Hey Live Nation If you want to Scalp Your Own Tickets, Don’t Stop Others From Doing the Same!

Live Nation Voids Scalped Tickets via Pollstar.com

The Dutch wing of Live Nation has canceled more than 1,000 tickets it deemed invalid because they’d been bought from sites known to be run by touts.

What’s wrong with this?

1. Pollstar doesn’t report the hypocrisy of Live Nation doing this
2. Live Nation owns Getmein! one of the largest ticket resale sites in Europe
3. Live Nation owns TicketsNow.com the 4th largest Ticket Reseller in the United States according to TicketNews.com
4. Live Nation scalps their own tickets via their season seat programs where they aim to double the revenue of the best seats in the house, which the artist gets no part of.

Is it fair for Live Nation to scalp their own tickets but restrict the ability of others to sell for a market based price?

euticketnews.com notes that the cancelled Mika tickets had a face value of €42.90 and were selling on Viagogo.com for €61.74.  What do we know about supply and demand?  If tickets are selling for not even €20 over face before fees, the market is likely crashing.  By cancelling over 1,000 tickets Live Nation is protecting themselves from a slow selling show.  Instead of people being able to buy Mika Tickets for under face value, fans are going to be forced to help Live Nation cover their ass for a slow selling show

Red Sox Strike an Online Partnership with StubHub for ticketholders (and themselves)

News has just been released that the Red Sox have agreed to work with StubHub.  What does that mean for the ticket buying public?

• For season seat holders it will be much easier to list and sell your tickets on StubHub
• For single game resellers, the Red Sox will now know who you are.
• The Red Sox are now getting 7.5% of every sale on StubHub.
• TheRed Sox will know the true value of all their tickets.  This is likely to hurt the single game ticket buyers in good years and everyone in losing years as box office prices will now be the “face” when demand is high and while “face” goes up, does it ever go down?
• The Red Sox get to keep Ace Ticket and their sponsorship money and any revenue sharing money they have agreed to.

Makes you wonder why the Red Sox didn’t have this in their original Ace Ticket sponsorship deal doesn’t it?

The main benefit this will have for the ticket buying consumer is most likely more tickets on the market.  If you can just list your tickets on StubHub and have them transferred automatically when they sell, the owner is more likely to sell, than to just give the tickets away or bring them to a broker.  With more tickets on the market you may not have to pay as much from StubHub.  Also the seller may be willing to take less if StubHub’s 15% is less than a broker has been taking from them in the past.

The I’m Going to Ignore all Facts and Say What I Want Column of the Week goes to:

Victoria Chalk of NorthJersey.com

A few choice quotes from her about Bruce Springsteen Concerts:

In regards to the Wise Guys operation: One of the lawyers defending them complained to The Star-Ledger, “…the feds have decided to criminalize that.” Well, yeah…if you did that, you’d be allowed to purchase maybe eight tickets, not thousands.

• Wise Guys were using other peoples credit cards and charging those people if they were able to purchase tickets using their cards.  Ticketmaster is very good at cancelling orders if a billing address goes over the stated limit on ticket purchases.

Then, as if by magic, ducats that were unavailable suddenly turn up for sale on eBay or StubHub for two or three times their original price.

• Yes they show up at those prices the day they go on sale but Bruce adds so many shows that no one purchases the tickets at those prices except those who think they can make money.  Did you happen to check how much they were selling for the day of the event? The real fans know if they wait, they will be rewarded

I have an idea that I bet Bruce the Boss would go along with: have him and other artists whose fans can’t legitimately buy seats, announce a string of concerts. Let the Wiseguys buy out all of them before revealing that the events are bogus.

Then, with the money collected from those alleged cheaters, start paying back all the folks who were cut out by them in the past.

• So you want to steal money from people but prosecute others who stole?  If stealing is wrong, there is no way to justify it at all.
• If Bruce had cancelled any of his shows at the Meadowlands he would have been saving thousands of dollars for everyone who bought tickets.  The best tickets for those shows were selling under face and everyone would have received a refund.  Bruce Springsteen has probably cost ticket resellers more money than any other artist over the past 5-7 years.  It is rare, except for the occasional arena show in Jersey for the common person to have to pay more than $50 for a $115 face ticket to see Bruce.  When Bruce goes paperless the fans are forced to pay $115 for floor tickets.  When Bruce uses tickets the fans can often buy tickets on the secondary market for half that price.

Since you like to quote the Star Ledger I suggest you read all their articles, not just ones you can show your indignation to.   Born too cheap: How I saw Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium for $15