Schumer Plans Bill On Resale Of Concert, Sports Tickets

Wall Street Journal:

New York Sen. Charles Schumer on Sunday unveiled a plan to introduce legislation banning the resale of concert and sports tickets until two days after they first go on sale to the public, the latest example of ongoing wrangling between the politician and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.

The waiting-period legislation is partly a response to complaints from Bruce Springsteen fans who in February tried to buy concert tickets on Ticketmaster's main Web site but were instead redirected to TicketsNow.com, a site owned by Ticketmaster where brokers resell tickets, often for many times face value. Fans were particularly outraged that Ticketmaster's computers steered them to the higher-priced aftermarket, even before the concerts were fully sold out.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[Halfwit]

I am stunned that any Senator is wasting time on federal legislation on this issue. Scalping is not illegal in my state and I don't think the feds have any business changing that.

[Cinnamonape]

I'm going to let you all in on the big secret. I used to work for Ticketmaster ten years ago...and even then the first people in line, on the first second of purchase, couldn't get any seats EVER in Sec1A or !B for these big shows. 10-15% were already allocated for these re-salers. The trick at the outlets was knowing this and overriding the computers to place people on the aisles on the sides of those sections rather than 30 rows back-middle. So I would get people good seats. But the situation has gotten 5 times worse now.

I refuse to go to see big concerts now. Bands that I was a big fan of when I was a kid are no longer affordable, even though they play in vastly larger arenas. I wonder how it is that groups that couldn't fill Berkeley Memorial Theater at $4-5 a seat now have a fan base that fills Arenas at 20-40 times that? Where were these "fans" when the bands started and were being played only on college or some small obscure FM station? I wonder if the bands realize that most of these are "Johnny Come Lately's" there, much like Eric Cantor, because their wallets are flush with lobbyist cash from the Trucking Industry? Not that I would ever claim to be a Britney Spear's fan ;-)

[kathy001]

Resale of concert tickets need to be banned outright. This is scalping - period.

[KoolAidAmerica]

Chuck has nothing better to do.
Nobody is forcing the customers to buy at obscene rates.
Obviously the demand is there.

Typical lib turdism. They assume all people are id*iots and behave like id*iots themselves

[kathy001]

The demand for the tickets is there. All the tickets get purchase by scalpers, leaving customers no choice but to either buy from the scalpers or miss the event. I'd love to hear what you have to say after trying to buy an $85 ticket only to find that it's only available from a scalper for $250 for an event that you really wanted to see.

[Cinnamonape]

What this is doing is ripping off the performer and the audience. If the "demand is there" then the ticket prices should actually be sold at that price up front. Then the performer would get a share of the proifits. Instead this pseudo "middle man group gets exclusive access to prime seats...and then charges inflated amounts. The customers are told falsely that the seats are "sold out" (when they actually are not...they are being held off). They are also told that there were limits of six tickets per buyer and that everyone had a fair shot at the good seats...also a lie.

This isn't "free market" by any stretch...it's market manipulation by a monopoly ticket seller who is distorting information about the market.

[Binckeslaw]

When Chuck Schumer was a congressman his claim to fame was showing up to have his picture taken with octogenarians in nursing homes. Since becoming a senator I've seen him take positions that have included insuring that hedge fund commissions and investment banking commissions are taxed at the capital gains rate instead of the same rate that working people pay for their commissions and salaries. I've heard him say that now is not the time for health care reform because so much is going on with the bank bailout(s). Chuck's new initiative to protect us from ticket scalpers will insure that we'll always be able to get to the circus so we have something to do while we eat our bread. There is no progressive in this guy. He's a sham.

[cjt1957]

Good to know he has his head in the game and is looking at the really important matters of the day...

[charitabledonation]

This is GREAT and should be an issue in CA also. Ticketmaster is the biggest monopoly in the US today, and music, sports, entertainment fans alike should all be outraged. The ticketsnow site is SUCH a HUGE scam.

[FZliveson]

This is not a FEDERAL LAW ISSUE.
Chuck Schumer/Government---get TF out of our lives. You are oppressive, obese, egocentric thieves and your popularity as a whole is lower than the Bushmaster's ever was! Smoke that, Chuck.
This is an internet issue that will resolve itself.
Go away and leave us alone to deal with our property as we see fit.
Bite me, Schumer.

[VPN]

So your OK with getting shafted, or are you a scalper?

[FZliveson]

VPN.
My experience has been that Resourceful people find a way.
Lazy and/or uninformed people get "shafted."
I, for one, do not need Big Brother to push a giant stroller with me safely strapped
inside by Federally Approved restraint devices.
I go to a lot of concerts and I never get ripped off.
A lot of people don't see that it is the very "protection" our governments give us that has gelded us into people with hands out, palms up, with quizzical looks on our faces, while our foods, air, water and about everything else depreciates and the Schumers of the world wear sheeps clothing and go baaah on their way to the Carnivore-dining room

[avvocato]

It sure is a Federal issue. Ever hear of the Commerce clause (US Constitution????

