And you thought Ebay was bad...

[Key Lime Lee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/01/techn ... 1TICK.html

September 1, 2003

Ticketmaster Auction Will Let Highest Bidder Set Concert Prices
By CHRIS NELSON


Three years after Ticketmaster introduced ticketFast, its online print-at-home ticketing service, consumers have so embraced it that the company now sells a half-million home-printed tickets for sporting and entertainment events each month in North America. Where ticketFast is available, 30 percent of tickets sold are now printed at home, said the company, which is by far the nation's largest ticket agency.

But consumers — many of whom have complained for years about climbing ticket prices and Ticketmaster service charges — may be less eager for the next phase of Ticketmaster's Internet evolution.

Late this year the company plans to begin auctioning the best seats to concerts through ticketmaster.com.

With no official price ceiling on such tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers for the highest price a market will bear.

"The tickets are worth what they're worth," said John Pleasants, Ticketmaster's president and chief executive. "If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it's actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket's worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients — the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves — are saying to themselves, `Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker.' "

EBay has long been a busy marketplace for tickets auctioned by brokers and others. Late last week, for example, it had more than 22,000 listings for ticket sales.

Venue operators, promoters and performers will decide whether to participate in the Ticketmaster auctions, Mr. Pleasants said. In June, the company tested the system for the Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko boxing match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The minimum bid for the package — two ringside seats, a boxing glove autographed by Mr. Lewis and access to workouts, among other features — was $3,000, and the top payer spent about $7,000, a Staples Center spokesman, Michael Roth, said.

Once the auction service goes live, Ticketmaster will receive flat fees or a percentage of the winning bids, to be decided with the operators of each event, said Sean Moriarty, Ticketmaster's executive vice president for products, technology and operations.

Along with home printing, auctions are central to "a new age of the ticket," Mr. Pleasants said. In the second quarter of this year, tickets sold online, with or without home printing, represented 51 percent of Ticketmaster's ticket sales. The rest were sold by phone or at walk-up locations.

Ticket Forwarding allows season ticket holders for several sports teams (including the New York Knicks, Rangers and Giants) to e-mail extra tickets to other users, with Ticketmaster charging the sender $1.95 per transaction.

TicketExchange provides a forum for season ticket holders to auction tickets online. The seller and buyer pay Ticketmaster 5 percent to 10 percent of the resale price, a fee the company splits with the team.

In the case of the ticketFast home-printing service, buyers pay an additional $1.75 to $2.50 per order, with the fee set by the event operator. Home printing has won converts among people who want tickets immediately, instead of receiving them by mail or a delivery service or having to stand in line at a will-call window.

One satisfied customer is Brian Resnik, 29, of Tampa, Fla., who says the home-printing fee is a bargain compared with the $19.50 that Ticketmaster charges for two-day shipping through United Parcel Service.

But some other users, who praised the convenience of home printing, objected to being charged an extra fee.

"It's kind of mind-boggling to me," said Joe Guckin, 41, of Philadelphia, who used ticketFast to buy tickets for a Baltimore Orioles home game last season. "You're printing up the ticket, on your printer at home, your paper, your ink, etc. — and you have to pay for that?"

The company replies that home-printing consumers are helping to pay for the technology that makes the service possible.

Ticketmaster has spent $15 million to $20 million to outfit almost 700 stadiums, arenas, theaters and concert halls in this country and Canada with bar-code scanners that read and authenticate the tickets and computers that capture information such as which seats are filled and which doors have the most traffic, Mr. Moriarty said. In 2003, the company has sold 400,000 to 600,000 ticketFast tickets each month.

Some ticketFast customers, like Diane DeRooy, 52, of Seattle, complain that Ticketmaster assesses a lot of fees even before levying the print-at-home charge. A ticket to see Crosby, Stills & Nash on Friday at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., for example, carries $13.80 in venue, processing and convenience fees, plus a $2.50 charge for the home-printing option. Without the fees, a ticket costs $30.25 to $70.25.

Many of those customers are skeptical about Ticketmaster's plans to auction the best seats to concerts.

"The band's biggest fans ought to have the best seats, not the band's richest fans," said Tim Todd, 47, of Kansas City, Mo., who used ticketFast recently to buy tickets for a concert by the rock group Phish. Ticketmaster would be, in essence, official scalpers, Mr. Guckin said, voicing a sentiment expressed by some other customers.

Industry watchers agree that auctions will affect all concertgoers. Prime seats are undervalued in the marketplace, said Alan B. Krueger, a professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, who has studied ticket prices. He predicts that once auctions begin revealing a ticket's market value, prices as a whole will climb faster.

Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry trade magazine, Pollstar, predicted that all ticket prices would become more fluid. After a promoter assesses initial sales from an auction, remaining ticket prices could be raised or lowered to meet goals.

The notion of ticket auctions is annoying, Mr. Resnik said, but he is resigned to them.

"I guess the capitalist inside me would say, `Hey, if that's what they can get for tickets, I guess that's just something I can't afford, like a yacht and a Learjet.' "


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

[SMLCHNG]

[f2cdlzrd]

Oh no.

[SchoolGirlHeart]

Seeing Jimmy live was nice while it lasted.....

