Dallas

Qcue, Dallas Stars team on dynamic ticket pricing

The National Hockey League franchise Dallas Stars announced on Wednesday that it has partly ditched standard ticket pricing in favor of a dynamic pricing model. Software developer Qcue plans to provide the technology the team needs to adjust prices.

The Dallas Stars have inked a one-year deal with Qcue for it to analyze several factors to determine the right price for each home game. The Stars want to ensure that as many people as possible are attending the team's games. The changes will affect only individual game tickets in the upper level. Season ticket holders and those in the lower level will pay a standard rate for all games.

According to Geoff Moore, Dallas Stars senior vice president of sales and marketing, Qcue's technology analyzes the Stars and its opponents' win-loss records, attendance, stats, opposing players, and more. Standings, supply of tickets left, and attendance also play a part. Combine all those factors (and more), and Qcue's proprietary algorithm spits out the suggested pricing on each seat.

In order to make the pricing as effective as possible, the Stars have decided that the team will sell tickets in two-month blocks only. The first block, for games in October and November, will be offered on September 12.

As the season progresses, Qcue will continue to tweak its algorithm while adding as much data as possible to the software. Ticket prices will change based on last year's information, as well as this season's performance. Moore believes that selling tickets through Qcue's service is the best way for the Stars to achieve its financial goals.

"Our goal is to increase the number of ticket-buying customers we have," Moore said. "We believe that Qcue's software will increase our revenue, but it's likely that the number of bodies in seats will increase at a much more rapid rate. That's exactly what we want."… Read more

The city where every arrest gets Twittered

For a short time, it seemed as if the Denton Police Department outside Dallas had been inspired by great communicators such as Ashton Kutcher and CNN.

A Twitter page, headlined "Denton Police," fed details of every arrest the department had performed, coupled with TwitPic mugshots.

This remarkable, real-time communication between the police and outside world surely was a futuristic forerunner to Texas' progression towards secession.

Until it was revealed to be the work of University of North Texas senior, Brian Baugh.… Read more

Is Shaq trying to seduce Mark Cuban via Twitter?

Shaquille O'Neal and Mark Cuban are deeply confirmed Twitterers.

They have different styles but their fingers seem rarely to leave their keyboards. Perhaps one can even blame sore Twitter-finger for Shaq's poor free-throw percentage.

However, I have been following a bizarre Twitter exchange between the two NBA personalities, one that has now blossomed into strong rumors that Shaq wants to be traded to Cuban's Dallas Mavericks.

It all began on Saturday when Shaq, who has almost 600,000 followers, tweeted: "I'm lookin foor u mark cuban".

The Dallas Mavericks owner replied: "you know … Read more

Mark Cuban screams at NBA refs--on Twitter

(Updated 12.23PST. Herewith Mark Cuban's latest Twittered news- with Dallas being smoked by Cleveland, Cuban tweeted: "just found out got fined25k by nba.) nice". Oh, Lordy.)

How can anyone not enjoy Mark Cuban?

A man who danced passably well on "Dancing with the Stars". A man who tends to say frightfully sensible things as loudly as possible in the hope that someone will hear. And a man who has been fined a total of $1.5million, some of it for complaining about NBA refs.

It seems as if he has been strangely quiet on … Read more

SEC charges Mark Cuban with insider trading

This post was updated at 3:39 p.m. with observations from attorney John Hueston, the former federal co-lead prosecutor in the Enron case.

Digital media maverick Mark Cuban was charged with insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency announced Monday.

Cuban, the founder of Broadcast.com and owner of high-def cable channel HDNet and the Dallas Mavericks, allegedly was invited to participate in a private investment in Internet search engine company Mamma.com back on June 28, 2004. But instead of keeping the information confidential, Cuban, who was Mamma's largest investor, called his broker within … Read more

The one question Mark Cuban should have to answer if he wants to buy the Chicago Cubs

Those nice people at ESPN reported this week that Mark Cuban, who I am told, was given a lot of money by Yahoo for some gizmoid or other, is one of the finalists in the bidding to buy baseball's most charming, unlucky, losersome team, the Chicago Cubs.

There will be those on the waggy side of humorous who will claim that he is the perfect person to own the Cubs as his Dallas Mavericks team is one of the most charming, unlucky, losersome teams in the NBA.

(My prejudices. One, I have Golden State Warriors hats and shirts and … Read more

AT&T moving headquarters to Dallas

Telecom giant AT&T announced Friday that it has outgrown its San Antonio corporate headquarters and is moving to Dallas.

The company's rationale, according to a statement, is that Dallas will give it better access to customers and worldwide operations, and also to "the key technology partners, suppliers, innovation and human resources need as it continues to grow." Some of those technology companies with major operations in Dallas include: Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Nortel, Research In Motion, and Samsung.

The move, which affects just 700 or so of the 6,000-some San Antonio-based employees, … Read more

Mark Cuban should remember he's a geek and welcome back bloggers

Technology and new media made Mark Cuban a billionaire.

Why would the founder of Broadcast.com and the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks force bloggers into a digital ghetto by limiting their access to his basketball team? Isn't he a card-carrying member of the digerati?

By banning bloggers from the Maverick's locker room, that's what he's doing, according to several journalism poobahs, including the Society of Professional Journalists.

The kerfuffle allegedly began when Tim MacMahon, who blogs for the Dallas Morning News, wrote something to the effect that the Mavs needed a new coach. … Read more

Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders pimp Roto-Rooter's high-tech powder room

What do Roto-Rooter, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, and the ultimate high-tech bathroom for women have in common? We have no idea, but they all came together at an event in New York City for the launch of Roto-Rooter's Pimped Out Powder Room Sweepstakes, which is a follow-up to last year's Pimped Out John Sweepstakes.

Around 300,000 people signed up for a chance to win the ultimate john and you gotta think just as many will be interested for a shot at the powder room. Roto-Rooter calls this the "ultimate bathroom destination for the modern woman," but I can't see too many dudes complaining about hitting this head. (See the bathroom sans cheerleaders after the jump.)

NFL.com offers shut-out Dallas, Green Bay fans limited free views of game

Leave it to the NFL to find an inadequate solution to the problem created by putting big games on its poorly distributed NFL Network.

If you're a football fan, you're no doubt very well aware that tonight, the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers face off in one of the biggest games of the year. Yet, unless you happen to be a subscriber of one of the few cable or satellite services that carry the NFL Network--where the game is being broadcast--you won't be able to watch the game.

Ah, but if you happened to pick up … Read more