The collective ignorance in this world baffles me to no end and unfortunately it only seems to grow by the day. Today I ran across this soapbox piece by Judith Lisi, CEO and President of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, stumping about the collective evils that ticket brokers present to the public and ticket industry as a whole. Her argument is that “scalpers” are ruining the customer experience by overcharging for tickets the end consumer could get for less at the box office and generally duping the unwitting public as if ticket brokers – scalpers – whatever you want to call them have some Jedi mind tricks that woo the poor unwitting consumer into paying higher prices for tickets. She also throws around misinformation like all tickets are sold for over face value, and ticket brokers use mysterious computer programs to hijack all the tickets so that honest John Q. Citizen can’t get any tickets. Its time to cut through Ms. Lisi’s crap and find some real substance underneath this. God forbid anyone do research anymore before publishing an article as sacrosanct.
So for starters, what is a ticket broker/scalper, how do they get tickets and what purpose do they serve in the ticket market as a whole? A ticket broker buys a ticket to a concert, sporting event, Broadway show with the hopes that demand will outstrip supply and that the tickets can be resold at a higher value at some later date. This is no different than buying Bank of America stock today at $15 so it can be resold when it gets back to pre-crash levels (say its 52-week high of $47). The free market and laws of supply & demand dictate this price. Markets exist for gasoline, gold, treasury bonds — really anything that has value and where market inequalities exist. Ticket brokers also look to make money securing prime seats and selling them for their true value. For instance, Coldplay’s recent show at Philips Arena in Atlanta saw all floor and lower bowl seats priced at around $100 a seat. Now everyone knows that a front row floor seat and an eye squinting seat in the back of the lower arena are not worth the same. A ticket broker steps in to price those two tickets out as they should be priced. If promoters priced these seats correctly, there would be no need for brokers because this inequality would not exist.
Secondly, for every ticket seller there is a buyer. If a buyer isn’t willing to pay the inflated price, the broker will have to keep ratcheting the price down until it meets what a potential buyer will pay. If you have the Benjamins and you didn’t feel like fighting the masses at the onsale date or you want those premium seats you have a snowballs chance in hell of pulling, why shouldn’t you be able to pay a premium to get those seats? With regard to the nefarious charge that all ticket brokers have some sophisticated software to thwart the Ticketmaster’s security systems, in an effort to monopolize the prime seating, is a charge that is largely false. There was a company called RMG Technologies who produced such a software that was priced at a point where 1/10 of 1% of brokers could afford. The software company was shut down and made illegal for use on Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster has said all loopholes have been closed to kill this possibility. It is true others will look to develop software to give them an advantage, but they are more the exception than the rule. So if ticket brokers don’t have software to score these tickets how do they get them? Ticket brokers sit down at their computers on Saturday morning when the clock strikes 10 am just like everyone else. Some mornings are fruitful. Others are a massive waste of time. There is no magic wand you wave over the keyboard and front row tickets appear through a puff of smoke.
Some pound the table insisting there must be some ticket conspiracy going on — look at Hannah Montana selling out venues in seconds. In the case of Ms. Miley Cyrus, its helpful to look at the ticket distribution and how tickets were bought. Somewhere around 1/3 were sold through her fan club where fans plunked down $30 for the chance to get advanced seats. The venue holds back around 10% to give to its sponsors, box holders, high rollers in other words. That leaves around 60% available for public onsale. Hannah scheduled her shows in a lot of the second tier arenas like the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA with a capacity of 13000. So we have roughly 7800 tickets available for this show. Consider who would be going to this show, one or two parents with a child and/or friend. Sets of 4 tickets will be the norm. So there are 1950 sets of 4 tickets available for this show at the onsale, and with the popularity of Hannah at sickening levels, I can tell you there were more than 2000 people in the Atlanta area that were looking for tickets to placate little Jimmy or Sally.
To the charge that ticket brokers always sell their tickets for over face value, please spend a few moments checking out Stubhub or Ticketsnow for a weeknight game for any subpar NBA or NHL team. You’ll regularly see reams of tickets selling at substantially below face value (50% or more). I don’t see anyone complaining about the poor ticket broker who is losing his a$$ on those tickets he’ll be lucky to give away. As far as the point Ms. Lisi makes about people buying tickets from a broker that could be gotten through the box office. This sounds like a knock to Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s marketing department for not advertising to its prospective patrons where they can buy tickets. You shouldn’t be chastising the ticket brokers, but instead figuring out why they are marketing to your customers so much more effectively than you are.
Judith Lisi has done her readers a severe disservice spreading half truths and propaganda about the ticket resale market. Ticket brokers are a fixture of the free market economy, no different from a stock trader or a commodities broker. If you don’t like it, I hear Russia has equality for all down to a science though it can be a bit nippy this time of year. Supply and demand isn’t a fad that is going away. If the ways and means of ticket brokers weighs on your conscious so much, the solution is simple. Don’t buy tickets from brokers. In the same breath, don’t tell your neighbor where they can or can’t spend their hard earned dollar. Personally, if I want 5th row floor seats to George Michael, I will gladly fork over the funds to a broker to secure those seats for me. The infrequency with which he tours, I know this could be a once in a lifetime event, and its worth paying those premium dollars for that experience. Lisi and her Pollyanna lot need to stay out of my wallet, and quit telling me what I can and can’t spend my money on.
For more information on ticket brokers, check out the FAQ section on the National Association of Ticket Broker’s website.
