READ THE TOP
THREE 5 STAR
TICKET BUYING
GUIDES!
Find out how to get the
best seats and the
lowest prices
anywhere. Then FIND
WHAT YOU'RE
LOOKING FOR!
How can I buy tickets online for
concerts, sports events &
broadway theater?
There are usually several ways to
make sure to see your favorite
band or artist in concert when they
visit your area; and most of them
are on the Internet. Here are some
of the best ways to buy concert
tickets online.
STEPS: 1. Find out when and
where the artist or band is going
on tour by checking sites like
Pollstar.com or their own website.
2. Consider joining the artist or
band fan club, in case they make
presale tickets available to fan
club members first. 3. Search the
website of the primary ticketing
vendor for the venue where the
concert will be held (usually
Ticketmaster.com or Tickets.com)
and see if good tickets are still
available. 4. Visit online sites
and click on concert tickets to see
a wide selection of tickets and
prices for any show available for
purchase. 5. Consider visiting
ticket broker websites, but make
sure to only deal with reputable
sellers and understand in advance
how and when you will get your
tickets. Tips: In most cases (but
not always), there are more tickets
available, and at better prices, well
in advance of the show. For any
Internet transaction you do, make
sure the website where you buy
tickets is secure and reputable.
Look for a seal of approval from
the Better Business Bureau,
Verisign or similar organizations.
Brandon Tesmer celebrated his
40th birthday in fine style by
holding a mini reunion in March
with three college buddies at a
Rolling Stones concert in Las
Vegas. His fourth-row seats at the
MGM Grand Garden Arena were so
close that he could read the
drummer's song list as the
motorized stage wheeled past.
Says Tesmer: "When Mick came
out with tux and top hat and sang
'Sympathy for the Devil,' that was
as good a live performance as I'll
get in my lifetime."
Although Tesmer's tickets each
had a $450 face value, the
Anaheim, Cal., bakery owner paid
$1,400 apiece. If, like Tesmer,
you're willing to pay a premium,
you can play the new ticket game
to win the sports, concert and
theater seats you want. But you
can still get tickets at face value,
too, and we'll advise you on the
best ways to do that. Now is a fine
time to brush up your ticket-
scoring skills.
Go to the source
Buying tickets from the source is
still the cheapest way to get a seat
at a hot event. The key to landing
tickets at face value is to be ready
the moment they go on sale. To
zero in on the latest list of artist
dates, sign up for free e-mail alerts
at Pollstar a concert-tour
information Web site. Then visit
TicketMaster to find out when
tickets go on sale. Create an
online account at Ticketmaster.
com and be ready to start clicking
the moment its virtual box office
opens.
Even better, avoid the hordes and
learn how to buy "pre-sale"
tickets. Sometimes a band sells a
cache of these in advance to a
select group, such as a fan club.
Online fan clubs will tell you when
and how to buy face-value tickets
in advance, although you must join
the club and pay dues of about $20
to $40 a year.
Scalpers, who buy tickets to resell
them at jacked-up prices, also join
fan clubs to buy pre-sale tickets.
But many musical acts have
figured out ways to thwart them.
For example, Nine Inch Nails
insists that its fan-club members
who buy tickets in advance go to a
special concert entrance. Buyers
must show identification and be
escorted into the venue without
having a chance to resell the
tickets. Other performers,
including Bruce Springsteen, have
used similar methods.
Even if you don't grab tickets in
the pre-sale offering or initial
ticket-buying melee, you can still
try later by contacting a venue's
box office. Box offices typically
reserve tickets, called house
seats, for corporate sponsors and
others. The number of seats held
may range from about 100 for a
popular Broadway show to about
1,000 for a popular sports event,
such as the Indianapolis 500. The
box office releases unused seats
in spurts until the "sold out" event
begins. Call the box office and ask
for released house seats.
