Ticketbastard!

Everyone that has tried to get tickets to a big show or sporting event where the tickets are only available through Ticketmaster knows that it is almost impossible to get good seats through the website or on the phone. I have always thought that Ticketmaster is a monopoly that is run by the corrupt mafia. There is no way that every ticket is sold within 2 minutes for a venue that seats 20,000 people. There is just not a way for that to happen, Ticketmaster would have to have the largest, fastest, enormously huge load capable server, ever created to have every transaction go through correctly in that amount of time. This is just not possible considering they (Ticketmaster) needs to go get credit card approval on every transaction and you all know, that is not a speedy process either. So to hear about shows that sell out in under 5 minutes always makes me suspicious. I remember the old days of camping out overnight in line at the Turtles to get tickets to a show. I guess that shows my age, but that was a way I knew I would get a decent ticket to a show.

Well, the recent sale of tickets for a Bruce Springsteen show in New Jersey has sparked an investigation. When Springsteen tickets went on sale last week, Bruce fans flooded Ticketmaster's site looking for tickets, and many in the New Jersey area got error messages telling them to try back later. When they did, they found out the shows were sold out--nooooooo!--but they still had a chance: A link would take them to TicketsNow (Ticketmaster's resale site) where they could buy seats for a lot more than face value. In the old days, before the miracle of the Internet, this used to be called scalping, and wouldn't you know it, such a fuss ensued that the New Jersey State Attorney General has launched an investigation and Bruce put a message up on his site saying he was just as angry as everyone else. (Ticketmaster apologized too.)

This happens for every show! Recently when trying to get Phish tickets, I logged on and noticed the TicketsNow link already active for this show. The tickets had just been release a few minutes earlier and now they were already available on their resale site? It is obvious that Ticketmaster is sending a majority of the tickets to their resale site where they can get a lot more money for the same tickets. As a concertgoer, I realize this has gone on for years, but I am glad to see that someone with some clout realizes this and an investigation is now going on. I don’t expect a lot to change. Ticketmaster might have to pay a fine and promise not to continue this practice, but we all know they will. There are some bands that won’t use Ticketmaster to sell their tickets but they are few and far between. Since Ticketmaster has contracts with most major arenas and venues, if the bands want to play these venues, they have to go through Ticketmaster. I would love to see this monopoly disbanded, but I am sure that won’t happen. Therefore I will continue to time my efforts just right so I can be one of the first ones through on the phone or the website at the time of the ticket release. I hate dealing with these crooks, but the only alternative is to not go to the shows and those of you who know me, know that isn’t going to happen!