Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1544671
HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 4, 2026 21 company reached a $1.55 million settlement with the New York Attorney General's Office over speculative ticket listings — the practice of offering tickets for sale before the seller actually possesses them. The settlement did not ban specula- tive listings. Instead, it required sellers to clearly disclose when they do not yet have the tickets in hand. "We've ensured that the brokers we are working with have access to the tickets," Lemke said. "That is a require- ment on the brokers — on the sellers — to have access to those tickets." The MLB partnership goes further, at least for baseball. Because tickets must be verified through MLB's system before they can be listed, sellers cannot offer tickets they don't already control — effectively eliminating speculative listings. Outside of MLB, TicketNetwork continues to operate its established model: brokers must have access to the tickets they list, and when problems arise — which Burns says happens with less than 1% of transactions — the company makes buyers whole or removes sellers from the platform. Vaccaro said he believes the industry is finally catching up to implied stan- dards that existed in principle but weren't always enforced. "The conversation around the nature of ticket listings hasn't always been very precise," he said. "What's changed is that the market has moved toward more transparency and clearer disclo- sure around those listings, so that consumers have more information at the time of purchase." The campus behind the company By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com D on Vaccaro's personal interests have shaped TicketNetwork's 50-acre South Windsor campus, visible from Interstate 84. An animal sanctuary — home to llamas, goats, chickens and geese — was established in 2013 as part of Vaccaro's passion for agriculture and animals. A dedicated staff provides daily care year-round, and employees often stop by to relax. The campus, located at 75 Gerber Road East, also features walking trails, a vegetable garden that supplies produce to the company cafeteria, and an orchard with peach, apple and cherry trees. Inside, the amenities feel more Silicon Valley than suburban Connecticut: there's a gym, game room, laundry facility and free cafe- teria serving breakfast and lunch. The 200,000-square-foot building, which the company purchased in 2011 for $6.5 million and partially occupies, is powered largely by a 1.4-megawatt rooftop solar array, installed in 2019. It's a long way from where Vaccaro started. He began as a ticket broker in the 1990s, entering a fragmented, largely offline secondary market. In 2002, he co-founded TicketNetwork, creating a software-driven exchange that connected independent ticket sellers — a forerunner to today's secondary ticket market. The company operates a market- place covering concerts, theater and sporting events — from Yankees games to the World Cup. "When we started this company, the basic bet was pretty simple," Vaccaro said. "Ticketing was going to move online in a much bigger way, and the businesses that understood both the real street-level market and the technology side were going to have an edge." TicketNetwork has weathered the rise of mobile ticketing, the pandemic and a wave of regulatory scrutiny, staying planted in South Windsor even when other states offered incentives to relocate. "We're not the same company we were in 2002, obviously," Vaccaro said. "But we built something durable that works for both buyers and sellers." TicketNetwork's headquarters in South Windsor. Contributed Photo Get Paid Fast with Zelle ® for Business Receive customer payments quickly, safely, and easily — right inside the Ion Bank mobile app. TM Member FDIC Scan the QR code or visit ionbank.com/zelle