Pay the middlemen
Once it was the realm of shady
men whispering "Need two? Need
two?" Now, ticket reselling has
gone upscale. Many ticket
resellers, such as TicketsNow, let
you buy online, offer guarantees of
valid tickets or your money back,
and have good records with the
Better Business Bureau. Pardon
us, though, if we don't nominate
them for sainthood. They are still
middlemen -- that is, scalpers --
marking up ticket prices by roughly
two to five times their face value,
depending on demand. Scalpers
use two Internet methods -- ticket
brokerages and ticket
marketplaces -- to resell tickets.
Markups at each are roughly the
same.
Ticket brokerages use several
methods to get tickets. Some hire
large numbers of contract scalpers
to buy tickets online or at box
offices when a Ticketmaster sale
opens. Others buy them from
insiders, such as teams, music
promoters and corporate sponsors.
The most-visited ticket brokerage
on the Web is TicketsNow, which
resold $140 million in tickets last
year. TicketsNow charges a fee of
10% of the ticket price, which
already includes the scalper's
markup plus a shipping fee.
Earlier this year, Darryl-Ann Harries
of Chicago bought tickets from
TicketsNow for herself and five
friends to attend a James Blunt
concert. She paid $65 each for
tickets with a $28 face value. "I'd
rather pay extra and get exactly
the seats I want than go to
Ticketmaster, where the best seats
never seem to be available," says
Harries.
TicketsNow recently began to offer
ticket insurance, which guarantees
a refund of your ticket price and
shipping fee if you can't attend for
covered personal, medical or
travel-related reasons. The policy
typically costs 5% of your ticket
price and shipping fee. Expect
other ticket sellers and resellers
to begin selling similar policies
soon.
Some ticket brokerages sell
packages that include
transportation arrangements,
restaurant reservations and other
spiffs. For the concierge-like
service, you pay a premium of 10%
to 20% above the price that
scalpers charge for comparable
tickets.
Case in point: Last December,
Steve Willett of Johnstown, N.Y.,
bought seven tickets apiece for
Wicked, The Lion King and the
Radio City Christmas Spectacular
on a month's notice from ticket
broker Golden Platter Sports.
Although Wicked was sold out,
Golden Platter provided him with
tickets in the third row for $225
each (face value: $125). Golden
Platter also booked a car service
to transport Willett and his family
between their hotel and the
shows, and reserved tables at
restaurants.
You'll find ticket brokerages in
local phone listings. These white-
glove scalpers work primarily with
corporate clients seeking group
tickets for sports events and pre-
and post-event parties, so you
should call to ask if they serve
individuals. Also ask if they offer
money-back guarantees that cover
ticket delivery and validity.
Shop the markets
Of course, eBay is a prime source
of resold tickets.
If you like the idea of auctions, you
will be pleased to hear that some
official ticket sellers have gotten
into the game. Many musical acts --
including Madonna this spring --
will fob off tickets to events
through auctions, usually run by
Ticketmaster. In most auctions, the
highest bidders receive seats
closest to the stage, while the
lowest winning bidders get seats
that are farther away.
Web marketplaces share a
drawback: Some crooks use these
sites to unload fake tickets. One
scam is to sell multiple
photocopies of a bar-coded
electronic ticket, which means that
the first person to have the ticket
scanned by a gate agent will be
admitted, while holders of tickets
with identical bar codes won't.
Neither eBay Express nor eBay will
reimburse you if your ticket
purchase goes awry.
Enter StubHub a marketplace that
promises to refund the price of
any ticket that fails to reach you by
FedEx or admit you to the seat
promised. As added protection,
StubHub sends staff to major
music and sports events to
replace dud tickets with
comparable or better tickets on
the spot, when possible. For its
service, StubHub charges 10% of
your ticket price, plus shipping. Of
course, the fees are added on top
of any existing scalper markups
over your ticket's face value.
Sports fans should consider sites
where season-ticket-holding fans
unload tickets to individual games.
