Playing Ball With Rich Customers

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A Culver City sports travel agency is planning to connect high-end fans to the year’s biggest international sporting event – the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“We love sports and we love traveling and decided to build a business around that,” said Christopher Stone, chief executive of the new Beck & Score.

For its first event, the company purchased 500 of the best seats to World Cup matches, including 200 for the semifinals and finals. The cost? About $2.5 million, which the company raised from private investors.

The company, which has a staff of 17, won’t make a profit reselling tickets, but expects to make its money on luxury travel packages that include hotel accommodations and restaurant reservations. Packages range from $11,000 to $150,000, depending on games attended and other custom amenities.

For example, a package could include accommodations in Buzios, a resort town 100 miles from Rio de Janiero and helicopter flights to games and back.

To secure top hotel rooms, restaurant reservations and limo services, two Beck & Score agents opened an office in Brazil and spent the past six months vetting and negotiating with vendors. The company found that there are only several hundred rooms in the country that would compare with a five-star hotel in the United States. To secure a room block at one of those hotels in Rio, Beck & Score had to rent those rooms for the month. The company has made similar arrangements to have tables reserved for the month at high-end restaurants.

The 2016 Summer Olympics will also be in Brazil, allowing the company to leverage its resources for the games. Stone also expects his company to develop packages for golf’s Masters Tournament and Ryder Cup.

“The World Cup’s every four years,” said Eddie Salcedo, chief marketing officer. “We’re looking at what else we can do in between to keep the lights on whether it’s Wimbledon, the Masters or the Ryder Cup,”

– David Nusbaum

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