TicketLeap, a company that organizes ticket sales for events localized to various communities, announced Nov. 5 its presence on networking Web site Facebook, where it eases online ticket vending.

The University has been negotiating a campus-event ticketing contract with a vendor other than TicketLeap for the past year, but University spokesman Dan Wolter couldn’t name that company since the deal isn’t finalized.

Northrop Ticket Office currently handles some on-campus arts events.

Wolter said the University is not looking to be affiliated with TicketLeap and a partnership is unlikely.

He also said sporting events are handled separately from other campus events.

“We were not aware of TicketLeap inserting itself as an application on Facebook,” Wolter said. “We don’t have an official presence on Facebook for selling tickets for our sporting and campus events.”

Steve Stanchak, founder and Chief Executive Officer of TicketLeap, said the company’s current aim is to reach out to young people.

“Our company’s focus is to reach the university market,” Stanchak said. “Facebook is growing out of the college space and is a great way to have a presence in that market.”

But TicketLeap doesn’t stand alone on Facebook.

Other prominent ticket vendors are also targeting markets through the site and provide their services online.

TicketLeap was founded in 2002 and launched in 2003. The company concept was developed in a management class at the University of Pennsylvania and later became a company.

The University’s athletics department sells tickets for Gopher sporting events online through Gophersports.com, where the department’s ticketing information is centralized.

“We have been selling tickets for the past five years online to the general public,” director of marketing and ticketing Jason LaFrenz said. “I am not familiar with TicketLeap, but we are looking at the future of ticket sales for students online.”

He said the University wants to control athletics ticket sales and it will not outsource ticketing.

Graduate student Adela Chavez said she feels there are benefits to having online ticket sales, especially with students’ busy lifestyles, but there should be something in it money-wise for the University.

She said there are geographic and time benefits to the online world and Facebook is heavily used by students.