Category : Ticket Analysis
The Dutch wing of Live Nation has canceled more than 1,000 tickets it deemed invalid because they’d been bought from sites known to be run by touts.
What’s wrong with this?
- Pollstar doesn’t report the hypocrisy of Live Nation doing this
- Live Nation owns Getmein! one of the largest ticket resale sites in Europe
- Live Nation owns TicketsNow.com the 4th largest Ticket Reseller in the United States according to TicketNews.com
- Live Nation scalps their own tickets via their season seat programs where they aim to double the revenue of the best seats in the house, which the artist gets no part of.
Is it fair for Live Nation to scalp their own tickets but restrict the ability of others to sell for a market based price?
euticketnews.com notes that the cancelled Mika tickets had a face value of €42.90 and were selling on Viagogo.com for €61.74. What do we know about supply and demand? If tickets are selling for not even €20 over face before fees, the market is likely crashing. By cancelling over 1,000 tickets Live Nation is protecting themselves from a slow selling show. Instead of people being able to buy Mika Tickets for under face value, fans are going to be forced to help Live Nation cover their ass for a slow selling show
News has just been released that the Red Sox have agreed to work with StubHub. What does that mean for the ticket buying public?
- For season seat holders it will be much easier to list and sell your tickets on StubHub
- For single game resellers, the Red Sox will now know who you are.
- The Red Sox are now getting 7.5% of every sale on StubHub.
- TheRed Sox will know the true value of all their tickets. This is likely to hurt the single game ticket buyers in good years and everyone in losing years as box office prices will now be the “face” when demand is high and while “face” goes up, does it ever go down?
- The Red Sox get to keep Ace Ticket and their sponsorship money and any revenue sharing money they have agreed to.
Makes you wonder why the Red Sox didn’t have this in their original Ace Ticket sponsorship deal doesn’t it?
The main benefit this will have for the ticket buying consumer is most likely more tickets on the market. If you can just list your tickets on StubHub and have them transferred automatically when they sell, the owner is more likely to sell, than to just give the tickets away or bring them to a broker. With more tickets on the market you may not have to pay as much from StubHub. Also the seller may be willing to take less if StubHub’s 15% is less than a broker has been taking from them in the past.
Going back to the
article refered to in Monday’s
posting regarding Wilco tickets, I want to visit the comments section of the article.
paulvail wrote on March, 7 8:40 PM:
Want to stop the scalping — I mean, brokering? Sell actual tickets. Stop the online sales. Get your tush down to the ticket office, have a ticket printed out, limit the number of tickets purchased at any one time to 4 or a total limit for any one purchaser. If the scalper wants to make a mint, then he can get back in line and do it all over again.
It is beyond ‘market forces’, which is often just a cute way of saying ‘greed’ anyway. Or, simply stop going to these events. Maybe the artist will wise up. It’s not like they are really maximizing their dollar with the scalping, anyway. Hats off to NIN.
Will selling actual tickets and stopping all online sales stop the resale market?
Simply put, no! You see the guys outside the stadiums, arenas and various other venues? What are they doing on Saturday mornings when the tickets are going on sale? Nothing. Guess where they will be if ticket sales are in person only? Thats right, right in front of you. How will they get in front of you? Greasing the person handing out numbers to make sure they and all their buddies get the best numbers to buy all the good tickets.
Will this ever happen?
No, online marketing is too valuable to the promoter, venue and artist to go back to the old days. The less they have to pay for advertising the more money is going in their pocket. Everyone would be incredibly happy if they could just send out emails to all the fans and never have to pay another dime for an ad. Your email address that you give for the presale password is worth a lot to the promoter, venue and artist. When you sign up for an account on Ticketmaster you agree that they can share all your purchase info for each event you purchase with the artist, venue and promoter. This is why you’ll end up getting Neil Sedaka emails when you have only purchased Vampire Weekend tickets in the past.
“Hats off to NIN”
NIN and their manager Jim Guerinot definitely thwart the secondary market as well as any team in music, but by doing that, they basically say if you don’t know how to use a computer quickly, you’re screwed. Those who can afford to pay $200-$300 a ticket and are willing to, are left out in the cold under their ticket schemes also. The youngest and most computer savvy fans benefit the most with their method of ticket selling.