The top fan resale site is
Ticketmaster's Sports Ticket
Exchange, which resells season
tickets for 37 professional teams in
several sports. Ticket prices are
often lower than the comparable
box-office price. And Ticketmaster
guarantees that tickets are
authentic, charging fees that vary
by team and recently ranged from
$2 to $30.
StubHub also resells tickets for
professional teams in many sports.
The fee is 10% of the ticket price. If
StubHub accidentally resells a fake
ticket, it will refund your money.
Why is it hard getting a great
ticket?
In a year that's shaping up as the
largest collective of A-list touring
acts since the mid-1990s, demand
for tickets is so intense that
nabbing a great seat — make that
any seat — is nearly impossible by
conventional methods.
Months ahead of concert dates,
superstar draws such as U2, the
Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney
and Bruce Springsteen are mostly
ultra-fast sellouts, underscoring
overwhelming demand from a
huge fan base of teens to baby
boomers.
Combined with the selling
efficiency of the Internet and
swelling competition from
scalpers, "your chances of getting
a great seat after a concert goes
on sale are almost non-existent,"
says Arizona State University
economist Steve Happel, a concert
business expert. "Tickets are gone
in a heartbeat."
Because lots of tickets are
snapped up by scalpers,
marketers, promoters, tour
sponsors, bands, fan clubs and
sports stadiums, which often give
preferential treatment to team
season-ticket holders seeking
concert seats, ordinary fans are
often last in line.
Concert sellouts mostly are a
hallmark of older, established male
rock artists and country stars such
as Toby Keith. Though Madonna,
Cher and Janet Jackson have had
top-grossing concert tours, most
female artists, as well as
contemporary, urban and hip-hop
performers, generally do better
selling CDs than concert seats,
says Ray Waddell, senior touring
editor for Billboard magazine.
"There've been some hot hip-hop
tours — 50 Cent and Eminem could
be huge this year — but most
never equal what they do at retail,"
he says.
Across most genres, many bands
and promoters are still smarting
from 2004, when high ticket prices
and lackluster fan interest led to
several money-losing tours. This
year, Clear Channel
Communications, a major tour
promoter and venue operator, is
slashing some prices to lure fans.
Still, dinosaur bands such as the
Rolling Stones and Motley Crüe
continue to command top dollar:
more than $400 for face-value
tickets. And die-hard fans are
willing to pay several thousand
more to an increasingly
sophisticated network of scalpers.
"There's a cadre of wealthy fans
pushing up prices of popular
acts," says Princeton University
economist Alan Krueger, who
helped coin the term
"rockonomics."
Long among rock's top-grossing
live acts, the Stones have sold out
32 North American concert dates
on sale so far. Four others are
near sellouts. The band is adding
shows to meet demand and might
expand its tour to 50 shows, says
veteran tour director Michael Cohl.
All 28 of McCartney's U.S. shows
were fast sellouts, as were several
shows added to satiate fans.
U2 sold out all 110 North American
and European concert dates, most
of them within minutes. By the time
U2 ends the tour at Portland's
Rose Garden Dec. 19, its global
windfall will surpass $300 million —
the biggest single chunk of this
year's $3 billion concert market,
says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of
industry tracker Pollstar. The
Stones and McCartney tours could
each reap $100 million, he says.
Where do the tickets go?
Traditionally, most fans got the
best concert seats by camping out
in front of venues and buying
tickets as soon as sales opened.
That time-honored technique is
proving increasingly frustrating.
Bruce Voelker tried landing four
$50 floor tickets for U2's
Philadelphia show by having a
relative line up hours before the
box office opened. Only one ticket,
far from the floor, was available
when he reached the front of the
line. "Everyone's competing for
the same concert," says Voelker,
28, a biologist in Baltimore.
Most buyers are funneled through
Ticketmaster, which sold nearly
100 million tickets last year to live
events and other entertainment
through the Internet and a far-
flung network of sales outlets and
call centers. "When you have the
Internet and thousands of outlets,
seats sell out virtually instantly,"
says David Goldberg,
Ticketmaster's head of strategy.
