Ticketbastardsssssssssssssss

[Jester <jester13_us@yahoo.com>]

Lifted this off Pollstar: 

Behind-The-Scenes Ticket Deals Investigated Updated
13:51 PDT Thu, Jun 08 2000 
A June 8 report in the Los Angeles Times claims that
SFX, the largest concert promoter in the world, is
feeding a "thriving underground ticket economy" by
selling seats directly to scalpers. According to the
article titled "Secret Deals Jack Up Prices For
Concert Tickets," a six-week investigation by the
newspaper revealed that SFX "sells nearly 200 prime
seats to every show at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
exclusively to ticket brokers ... ." The situation at
the Southern California venue is especially
interesting because the seats sold to Mike's Tickets
are not available through the Irvine Meadows box
office or Ticketmaster. In fact, they don't even
appear on the shed's seating chart. SFX CEO Mike
Ferrel told the Times that the "phantom" seats sold to
Mike's Tickets are part of a longstanding agreement
that the company "inherited" when it bought the venue
from the the previous owner. "The seats in that
section are part of a box seat program that has been
in place for many years," Ferrel said.
 "To the extent that those transactions represent any
dealings with scalpers, it's due to previous
commitments, which we are trying to extricate
ourselves from." The transactions with Mike's Tickets
were apparently never disclosed to the artists who
perform at the venue, and the revelation has stunned
artist managers and booking agents contacted by the
Times. Since the deal with the ticket broker
circumvents standard ticket-selling channels, and the
phantom seats don't even appear on seating charts, the
artists do not see any profit from the sale of those
tickets. The article went on to explain that SFX is
not the only promoter selling tickets directly to
scalpers. House of Blues was also named, and artist
managers were said to be involved in the practice as
well. "It's the concert industry's dirty little
secret," Tom Ross, founder and former head of Creative
Artist Agency's music division, told the paper. 
"The big scalpers move nearly 2,000 tickets to every
event in every major market. It's wrong. It's
unethical. And in some cases, it's a breach of
contract to the artists, who are the reason all of
this money is generated in the first place." 

      - jester13_us

"Some of us need f**king pyshco therapy!"-PDBT


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