[Scoman16]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/01/techn ... 1TICK.html

September 1, 2003

Ticketmaster Auction Will Let Highest Bidder Set Concert Prices
By CHRIS NELSON

The notion of ticket auctions is annoying, Mr. Resnik said, but he is resigned to them.

"I guess the capitalist inside me would say, `Hey, if that's what they can get for tickets, I guess that's just something I can't afford, like a yacht and a Learjet.' "


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

I guess I don't feel much different than this guy re: "the capitalist inside me"...The promoter (or whomever is responsible for setting ticket prices) is clearly leaving $ on the table for some of its artists...the $ should go to the people providing the entertainment not a broker IMHO, at least this mechanism could provide that...

Hopefully, most artists would opt not to have such an auction on his/her tickets...It would be interesting to see how Jimmy might react given he clearly jokes about how much his tix are brokered ...

The philanthropist (sp?) in me says it would be great if they (TM/promoter) could figure out a way to direct the difference between a would-be stated face value and the auction price to a charity of the artist's/bidder's choice (ala Kitty's auction)...That solution still might put many of us out of the running for tix, but at least the $'s might go toward some good vs merely profits...

Just my $02... and here's hoping we don't see the auction pricing for Jimmy's shows

[SchoolGirlHeart]

We all know that under the current system, the brokers snap up an inordinate number of tickets, but many of us still get lucky on ticket day and pick up seats for face value.

What I'm afraid of is that this system will drive up ALL the ticket prices, and price most of us right out of the market. There will not longer BE a "face value," and only the wealthy among us will be going to shows. What a loss.....

[sirgumby77]

Just watched this on the news----the ARTIST must AGREE to this. Lets hope Jimmy does not agree to this.

[phjrsaunt]

EWWWW!!!!! I hope Jimmy wouldn't do this to us!

[tryin' to reason]

This is gonna hurt!!
Good bye, Great Woods, hello DVD's!!
Corporate clowns are gonna bid these up so high, you and I aren't EVER gonna have a shot!!

[DebSabriel]

It seems to me that this proposal was designed to take money from the scalpers and give it to TicketBastard. It will do that, but it will also make it impossible for the average fan to score decent seats.

I'm with Gumby - I hope Jimmy doesn't do this to us.

JMHO

Deb.

[12vmanRick]

I heard this on the radio in Atlanta a couple days ago. I had no real info on it but that Clark Howard (now and for a while who I think is an IDIOT)said it was a great idea.

I thought how horrible. It won't be long until only a few people can ever go to any concert.

Anyone still like Ticketmaster ? I have hated those people for a LONG time.

[12vmanRick]

Just watched this on the news----the ARTIST must AGREE to this. Lets hope Jimmy does not agree to this.

Any artist that does agree needs to be boycotted.

[2fla]

If it comes to this I'll just be happy to travel around and pay my hard earned money to hear other groups deserving of our attention: Jim Morris and The Big Bamboo Band, Sunny Jim, etc. Wait a minute....I already do that!

<<I just know I'm going to catch hell for this one!>>

[moeron]

I don't think that J B will say a thing, He is making Millions from us. I would not be suprised if he dos'nt have money in TM stock. I have been to about 20 to 3o shows, I buy the shirts, most of the CD's. but TM dos'nt give a fat rats **s about the phans. Just MONEY. There is a lawsuit aganst the Cubs about their ticket policy, maybe thats what we need. I guess that we are outside looking in. TM wants us to shut-up and just keep paying a lot of money to see Jimmy.

[Guest]

Well, at least the Radio Margaritaville shows are still free. If all this ticketmaster craziness actually comes true, I'll just have a case of ice cold Coronas by my computer, close my eyes and picture myself at the show. Those JB shows will be boring anyway with all those wealthy folks.

"I pity that man but from where I stand it looks like the prisoner is me."

[moeron]

J B shows are a LOT of fun. Most of my friends ask why they charge for seats, when you are too busy dancing anyway. But if I can't afford the high prices that T M charges, then I'll just stay home with a cold one and dance in my back yard.

[Sanibel Island]

Trust me, if Ticketmaster does this, the only thing that is going to happen is the ticket broker will bid HIGH on all the good seats and re up the face value to make his money. Also, what makes TM think the broker will not buy all the other seats and really mark it up. Ticketmaster needs to end this idea now, it is as dumb as it gets. They get their money, just move on. Oh yeah by the way hear of the first artist to turn this idea down?? Bruce Springsteen. Said no way, I am not doing that. Most will be just like him.

[moeron]

If You go to the tickets now web site, You will see about 1000 seats for sale. Most are not phans. Most are just in it for the $$$. The great seats are close to $1000!! Holy s%&#! I tried to get tickets for Hi, but no luck. I wonder if TM sold some this way. That would explan the sky high prices.. Just like a guest said (nov 1) I'll buy a case of corona, and sit by my computer.

[rednekkPH]

I tried to get tickets for Hi, but no luck.

There are still lawn seats available for HI through Ticketmaster.

[tryin' to reason]

I tried to get tickets for Hi, but no luck.

There are still lawn seats available for HI through Ticketmaster.

Lawn tickets - $50 apiece on ebay.