secondtube Posted September 1, 2003 Report Share Posted September 1, 2003 Ticketmaster Auction Will Let Highest Bidder Set Concert Prices By CHRIS NELSON Three years after Ticketmaster introduced ticketFast, its online print-at-home ticketing service, consumers have so embraced it that the company now sells a half-million home-printed tickets for sporting and entertainment events each month in North America. Where ticketFast is available, 30 percent of tickets sold are now printed at home, said the company, which is by far the nation's largest ticket agency. But consumers; many of whom have complained for years about climbing ticket prices and Ticketmaster service charges; may be less eager for the next phase of Ticketmaster's Internet evolution. Late this year the company plans to begin auctioning the best seats to concerts through ticketmaster.com. With no official price ceiling on such tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers for the highest price a market will bear. "The tickets are worth what they're worth," said John Pleasants, Ticketmaster's president and chief executive. "If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it's actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket's worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients; the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves; are saying to themselves, `Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker.' " EBay has long been a busy marketplace for tickets auctioned by brokers and others. Late last week, for example, it had more than 22,000 listings for ticket sales. Venue operators, promoters and performers will decide whether to participate in the Ticketmaster auctions, Mr. Pleasants said. In June, the company tested the system for the Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko boxing match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The minimum bid for the package; two ringside seats, a boxing glove autographed by Mr. Lewis and access to workouts, among other features; was $3,000, and the top payer spent about $7,000, a Staples Center spokesman, Michael Roth, said. Once the auction service goes live, Ticketmaster will receive flat fees or a percentage of the winning bids, to be decided with the operators of each event, said Sean Moriarty, Ticketmaster's executive vice president for products, technology and operations. Along with home printing, auctions are central to "a new age of the ticket," Mr. Pleasants said. In the second quarter of this year, tickets sold online, with or without home printing, represented 51 percent of Ticketmaster's ticket sales. The rest were sold by phone or at walk-up locations. Ticket Forwarding allows season ticket holders for several sports teams (including the New York Knicks, Rangers and Giants) to e-mail extra tickets to other users, with Ticketmaster charging the sender $1.95 per transaction. TicketExchange provides a forum for season ticket holders to auction tickets online. The seller and buyer pay Ticketmaster 5 percent to 10 percent of the resale price, a fee the company splits with the team. In the case of the ticketFast home-printing service, buyers pay an additional $1.75 to $2.50 per order, with the fee set by the event operator. Home printing has won converts among people who want tickets immediately, instead of receiving them by mail or a delivery service or having to stand in line at a will-call window. One satisfied customer is Brian Resnik, 29, of Tampa, Fla., who says the home-printing fee is a bargain compared with the $19.50 that Ticketmaster charges for two-day shipping through United Parcel Service. But some other users, who praised the convenience of home printing, objected to being charged an extra fee. "It's kind of mind-boggling to me," said Joe Guckin, 41, of Philadelphia, who used ticketFast to buy tickets for a Baltimore Orioles home game last season. "You're printing up the ticket, on your printer at home, your paper, your ink, etc. — and you have to pay for that?" The company replies that home-printing consumers are helping to pay for the technology that makes the service possible. Ticketmaster has spent $15 million to $20 million to outfit almost 700 stadiums, arenas, theaters and concert halls in this country and Canada with bar-code scanners that read and authenticate the tickets and computers that capture information such as which seats are filled and which doors have the most traffic, Mr. Moriarty said. In 2003, the company has sold 400,000 to 600,000 ticketFast tickets each month. Some ticketFast customers, like Diane DeRooy, 52, of Seattle, complain that Ticketmaster assesses a lot of fees even before levying the print-at-home charge. A ticket to see Crosby, Stills & Nash on Friday at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., for example, carries $13.80 in venue, processing and convenience fees, plus a $2.50 charge for the home-printing option. Without the fees, a ticket costs $30.25 to $70.25. Many of those customers are skeptical about Ticketmaster's plans to auction the best seats to concerts. "The band's biggest fans ought to have the best seats, not the band's richest fans," said Tim Todd, 47, of Kansas City, Mo., who used ticketFast recently to buy tickets for a concert by the rock group Phish. Ticketmaster would be, in essence, official scalpers, Mr. Guckin said, voicing a sentiment expressed by some other customers. Industry watchers agree that auctions will affect all concertgoers. Prime seats are undervalued in the marketplace, said Alan B. Krueger, a professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, who has studied ticket prices. He predicts that once auctions begin revealing a ticket's market value, prices as a whole will climb faster. Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry trade magazine, Pollstar, predicted that all ticket prices would become more fluid. After a promoter assesses initial sales from an auction, remaining ticket prices could be raised or lowered to meet goals. The notion of ticket auctions is annoying, Mr. Resnik said, but he is resigned to them. "I guess the capitalist inside me would say, `Hey, if that's what they can get for tickets, I guess that's just something I can't afford, like a yacht and a Learjet.' " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottieking Posted September 1, 2003 Report Share Posted September 1, 2003 fuckin nefarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Freak Posted September 1, 2003 Report Share Posted September 1, 2003 aren't there laws to protect people from shit like this?? unreal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted September 2, 2003 Report Share Posted September 2, 2003 fucking blood sucking asshole money grubin vampires! "And you said, nooobody would pay a 100 % service charge!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau Posted September 2, 2003 Report Share Posted September 2, 2003 Ticket-scalper Inc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaggyBalls Posted September 2, 2003 Report Share Posted September 2, 2003 ANOTHER reason to not go to big shows in america. I think it's high time we start supporting local music and more grass-roots performers. for the amount most of you guys spent on service charges alone, you could be paying for your share if the gas in the car to see 5-10 shows. for the difference in ticket prices you could see all of the shows AND eat AND get high. sure you wouldn't be seeing phish or panic or the dead but when we start supporting live music in Canada and making the events more like EVENTS and not just bands playing in bars I think we'll be happier we are doing just that. going to EVENTS. slightly bigger venues(like barrymore's in ottawa, lee's palace, club phoenix in London...bigger clubs that have bigger sound and are well decorated) tend to make for bigger presence when you get to the show, and the sound is usually great. We know we have the numbers to have more shows but come summer how many of us go south? how many of us save up to go south and forgo shows and parties in or own country?? tally up all your american showgoing expenses and tell me you can't have a better party up here. now tally all your friends' expenses and tell me that you couldn't pool resourses and throw YOUR OWN party and have as good a time. maybe you couldn't afford the sound and light rigs but is that really the reason you go to shows? the drugs are cheaper up here the tickets are cheaper up here the police are easier on us up here there's less sketchy tour kids up here there's more wilderness and serene party locations up here I think the only thing that there's not a lot of around here is LSD and with the right demand we could change that. We could even draw americans up here. imagine!! getting enough support that we draw from summer tour. anyone think i'm totally off or is anyone smart enough to realize that i'm right and that Canada COULD support shows...just get us off our asses and we'll be partying in masses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau Posted September 2, 2003 Report Share Posted September 2, 2003 quote: how many of us save up to go south and forgo shows and parties in or own country?? Not me. Have only seen one show in the US of A since June 6 1993(TAB Saratoga Springs 2001),mainly due to not being allowed in the country,but since then I have seen live shows in: ONT PEI NS NB BC Yukon NWT QUE ALberta I have been saying the exact same thing as you are saying Rob for years,but mostly just get the arguement that I am only pushing Canadian shows since I can't cross the border,...just not true,even if I could cross the only shows I would ever want to see would be The Dead & Dylan.I took alot of slamming on the Hub way back when I was saying that maybe people should stop supporting the US market and start attending more Canadian fests/shows(especially since there was a ton of crying about the US ticket prices...),we actually have alot of great festivals in many genres of music,but unfortunatley they are not as popular or promoted as much,as the US market. I posted a link to 50 folk festivals alone earlier this year.And numerous bluegrass fests. I agree with ya I guess is what I am saying.... Excuse my ramblin'.....hookah lovin' all day today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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