When an HBA chooses a ticketing platform, the percentage fee rarely feels significant in the moment. Three percent. Five percent. “It is just a small processing fee.”
It is not small.
The real cost of percentage-based ticketing
Let’s use real numbers. The Southern Utah Parade of Homes draws over 40,000 attendees. At $25 per ticket, that is $1,000,000 in gross ticket revenue.
A platform charging 3% takes $30,000 of that. A platform charging 5% takes $50,000 of that. A platform charging 6% takes $60,000 of that.
Every year.
That money does not go to your association’s mission. It does not fund builder support, member services, or community programs. It goes to a platform vendor who was not involved in planning the event, managing the venue, coordinating the builders, or supporting your staff on event day.
The percentage model is not designed for your event
Platforms like Eventbrite were designed for general consumer events — concerts, conferences, community gatherings. Their percentage model makes sense when the platform itself brings ticket buyers to your event through their marketplace, discovery algorithms, and email lists.
That is not what happens with a Parade of Homes. Your attendees come from your HBA’s marketing, your builders’ networks, your local media coverage, your social posts, and years of community trust. The ticketing platform did not bring them. You did.
A Parade of Homes is a closed, community event with its own organic demand. Paying a percentage for that demand makes no more sense than paying a percentage of your grocery bill to the bag boy.
What a flat annual fee looks like by comparison
ParadeSmart charges a flat annual fee — not a percentage. The fee covers the full platform: the app, the website, ticketing, maps, voting, analytics, builder profiles, advertising, and support.
The math at a mid-sized parade — say, 8,000 tickets at $20 each — looks like this:
| Model | Revenue | Platform fee | HBA keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3% percentage | $160,000 | $4,800 | $155,200 |
| 5% percentage | $160,000 | $8,000 | $152,000 |
| ParadeSmart flat fee | $160,000 | Fixed annual | $160,000 minus flat fee |
At the flat fee, the HBA keeps every dollar above that fixed cost. As the parade grows — more homes, more attendees, higher ticket prices — the platform cost stays the same. The HBA captures 100% of the upside.
Advertising revenue works the same way
Most parade apps include sponsor advertising placements — banner ads, featured home sponsor slots, sponsored map layers. On a percentage-based model, those ad dollars may also be subject to platform fees depending on how the contract is structured.
With ParadeSmart, the HBA prices and sells its own advertising, collects payment directly, and keeps every dollar. The platform does not take a cut of advertising revenue. Your sponsorship packages, your relationships with local businesses, your pricing decisions — those all stay yours.
The question to ask when evaluating any platform
Before signing with any ticketing or event technology vendor, ask this question directly:
“If we sell $500,000 in tickets and advertising through your platform, how much will we keep?”
The answer to that question is the most important number in the conversation. Feature lists, app design, and support quality all matter — but they matter less if the financial model takes a meaningful percentage of your association’s revenue every year, permanently.
Your parade took years to build. The attendance, the community trust, the builder relationships, the media coverage — that is your HBA’s work. The platform you choose should support that work, not take a percentage of it.
To see how ParadeSmart’s pricing works for your parade size and ticket volume, reach out for a demo. We are happy to walk through the numbers with you.