Here's why you can't get good concert tickets

Joseph Spector, [email protected] | @gannettalbany January 28, 2016


http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/26b413f334329d257560ce342e23acfcdc8efa4f/c=42-0-2757-2036&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2015/07/13/Binghamton/B9318059370Z.1_20150713014141_000_GT7BAS5KI.2-0.jpg
(Photo: Carlos Ortiz / Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)



ALBANY -- There's a reason why it's hard to get reasonably priced tickets to major events: The system is rigged, the state's attorney general charged Thursday.

Tickets to concerts and sports events have been kept out of the hands of the general public, leading to inflated prices when the public could access them, an investigation by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman found.

Schneiderman detailed a three-year investigation that alleged widespread abuse in the ticket industry, claiming that the practices prevented New York consumers from buying tickets at affordable prices. In some cases, customers couldn't even get the same tickets afforded to insiders, he said.

For example, about 70 percent of tickets for two Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake shows at Yankee Stadium in 2013 were only available through pre-sale events, the report said.

“Ticketing is a fixed game," Schneiderman said in a statement. “My office will continue to crack down on those who break our laws, prey on ordinary consumers and deny New Yorkers affordable access to the concerts and sporting events they love."

The investigation led to the settlement with two New York City-based ticket brokers -- MSMSS, LLC and Extra Base Tickets, LLC -- who were illegally operating without a ticket reseller license in New York, Schneiderman said. MSMSS will pay $80,000 in penalties, and Extra Base Tickets will pay $65,000.

Vow to cooperate

Consumer groups praised the findings, while ticket brokers vowed to work with Schneiderman to avoid any abuses.

"StubHub believes that a fair, secure and open ticket marketplace supports fans," the San Francisco-based, online ticket giant said in a statement. "Consumers should be protected from unfair and deceptive practices that make it harder for fans to buy and use event tickets in an open market. We are strongly committed to partnering with industry, public policy and other leaders to achieve this goal."

Launched after complaints from the public, Schneiderman's probe found that there were a host of middle men tied to the ticket industry that limits the availability of affordable tickets to consumers.

In some cases, tickets were either put on “hold” and reserved for "a variety of industry insiders including the venues, artists or promoters," Schneiderman said. There's also the business of reserved tickets for “pre-sale” events for people with specific credit cards or access.

Fees and brokers

The review found that on average, more than half of all tickets -- 54 percent – were reserved for so-called insiders.

"The report’s finding—that the modern ticket marketplace is rife with abuses that prevent consumers from accessing tickets to popular events at a fair price—has long been known to anyone that tries to buy a live event ticket," The National Consumers League, a Washington D.C.-based consumer group, said in a statement.

The situation is compounded by fees added to ticket sales by companies such as Ticketmaster that can add more than 20 percent to the face price of the tickets, Schneiderman said.

In the case of third-party brokers like StubHub and TicketsNow, tickets can go for 49 percent above face-value -- sometimes more than 1,000 percent, the report said.

“Ticketmaster fully cooperated with the attorney general’s office in developing the report and looks forward to continuing to work with the attorney general to ensure that artists can get tickets into the hands of their fans," the West Hollywood, Calif., company said in a statement.

'Ticket bots'

Part of the problem, Schneiderman contended, is that some brokers use illegal software – called “ticket bots” -- to purchase top tickets to shows and sporting events, leaving customers to pay exorbitant prices in the secondary market.

For example, a broker buying tickets to a U2 show at Madison Square Garden last June purchased 1,012 tickets in the first minute of the sale through a "ticket bot."

The issue has come up for major concerts in New York in recent years. For example, tickets to a Rolling Stones concert in Buffalo last year started going on sale at twice the base price -- even before they were the public was able to have a chance to buy tickets through a public sale.

Last month, Schneiderman's office sent letters to three online ticketing sites selling tickets to Bruce Springsteen concerts in New York, including a Feb. 27 show at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester and shows at Madison Square Garden, before those shows went on sale.

Schneiderman's letter to StubHub, TicketNetwork and Vivid Seats said the sites are prohibited from listing "speculative tickets" before they go on sale.



New York State Attorney General's complaint can be seen here: http://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/new-york/2016/01/28/ag-consumers-scammed-over-concert-tickets/79456288/

And here I thought it was just because I don't have any money.

Total scam, that's why i get the best deals in the parking lot outside the venues. By that time people are just happy to find a buyer  (usually )!

Wow Mr Attorney General thanks for figuring out what we've known for years. Now tell us if this is a crime and if it is when are some people going to jail for this shit?

I'm quite glad I got to see most of the artists I liked when they were still worth seeing, werent ripping their fanbase off with silly ticket prices and werent in league with brokers, ticket agencies and various other chancers to make what affordable tickets are left almost unobtainable.

