Abbamondi, identifying the voices on the 2021 call to a Manhattan jury Wednesday, said that \u201cthe nervous guy was me and the angry guy was Michael.\u201d The few minutes played in court captures an exchange that went \u201csideways,\u201d as Abbamondi put it, when he tried to thread a delicate needle: rejecting Ticketmaster\u2019s services while trying to hold its parent company Live Nation to a separate contract promising to fill Barclays Center with concerts. At one point, Rapino dropped an F-bomb while discussing his frustration over a contractual dispute. He told Abbamondi he believed they were never planning to renew with Ticketmaster in the first place.<\/p>\n
Rapino reminded Abbamondi about the new UBS Arena in Queens, which could draw more Live Nation-promoted shows away from Barclays. Though Ticketmaster theoretically operates separately from Live Nation, Abbamondi took this as a \u201cnot-so-veiled\u201d threat \u2014 cut off the left arm, and the right arm would swing back. Abbamondi hung up feeling like he\u2019d failed to \u201cdo my job there, which was to land the plane smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The venue \u201csaw a dramatic decline in Live Nation shows that were booked at the arena\u201d<\/p>\n
Abbamondi still signed the deal with SeatGeek, which began in October 2021. Then, he testified, the venue \u201csaw a dramatic decline in Live Nation shows that were booked at the arena.\u201d Artists were just beginning to fill stadiums again after the start of the covid pandemic, including Billie Eilish, who\u2019d had to cancel shows in New York venues including Barclays in 2020. Normally, Abbamondi would have expected Live Nation to rebook her show there next time she was on tour. But when she began touring again in 2021, she booked at the new venue Rapino had warned about \u2014 the UBS Arena. When Barclays asked about it, they were told it was the \u201cartist\u2019s decision.\u201d Other promoters, he said, hadn\u2019t reduced their bookings at Barclays by nearly as much.<\/p>\n
In 2022, mere months into the SeatGeek contract, Abbamondi was fired. Less than a year later, Barclays announced<\/a> it was going back to Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n Ticketmaster, in the witnesses\u2019 telling, wasn\u2019t the best option for a ticketing vendor, but Live Nation\u2019s power as a concert promoter forced their hand. In the case of the Minnesota Wild, which played at the then-Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Helgerson said the fear of losing Live Nation shows was a large driver behind its decision to stick with Ticketmaster \u2014 even though it found it would make $1 million a year more switching to SeatGeek.<\/p>\n The arena was already engaged in tight competition for concerts with the Target Center across the river in Minneapolis, a similarly-sized venue. So when the Wild kicked off negotiations over renewing its contract with Ticketmaster in 2018, the ticketing service knew how to hit them where it would hurt. When the Wild staff mentioned they were planning to consider a proposal from SeatGeek too, a Ticketmaster executive told them that Live Nation could move all of their shows to the Target Center if they switched ticketing vendors, Helgerson testified. \u201cWe took it as a credible threat,\u201d he said. \u201cLosing those shows would be almost catastrophic to our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe took it as a credible threat\u201d<\/p>\n To ease the risk, SeatGeek offered what it called \u201cLive Nation retaliation insurance\u201d \u2014 a promise to compensate the arena for concerts booked at the Target Center on dates Xcel had open. SeatGeek offered the arena a higher upfront bonus and fee share that overall would make the venue an additional $1 million a year compared to Ticketmaster\u2019s offer. But even retaliation insurance couldn\u2019t make up for the loss of the \u201cvibrance of the venue\u201d and the impact on its own employees should Live Nation pull its shows. Ticketmaster\u2019s alleged threat created an \u201cinsurmountable challenge.\u201d The venue signed another contract with Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n There were complicating factors in both these cases, which Live Nation pointed out on cross-examination. It was both risky and a lot of work to move to a new ticketing platform. Like switching any enterprise software, it would take a while for staff to get up to speed, and Abbamondi admitted that while SeatGeek\u2019s technology gave them more options over things like how to price individual seats, it was less user-friendly. An executive whom Helgerson worked with worried that SeatGeek\u2019s lack of an interface for concert promoters at the time would be an obstacle to getting them to bring shows to the arena. Abbamondi also said he\u2019s personal friends with SeatGeek\u2019s co-founder, and he testified he wasn\u2019t fired because of the SeatGeek deal \u2014 he was given two other reasons.<\/p>\n SeatGeek offered what it called \u201cLive Nation retaliation insurance\u201d<\/p>\n There was also a separate legal dispute between the Barclays Center and Ticketmaster, which appeared to be at least part of the reason that the call between Abbamondi and Rapino broke down. Barclays believed their contract with Ticketmaster would expire at the end of September 2021, as originally stated. But Ticketmaster believed that because the Covid pandemic shortened the regular NBA season, a clause in the contract had been triggered to extend that contract another year. On top of that, in an earlier, unrecorded call between Abbamondi and Rapino, the Ticketmaster CEO suggested that they should be given the chance to counter any offer Barclays received. Abbamondi said he tried his best to respond in a \u201cnoncommittal\u201d way, but the implication was that Rapino might have seen it differently.<\/p>\n The jury will have to decide whether the threats Abbamondi and Helgerson described were really as menacing as they believe, one of many factors that will determine whether Live Nation-Ticketmaster should face penalties \u2014 including the possibility of a breakup.<\/p>\n In one text exchange, Live Nation executive Patti Kim, a friend of Abbamondi\u2019s, wrote that he should \u201cthink about the bigger relationship\u201d with Live Nation, not just who\u2019s writing the bigger check. She added a winky face. \u201cThat was my friend saying, \u2018you know what I mean,\u2019\u201d Abbamondi said. This week, the jury is expected to get the chance to hear from the rival allegedly offering those bigger checks: SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Lauren FeinerClose Lauren Feiner<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All by Lauren Feiner<\/a><\/p>\n AntitrustClose<\/p>\n Antitrust<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Antitrust<\/a><\/p>\n EntertainmentClose<\/p>\n Entertainment<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n PolicyClose<\/p>\n Policy<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n![\"Lauren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lauren_BLURPLE.jpg\"\/)
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