Ticket Brokers are THE DEVIL!

[Triggerfish]

I apologize in advance it this isn't considered "football related", but I just had to rant a little! Steelers tickets went on sale this morning at 10am. I was logged into Ticketmaster (also the devil) several minutes prior to 10am, and continually refreshed the page until the tickets went on sale. I tried EVERY home game of the season, and NO TICKETS available for ANY of them! And this all happened in less than 20 minutes of the tickets going on sale!

I understand free-market economics and all that crap, but it's absolutely ridiculous that in this day and age the Average Joe football fan CAN'T take his family to a game without shelling out at least 4-5 times face value for a damn ticket! Everyone knows that the Ticket Brokers use bot computer programs to flood Ticketmaster the second the tickets go on sale for events and buy up every last ticket within seconds. Moments later these same tickets are on sale on their respective sites for 4 times face value. It's absolutely infuriating, and I just can't understand why these ticket pimps aren't put out of business. I understand that they have the right to buy the tickets, but it's unfair that their high-tech buying systems make it impossible for anyone else to have a fair shot of landing those same tickets.

As angry as I am about it all, the problem REALLY lies in the consumers' willigness to pay these ridiculous prices. Until people boycott these prostitutes, nothing will change. The NFL will just continue to be a league where only the wealthy, well-connected, or VERY lucky have the privelage to enjoy the games live.

I know....bring on the bashings. But I for one am PISSED, and tired of the BS that is ticket brokering! Looks like I'll be watching from my sofa again this year. Grrrrrr.....

The Devil! The Devil I tell ya!

 

[jmt57]

I don't disagree with you Triggerfish. Though personally I find Ticketmaster more distasteful than ticket brokers.

Back in the day before Ticketmaster became a monopoly things ran fairly smoothly. You could go to the ticket window at the stadium and buy a ticket for face value. Or you could go to one of many ticket agencies - including Ticketmaster - and buy a ticket with an additional modest convenience fee. That ticket surcharge was worth it based on proximity and hours of operation, and because of the competition between multiple ticket agencies nobody was being gouged.

Ticketmaster grew and became the biggest ticket agency, but that wasn't enough. They started playing hardball with venues, negotiating for exclusive rights to sell tickets and threatening to not sell tickets for any of their events if they did not comply. The venues recognized Ticketmaster was their biggest seller of tickets and complied. With no competition Ticketmaster increased their service charge, and then added other fees: processing charge (how is that different from a service charge?), shipping charge - or if the tickets aren't mailed to you, an electronic ticket 'convenience' fee or will call charge.

When all is said and done what used to be an extra dollar or two is now an additional $15 to $25 - or more - for the 'convenience' of buying a ticket from the one and only source that sells those tickets.

As for those independent ticket agencies, their only choice was to either go out of business or become ticket brokers. Although it really stinks that they are able to buy tickets for the sole purpose of reselling them for a profit, I'd say some of the blame goes to the teams with the way they sell tickets. It starts with agreeing to exclusive deals with Ticketmaster, and it extends to the way single game tickets are sold. I'd rather see some sort of lottery for those tickets that would counteract the 'bots used to snap up those few remaining tickets. I also think it's rather hypocritical that NFL teams are so proactive in their fight against individuals reselling their tickets for more than one dollar over face value, yet turn a blind eye to ticket brokers.

 

[Triggerfish]

Amen man! How is ticket brokering any different than the scumbag scalper in the parking lot waving tickets?? It's total BS.

 

[TrueBeliever]

In the past when this topic has come up, a lot of people say, "Hey, it's a free market, it's your choice to buy the ticket at that price or not." But is it really a free market when, as mentioned, there's only one way to buy said tickets?

It's also been argued that ticket brokers can suffer losses just as big (if not worse) as their gains when they buy up tickets that turn out to be not in demand. Just a couple years ago I read an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about guys that bought a bunch of Milwaukee Bucks ticket that they couldn't give away because the Bucks turned out to be a god-awful team that year. But whose fault is that? These idiots' sole reason for buying the tickets was to sell them at a profit. I have no sympathy for them.

In fairness, I should mentioned that I've been on the favorable end of this situation. In 2000, I tried to buy tickets to the Pats-Bears game in Chicago but they were sold out through the Bears' website. However, as the season wore on and it became apparent that both teams were playing for high draft picks, me and my friend started looking at ticket brokers and paid $100 for FOUR tickets (i.e. $25 each).

Nonetheless, it wouldn't have bothered me at all to pay full price to get them from the team. These days it seems like teams only care about their season-ticket holders. On one hand these are the more devoted fans and single-game tickets are more likely to be sought by fans of the opposing team. But there are those of us who can't afford season tickets or wouldn't even want them - which would be me. I love going to Pats games, but at the same time I'm not the type of person that would want to go to EVERY home game each year. One or two games a year is enough for me.

Sorry I guess I'm rambling, I'm just trying to say I agree. I can't afford to go to New England this year, so I was thinking of going to the game at Indy, but I'm not looking forward to shopping for the tickets. It's just gotten ridiculous.

 

[Angry Man]

I totally agree on this. Its frustrating when you want to make that one or two game visit a year but unless if you are in front of your PC the second single game tickets are on sale you are screwed. You'll be lucky to get lower level corner tickets from Ticketmaster after the first few minutes. After that you'll be lucky to get nose bleed seats if anything. The same $10 nose bleed seats that scalpers will sell for $60-100 a pop if you are lucky.

I won't deny that I have taken advantage of scalpers stupidity of overestimating ticket demand in the past before. I got two decent floor tickets to The Police back in 2007 valued at $225 each for $50 total just the Saturday before the show.... right two hours before I went to see Roger Waters at the same venue.

The whole situation with Ticketmaster needs to change. It won't however since Ticketmaster in the end continues to make profit so they won't need a reason to change things. To Ticketmaster they are getting money for the tickets they are selling and honestly they really don't have a reason why to care what happens to said tickets after the initial sale. Heck they even now provide their own website for said ticket scalping sales as in Ticket Exchange.

Funny thing however since the surcharge fees came up. At least for our USL-1 soccer team the Minnesota Thunder you are better off getting your tickets at the box office the day of the game. You only pay the face value of the ticket there. No stupid fees or anything. Just the price of the ticket itself and you are good to go. Which is even funnier since we got an upcoming US Open Cup game against the Kansas City Wizards. There's a 20% off deal if you order online... but then you get hit with a $2.75-$3.75 convince fee depending on what section you buy your seat for. That right there pretty much kills that 20% off.

 

[TrueBeliever]

For the record, there is at least one NFL team where you can buy tickets at the window the day of the game. I know because we did just that last year. Unfortunately, that team is the Detroit Lions.

 

[Angry Man]

You mean they weren't just giving the tickets away at that point?

 

[Angry Man]

Bruce Springsteen Ticketing Bill - SH Forums

I thought this thread from the Steve Hoffman forums would be a good read since its on the subject of Ticketmaster.