My vent of the day - ticketmaster fees

[WinniWoman]

Just had to shout out (love) the Hampton Beach Casino. Literally my stomping grounds as a kid ("we" had a house on Boars Head - wish my parents had not sold that). Do you go to Wally's for twin lobsters on Tuesday's? We try to whenever we're back.

And argh on the ticket prices. Nebraska baseball team is playing in the Big10 Tournament (here is Omaha). It's a big deal (if you are from Nebraska). Yesterday my daughter paid $75 a ticket for today's game (we passed). This morning they opened up more seats -- $16! Yay for us - total price for our tickets - $30 ($14 in fees)!! Who gets all that - ticket master? What a shame it's not going to the University. And where did those seats come from? Someone sold them to TM this morning? The stadiium hasn't been close to being full.

When you can book Taylor Swift for $100 in Portugal - but $2000 in Miami -- who gets that $1,900. All to ticket master and their fees, fold in reselling? Like I could buy a ticket for $100 (if I would be so lucky to get in their queue when they go on sale - then resell on TM and they get their cut (and I get mine))? I really don't know, I'm guessing. Unreal. How can they stop it in other countries and here in the US we let it get so crazy? I hope the lawsuit filed gets some relief to this insanity. The end result for us is we don't go much to concerts (or even would not have gone to today's BB game if the ticket prices didn't "go down" (even though there are shady fees in thte mix).

Honestly we never go to Hampton Beach. I can’t deal with crowds. But I know the seafood down there’s awesome.

One thing- here in the lakes region of NH we do benefit from being only an hour and a half from the Seacoast of Maine and NH so we can get good seafood.

 

[Cornell]

I'm online holiday shopping and noticed Cirque du Solei is having a Black Friday sale. But, ticketmaster fees are so insane, I'm not going to, just because I'm annoyed. 23% of the total cost!


View attachment 69164

Look at the bright side! "Go Mobile" is free!

 

[Sandi Bo]

Another Ticket Master mess, I think it's ending well, but jeez...

Saturday 8:30pm AFTER Nebraska made it to the NCAA championship game on Sunday - my daughter accidentally purchased tickets (for $75 each) to the Saturday game instead of the Sunday game. She was on the phone with a friend, frantically trying to buy before they sell out, wanting to sit together, getting an email with a link 'buy now, they are selling out fast' - and she purchased tickets to the game that had just ended!! Then they can't refund to an event that has already ended - they were reviewing it would be 7-14 days, etc. Silly - they do seem to be refunding her at this point.

Adding insult to injury - she paid $75 a ticket to the Sunday game, Sunday morning they opened up more seats and they were $30 with fees. They changed the game from 2pm to 10am (anticipating storms) and her friend didn't realize it, showed up at the end (she also paid $75 a ticket).

Interesting? They close off part of the stadium - that's why you see so many empty seats. So about 5,000 seats were empty - not for sale. What a shame - families can't afford to pay to go to a ballgame, and seats sit empty. My daughter paid $75 a seat a piece for her, her husband, a 5 yr old and a 4 yr old! (Twice, lol). That's taking your family to a ball game (where they rope off seats so they can sell some for more). We did have a great time, but, geesh.

 

[am1]

Another Ticket Master mess, I think it's ending well, but jeez...

Saturday 8:30pm AFTER Nebraska made it to the NCAA championship game on Sunday - my daughter accidentally purchased tickets (for $75 each) to the Saturday game instead of the Sunday game. She was on the phone with a friend, frantically trying to buy before they sell out, wanting to sit together, getting an email with a link 'buy now, they are selling out fast' - and she purchased tickets to the game that had just ended!! Then they can't refund to an event that has already ended - they were reviewing it would be 7-14 days, etc. Silly - they do seem to be refunding her at this point.

Adding insult to injury - she paid $75 a ticket to the Sunday game, Sunday morning they opened up more seats and they were $30 with fees. They changed the game from 2pm to 10am (anticipating storms) and her friend didn't realize it, showed up at the end (she also paid $75 a ticket).

Interesting? They close off part of the stadium - that's why you see so many empty seats. So about 5,000 seats were empty - not for sale. What a shame - families can't afford to pay to go to a ballgame, and seats sit empty.

Very easy not enough staff to open up more sections. Or were opening them up in stages if they sold out the first sections as it seems you stated. The venue can do whatever they want.

If one is not happy do not buy.

 

[Sandi Bo]

Very easy not enough staff to open up more sections. Or were opening them up in stages if they sold out the first sections as it seems you stated. The venue can do whatever they want.

If one is not happy do not buy.

And we didn't buy at $75. My daughter did, we waited for the cheaper ones or wouldn't have gone.

 

[emeryjre]

Some more news about our friends at Ticketmaster
Some serious hacking has been alleged

Hackers claim Ticketmaster data breach, offer info of 560 million customers for sale

A notorious hacking group known as ShinyHunters claims it was able to break into Ticketmasters' systems and steal sensitive information about 560 million customers.

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[dioxide45]

"The suit also highlights differences between the concert business in the United States, where venues tend to have exclusive deals with ticketing companies, and elsewhere in the world, where venues have “open” deals allowing competition between those selling tickets."


"LiveNation/ Ticketmaster's sprawling empire dominates the industry by locking venues into exclusive ticketing contracts, pressuring artists to use its services and threatening its rivals with financial retribution. "


"Ticketmaster / LiveNation has 80 percent of primary ticketing at major concert venues."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/technology/ticketmaster-live-nation-lawsuit-antitrust.html

Well, you're good at copy and pasting snippets from the articles you also link to. I can give you that. These are just parts of the allegations against Ticketmaster that are in the lawsuit. Ticketmaster has had a 70%-80% market share of the ticket selling market since the mid 1990s. It isn't like they have more market share today after the Live Nation merger than they had before. What is different now than when Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster. The DOJ didn't have an issue when they merged or with Ticketmaster for 15 years prior to that

 

[Brett]

Well, you're good at copy and pasting snippets from the articles you also link to. I can give you that. These are just parts of the allegations against Ticketmaster that are in the lawsuit. Ticketmaster has had a 70%-80% market share of the ticket selling market since the mid 1990s. It isn't like they have more market share today after the Live Nation merger than they had before. What is different now than when Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster. The DOJ didn't have an issue when they merged or with Ticketmaster for 15 years prior to that

OK, - so Ticketmaster fees isn't your "vent of the day"
Maybe concert fees have changed since the 2010 merger, I dunno

 

[1Kflyerguy]

Ticketmaster has had a 70%-80% market share of the ticket selling market since the mid 1990s. It isn't like they have more market share today after the Live Nation merger than they had before. What is different now than when Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster. The DOJ didn't have an issue when they merged or with Ticketmaster for 15 years prior to that

In my area, its pretty much Ticketmaster/Livenation for any of the big shows. A smaller company, AXS, seems to handle the smaller venues with the older acts, like 60s and 70s bands that only manage to fill small places.

Anti-trust seems to go in an out of favor, so its possible to current environment is more open to seeking this lawsuit, or perhaps more people are complaining about the high costs of live entertainment and Ticketmaster is an easy target.

I know i have looked into a few concerts and decided nope I don't like that performer enough.

 

[am1]

Regardless of what anyone thinks for the top acts people are willing to pay whatever it takes. Taylor Swift could have doubled her ticket prices and still sold out. I like when prices are kept low but all that does in her case was line the pockets of resellers. I would rather her have the money then them.