Really doing the people's work there taking it to Ticketmaster because not everyone was able to get Taylor Swift tickets. Perhaps they actually do have enough time to fix college football.
Congress really going after Ticketmaster
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
They should go after Ticketmaster.
Can they get rid of all the ticket processing fees while they’re at it?
They can pretty much charge whatever fees they want, considering they rig the system and venues and artist don't have choice in many cases.
Some might chime in that they are a private company and that government has no business interfering, and other babbling nonsense. This is EXACTLY what government should be interfering with. 99.99999999% of the people will be better off.
They are a monopoly and no one can defend their practices
Ding … ding… ding. Clear violation of anti trust laws. Yet DOJ and FTC ignore LiveNation/Ticketmaster and other monopolistic consolidations which contributes to our current and trending economic conditions. Teddy Roosevelt— we need you!
Along with gasoline and heating fuel. Gouging at it's finest.
This thread won’t see the end of the day. Will be turning into a locker room debacle shortly.
Springsteen tickets have always been some of the most reasonable in comparison to his peers, but the dynamic pricing model this time around really sucked. They purposely hold back tickets to manipulate demand and then jack up the prices during those times. It's one thing to charge different prices to adjust to supply and demand (e.g. Uber on New Year's Eve), but the withholding supply part is something I take issue with. Then again, if people just didn't go into a frenzied panic mode when buying, I guess it could correct itself.
My understanding is that the artists are not completely blameless in all this. Like, they'll negotiate a certain to show up in the building that night. And Ticketmaster will say, "Yes, we'll meet that number, but you must agree to the dynamic pricing model."
The only show I got tickets for on this first leg was one that wasn't ran through Ticketmaster. Four uppers for $600-something in Cleveland on a weekday was much more reasonable than some of the prices I was seeing for Penn State, etc.
My understanding is that the artists are not completely blameless in all this. Like, they'll negotiate a certain to show up in the building that night. And Ticketmaster will say, "Yes, we'll meet that number, but you must agree to the dynamic pricing model."
The only show I got tickets for on this first leg was one that wasn't ran through Ticketmaster. Four uppers for $600-something in Cleveland on a weekday was much more reasonable than some of the prices I was seeing for Penn State, etc.
can they do something about us not being able to have tents up in the lots for tailgates?
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Government shouldn't be interfering in a private ticketing company unless it is breaking antitrust laws, which it isnt. No sports team or rock band is required to use TM. The Cavs dont. Pitt doesn't. Others dont. There are other companies that sell "first market" tickets.
The problem is live Nation which has the unhealthy exclusive deals with live Nation venues. It is a monopoly. The reason pitt doesn't use TM is heinz/ac is not a live Nation venue...hence one of the reasons so few concerts are held in that venue.
So how some bands have gotten around this is either boycotting live Nation venues or having a bunch of tickets reserved for purchase only to be purchased in person.
Now that said, Nine inch nails did this in 2018. I showed up and sat for hours in rain and when I got to purchase tickets, I maxed out the limit and spent over 1000 on concert tickets. By the time I got home I had sold my extras on stubhub for almost 3 times the listed price. I made enough to pay for parking food drinks and my own ticket, plus made money.
Now that said, Nine inch nails did this in 2018. I showed up and sat for hours in rain and when I got to purchase tickets, I maxed out the limit and spent over 1000 on concert tickets. By the time I got home I had sold my extras on stubhub for almost 3 times the listed price. I made enough to pay for parking food drinks and my own ticket, plus made money.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I am failing to see what laws are being broken here. Venues sign contracts with Live Nation and part of that is they use TM to sell the tickets. No one forces these venues to sign up with Live Nation. It seems reasonable that LN would make them use TM exclusively. I have no sympathy for fans who think TM is screwing them. The open market determines ticket prices. In the Taylor Swift case, TM priced them way too cheap which caused massive demand. They should have been far more expensive. If someone thinks TM charges too much or too many fees, eventually you will find cheaper tickets on the secondary market.
You have no idea what you are talking about. It's not an open market with Ticketmaster. They rig the system to avoid an open market. That's one reason for Adam Smith writing the book The Wealth of Nations.
I am no fan of LN or TM. What they are doing is shady, but not illegal. Its a free market, still. The venues don't have to sign up with Live Nation. If Live Nation says "if you dont then we arent booking the concerts we promote," that's just business. Guess what happens when enough venues get rid of LN? LN loses money, the artists lose money. No business is being restricted here. LN has a lot of leverage over the venues. I get that. But that doesn't make them a monopoly.
It's pretty clear that they have rigged the system to the point where they aren't making profit from the services they provide, but rather from simply rigging the system and putting up barriers for everyone else.
Anyone who is not an 11 year old girl whining about not getting to see Taylor Swift should be lobotomized
They should go after the individual schools/teams/entertainers who allowed their tickets to be sold through ticketmaster.
Amazon's "violations" are nothing at all like Ticketmaster.
Joe the Panther Fan is right.... you are speaking on a subject you know nothing about.
2 different businesses but not that dissimilar. Warren's contention that its an anti-trust violation for Amazon to be participating in both markets (online retailer and direct seller) because they can manipulate prices. Its not all that different from Live Nation participating in both the promoter/marketer and ticket seller markets. Exactly the same? No.
The big difference is the 3rd item... LiveNation controls access to most of the venues as well, especially venues of less than <5000 capacity. So they are the promoter, the ticket seller, *AND* the venue.
They arent the venue unless they own it. No venue is forced to sign up with them.
Do you have any idea how many venues Live Nation, or one of their subsidiaries, owns?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
NBA/NHL type arenas? None. Maybe a couple. They might own the one in LA and London. But not many.
You understand that the vast majority of concerts are not in NBA/NHL type arenas, right?
Yeah, and if held up at gun point, people aren't forced to hand they money over.
The merger was allowed to go through under a consent decree. In 2019 the DOJ found that they had broken the agreement multiple times, and extended the agreement and made them pay a few million in fines and pinky swear not to continue breaking the agreement. The Assistant Attorney General that oversaw that settlement now works at the law firm that represents Live Nation and oversaw the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger.
And Live Nation doesn't own a vast majority of all other concert venues.
