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Is There Any Hope For Fan Friendly Ticket Buying? City Council Holds First Hearing
By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 29, 2011
Modified Oct 29, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 29, 2011
Modified Oct 29, 2011
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Earlier this week we reported that a city councilman was going to attempt to make ticket buying more fan friendly. Yesterday morning, councilman Dan Garodnick held the first hearing on what we'll call, for now, The Radiohead Law (since that band's concerts in New York last month are what inspired him). He Tweeted from the hearing yesterday, "One witness talks about the difficulty of getting Knicks tickets. Knicks games these days are trying enough!"
The new legislation, introduced by Queens City Councilman Leroy Comrie, would require venues with 3,000 or more seats to be forced to reserve at least 15 percent of their tickets for the general public, available at the box office. Garodnick says, "People are increasingly frustrated by the fact that when they go to buy tickets to an event, they sell out in a nanosecond," later forcing the fan to spend way over face value if they want to get into the show, presumably stuffing the pockets of the artist they want to see. As we previously noted, artists like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift are hoarding their own tickets to sell via secondary markets at higher rates. DNA Info reports that in 2009 Taylor Swift only made 1,600 of 13,000 tickets available to the public; when tickets sell out in mere seconds, it creates more buzz for the artist.
Garodnick's crusade is shockingly being criticized by Ticketmaster. The corporate monolith says, “While well-intentioned the bill the City Council is considering would do exactly what it is trying to prevent. This bill would help scalpers and brokers gain access to more face-value tickets only to resell them to fans at much higher prices. The only people that lose in this scenario are the fans." Even if they should significantly lower their fees, they may have a point.
Can a world where there's only one Radiohead ever be a world where every fan is satisfied and gets to see them? Probably not. But, and this is a true story, Ike Willis once told us backstage at a small club in Providence that Frank Zappa had been working on a hologram machine which would allow him to play simultaneous concerts all over the world. Get into the laboratory, Ticketmaster. And until then, try actually providing "service" if you continue to bill us for "service charges."
Tagged
City Council
dan garodnick
holograms
scalping
supply and demand
the radiohead law
tickets
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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