Today I read a lovely article about concert tickets in Florida. If you are in Florida, now would be a great time to start your own Ticket Broker business -- this might be the thing that lowers prices and actually helps consumers.
After just purchasing tickets for my wife for her birthday -- through a brilliantly run presale I might add) I came across this news article about ticket selling rules in Florida.
We live in an entertainment driven world, and in the land of economics, supply and demand ebb and flow. However, I've always been a strong believer that no matter what the demand, tickets should NOT be able to be sold to the highest bidder through broker agencies.
However, as with any price competition, when there are more entrants, there's more competition. Maybe this idea will spread throughout the country if this idea is successful.
More thoughts below (regarding this article)
http://www.tmcnet.com/...
below are some noteworthy excerpts.
But starting July 1, scalping will be legal, allowing ticket holders to resell for whatever price they can get.
Gov. Jeb Bush signed the legislation into law June 7, making Florida one of 35 states to legalize scalping.
Advocates of the law say it will create a free-market system, giving consumers more choices and creating competition.
I tend to agree. As stated in the article, Ticketmaster and some other well known sites have their own 'auction site' where fans can post their tickets at their own price. This already forces ticket brokers to adjust their overly inflated prices. I -- for one -- had to sell tickets because I was going to be unexpectedly out of town the night of a particular show here in STL -- one that I really wanted to go too (and probably the top grossing show last year in the USA, will let you all figure that out), I sold my two tixs on ebay for a reasonable price (about $70 over face value) and weeded out any scalpers (it's pretty easy to do on ebay). Ticket brokers for that particular show had prices double and even triple in value.
For years, licensed ticket brokers, many of which operate solely online, haven't had much competition. They could get around the anti-scalping law by packaging tickets with things such as travel to and from the event. Their prices -- $13,875 for a courtside ticket to Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Miami last week, for example -- reflected high demand and the absence of competition.
"When you have a monopoly, what happens?" asked John K. Stargel, R-Lakeland, who sponsored the bill in the House. "You pay more. I think you've seen what the high end of the prices will be. And now there'll be more people, more tickets available and consumers will have more choices, which I think is a good thing."
True this is awful. I wouldn't pay 13K to see Miami if Shaq let me drive his H2 to the game and then let me chill at his South Beach pad for the night (OK maybe two nights -- kidding).
It seems more rational to me that in a case such as the above (Superbowl, NBA Finals, NCAA finals, etc) there will always be a huge dollar amount paid for choice seats. However (if this policy was nationwide), for the "regular games" such as say Boston / NYY, Cubs / White Sox, etc, it would drive down the price and let more people possibly be able to go for a smaller price.
Florida is the only state to pass a law that makes it illegal to hoard tickets for events with purchase limits. Venues that host high-profile sporting events and concerts often place limits on how many tickets one individual can buy.
I put this in bold because I think this is the key to the bill. This will make it very tricky for companies to buy up hundreds of tickets and sell them off on their website.
"Some say [the new law] is going to make tickets more affordable and more accessible to the general public," Levy said (a South Florida lobbyist who represents the South Florida Leisure and Entertainment Association). "I would suggest au contraire. Two things will happen: Tickets will be selling for unprecedented amounts, [and] the fraud will be rampant."
I do not agree with the above. "Two things will happen??? This is already happening!! (refer back to quote 2 above from the article) Of course he's going to represent the view of those already making tons of money off of this practice.
"One would think legalizing scalping to be a bad thing," (said Kerry Samovar, the vice president of policy at Ticketmaster) "But when you dig down and spend more than two minutes on this, I have yet to encounter a person who didn't say, 'You're absolutely right, scalping is a good thing when there's consumer protection.' "
This could be true, but it will have to be done right. Hopefully this law will set a good precedent and we can go on from there. IF the VP of ticketmaster is onboard, that can only be a good thing.
I know there's probably no grand solution to entirely fix this problem, but I think this is as good a start as any, and it floors me it has come from (!!) Jeb Bushy.