There was an
article published in the News & Observer of the Triangle area in North Carolina over the weekend. It is article about people complaining about not being able to purchase tickets, this time to Wilco at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The author does a pretty good job of giving an overview of the situation for the upcoming Wilco show. The biggest number left out is how many tickets are actually on the secondary market and does this show have more tickets than normal for a concert on the secondary market? The generally accepted number for tickets appearing on the secondary market is that 10%-15% of a venues capacity shows up on the secondary market. As of this writing there are 214 Wilco tickets on Stubhub. Over the past month 47 tickets have sold on Stubhub. This puts us at 271 tickets which is basically 10% and after accounting for previous sales on Stubhub, eBay, and Craigslist, we should be right at 15%.
Brent complains in the article that he tried for 30 minutes to get tickets. Why wasn’t he able to get any? Let’s look at the numbers:
- 2700 capacity
- 1050 pre sale tickets to member’s of the venue and/or the promoters mailing list
- 300 fan club tickets (Ticketmaster’s venue contracts do not allow for more than 10% of a venue’s capacity to be sold off TM site, Wilco Fan Club handled by Front Gate Ticketing)
- 250 students tickets only available at the box office
- 100 likely holds for the venue that will be sold to friends/workers/local luminaries
That leaves 1000 tickets available for the public on sale. Of that 1000 tickets 10% were bought by the “evil” resellers leaving us with 900 tickets. So let’s dig a little deeper. 900 tickets for sale and there are people trying to buy 2, 3, 4 or maybe more but let’s put the average at 3. From that we get that only 300 people were able to buy tickets for the “public” on sale. How many people do you think were trying to buy tickets?
What Could Brent have done to better his chances at acquiring tickets at “face” value?
- signed up for Wilco’s mailing list and tried to buy the fan club tickets. (Those most likely sold out in 30 seconds)
- signed up for the venues’ mailing list for a pre sale tickets password
- searched blogs, forums, twitter for the password (shameless self promotion, ask me on twitter @ticketanalyst I’ll give it to you for freeeeeee)
- paid a student to buy tickets for him (would you prefer giving a starving student $20 or the “evil” reseller $100)
What does the Ticket Analyst recommend Brent do now?
Brent needs to scour Craigslist. There are currently over 200 tickets left for a show in a smaller metropolitan area which is a sizable supply. Fan Club tickets should be arriving now that it is about 2 weeks before the show. Setup an RSS feed (if you don’t know how, it is a great help to keep tabs on Craigslist postings, so you should learn to make it work for you) for “Wilco Tickets” on the local and regional Craigslist sites. The tickets posted by brokers on StubHub and other secondary sites will show up on Craigslist with a phone number. Don’t be scared if it is a broker they will soon be happy just getting their money back, or less. Use a credit card and get the address of their business and Google them to double-check legitimacy before purchasing. If dealing with someone local meet up with them somewhere safe and vet the tickets. I predict that you should be able to buy tickets at or under face the week of the concert.
- 20,700 currently
- 23,900 last year
We also know that in the majority of years the O’Malley’s owned the teamed they capped the season ticket holder base at 27,000. This for a team that has won two division championships in a row and favored to do so again this year. So where did everyone go and why?
- We can come up with several reasons the renewals are down:
- The fans just don’t like the McCourts
- Ticket prices have been raised a lot since Fox and SKYROCKETED under the McCourts
- The casual fan and season seat holder think the team will not win since they haven’t brought in a big name free agent
- Fans have wised up to how much supply is available for Dodgers tickets.
I emailed Bill Shaikin and he mentioned that Dennis Mannion did acknowledge that StubHub may be having an effect on sales. If you are a season ticket holder and go to sell any of your tickets it hard to not notice what your tickets are really worth. If you can’t make the good games such as the Cardinals, Phillies or Mets you’re lucky to make $10-$20 a ticket on Craigslist or StubHub. If you don’t want to go and see the Marlins you’re lucky to get half of the face value back.
Discounting and high prices are hurting the Dodgers season ticket base and may hurt their popularity in the future. By now any real fan will know that you can get premium seats for less than face value for almost any Dodger game on StubHub and if you just want to check out a game it is best to wait for the Travel Zoo and Goldstar promotions for the unpopular games. These promotions can be up to 70% off of the face value. If you’re a season seat holder that paid $50 for a ticket how happy would you be if the person 5 rows back was able to pay $25 for their ticket. Is it worth tying your money up for 6-9 months?
Another factor hurting sales is the price of postseason tickets. The past two years it has been almost impossible to give away let alone sell tickets for the post season. If the biggest benefit of being a season seat holder is the ability to have tickets for the playoffs, are you going to keep them if you have seen the same seat sell for up to half the face value on Craigslist? Now you can sit at home all year watch your big TV in HD and save money on food and come out for the exciting games while spending a fraction of the money the Dodgers would have you spend on tickets, even for the playoffs.