In most cases, its really not worth bothering going to see major acts anymore.  They're partly to blame for creating this monster, taking the fun out of the concert experience and generally putting rock n roll on life support.

It was fun while it lasted!

Bitch wrote on Jan 30^th, 2016 at 7:43pm:

Total scam, that's why i get the best deals in the parking lot outside the venues. By that time people are just happy to find a buyer  (usually )!

I do that 90% of the time...and kick myself the other 10% when I didnt hold out. I scored a pair of tickets in Buffalo for $150.00...face value totaled over $800

So...I cant pretend I can fully analyze this, but I think this may help...the next to last paragraph is interesting...

http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/08/stubhub-takes-on-ticketmaster-with-new-platform-for-both-primary-and-secondary-tickets/



StubHub has announced big plans to infiltrate the primary ticketing market, as the eBay-owned company takes on the might of Ticketmaster in the lucrative live events realm.

StubHub revealed that it’s launching a new all-in-one ticketing platform, offering its partners a “reimagined rightsholder branded experience, full market visibility, data ownership and the listing of primary and secondary ticket inventory in a single marketplace,” according to a company press release. For the launch, StubHub has called on the Philadelphia 76ers to serve as its launch partner, meaning that StubHub is now the official ticketing partner of the basketball team ahead of the 2016-2017 NBA season.

Moving forward, StubHub will offer a single ticketing repository with a single seat map — tickets won’t be designated as ‘primary’ or ‘secondary’. StubHub will also offer a white-label service for primary sellers, meaning they can fully brand tickets with their own logos and so on.

Founded out of San Francisco in 2000, StubHub has become a major force in the online ticketing space, partly thanks to its $310 million acquisition by eBay in 2007. However, unlike Ticketmaster, StubHub’s core raison d’être has been the “secondary” market — where people resell tickets to live events.

While StubHub pitches itself as a legitimate platform for people looking to shift tickets for events they can no longer attend, it has also gained a reputation as a platform for scalpers. Indeed, ABC recently called StubHub the “ticket scalper of the digital age, the ultimate middleman to shake up the way people interact to buy and sell tickets to almost any concert, theater performance, or sporting event.”

In March last year, StubHub filed a lawsuit against both Ticketmaster and an NBA basketball team, the Golden State Warriors, in response to what StubHub called “unfair and illegal anti-competitive business practices that prevent fans from deciding how they want to resell their tickets and which artificially drive up ticket prices.”

The crux of StubHub’s issue was that Ticketmaster had been the official primary and secondary ticketing partner of the NBA since 2007. This meant that basketball fans who bought tickets on Ticketmaster, but who subsequently were unable to attend the games, could sell their tickets through the team’s website using Ticketmaster’s TicketExchange service. In effect, StubHub accused Ticketmaster of being monopolistic by forcing fans to use its own secondary ticketing service, rather than giving them the freedom to use third-party platforms — such as StubHub. Though a court ultimately ruled against StubHub, the case helps highlight the history between these two companies and how Ticketmaster — though largely a primary ticketing vendor — has also made inroads into servicing the secondary market.

Now, StubHub is looking to get a bigger share of the proverbial ticketing pie by targeting the rightsholders directly, be those venues or, as in this case, sports teams. Securing the Philadelphia 76ers as a launch partner may be a coincidence, but it’s certainly symbolic so soon after StubHub’s showdown with Ticketmaster and the Golden State Warriors.

It’s also interesting to see that while Ticketmaster and StubHub started from different positions, they ended up in the same place — both selling tickets on the primary and secondary markets. While my initial suspiction was that StubHub would require fans to resell tickets on its own site if they can no longer make an event, it transpires that this is not the case — fans will have the freedom to resell tickets on any third-party platform.

“For over 15 years, StubHub has been a marketplace that connected buyers and sellers of tickets to live events on the secondary market, but now we are in a position to provide the industry a true end-to-end ticketing solution that combines our experience in e-commerce and secondary ticketing with a set of features that will help our partners sell more tickets,” explained Scott Cutler, president of StubHub. “This new platform signifies the evolution of our company and a revolution in the industry.”


Now...back to the OLE TOUR!!!

thats a good article validating what alot of us already know. i can't count the number of times i trolled around STUB HUB et al the day before tickets go on sale to the general public only to find  hundreds already posted on these second tier box offices at inflated prices. then of course there's that 25% to 30% convenience charge to contend with...i save hundreds of dollars a year driving to box offices around town for tickets. thanks for posting!

wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 1:43pm:

...i save hundreds of dollars a year driving to box offices around town for tickets.

The old-fashioned way is lots of times the best way.  :thatwassmart