Meet The Elite

Living on this island has many, many benefits, but one area it can be lacking is our ability to get tickets to the biggest events from someone we trust.

Whether it be boxing, football, tennis, comedy, theatre, motor sport, rugby, maybe golf if you’re that way inclined, you risk being at the mercy of ticket touts you don’t know and second hand websites. 

Well not anymore. Elite Tickets, set up by Anthony Chorlton and Aidan Chant, means you never again have to rely on that guy who claims he used to drink with Eddie Hearn’s dad or that one who was “definitely” at school with Marcus Rashford’s brother’s wife’s dog walker’s physiotherapist’s gardener. 

You don’t even have to rely on second hand websites where you can’t be certain you won’t face extra fees or that the tickets will even turn up at all. 

Ant, who moved to the island with his wife a few years ago, said they’ve found the island to be a ‘warm, welcome you with open arms’ place where people will help you without expecting anything, something he tells people whenever he heads off around the world on business.

But it is through getting to know people on the island that he realised something. If we go away to visit friends and family, this quite often will involve going to an event, be it sport, a comedy show or even big stadium gigs.

He said: ‘The problem that I was hearing is that tickets were being sought after on dodgy website and you’d hear horror stories about not getting what you’ve asked for, tickets not being delivered, money not being returned and expecting to pay a certain price and by the time you get to the checkout, you’ve got all these other costs. 

‘There was just a lot of negativity around obtaining tickets for events and I’m fortunate that through my experience in hospitality in the UK, I have a good network and can get access  to most tickets, particularly like with sporting events. 

‘So I’ve spoken to people and said well I can get tickets for this or that but because there isn’t an Isle of Man footprint, there is a lack of trust, so we thought we can bridge that gap quite easily by setting up a business on the island to do just that.’

Aidan and Anthony are supported in their business by Scott Davies, of Davies Construction. They want to engage in more of these types of relationships where people like Scott can introduce clients to Elite to ensure they can provide that extra special experience.

As Elite is relatively new, the company is operating on a request based service. You go to the website www.elitetickets.im and enter a request for tickets to whatever event you want to go, the guys then go through their network and will come back to, hopefully, say ‘yes we can get these and here’s how much they are’.

Ant is upfront about one thing from the off, the price will not be the face value. Elite is after all a business that needs to make money, but also many of these events are last minute, already sold out, or catering to a bespoke request. 

However, unlike buying off certain websites, if there is an issue at the ground or area with any ticket, Ant says Elite will have partners there to help resolve anything that may arise.

But, Elite also has another USP that Ant and Aidan pride themselves on, honesty. If you, for example, want to go to see England v Japan at Twickenham, those tickets are still available on Ticketmaster, one of the websites they do trust, so they will tell you to go look there. 

Ant said: ‘What we’re finding, which isn’t surprising but yet is surprising, is that some people don’t know how to buy a ticket. They don’t know that Ticketmaster is your first go to place because it will have tickets there at a reasonable price and that until they sell out, that is your best place to go.

‘If you go there and they don’t have what you want, then of course we’ll help you pick what you want and what you need, because we have access to those VIP tickets or whatever you want. First and foremost, we’re not just here to make a quick buck, we know our tickets are going to be above face value, I think people on the island expect that, we just want to make sure it’s a service that’s delivered, yes to make a profit, but it’s more of a lifestyle business for us than a profit making set up. I’d rather have a good reputation on the island than a bad one.’

Competition Time

As with every new business, there is often a competition of sorts and this is a good one. To celebrate the company’s launch, Elite is offering everyone the chance to win two tickets to any Premier League home game before the end of this calendar year, with the winner drawn live on Instagram on September 1. 

To enter that, all you need to do is click here, enter your name, email address and what game you’d like to go to.