Another factor hurting sales is the price of postseason tickets. The past two years it has been almost impossible to give away let alone sell tickets for the post season. If the biggest benefit of being a season seat holder is the ability to have tickets for the playoffs, are you going to keep them if you have seen the same seat sell for up to half the face value on Craigslist? Now you can sit at home all year watch your big TV in HD and save money on food and come out for the exciting games while spending a fraction of the money the Dodgers would have you spend on tickets, even for the playoffs.
The following five tips will help you save money and enjoy your time at the upcoming Rose Bowl and BCS Championship games at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena CA.
- Watch Ticket resale sites like Stubhub, eBay and Ticketliquidator.com like a hawk. You need to know which way the market is going to get the best deal. If you log in to Stubhub like you are going to sell tickets you can see the last 20 transactions. Act like you are going to sell a ticket and follow the steps till you have to put in a price, the details you enter do not matter. (Make sure you close the window before finalizing that you have tickets for sale) If the prices are going up it is most likely a good time to buy. If the prices are going down, hold out till they stabilize at a minimum to purchase.
- Do you want a seat back? Sections 1-8 and 15-22 have seat backs. Seats will give you a little more room, though they are still small compared to modern stadium width wise and in terms of leg room.
- The best rows at the Rose Bowl are rows 25-45, you have an elevated view where you can see the whole game from.
- The low rows at the Rose Bowl are HORRIBLE!! If you are below row 15 you definitely won’t see much of the game. The low rows are pretty flat and you will be blocked by those standing in the rows below you or the teams or staff on the sidelines. Row 77 is a better row than row 10. When I worked at a ticket broker we would only sell lettered rows to those customers we didn’t want to sell tickets to again.
- Know the seat numbers before you purchase. Call your broker to find out the seat numbers (click here to see why it can be good to use a broker). If you look at the seating chart the aisles go up the middle of the section at the Rose Bowl. For example sections 19 and 20 meet in the middle. Section 19 carries a premium to section 20, but if you know the seat numbers you could end up right next to or a few seats away from the other section for a couple hundred dollars less per ticket.
The Rose Bowl is a smaller more intimate stadium than most of the new monstrosities and a good knowledge of the seating chart will help you get the best bang for your buck. If you have any questions on where to sit hit me up on twitter @ticketanalyst
Currently the Billboard Touring Conference going on in New York City. Ticketnews.com published this article about the panel that discussed the issue of paperless ticketing with representatives from Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Stubhub and Ticket Network. Stubhub and Ticket Network as the owners of the two largest ticket exchanges on the secondary market have the most to lose from the paperless initiative by Ticketmaster and Veritix (formerly known as Flash Seats). Basically the primary ticket sellers are doing their best to lock out any secondary ticket providers hoping to capture that market for themselves. Consumers should be very weary of the paperless ticketing provided by Ticketmaster. Why is Ticketmaster’s paperless ticketing bad for you the consumer?
- There is no transfer of tickets. 2 years ago Celine Dion put tickets on sale for her tour that was occurring a year in the future. A lot can happen in a year, the economy can tank, one can lose their job, or an employer could transfer you to another state or country. If you need to, want to, or have to sell your tickets you have no way to do this.
- Consumers are also hurt because there is an artificial floor set on the selling price of tickets. The National Association of Ticket Brokers has stated that 40% of the tickets on the secondary market are sold at below face value. A few weeks ago the super group Them Crooked Vultures featuring Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters along with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin played shows in Philadelphia and Boston. The shows were instant sell outs. However on the secondary market the tickets were selling for $4 each in Philadelphia and $15 each in Boston. If Ticketmaster had its way the only amount you could pay for the show would have been $65.
- Paperless ticketing only stops the casual reseller who flips tickets on Stubhub or eBay from “scalping” their tickets. The professional brokers are willing to fly anywhere in the country if they are able to make a lot of money and paperless ticketing isn’t going to stop them from doing so. I have talked to a few that flew to London knowing how much they would make from the Led Zeppelin reunion. Reducing the supply on the secondary market only increases the prices.
Until Ticketmaster implements a way to transfer tickets there is no reason that paperless ticketing should be used unless the show is within 3 weeks of the on sale. Veritix does allow transfers of tickets and therefore is not operating in such a monopolistic manner.