Says Waddell: "These days,
everyone has cell phones and
computers to tap in. There's an
intensity that wasn't there five
years ago."
With hotter acts, phone and online
ticket hunts are often futile. Soon
after the electronic sales gates
opened for McCartney's Atlanta
concert in September, "there were
no seats, even in the nosebleed
section," says Glenn Hughes, an
ad executive in Murray, Ky.
Hughes, 54, managed to buy two
$125 tickets to McCartney's Tampa
show. With airfare, hotel and
incidentals, Hughes and his wife,
Patricia, will spend more than
$1,000.
McCartney's 58 shows in 2002
pulled in about $125 million, the
year's top-grossing act. But he and
other big-name artists are doing
fewer 2005 shows. Springsteen,
who is on a solo acoustic tour, is
opting for smaller, more intimate
venues, which further drains a
limited ticket pool.
Just how many tickets are held out
by artists, promoters and venues
and never made available to the
mass market is closely guarded.
Ticketmaster says sales are
proprietary. Clear Channel
declined comment. Waddell
estimates that up to 20% of tickets
are held back. "They go to bands,
promoters, (venues), sponsors,
radio promotions and record
labels," he says. "These are
generally the best seats."
His estimate may be low. "In some
buildings, you might need 2,000
tickets for the fan club, 2,000 for
radio stations and the band and
5,000 more" for companies such as
American Express that use pre-
sales for marketing, Cohl says.
Sports coliseums and stadiums
may be ideal for packing in huge
concert crowds. But stages,
equipment and other limitations
cut seating. Scott Stadium in
Charlottesville, Va., holds 61,500
fans for University of Virginia
football games, but for the Stones'
show Oct. 6, there's space for just
51,000.
Moreover, arenas and stadiums
owned by professional teams or
managers often allow season-
ticket holders first crack at concert
seats.
Boston's Fenway Park holds 36,298
fans for Red Sox games. Seating is
limited to 30,000 for the Stones'
August shows. Red Sox season-
ticket holders grabbed 12,500 a
show after Stones fan club
members had their shot; only
about half were left for general
sale.
The MCI Center in Washington, D.
C., holds up to 20,675 fans for
Wizards NBA games. Seating at
U2's shows Oct. 19 and 20 will be
limited to 18,000. Season-ticket
holders and U2 fan club members
were first in line, leaving 12,000 a
show for general sale. Both sold
out in 30 minutes. For the Stones'
MCI show Oct. 3, just 15,000 seats
were available for general sale.
They were gone in 20 minutes.
Coldplay: Sold out in 10 minutes
Coldplay sold out two September
Madison Square Garden shows in
10 minutes, says band manager
Dave Holmes. The Garden can seat
20,000, but seats weren't sold
behind the band's stage, reducing
the gate to 14,000. Fan club
members got 1,400 tickets. "The
rule of thumb is the first 15 rows
go to the fan club," Holmes says.
Ticket holds for the band, guests,
concert promoter and band label
Capitol Records — also
considered choice seating — left
about 10,000 seats for general
sale. "We try to take care of our
fans, but we still get complaints,"
Holmes says. Marketers also grab
chunks of tickets for pre-sales.
American Express won't release
specifics but says it had
"thousands" of pre-sale tickets for
several Stones shows. "There
were enough to make it worthwhile
for card members," spokeswoman
Judy Tenzer says.
Tour sponsors such as
Ameriquest, the mortgage
company underwriting the Stones'
U.S. shows, also get tickets,
typically 100 to 500 a show, for
promotions, employees and
clients. "They're supposed to be
good seats," says Ameriquest
marketing chief Brian Woods.
There'll be even fewer seats for
average fans at the Stones' show
Nov. 4 in Anaheim, Calif., near
Ameriquest's corporate
headquarters. "We've got over
10,000 employees here," Woods
says. "How can we sponsor a tour
and not allow every employee to
see the band?"
