Cary BlancoCary Blanco
    I'm sure the first thing on the list is eliminte those pesky processing fees that the athletes need to pay for regisater for a race.

    What was Mike Reilly's Stake in the company anyway, i know he holds/held a big position.
  • Scott AlexanderScott Alexander
    "Processing" fees are their bread-and-butter, so those probably won't be eliminated entirely, unfortunately.
    This is similar to ticketmaster (who bought their major competitor Live Nation several years ago) and others in the concert niche, who seem to be the only major player in the field.

    I certainly hope for some technology upgrades. Too many errors and lockouts, etc.

    I'm surprised WTC hasn't launched their own registration platform yet, actually.

    I don't know what else is in the Vista Equity Partners portfolio, but hopefully for them there's some synergy in this purchase that can be passed along to the consumer (us). I won't be holding my breath on those efficiencies getting passed along though!
  • Cary BlancoCary Blanco
    Scott - sorry if my joke about the processing fee didn't come through in my post. It was definitely a joke, not expecting those to go away.

    Technical problems, don't get me started, years back I changed my username and it literally broke their system. Real Database 101 stuff, they were using usernames as primary keys and then allowing people to change them. If that doesn't make sense, imagine a woman having a bank account tied to her last name rather than an account number, if she changes her name after marriage, the account information is lost, that's essentially what active was doing.

    So, yes, hopefully there will be changes for the better.
  • Dave TalloDave Tallo
    I'm fearful that it will lose its low-key, mom-and-pop approach.
  • Cary BlancoCary Blanco

    Posted By Dave Tallo on 06 Oct 2013 03:28 PM


    I'm fearful that it will lose its low-key, mom-and-pop approach.

    I was was drinking anything while I read that, there would have been a spit take.

  • William JenksWilliam Jenks
    In one of my other lives, I help administer a 800-player soccer club. Several years ago, Active.com bought something called LeagueOne, which is more or less the same thing, but it's configured to have two way access to the database...one to the local group (our club) and one to a state (or other) association.

    Since being bought by Active.com, LeaguOne has gotten worse and worse each year, to the point that it literally drops data from time to time now. It's terrible, but we are stuck with it because of a contract between the state association and LeagueOne. I hate hate hate LeagueOne, even though I used to really like it.

    I don't know if this will make some of these issues worse (profit driven) or better (trying not to drive away customers), but I will be watching very closely.
  • William JenksWilliam Jenks
    Re Processing Fees -

    Of course, this is how all these services make their money. The Evil that Active.com Hath Wrought is not processing fees, per se, but the ability for merchants (e.g., WTC) to state the price and them add them on. They tell you something costs $100, and then it really costs $107.50 or something. This pisses you off. But WTC and others haven't figured this out. They think that they are better off naming the lower price that doesn't include the processing fee instead of the higher price that does (e.g., charging $700 for a race instead of $650 "plus convencience fee").

    These things are as much horrible marketing by race providers as they are by Active.com.

    Our soccer club (see above) would never dream of not including the processing fee in our costs. We tell you it costs $130 or whatever...and it costs $130. We know going in the number we will get.
  • Coach PatrickCoach Patrick

    I am interested to see how this plays out. IMHO Active's big deal isn't so much the fees, it's the data it collects on you and sells to advertisers, etc. Their focus is 90% on that internal data management much more so than on your user experience...after all they make $7.50 on you once a year, but they can sell your stuff many, many times over. Will be interesting to see where it all goes....but I for one would love a better system...

  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    PnI organize and take reg's for our camps via Active. I can tell you that the back of the house interface hasn't changed in nearly a decade. 

    I had a surprising conversation with one of their advertising/marketing guys last year. They wanted to sell us advertising for our camps, etc. I told them I'd be interested if they could put us and our in front of the #xxxx Ironman athletes within a #yyy mile radius of zip code #zzzzz, to market an IMWI camp, for example. 

    He was very much like "huh...I hadn't thought of that!" and it turns out they couldn't do it, so we moved on. 

  • dpiburndpiburn

    IMHO Active's big deal isn't so much the fees, it's the data it collects on you and sells to advertisers, etc.

    Yes, this. So annoying, and every time I have to use them to sign up for an event, I cringe.

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