Making a Case for Ticket Brokers
The collective ignorance in this world baffles me to no end and unfortunately it only seems to grow by the day. Today I ran across this soapbox piece by Judith Lisi, CEO and President of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, stumping about the collective evils that ticket brokers present to the public and ticket industry as a whole. Her argument is that “scalpers” are ruining the customer experience by overcharging for tickets the end consumer could get for less at the box office and generally duping the unwitting public as if ticket brokers – scalpers – whatever you want to call them have some Jedi mind tricks that woo the poor unwitting consumer into paying higher prices for tickets. She also throws around misinformation like all tickets are sold for over face value, and ticket brokers use mysterious computer programs to hijack all the tickets so that honest John Q. Citizen can’t get any tickets. Its time to cut through Ms. Lisi’s crap and find some real substance underneath this. God forbid anyone do research anymore before publishing an article as sacrosanct.
So for starters, what is a ticket broker/scalper, how do they get tickets and what purpose do they serve in the ticket market as a whole? A ticket broker buys a ticket to a concert, sporting event, Broadway show with the hopes that demand will outstrip supply and that the tickets can be resold at a higher value at some later date. This is no different than buying Bank of America stock today at $15 so it can be resold when it gets back to pre-crash levels (say its 52-week high of $47). The free market and laws of supply & demand dictate this price. Markets exist for gasoline, gold, treasury bonds — really anything that has value and where market inequalities exist. Ticket brokers also look to make money securing prime seats and selling them for their true value. For instance, Coldplay’s recent show at Philips Arena in Atlanta saw all floor and lower bowl seats priced at around $100 a seat. Now everyone knows that a front row floor seat and an eye squinting seat in the back of the lower arena are not worth the same. A ticket broker steps in to price those two tickets out as they should be priced. If promoters priced these seats correctly, there would be no need for brokers because this inequality would not exist.
Secondly, for every ticket seller there is a buyer. If a buyer isn’t willing to pay the inflated price, the broker will have to keep ratcheting the price down until it meets what a potential buyer will pay. If you have the Benjamins and you didn’t feel like fighting the masses at the onsale date or you want those premium seats you have a snowballs chance in hell of pulling, why shouldn’t you be able to pay a premium to get those seats? With regard to the nefarious charge that all ticket brokers have some sophisticated software to thwart the Ticketmaster’s security systems, in an effort to monopolize the prime seating, is a charge that is largely false. There was a company called RMG Technologies who produced such a software that was priced at a point where 1/10 of 1% of brokers could afford. The software company was shut down and made illegal for use on Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster has said all loopholes have been closed to kill this possibility. It is true others will look to develop software to give them an advantage, but they are more the exception than the rule. So if ticket brokers don’t have software to score these tickets how do they get them? Ticket brokers sit down at their computers on Saturday morning when the clock strikes 10 am just like everyone else. Some mornings are fruitful. Others are a massive waste of time. There is no magic wand you wave over the keyboard and front row tickets appear through a puff of smoke.
Some pound the table insisting there must be some ticket conspiracy going on — look at Hannah Montana selling out venues in seconds. In the case of Ms. Miley Cyrus, its helpful to look at the ticket distribution and how tickets were bought. Somewhere around 1/3 were sold through her fan club where fans plunked down $30 for the chance to get advanced seats. The venue holds back around 10% to give to its sponsors, box holders, high rollers in other words. That leaves around 60% available for public onsale. Hannah scheduled her shows in a lot of the second tier arenas like the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA with a capacity of 13000. So we have roughly 7800 tickets available for this show. Consider who would be going to this show, one or two parents with a child and/or friend. Sets of 4 tickets will be the norm. So there are 1950 sets of 4 tickets available for this show at the onsale, and with the popularity of Hannah at sickening levels, I can tell you there were more than 2000 people in the Atlanta area that were looking for tickets to placate little Jimmy or Sally.
To the charge that ticket brokers always sell their tickets for over face value, please spend a few moments checking out Stubhub or Ticketsnow for a weeknight game for any subpar NBA or NHL team. You’ll regularly see reams of tickets selling at substantially below face value (50% or more). I don’t see anyone complaining about the poor ticket broker who is losing his a$$ on those tickets he’ll be lucky to give away. As far as the point Ms. Lisi makes about people buying tickets from a broker that could be gotten through the box office. This sounds like a knock to Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s marketing department for not advertising to its prospective patrons where they can buy tickets. You shouldn’t be chastising the ticket brokers, but instead figuring out why they are marketing to your customers so much more effectively than you are.
Judith Lisi has done her readers a severe disservice spreading half truths and propaganda about the ticket resale market. Ticket brokers are a fixture of the free market economy, no different from a stock trader or a commodities broker. If you don’t like it, I hear Russia has equality for all down to a science though it can be a bit nippy this time of year. Supply and demand isn’t a fad that is going away. If the ways and means of ticket brokers weighs on your conscious so much, the solution is simple. Don’t buy tickets from brokers. In the same breath, don’t tell your neighbor where they can or can’t spend their hard earned dollar. Personally, if I want 5th row floor seats to George Michael, I will gladly fork over the funds to a broker to secure those seats for me. The infrequency with which he tours, I know this could be a once in a lifetime event, and its worth paying those premium dollars for that experience. Lisi and her Pollyanna lot need to stay out of my wallet, and quit telling me what I can and can’t spend my money on.
For more information on ticket brokers, check out the FAQ section on the National Association of Ticket Broker’s website.
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