There is also a quote in the article from Ticketmaster president David Butler that states: “We provide a service for the artist to decide how they want to handle the relationship with their fans.” This seems a little hypocritical. If it is just a service they provide why do they not let the artist decide whose service they would like to use? If their service is so good they should be open to competition and wouldn’t need to have exclusive agreements with venues where the artist is not allowed to use any other ticketing provider for their show in that venue. Butler goes on to state “The artists are the rights holders.” If this is true why does Ticketmaster stipulate that artists are only allowed to hold back 10% of tickets for their fan club if they have another service issue the fan club tickets?
Paperless ticketing is about increasing the profitability of a large corporation and increasing the net worth of a billionaire and not about the artists. Instead of trying to shut out the secondary market these companies and artists need to embrace it. They have 1,000 or more salespeople who have all the best clients who are willing to spend loads of money on their product. Instead they are trying to freeze them out, which will just alienate all the fans in the end. The teacher who has been laid off no longer has something of value to sell and the CEO of XYZ company who must now focus on buying tickets instead of making more money at his company and just making a call to a broker at his or her convenience.
Rusted Root Tickets
Rusted Root Presale Tickets Password:
Todd Snider Tickets
Todd Snider Presale Tickets Password:
Brian Setzer Orchestra the 7th Annual Christmas Rocks! Extravaganza Friday Night Tickets
Brian Setzer Orchestra the 7th Annual Christmas Rocks! Extravaganza Friday Night Presale Tickets Password:546616,hollywood
Brian Setzer Orchestra the 7th Annual Christmas Rocks! Extravaganza Saturday Night Tickets
Brian Setzer Orchestra the 7th Annual Christmas Rocks! Extravaganza Saturday Night Presale Tickets Password:546616, hollywood
Melt Banana Tickets
Melt Banana Presale Tickets Password:N/A
Ron White Tickets
Ron White Presale Tickets Password: tater
Rob Zombie Tickets
Rob Zombie Presale Tickets Password: zombie
Train with Uncle Cracker Tickets
Train with Uncle Cracker Presale Tickets Password:ocean
Less than Jake Tickets
Less Than Jake Presale Tickets Password:hollywood, 546616
Dir En Grey Friday Tickets
Dir En Grey Friday Presale Tickets Password:ocean
Dir En Grey Sunday Tickets
Dir En Grey Sunday Presale Tickets Password:ocean
Fame Kills with Kanye West and Lady Gaga Tickets
Fame Kills with Kanye West and Lady Gaga Presale Tickets Password:546616, HEARTLESS
Concert for Hope with Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney & Demi LovatoTickets
Concert for Hope with Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney & Demi Lovato Presale Tickets Password:thankyou
Alice Cooper Tickets
Alice Cooper Presale Tickets Password: halloween
George Lopez 12/18 Tickets
George Lopez Presale Tickets Password:laugh
George Lopez 12/19 Tickets
George Lopez Presale Tickets Password:laugh
George Lopez 12/28 Tickets
George Lopez Presale Tickets Password:laugh
R. Kelly Tickets
R. Kelly Presale Tickets Password: LADIES
Fame Kills with Kanye West and Lady Gaga Tickets
Fame Kills with Kanye West and Lady Gaga Presale Tickets Password:546616, stronger
Elephant Tickets
Elephant Presale Tickets Password: N/A
Switchfoot Tickets
Switchfoot Presale Tickets Password:
Switchfoot Tickets
Switchfoot Presale Tickets Password:
Ticket Analyst Recommendations for the Week: There is not much to get excited about this week. The few shows that will require you to get up and buy tickets quickly are The Airborne Toxic Event and Maxwell. The Airborne Toxic Event will be tough to get decent seats for as they have already had two presales for their mailing list. Maxwell is quite expensive so if you want good seats try to get some from Ticketmaster at the on sale and if that does not work keep an eye on the secondary market. It seems as if most people do not want to spend more than $100 a ticket these days. Train in Ventura may be an okay show selling out close to the event as they have sold out The Wiltern recently.
Colbie Callait has added an additional House of Blues Anaheim show and two at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. Saturating the market like this means you shouldn’t have a problem acquiring tickets for her shows at the box office with no service fees. Also of note is a 2nd show for Brand New at the Hollywood Palladium. If you plan on going to both shows I recommend purchasing this Saturday or next at the Palladium box office to avoid service charges as the first show is selling well.
A special note of caution is needed for David Gray. The past few times he has played Los Angeles the first show has sold out quickly and then a second show added. There is enough demand for 1 show but the secondary sellers buy half the seats for the first show. When the second show is added all the fans buy that leaving the tickets for the 1st show dropping like a rock, even hard to give away.
