July 19 2007
Ticketmaster Beats Scalpers At Their Own Game
posted by Steven Shaw at 2:39 pm
How much would you pay to see The Police live at Western Springs? The sky’s now the limit, according to the latest email from Ticketmaster, who have announced Ticketmaster Auctions for their Auckland concert next year. Here’s what they said…
Ticketmaster Auctions are the new, safe and reliable way to bid on premium tickets… Kicking off the new auction service, Ticketmaster is pleased to announce a Premium Seat Ticket Auction to The Police Live in Concert… The Auction runs from 9am on Saturday 21 July and concludes at midday on Thursday 2 August 2007.
Aaah, what? Sounds like they’ve figured out if the scalpers can get bigger bucks from premium tickets via online auctions, then concert-goers are willing to pay bigger bucks. Therefore they’re cutting out the middle man and rubbing their hands together. Buying this way may guarantee that the tickets are genuine, but for a start, who wants to spend a week wondering if their bid will succeed?
The advent of online ticket sales has already caused heartache for those keen, non-credit card carrying punters who queue overnight in the freezing cold, only to find that the tickets have all gone in 20 minutes. That in itself has created a black market for ticket auctions in NZ. But this takes it one step further, enflaming the situation.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Is this fair on the loyal fans of touring acts? Post your comments below.
July 19th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Not impressed. Even though the scalpers sometimes get all the best seats, there’s a good chance that committed fans will be allocated front-row seats. The new system will leave them with no chance, because the “committed bidder” is prepared to pay more.
Scalpers for a while have been joining fan clubs to get better and earlier tickets. The Ticketmaster auctions have been running in the US for some time, and the general feeling there is that it is just legalised/institutionalised scalping, something which the true fan hates in the first place.
I would like to see a “no tickets resold above cost price” policy, but that’s me talking with my “event goer” hat on. I can see the attraction in profiteering and think it’s fair that they are a free market commodity, but at the end of the day it’s not what the bands want.
U2 could have played another show in New York to 10 times as many fans instead of putting a second show on at Mt Smart Stadium…
I guess we’re just lucky we get to go at all.
July 19th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Why are you assuming that you will necessarily pay more? An auction can also be an opportunity to pick up a bargain if demand is light.
More importantly, an auction gives you the power: you get to pay exactly how much you feel the tickets are worth to you. How is that unfair?
And if you take a minute to think about it you will see that the “problems” of scalpers and tickets selling out in 20 minutes are caused precisely because tickets are not being sold at market value. Selling the tickets at auction fixes this easily. Compare this to banning scalping which is much easier said than done.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Wow Ticket master have finally learnt the concept of the market!
Good on them.
http://mikeenz.blogspot.com/2007/01/ticket-scalping-efficient-distribution.html
July 20th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Great idea!
This is no different from an institutional book build process for securities offerings.
The only question is whether the average punter will understand how to use it to their advantage for buying tickets.
On another positive note, it will make Nanny State’s meddling legislation for ‘major events’ entirely redundant.
And for my part, I would much rather pay say $200 knowing more goes to the promoter and artiste than $150 knowing they only get to slive up a $75 face value with a scalper taking $75 for no better reason than that they had a contact at a ticket outlet.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Lex said: “I would much rather pay say $200 knowing more goes to the promoter and artiste than $150 knowing they only get to slive up a $75 face value with a scalper taking $75 for no better reason than that they had a contact at a ticket outlet.”
Sorry Lex, but it doesn’t work that way. The band charge the promoter a performance fee and he tries to recoup that thru ticket sales. If he sells a $75 ticket for $200 the promoter get the extra, not the band. Ticketmaster will be getting a commission too, hence their desire to sell tickets at a higher face value.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Oh yeah, and BTW, this really is the last straw. I don’t need to see The Police that badly. I paid Ticketmaster for ‘premium’ tickets for U2 and still got seated at the far end of the stadium. I watched the concert on the big video screen, it was impossible to ‘connect’ with the band on stage.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:20 am
[...] Speaking of auctions, Ticketmaster in New Zealand has cut ticket scalpers out of the picture by auctioning tickets. [...]