[FZliveson]

Tell us how this has to do with commerce BETWEEN the states? That, plus foreign matters and matters with the American "Indians" is what the constitution specifically refers to.
For sales within a state, those matters are state's issues.

[Cinnamonape]

DUH! Internet sales cross state borders. If I want to buy Springsteen tickets in New Jersey from New York they will do it...across the border.

[Beninn]

This Democrat says that THAT Democrat (Schumer) needs to either work on real issues affecting more Americans than Springsteen fans, OR (and this is my choice) New Yorkers need to retire him, one of the most corrupt in the US Senate.

"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government", says Simon Johnson, a chief economist with the International Monetary Fund in 2007 and 2008. In an article entitled "The Quiet Coup" in the May, 2009 issue of the Atlantic magazine he (with James Kwak) goes on to say that "if the IMF"s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform and if we are to prevent a true depression, we"re running out of time".

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

America"s Financial Oligarchy Is Still in Control -
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1238998620.php

The Oligarchy is whom Chuck Schumer has always worked for.

[cbates]

Mr. Schumer you should be able to find something more broad based to work on than ticket resales considering the dire straits we find ourselves. What gives? Why are you spending your valuable time on this issue? How about computer viruses and unwanted emails and ads? Please find something like CEO wrong doing to focus on. We need you on deck and fighting the good fight of economic stability and fraud on wall street. Folks can easily decide if they want to pay a huge sum to go hear someone sing or dance on stage. Please the President needs your help.

[apolloguide]

Anything to take the attention away from his Gaza Holocaust support.

[JonShank]

This might at least give the average fan a fair shot at tickets instead of being redirected to a site that will MILK YA DRY!!!

Thanks and big ups for Chuck! (Which is NOT the same as upchuck)

[Natalie4Obama]

Um, what has this got to do with anything - there don't need to be laws on ticket resale as buying from brokers is a choice.

Ticketmaster have been corrupt for years but yet artists have given them a monopoly by allowing only them to sell concert tickets. Springsteen claimed he was upset with Ticketmaster in the media, but then used them to sell tickets to rehearsal shows only a few weeks later.

Walmart sucks too and thats why me and other people who don't like it don't shop there.

Ticketmaster isn't a government problem and a 2 day lag time will change nothing. If you want to beat Ticketmaster, then lobby artists and event planners not to use them and sell through a different firm instead. Ticketmaster has been hooking up scalpers for years, it is not a new problem.

[Cinnamonape]

Usually a "true fan" could buy six tickets and sell some off to friends for his "trouble"...and get what amounted to a freebie. When I sold at Barney's in Davis and Tower-Watt I knew all the different types...including the agents who were in line for "Mr. Big". I'd usually just sell them whatever came up on the computer automatically . They'd get Row 20Center.

But for the real fans I'd go for the side sections and get front row aisle...or two or three rows back. Or in some places that had nifty side boxes I could get those and I'd tell the customers..."you've got opera seat.s..dress the part!" People always loved me when I sold them tickets.

I knew the secret tapers and candid photographers and always could help them find the spots that were best for them. In return they'd come back and give me a glossy print from the show or a tape and thank me for "making their lifetime dreams come true". But the commercial scalpers...they got shite! Of course they were simply paying minimum wage to some poor guy to spend the night to buy six tickets.

[Cinnamonape]

But there are no other ticket sellers out there any more. It's a true monopoly. Some arenas have "exclusives" with Ticketron and so if you want to play in an area...well you are stuck as an artist. You'd have to set up your own marketing system and find an alternative arena.

At least in the early days scalping was entrepreneurial. The scalpers could send down peons to wait in lines at midnight and stay all night to get first dibs. I'd show up at 7 AM and lay down the "rules"...show me an ID and your name was on the list, no cuts...you want a donut/coffee? You are here for another show? Lemme see if we can get that before the sales start for "The Who"...etc.

[Babysnake]

No body is dy ing because of tickets.
Shumer ought to be working on fr eeing p ales tine of un just l aws.

[kathy001]

Palestine is not in Schumer's district.

[SangZe]

When I was young, I used to go to a Broadway show once a year, but I no longer can afford to do that any more than I can afford tickets to anything at Lincoln Center. Concerts, plays, "sporting" events - these things are solely for the rich. Not too long ago I read a review of an off-Broadway play I'd like to see that just opened, but when I called for tickets, I was told they had already sold out, but that some were available through Ticketmaster or some other such "convenience."

[Bitsko]

Ironically, what used to be the high end ticket shows, classical music and opera, are now among the most affordable shows in NYC, and people are attending.