Peter Bjorn and John Tickets
Peter Bjorn and John Presale Password: Living
Boys Like Girls Tickets with Cobra Starship
Boys Like Girls Presale Password: Requires Fan Club Membership
Boys Like Girls Presale Password: LOVEDRUNK
En Vogue & Ginuwine Tickets
En Vogue & Ginuwine Presale Password: AMEX Customer Service 800#
R0yksopp Tickets
R0yksopp Presale Password: GEICO
Paramore Tickets
Paramore Presale Password: Requires Fan Club Membership or Fan Club Purchase
Attack Attack! Tickets
Attack Attack Presale Password: N/A
Aggrolites Tickets
Aggrolites Presale Password: N/A
Zao Tickets
Zao Presale Password: N/A
Atticus Tour 2009 Tickets with Finch
Atticus Tour 2009 w/ Finch Presale Password: N/A
Bowling For Soup Tickets
Bowling For Soup Presale Password: 546616
Colbie Callait Tickets
Colbie Callait Presale Password: N/A
The Bravery Tickets
The Bravery Presale Password: 546616
Jaguares Tickets 11/14
Jaguares Tickets 11/15
Jaguares Presale Password: 546616
All That Remains Tickets
All That Remains Presale Password: create or 546616
KC & The Sunshine Band Tickets
KC & The Sunshine Band Presale Password: create or 546616
Enrique Bunbury Tickets
Enrique Bunbury Presale Password: N/A
David Gray Tickets
David Gray Presale Password: N/A
The Airborne Toxic Event
The Airborne Toxic Event Presale Password: Check Artist Website
The Airborne Toxic Event Presale Password: LAPHIL
Maxwell Tickets
Maxwell Presale Password: NIGHT
Attack Attack! Tickets
Attack Attack Presale Password: N/A
The King Khan & BBQ Show Tickets
The King Khan & BBQ Show Presale Password: N/A
Souls Of Mischief Tickets
Souls Of Mischief Presale Password: N/A
Parachute Tickets
Parachute Presale Password: N/A
Gogol Bordello Tickets
Gogol Bordello Presale Password: GYPSY
Robert Randolph and the Family Band Tickets
Robert Randolph and the Family Band Presale Password: PEDALSTEEL
Train Tickets
Train Presale Password: N/A
Linda Ronstadt Tickets
Linda Ronstadt Presale Password: 546616
Montel Williams and Sylvia Browne Tickets
Montel Williams and Sylvia Browne Presale Password: 546616
The following are the going prices for No Doubt tickets for the next week at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine:
Friday Night Tickets:
$100 for a decent Loge Ticket
$150 for a good Loge Ticket
$200 for an Orchestra Ticket
$500 for a Pit Ticket
Saturday Night Tickets:
$90 for a Terrace Ticket
$150 for a decent Loge Ticket
$200 for an Orchestra Ticket
$400 for a Pit Ticket
$600 for a Great Orchestra Ticket
Sunday Night Tickets:
$90 for a Loge Ticket
$140 for an Orchestra Ticket
$200 for a Pit Ticket
$350 for a great Orchestra Ticket
Wednesday Night Tickets:
$100 for a Loge Ticket
$175 for an Orchestra Ticket
$250 for a Pit Ticket
$350 for a good Orchestra Ticket
Ticket Analyst Recommendation for No Doubt Tickets: If you just want to see No Doubt Wednesday should be the cheapest day for decent seats. Right now Loges are $90-$100 each. You should be able to pick up tickets for somewhere in the range of $70-$90 next week. Lawn tickets should run you no more than $40 also if you are just dying to go. If you are looking for a better seat or willing to spend around $200 a ticket Sunday night should get you something worth your money. If Saturday night is the only night you can go out, you are going to pay for the privilege. I recommend going on Wednesday if you can take Katy Perry or only want to see No Doubt. If you want to see Paramore too, then Sunday is your best bet.
Once again remember to only buy seats from people that have their tickets in hand. Most of these tickets are in the hands of brokers pretty close to the venue. When calling around to brokers ask if they have them in hand and can pick them up in the next 30 minutes even if you don’t plan on doing so. A lot of the broker tickets will also end up on Craigslist. Use these numbers as a guide for the most you should pay for tickets on Craigslist. Don’t hesitate to ask if they are a broker as you wanted to pay by credit card if you are concerned about authenticity on Craigslist. While these prices will generally trend down it is a free market so buy at a price you feel comfortable as conceivably the market can go up also.
These are your recommendations for buying No Doubt tickets for Irvine. Enjoy the show!!
