I Feel Honored.

[riverc0il]

I'm completely against scalpers and scalping agencies. I think the bands should dictate 100% what the cost of their performance art is. Same goes for sporting events.

Some artists are taking scalpers to task with "pre-sales" which allow artists to sell early tickets but you must pick up the tickets at will call with an ID that matches the name when purchased. I think this is a phenomenal idea. It reduces ticket transferability somewhat but would put scalpers out of business which I think is a good thing. Tickets being resold at two to three times face value is heinous. Venues should set the price and tickets should be first come first served.

I have personally witnessed the backhanded approach that scalpers and ticket sellers perform regularly. After a ticket seller gives out all the coupons to determine how the lineup works, the scalper then gets to go inside and get first dibs on a few blocks of eight before the GP gets their tickets. I was an idealistic young concert goer when I first saw the process with my own eyes (before online ticket buying was reliable, back then it was risky to rely on ticket master's online web site and a better gamble to lineup in person and hope for a good lottery number). Sure put a sour taste in my mouth for buying tickets to see my favorite bands.

Like these headline big arena bands even need promoters. I can understand the venue taking a large chuck of the pie. But that doesn't explain why regular solid headlining bands charge $40-50 but a top name gets $100+ at the same venue. That is not just the venue and promoters taking a bigger chunk of the pie.

 

[ckofer]

Frankly, ticket scalping isn't such a big deal to me. When the artists/promoters raise their prices to high numbers, there really is no way of getting into a show for a reasonable price. When the face value is on the lower side, you have chance of getting in for that price. Scalpers take a chance too. If you're willing to gamble on not getting into a show, you can sometimes find the scalpers dumping tix a few minutes into the show.

When the price of a show goes too high, it's time to look closer at local talent.

Like my office manager's kid:

 

[drjeff]

Personally while it's a sporting event and not a concert, with respect to scalpers, I LOVE how the New England Patriots handle things. With Past games sold out on a season ticket basis, and a 50 odd thousand person waiting list for season tickets they have this luxury.

First off, if they see individual tix listed on ebay/stubhub/craigslist/etc for more than basically face value, if the sell gives actual seat number info in the listing, well then it's voiding the season ticket agreement they sign and their season tickets are gone. If a season ticket holder does sell/scalp their tickets and the person who bought them gets thrown out of the stadium for drunken/unruley behavior (and they have LOTS of security cams covering the entire stadium to catch you), then the person whose season tickets they are, looses them. Zero tolerance.

Now if a season ticket holder can't make it to a game and wants to unload their tickets for face value legally, all you need to do is call up the season ticket office and tell them that you won't be going to the game and that you'd liek to get rid of your tickets for that game. What then happens is folks on the season ticket holder waiting list can buy those tickets at face value from the Patriots organization directly and if the folks on the waitlist get thrwon oout, then they get removed from the waitlist(loosing their deposit) and the original season ticket holder keeps his/her seats.

Much tougher to do for a concert I understand, but atleast they're trying to do something.

 

[dmc]

To me, it's no longer worth it. I'll stick to the local scene, pay $15-20 tops to see more talent in a smaller club where the sound is actually good and I can see the musicians up close.

yeah - moe. rocks.. Love those guys..

I agree with you on this.. For $20 I can see a more relevant band that is producing new fresh music.. Like moe.

 

[deadheadskier]

We just got our tickets for the Up North Music Festival - $110 for the three days including camping. Single day admissions are $50 for Friday or $65 for Saturday or Sunday. Here's the line up so far:


* BOB WEIR & RATDOG
* Umphrey's McGee
* The Wailers
* Soulive
* Assembly of Dust
* Ryan Montbleau Band
* Lettuce
* John Brown's Body
* Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
* The Breakfast
* Spiritual Rez
* The Indobox
* Sam Kininger Band
* Peter Prince and the Johnny Trama Unit
* Eddy Dyer and the Walking Shoe Revival
* Incus

Stay tuned for more artist announcements!