Guide
Who holds the ticket money until curtain
Some platforms pay you after closing night. Some hold the money. Some never touch it. Before you argue about fees, ask who has your ticket money and what day it reaches your bank.
Everybody asks what the fee is. Ask this one first: who is holding your ticket money right now, and what day does it reach your bank?
Your house pays the rights before you open. The lumber before that. Pizza for the cast during tech week. Those bills land while the run is still going. So if your ticket money is parked with a vendor until after closing night, that is not a fee problem you can shop your way out of. That is your season’s cash flow sitting in someone else’s account.
Three ways the money can sit
You take the money. The sale runs on your own payment account. It is yours from the moment the card clears, and your own processor’s schedule decides what day it shows up in the bank.
They take the money and pass your share through. The sale runs on the platform’s account, and your cut moves into a payment account that belongs to you. Getting it from there to the bank is still its own step, on its own schedule.
They take the money and pay you later. The platform keeps your share and releases it after the run, or on whatever schedule they publish. This is the one people mean when they say a vendor holds the money.
None of these is a scam. They are three different answers to a question a treasurer actually has to answer: can I write the royalty check on Thursday. Find out which one you are on before it is Thursday.
What the vendors say, in their own words
Their published statements, with the date we read them. These are not Places rates.
- Ticketleap (pricing, 21 Aug 2026): they process through Stripe, and payouts land 4 to 7 business days after the event.
- Brown Paper Tickets (pricing, 21 Aug 2026): payout within 10 business days after the event ends, on their default processor.
- Eventbrite (sell-tickets features, 19 Aug 2026): they advertise payouts before the event. They are also a marketplace, not a volunteer box office.
- On The Stage (FAQs, 21 Aug 2026): on Stripe Connect they say they never handle the funds. On OTS Managed, the money sits in escrow until after the production, and an ACH or a check arrives 5 to 7 days after the run closes.
Read those payout lines next to your own calendar. “After the event” is a very different sentence when the rights invoice is due opening week.
Where we intend the money to go
To you, not to us. When a reserved seat sells, the plan is that your share lands in a payment account in your theatre’s name and our dollar comes to us. Your ticket money is not meant to sit in a Places account waiting for the run to end.
Two things we are not going to fudge. Money arriving in a payment account is not the same as money in your bank, and that last hop runs on your account’s own payout schedule, not on our promise. And we will not print a payout day here until we have watched real money make the whole trip. When it is verified, this page gets the date.
Tools are free. You only pay at the door: a dollar when a reserved seat sells. General admission is free for small events for a limited time. Comps and free tickets are $0, because a comp is not a sale.
Frequently asked questions
- Who holds the ticket money?
- Depends on the platform. Either the sale runs on your own payment account, or it runs on theirs and your share passes through to you, or they keep your share and send it after the run. Ask which one you are on before the rights invoice comes due.
- When does Ticketleap say they pay?
- Their pricing page, as of 21 Aug 2026, says payouts land 4 to 7 business days after the event.
- Why does this matter for a volunteer house?
- Because the bills come due before closing night. Money that waits until after the run is a cash-flow problem in the middle of your season, not a checkout fee.