Ticket Tips and News

Archive for the ‘Laws’ Category

The Boss may have broken the law by holding back 12% of tickets to a New Jersey gig, sending resale prices skyrocketing

When hundreds of fans failed to get Bruce Springsteen concert tickets last month, they were quick to blame the usual suspects – Ticketmaster and other ticket brokers. But the Boss may himself have been partly responsible, according to a new report, withholding thousands of the best seats.

Springsteen, his agent, his label and the gig’s promoter held back 2,262 tickets from the East Rutherford, New Jersey gig on 21 May – about 12% of the total, the New Jersey Star-Ledger has reported. These included 90% of the seats in the four sections closest to the stage.  Read more... (372 words)

Over the last year, the Boston Globe has run a series of articles highlighting the sins of ticket scalping…oh those evil ticket brokers. The Globe’s latest article mentions that the Boston police are going to start aggressively enforcing Massachusetts’ 1924 anti-scalping law that requires resellers to be licensed by the state and limits resale prices to no more than $2 above the ticket’s face value. Additionally, citizens are taking ticket brokers to court over accusations of violating this 1924 law. C’mon…what’s the big deal about ticket scalping?

Tell me this, what other product in the United States does the government feel compelled to get involved with regulating its resale price? Virtually any product I buy, I can resell on eBay for whatever price I choose. The only exception I can think of is after natural disasters, some states have anti-gouging laws on essential products like food and water, which seems reasonable. But let’s face it, I think we all can agree that not attending a Red Sox game or “The Police” concert hardly qualifies as life threatening.  Read more... (733 words)

By mark.gimein – The Big Money
At the Beijing Olympics last year, A.J. Daulerio of the Deadspin.com sports Web site decided to try to get into what was supposed to be a sold-out boxing match. Beijing, as some people might remember, was the Empty Seat Olympics, so the idea that Daulerio would be able to get into an Olympic match at the last minute was by no means far-fetched. Daulerio made inquiries and set off to find a scalper, apparently not hard at all. The rub, though, was that Daulerio didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the ticket. He didn’t just want to get into the match—he wanted his ticket cheap: at face value. The reaction from the scalper to Daulerio’s woefully lacking offer? “I’d rather tear them up.”

   Read more... (1519 words)

Ticket brokers in New York can breathe a little easier for another year. By an overwhelming vote of 133-9 on Monday, the New York State Assembly decided to extend the free market for ticket resale in the state for another year, meaning ticket brokers can continue to charge whatever the market will bear to resell sports, concert and theater tickets. The decision still requires the signature of Gov. David Patterson, who earlier in the year sought to tack on a 4 percent tax on ticket sales to help ease the state’s budgetary problems. He eventually scrapped the idea. Read More