Picture yourself celebrating with your favorite men’s basketball team in Indianapolis at the end of the NCAA Tournament. That dream can be a reality thanks to Untilted Tickets, a startup company created by five fourth-year Commerce students – Ryan Caradonna, Jason Caire, Tony Douglas, Joe Caiello and Matt Blank. With Untilted Tickets, fans can purchase advance championship ticket options for a particular team at regular season prices. If you think the risk is worth it, then continue reading our interview with four members of the Untilted team to hear what they have to say about their company, the success of the Virginia men’s basketball team and more.
Cavalier Daily: How did you guys come up with this idea? Was it part of a class?
Ryan Caradonna: Basically this is for our entrepreneurship CAPSTONE class. The idea was to make a company in the next 14 weeks and see how far you can get it. The teachers have been working with us and pushing us to get as much progress as we can get. What we’re doing right now is the beginning of what we’re trying to ultimately do.
[We have our own pricing system] loosely based on calculated odds. We’ve worked it out where we have options, financial investments, so to speak, for each team, and we hope to display this across all sports once we get this scaled up.
CD: Do most of these CAPSTONE projects go beyond fourth year?
Matt Blank: I think most people outside of our own group see it as just a project for this semester, but I think us, even having jobs, would like to do this beyond graduation.
Tony Douglas: I know personally a few groups from last year’s CAPSTONE class that did continue it on. That being said…we want to test it, market it, and see what people like, what people don’t like, how we can change it in the future and grow from it. It could be a very long process, but it’s something we can continue on after we graduate.
CD: How did you guys come together for this project?
Joe Caiello: We always have a mixer [during the first class], and everyone has his own individual idea. This idea was actually Ryan’s to start with, and so he kind of pitched this idea to all of us and we all thought it was really cool, something we all really wanted to work on, so we just all joined together.
MB: I think individually, we all said that we wanted to do something in sports before Ryan even pitched his idea, so when he pitched it, it seemed like a no brainer that all of us would work together.
CD: What other things do you guys have to say about the company in particular?
MB: One thing that I think is cool is that in just about three weeks, we’ve sold almost $600 worth of options, and when you're trying to sell options for schools like Louisville at UVa and you only have family and friends to sell to, it makes it really difficult to reach these schools that we don’t have a national affiliation for, so that’s one thing that we’re excited about — the fact that we’re being able to reach so many schools with such a limited number of friends and family. We’re excited with how much further this can go once we get our name out there.
RC: It’s all Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth, as of now. We’re trying to do our best to establish some sort of connection with each fan base around the country. It’s all about establishing the channels and that’s where we are now.
CD: Because you guys have started the company only selling NCAA men’s basketball tickets, what are your thoughts on the current men’s basketball team?
TD: We play a different type of basketball that’s pretty unique even though ESPN might not like it. On a personal level, I know guys on the team, and they're genuinely good guys. They’ve worked hard since I’ve been here so it’s exciting to see that hard work pay off.
RC: I think we have the best coach in the nation; when you lose two out of three of your best players and you double up an ACC opponent on the road, beating Wake 70-34 and holding them under 40 points — all those stats without two out of three of your best players, I think that’s incredible and directly attributable to coaching.
MB: I think the team’s partially responsible for the inspiration behind the idea because it’s almost one of those conversations where you say, ‘Alright our team’s so good, but we’re college students, we really can’t afford to the championship game if we were to make it, so how can we gain the system and figure out a way where we could make it to the game?’
RC: Because that’s the dream at the beginning of the season — everybody says my team has a chance, and that’s what we’re trying to do — empower that person.
CD: What would you use your company to buy tickets for?
MB: Mine’s easy — the Washington Capitals. I’m a die-hard fan. I played hockey growing up. It’s been tough being a D.C. sports fan — since I’ve been alive, no team has won a championship. That’s definitely the one I follow the most. I read blogs every day. I listen to podcasts about them. I follow all their pre-game shows. I watch all of their games, so for me, it’s a no brainer.
RC: If he thinks that’s tough, 107 years for the Cubs — that’s an even bigger no-brainer for me.
TD: For me at this point in my life, being that we’re fourth years, by far if UVa is in the national championship game — just the buzz that would be created in our last year here would be unreal. I’d think that be really cool to see. After that, it’d probably be the Super Bowl.
JK: If the Knicks were to ever get in that realm of possibility again, I’d think that’d be pretty good.
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