There are some angry parents of pre-adolescent young women who had hoped to see the Hannah Montana concert live when it comes to the Hartford Civic Center. It seems that when the tickets went onsale to the general public, only about 3,000 of the 13,000 tickets remained, after distribution to ticket brokers (scalpers), corporate sponsors, comped friends, and fan clubs. It explains why the Civic Center can sell-out in 3 minutes. Same thing happened with Bruce Springsteen. After the sale, thousands of tickets showed up in the secondary market (scalpers), and for several times their face value.
There was a report about the ticket re-sale market on Colin McEnroe's show yesterday afternoon, and again this morning on the Dunaway/Smith show on WTIC-AM.
One wonders why concert venues and producers would cooperate with ticket resellers (scalpers), for shows which will undoubtably sell-out on their own. One theory is that since artists now routinely take 100% of the gate, by selling tickets to resellers (scalpers), concert venues and producers can actually realize a fee over and above the face value of the ticket, which by contract, must go to the artist.
And as of Oct. 1, ticket scalping in Connecticut is totally legal. So, if the theory is true, the audience gets cheated, the artist gets cheated and the venue and the scalpers make more. Hopefully artists will catch onto the scam and demand a cut of ticket blocks sold by venues and producers to the secondary market (scalpers).
It is just enough to turn me away from stadium shows for good.
5 comments:
I'm a "ticket broker" actually I wholesale to ticket brokers. So in most of your eyes I'm the evil one and for the people that actually purchase from me I am a life saver. I provide a service to people that can't get tickets to shows they want. If my industry didn't exist then what would you say when you didn't get tickets for that wonderful show? Probably not the same that your saying now. The majority of tickets (99.9%) that brokers receive come from regular old onsales that the general public has access to. Maybe 1% or less actually come from a promoter or the venue and only in rare cases. The "high prices" would not be there for Hannah Montana or other events if they weren't in such demand. The Backstreet Boys are the closest thing that I can remember to the demand for her tickets and the only thing i can suggest to people that are in desparate need of Hannah Montana tickets but don't want to pay the current market value is to wait and see if the price drops. I hate to discount the author but maybe they should do some research before posting assumptions and copied material from other articles to substantiate a claim that is totally untrue. If you have any questions you can find me through www.ticketsupplycompany.com Thank you for taking the time to read what I have to say and for letting me shed some light.
Bullshit. A scalper is a scalper is a scalper. You're taking money from the audience, from the artist and the venue. This system doesn't need a middleman.
I've never purchased from a scalper, never will.
In fact, I'm boycotting major stadium shows and sticking with clubs and coffeehouses.
Since when do most parents of children have hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy tickets for their kids?!? I agree with "A scalper is a scalper is a scalper." There is NO NEED for a middle man. If people want the tickets so bad, then they can wait in line and buy them at a normal price and if they get sold out before they get thier tickets then it is alot more fair than a bunch of ticket brockers "scalpers" buying all the tickets and resaling them for 10 times the price. It is to bad that greedy people have to ruin things for children!
I at 19 yrs old and my 6 year old sister are devestated about the rediculously high prices of the concert tickets. We have been waiting so long for her to come out and perform in Hartford yes it is so difficult for us. How will a 19 yr old and a 6 year old kid be able to come up with almost $1000 to see our favorite star when it should've only cost us $250. I do blame the scalpers. THey should feel ashamed for crushing a 6 year olds dream...
I can totally relate and sympathize with other parents out there. I have two girls, 9 and 6, that are devastated that I was unable to purchase tickets to Hannah Montana. Since when has a concert at the Civic Center sold out in 3 minutes? What happened to the days when you had to line up (or even camp out!) around the block to get tickets to your favorite artists' performances? I understand that times have changed and with all of the technology out there that standing outside all night doesn't need to happen now, but the playing field should be level for ALL interested parties.
"anonymous" ticket broker seems to be blaming us little people and taking no responsiblity for the state of this mess. And why should he -- he's probably made thousands of dollars off this one concert alone. While I don't necessarily blame "anonymous", he and his peers need to be kept in check. Why aren't these scalpers limited to 10 or 12 tickets? Why are they allowed to buy up huge blocks of tickets with one phone call? I understand the need for some tickets to be given away for promotional reasons (ie radio stations, corporate sponsors, fan clubs), but "anonymous" wants us to believe that is where all of the tickets for this concert went. Why, then, is even the Hannah Montana fan club griping that THEY couldn't get tickets?! Before you blast someone for not having all their facts right, "anonymous", get your own facts straight! Hopefully this whole situation opens the industry's eyes.
As for me, I am not Mom of the year. I will not pay ONE DIME over regular ticket prices to buy Hannah Montana tickets for my girls because I will never support scalpers. So I am resigned to win them from my local radio station or go without =)
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