Ticketmaster tries to prevent
scalpers from edging out fans by
limiting purchases and setting up
optical barriers to prevent
scalpers from using automated
computer programs to gobble up
blocks of tickets. "We take a lot of
measures to ensure everyone has
fair access, but it's a constant cat-
and-mouse game," Goldberg says.
But security experts say it's not
hard for hackers to circumvent
anti-scalping security measures.
"An intermediate-level
programmer can script something
relatively easy, and it costs almost
nothing to set up a scalping
system," says Joe Stewart of
security monitor LURHQ.
Moreover, scores of consumers
who obtain the pre-sale password
code Ticketmaster and band Web
sites typically require often put the
codes up for sale on their own.
Online auctioneer eBay currently
lists 270 auctions just for pre-sale
concert-ticket access passwords.
Scalpers see pure gold
For years, fans often got choice
tickets by joining band fan clubs.
But scalping networks also buy fan-
club memberships — a cost-
effective method for obtaining
face-value tickets for resale — a
concept U2 didn't grasp until its
botched pre-sale fan-club sales
effort. U2 offered up to eight
tickets to those paying $40 to join
its fan club. But a small ticket pool
and competition from scalpers
overwhelmed supply, prompting
U2 to pay back fan-club fees. U2
drummer Larry Mullen weighed in
with an apology during the band's
acceptance speech at February's
Grammy Awards.
"For scalpers, U2 is the Super
Bowl," Waddell says.
The Stones charge $100 for
"platinum" fan-club membership
and a chance for pre-sale concert
tickets. Members can preview
seating availability online. "If you
don't like the seats, you don't have
to buy the membership," Cohl
says. "We're hoping to match
hopes and reality."
Coldplay doesn't charge fans to
join its club. About 500 scalpers
posing as fan-club members have
been blocked from buying tickets
so far, but Holmes concedes many
use access to resell tickets.
For those whose concert dreams
remain unfulfilled, scalpers are an
increasing supply source. About 20
states prohibit ticket resales or
require broker licenses, but anti-
scalping laws, mostly misdemeanor
offenses, are lightly enforced.
Up to 30% of hot concert tickets
probably are sold by scalpers,
fueled largely by growing Internet
sales, Happel says.
Scalpers and ticket brokers take in
an estimated $1.5 billion a year
reselling concert tickets. Once
confined to local brokers and
shady scalpers hawking tickets
outside venues, resellers are well
represented on the Internet, which
has spawned hundreds of online
marketers such as TicketsNow and
StubHub.
Two front-row tickets for the
Stones' Boston show Aug. 21 are
selling for $7,410 on ticketsnow
The company also developed
"plug-in" software that allows
brokers to link to a central selling
database. "Business is booming,"
founder Mike Domek says.
Competitor stubhub another
Internet site that serves as a
clearinghouse for buyers and
sellers, says soaring ticket prices
in the secondary market simply
reflect supply and demand. "If it's a
great seat, that ticket will trade at a
price regardless of restrictions
and price caps," says StubHub co-
founder Jeff Fluhr.
With fans willing to shell out
thousands, scalping becomes
tempting for musicians, too. As the
drummer for Semisonic — opening
act for headliners Matchbox
Twenty and Sheryl Crow — Jacob
Slichter frequently got free tickets.
"One show we had tickets to were
going on eBay for $3,000," says
Slichter, author of So You Wanna
Be a Rock & Roll Star. "It was
tempting to sell, but it seemed
sacrilegious."
Most musicians concede there's
little to stop scalpers. "Scalping
has been around forever," says
Jimmy Buffett. Front-row tickets to
Buffett's show Sept. 4 at Chicago's
Wrigley Field are being offered by
online scalpers for $1,560.
"I don't have any answer to it,"
Buffett says. "I'm doing less dates,
and there are fewer tickets, and
that's the problem. It's the law of
supply and demand. If people
didn't want to sit there, it wouldn't
be happening."
