(An informative read, especially for those who think the reason you can't get good seats is because Ticketmaster gives them to the brokers)
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/0 ... _tick.html
Springsteen withheld best tickets from the public at NJ concert, records showby Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger Sunday June 14, 2009, 8:00 AM
Fans were quick to blame Ticketmaster and ticket brokers when they were unable to score seats to last month's Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts at the Izod Center in East Rutherford.
But an examination of ticket sale data from the May 21 concert shows Springsteen himself may be part of the problem. The best seats in the house that night were the 1,126 seats in the four sections closest to the stage, but only 108 of those tickets were ever for sale to the public, according to new ticket data obtained through the Open Public Records Act.
In all, 2,262 seats were held back from public sale, for the band, its record company and agent and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the public agency that operates the arena and acted as promoter for the concerts, according to the ticket sale records. That number represents about 12 percent of the total. That violates state law, say some legislators, including lawmakers who have sponsored bills to regulate ticket sales.
"They are allowed to hold back 5 percent for family, fan clubs, friends, sponsors, for the band, for the producer, for everyone involved," said Assemblyman Peter Biondi (R-Somerset), who questioned Attorney General Anne Milgram on the issue when she appeared before lawmakers earlier this month.
"It is a state statute. It is enforceable and it should be enforced," Biondi said. "It's there for a reason. The intent was to have enough tickets available to have fair and open pricing."
The sports authority has a different interpretation of the statute. According to spokesman John Samerjan, the authority believes the 5 percent applies only to the tickets kept by the authority and does not apply to holds for the artists, sponsors and media.
"The holds are a necessary part of doing business," said Samerjan, noting that if the tickets are not used, they eventually go on sale to the public. "We work with the attorney general and consumer affairs. They were aware of exactly where every ticket is going."
Not only were a large number of tickets held back from the public, but the majority of them were the best seats in the arena. And, ticket brokers say, that helped drive up prices on the secondary market. Although tickets sold for $95 and $65 in the initial sale, some tickets were selling for hundreds of dollars more on the secondary market.
"Simple economics 101 would tell you that any time you restrict supply the price will be much greater," said Robb Kenison, a ticket broker from the Washington, D.C., area. "I would not be surprised if a seat in 109, 110, 120 or 121 was double if not triple what it would have been had they sold even 50 percent of the seats in the sections."
Attempts to reach Springsteen's spokeswoman through e-mail and by phone were unsuccessful.
For the first of the two sold-out concerts, May 21, the sports authority kept 812 tickets for itself, the arena's sponsors and the media. Springsteen, his record company and agent and the band kept 1,450 more. Hundreds of the general admission floor seats were kept back, and about 60 percent of the 10 best sections were held from public sale.
None of the more than 9,800 seats in the upper level -- the worst seats -- was kept back for the artists and promoters.
According to the 2001 statute regulating ticket sales, it is unlawful "to withhold those tickets from sale to the general public in an amount exceeding 5 percent of all available seating for the event." Sen. Robert Singer (R-Monmouth), the sponsor of the bill, said the passage was included to ensure that consumers would be able to get access to tickets.
"The safeguards are in the law. The problem is implementing them. A law is only as good as you use it," said Singer, who said he would work with Milgram if she felt the 8-year-old law needs updating.
Singer was a member of the Ticket Brokering Study Commission created by Gov. Christie Whitman to review industry practices. In its report, it cited the holding back of tickets as one of three primary factors that made it difficult for consumers to purchase tickets.
"The public never has an opportunity to get those tickets. That's part of the problem," Singer said.
Public outrage over Ticketmaster's handling of the initial sale and the astronomical prices for tickets on the resale market prompted Attorney General Anne Milgram to investigate the ticket industry. So far she has taken aim at Ticketmaster and ticket brokers -- two groups with few friends and many detractors.
Through her spokesman, she said her office continues to investigate the ticket industry, but she would not comment about specifics concerts or outline her interpretation of the law.
"We remain concerned about the total number of hold backs and we continue to look into the issue," said spokesman David Wald.
Concert industry officials in New Jersey say the law is open to interpretation. Numa Saisselin, president of the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, says tickets for the artists -- usually dictated in the contract -- should be subtracted before the 5 percent is calculated because those tickets aren't "available for sale." But tickets for sponsors, media and donors (as well as tickets held to solve seating problems that might come up) should be included, he said.
"Nobody has ever asked about it, but we have a well-thought out policy," said Saisselin, who added the Basie is usually well below the 5 percent provision.
"There are a lot of people with their fingers in the pie. Sometimes it's not just the scalpers," he said. "The sale of tickets is all too often manipulated to someone's ends, and that someone is rarely the fan."
Officials from the Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Arts in Morristown and BergenPAC in Englewood concur. They say artists typically request 10 to 20 seats -- about 1 percent of the house -- and they try to keep those numbers low to satisfy fans and stay in business.
"Our goal is to make the best seats available to our patrons," said the Mayo's marketing director Ed Kirchdoerffer, who said the theater uses seats in the middle of the orchestra for the set-asides.
And if they can't sell the best tickets, they'll go out of business.
"To hold back your most expensive seats can often be a detriment because you have to spend more marketing dollars when you eventually release them" for public sale, said David Rodriguez, president of BergenPAC.
Although the amount of tickets held back at Izod was extreme, Kenison, the ticket broker, says it's part of a national pattern.
"Fans have always blamed ticket brokers and Ticketmaster for not being able to get a good seat when in reality the blame lies with the artist and promoter for holding back the majority of the good seats," he said.
Springsteen is known for keeping tickets back and then releasing them for sale at the last minute. However, the records for the May 21 concert, provided by the sports authority, indicate that if such a drop took place it was no more than about 80 tickets from total of more than 1,000 held back.
Springsteen's upcoming five-concert stand at Giants Stadium -- billed as the final concerts before the 33-year-old venue is demolished -- went on sale through Ticketmaster. About 44,500 for each of the Sept. 30, Oct. 2 and 3 concerts were sold. The final show, Oct. 9 is sold out, but tickets are still available for the Oct. 8 concert.
The number and location of the tickets withheld from the public for the stadium concerts remains unclear.
"We have no idea what the capacity will be," Samerjan said. "That's all yet to be determined, and the public sale grows from when the initial sale starts."
Previous Star-Ledger coverage:
Getting into an N.J. Bruce Springsteen concert is harder than imagined
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/0 ... pring.html
Pages: 
Anything Springsteen on RO... Part 4a (Read 641,009 times)
