Its not 100% about the sky high prices. Its the tactic TM has used to make more money off of every ticket they sell. Allowing scalpers to use bots to buy up tickets, or even outright working with scalpers to get them tickets, with the expectation that the scalpers resell the tickets on ticketmasters resale platform meaning TM gets the original fee from selling the tickets, then a fee from both the seller AND the buyer upon the resale. Its a pretty crooked way of doing business
If only someone at TM would respond with a reasonable defense or even a good plan going forward: but of course if you own the market why do you care what your victims (customers) think.
I agree the market should set the price for scarce goods; however, it would be helpful to everyone if Ticketmaster had reputable, independent competition, wasn't able to directly sell in bulk to "affiliated" resellers and the use of automated purchasers (bots) was not allowed.
Perhaps if the entertainment and sports businesses were to support another option the market might create a credible, non-affiliated, alternative?
If regulators want to create or refine the oversight of the system's operations, and somehow encourage credible competition those might be good places for histrionic politicians, in all provinces, to spend their efforts. Bitching for sound bites and clicks isn't helpful and they should be working on more important things.
And yes Scott, Ticketmaster's system, both on phone and desktop, seems to want to make even everyday, lower demand purchases as difficult as possible for everyone. After dealing with them for over 13 years I still would often wish I could only have the pain and frustration of a root canal on the wrong tooth rather than have to deal with them. Whenever the venue offers the choice I will try to use their box office rather than TM.
Yeah, politicians really shouldn’t interfere in free markets. It distorts incentives and sends people underground. High demand low supply goods should be expensive. Seeing a ball game isn’t a right.
Guess the World Series will provide more content for at least a few days longer. Hopefully the politicians can keep themselves out of trouble and focus on the things that actually matter rather than the social media cirque de jour.
All goods and services should be sold at whatever price the buyer and seller agree to. Full stop. This applies to everything. Any attempt to circumvent this fundamental mechanism makes everything worse.
Politicos' defence of the poor people who can't afford a world series ticket is laughable and shows one of two things:
1. How truly out of touch they are with the real world
2. That they use any issue, even the most minor one (this is a pretty minor one as far as issues go) to distract from the fact that they have no grasp on anything.
Ford's government would be better off addressing real problems (cost of living, housing, crime), but no they choose to focus on asinine issues that waste everybody's time.
It shows how much contempt they have for the plebs and how little they care about anything, but their own well-being.
Resale tickets are already sold through illegal channels. Those illegal channels are allegedly controlled by Ticketmaster. Ford is correct that people are getting ripped off, and he's correct that government must take action to restore law and order. The US government is doing something:
Don’t quote me but I would bet a few bucks that Ticketmaster offerings are being bought by … wait for it … Ticketmaster and the re-sold by … yes, you’re right … Ticketmaster, all businesses operating under various aliases. Multi sales = multi fees. A great way to get richer.
Not addressed in this article... why is a filthy American company allowed to have a monopoly on ticket sales in Canada? Would the Americans tolerate Canadians controlling the sale of tickets to NFL games?
Maybe that should be Doug Ford's angle if he wants to make hay out of this.
Maybe you can't eliminate *fully* the re-sale market, but if TicketMaster wanted to, they could radically reduce it to the point that it wouldn't affect much of anything. Tickets are almost universally sold online and so could easily be tied to the online account tied to your real-world identity. TicketMaster could do these things, but they don't, so I conclude that they don't want to.
It's not like there's an unstoppable airline ticket resale market for airline tickets and Air Canada is just unable to prevent Bob Smith getting on a flight to Australia under the name "Jane Erickson" with Jane Erickson's ticket that she sold him.
The problem for fans appears to be that they don't want a ticket scalping market to exist, but the people selling the tickets and the act DO want it to exist.
Ticket sales desperately need regulating. Ford is not wrong but his rationale is a bit off unsurprisingly. Yes there is an opportunity cost to every single purchase- if I buy item A I will have to forgo Items B and C. That’s life and one of the first hard lessons that children have to learn from parents who actually wish they could give them everything. If B and C is rent and groceries….. well you can always charge it. And pay more fees on fees to big rich corporations. Some choice!
People who pay the scalpers huge markups to attend sporting events have to realize that they may not get what they paid for.
I attended an NHL game a few years back and bought tickets from a reseller who won them in a draw. The reseller politely sold them at face value and not a cent more. Good for me. The game was a wild blowout, but my good luck continued because all the goals were scored by my favourite team.
This is where value enters into how much a ticket is worth. Those who paid through the nose to get 18 innings of World Series experience did okay. Those Dodgers fans who paid big money to attend the Game 1 humiliation might be wishing they hadn't bothered.