What should you do before you
buy? TICKET BUYING ADVICE
You're sitting front and center, the
orchestra ques, the lights go on
and the curtain rises. Attending a
live performance has to be one of
life's most exciting moments. Here
are some excellent tips to help you
get the best experience.
1. Pick the Right Show
A musical or a play? It depends of
your taste, but you should at least
see one of each in your lifetime.
Long running shows (The Lion
King, The Producers) are always
safe bets and usually have tickets
available.
Independent shows are riskier but
can be more creative and
surprising.
The best way to pick a show is
word of mouth. We also
recommend you read reviews from:
- The New York Times
- Theater Mania
- Playbill
2. Get Good Seats
To enjoy the show, you must have
a decent seat. This doesn't
necessarily mean the best seats in
the front row, which come with a
very high price. Different types of
shows are best seen from
different vantage points. Big
musicals with huge props,
costumes and special effects are
actually easier to appreciate from
the mezzanine (balcony), while you
might want to sit closer for a play.
Whatever the show, seats in the
center are better than seats on the
sides.
When you purchase your tickets,
be sure to have a seating chart for
that theater on hand so that you
can make sure you get seats
you're happy with. If you purchase
tickets online the sites will have
links to seating charts. Seating
charts for every theater are
available at the Playbill site.
If you can afford and want the best
seats, we recommend you:
- Donate to the organization or
become a sponsor if you are
attending a community-based
event, such as theater or opera.
Donors or sponsors often get
priority seating.
- Use American Express Gold or
Platinum. Members can access the
best seats for some shows before
they are sold publicly.
- Go to Web sites such as Front
Row Tickets. They can guarantee
you the best seats.
3. Buy Your Tickets at the Best
Spots
It is very easy to buy tickets online.
eBay is often a good place to find
cheap tickets, but beware of
fraudulent tickets. The most well
known Web site is TicketMaster.
Try getting a discount ahead of
time by going to the Playbill site.
This site publishes discount codes
for numerous shows. You have to
subscribe to the site to have
access to the discounts, but
membership is free. These codes
are good to use in person at the
box office or over the phone.
If you live in major cities such as
Los Angeles, the Bay Area, San
Diego, Las Vegas, or Chicagory
sign up for free with Goldstar
Events to access to first-rate live
entertainment tickets at half-price.
It is easier to get tickets to a show
for a weekday performance than
for the weekend.
Many shows have a "Rush Seat"
policy. This means that if you get to
the theater about 2 hours before
the show and enter a drawing, you
can get seats in the front row for
$20. You need to check with the
theater box office several hours
before the event to get the
specifics.
Matinees are often less expensive
than evening performances.
To find tickets for a sold-out show,
we recommend:
o StubHub
o RazorGator
o Ticket Liquidator
o Concierge Services
NY/Broadway
The most popular way to get a
discount is to go to the TKTS booth
located in Times Square (Broadway
and 47th St.). You can get half
price tickets to most shows at this
booth, although the most popular
shows are never available.
Prepare to wait in line for at least
an hour. The booth opens at 3pm
Monday through Saturday and at
10am on Wednesday, Saturday, and
Sunday for matinee tickets. At the
TKTS booth you can only buy
tickets for a show that day and you
must pay in cash. The most
expensive tickets run about $35.
If you have an American Express
card, use it to get preferred seats,
special treatment and enjoy the
best of Broadway.
Tips for Special Occasions
Whether you're planning to
propose to your sweetheart, want
to celebrate a special moment, or
just have a good time, think about
adding the following:
Arrive in a limousine
Follow the show with a romantic
dinner
Take a nice room in a near by hotel
for the night or weekend
Take your children with you and
expose them early to quality
entertainment
NEVER settle for "obstructed
view" seats. These seats are
cheaper for a reason: you'll often
have a big pole in front of you.
Beware of fraudulent tickets (eBay,
online unknown sites).
The stage is not merely the
meeting place of all the arts, but
is...the return of art to life.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), novelist
& poet.