Its not 100% about the sky high prices. Its the tactic TM has used to make more money off of every ticket they sell. Allowing scalpers to use bots to buy up tickets, or even outright working with scalpers to get them tickets, with the expectation that the scalpers resell the tickets on ticketmasters resale platform meaning TM gets the original fee from selling the tickets, then a fee from both the seller AND the buyer upon the resale. Its a pretty crooked way of doing business
Baseball is finished, but concerts continue all year and Ticketmaster continues to screw people over all year. Blow-up the monopoly.
If only someone at TM would respond with a reasonable defense or even a good plan going forward: but of course if you own the market why do you care what your victims (customers) think.
I agree the market should set the price for scarce goods; however, it would be helpful to everyone if Ticketmaster had reputable, independent competition, wasn't able to directly sell in bulk to "affiliated" resellers and the use of automated purchasers (bots) was not allowed.
Perhaps if the entertainment and sports businesses were to support another option the market might create a credible, non-affiliated, alternative?
If regulators want to create or refine the oversight of the system's operations, and somehow encourage credible competition those might be good places for histrionic politicians, in all provinces, to spend their efforts. Bitching for sound bites and clicks isn't helpful and they should be working on more important things.
And yes Scott, Ticketmaster's system, both on phone and desktop, seems to want to make even everyday, lower demand purchases as difficult as possible for everyone. After dealing with them for over 13 years I still would often wish I could only have the pain and frustration of a root canal on the wrong tooth rather than have to deal with them. Whenever the venue offers the choice I will try to use their box office rather than TM.
Thanks Scott!
Yeah, politicians really shouldn’t interfere in free markets. It distorts incentives and sends people underground. High demand low supply goods should be expensive. Seeing a ball game isn’t a right.
Guess the World Series will provide more content for at least a few days longer. Hopefully the politicians can keep themselves out of trouble and focus on the things that actually matter rather than the social media cirque de jour.
All goods and services should be sold at whatever price the buyer and seller agree to. Full stop. This applies to everything. Any attempt to circumvent this fundamental mechanism makes everything worse.
Are you talking about the NEP?
Politicos' defence of the poor people who can't afford a world series ticket is laughable and shows one of two things:
1. How truly out of touch they are with the real world
2. That they use any issue, even the most minor one (this is a pretty minor one as far as issues go) to distract from the fact that they have no grasp on anything.
Ford's government would be better off addressing real problems (cost of living, housing, crime), but no they choose to focus on asinine issues that waste everybody's time.
It shows how much contempt they have for the plebs and how little they care about anything, but their own well-being.
100% accurate. Thanks for saying it so clearly.
Resale tickets are already sold through illegal channels. Those illegal channels are allegedly controlled by Ticketmaster. Ford is correct that people are getting ripped off, and he's correct that government must take action to restore law and order. The US government is doing something:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ftc-sues-ticketmaster-live-nation-resale-illegal-1.7638489
I'd like to see Ticketmaster make a serious effort to stop or at least reduce bots from purchasing tickets. Not holding my breath.
Don’t quote me but I would bet a few bucks that Ticketmaster offerings are being bought by … wait for it … Ticketmaster and the re-sold by … yes, you’re right … Ticketmaster, all businesses operating under various aliases. Multi sales = multi fees. A great way to get richer.
Not addressed in this article... why is a filthy American company allowed to have a monopoly on ticket sales in Canada? Would the Americans tolerate Canadians controlling the sale of tickets to NFL games?
Maybe that should be Doug Ford's angle if he wants to make hay out of this.
Maybe you can't eliminate *fully* the re-sale market, but if TicketMaster wanted to, they could radically reduce it to the point that it wouldn't affect much of anything. Tickets are almost universally sold online and so could easily be tied to the online account tied to your real-world identity. TicketMaster could do these things, but they don't, so I conclude that they don't want to.
It's not like there's an unstoppable airline ticket resale market for airline tickets and Air Canada is just unable to prevent Bob Smith getting on a flight to Australia under the name "Jane Erickson" with Jane Erickson's ticket that she sold him.
The problem for fans appears to be that they don't want a ticket scalping market to exist, but the people selling the tickets and the act DO want it to exist.
Ticket sales desperately need regulating. Ford is not wrong but his rationale is a bit off unsurprisingly. Yes there is an opportunity cost to every single purchase- if I buy item A I will have to forgo Items B and C. That’s life and one of the first hard lessons that children have to learn from parents who actually wish they could give them everything. If B and C is rent and groceries….. well you can always charge it. And pay more fees on fees to big rich corporations. Some choice!
People who pay the scalpers huge markups to attend sporting events have to realize that they may not get what they paid for.
I attended an NHL game a few years back and bought tickets from a reseller who won them in a draw. The reseller politely sold them at face value and not a cent more. Good for me. The game was a wild blowout, but my good luck continued because all the goals were scored by my favourite team.
This is where value enters into how much a ticket is worth. Those who paid through the nose to get 18 innings of World Series experience did okay. Those Dodgers fans who paid big money to attend the Game 1 humiliation might be wishing they hadn't bothered.