THREE 5 STAR
TICKET BUYING
GUIDES!
Find out how to get the
best seats and the
lowest prices
anywhere. Then FIND
WHAT YOU'RE
LOOKING FOR!
How can I buy tickets online for
concerts, sports events &
broadway theater?
There are usually several ways to
make sure to see your favorite
band or artist in concert when they
visit your area; and most of them
are on the Internet. Here are some
of the best ways to buy concert
tickets online.
STEPS: 1. Find out when and
where the artist or band is going
on tour by checking sites like
Pollstar.com or their own website.
2. Consider joining the artist or
band fan club, in case they make
presale tickets available to fan
club members first. 3. Search the
website of the primary ticketing
vendor for the venue where the
concert will be held (usually
Ticketmaster.com or Tickets.com)
and see if good tickets are still
available. 4. Visit online sites
and click on concert tickets to see
a wide selection of tickets and
prices for any show available for
purchase. 5. Consider visiting
ticket broker websites, but make
sure to only deal with reputable
sellers and understand in advance
how and when you will get your
tickets. Tips: In most cases (but
not always), there are more tickets
available, and at better prices, well
in advance of the show. For any
Internet transaction you do, make
sure the website where you buy
tickets is secure and reputable.
Look for a seal of approval from
the Better Business Bureau,
Verisign or similar organizations.
Brandon Tesmer celebrated his
40th birthday in fine style by
holding a mini reunion in March
with three college buddies at a
Rolling Stones concert in Las
Vegas. His fourth-row seats at the
MGM Grand Garden Arena were so
close that he could read the
drummer's song list as the
motorized stage wheeled past.
Says Tesmer: "When Mick came
out with tux and top hat and sang
'Sympathy for the Devil,' that was
as good a live performance as I'll
get in my lifetime."
Although Tesmer's tickets each
had a $450 face value, the
Anaheim, Cal., bakery owner paid
$1,400 apiece. If, like Tesmer,
you're willing to pay a premium,
you can play the new ticket game
to win the sports, concert and
theater seats you want. But you
can still get tickets at face value,
too, and we'll advise you on the
best ways to do that. Now is a fine
time to brush up your ticket-
scoring skills.
Go to the source
Buying tickets from the source is
still the cheapest way to get a seat
at a hot event. The key to landing
tickets at face value is to be ready
the moment they go on sale. To
zero in on the latest list of artist
dates, sign up for free e-mail alerts
at Pollstar a concert-tour
information Web site. Then visit
TicketMaster to find out when
tickets go on sale. Create an
online account at Ticketmaster.
com and be ready to start clicking
the moment its virtual box office
opens.
Even better, avoid the hordes and
learn how to buy "pre-sale"
tickets. Sometimes a band sells a
cache of these in advance to a
select group, such as a fan club.
Online fan clubs will tell you when
and how to buy face-value tickets
in advance, although you must join
the club and pay dues of about $20
to $40 a year.
Scalpers, who buy tickets to resell
them at jacked-up prices, also join
fan clubs to buy pre-sale tickets.
But many musical acts have
figured out ways to thwart them.
For example, Nine Inch Nails
insists that its fan-club members
who buy tickets in advance go to a
special concert entrance. Buyers
must show identification and be
escorted into the venue without
having a chance to resell the
tickets. Other performers,
including Bruce Springsteen, have
used similar methods.
Even if you don't grab tickets in
the pre-sale offering or initial
ticket-buying melee, you can still
try later by contacting a venue's
box office. Box offices typically
reserve tickets, called house
seats, for corporate sponsors and
others. The number of seats held
may range from about 100 for a
popular Broadway show to about
1,000 for a popular sports event,
such as the Indianapolis 500. The
box office releases unused seats
in spurts until the "sold out" event
begins. Call the box office and ask
for released house seats.
Pay the middlemen
Once it was the realm of shady
men whispering "Need two? Need
two?" Now, ticket reselling has
gone upscale. Many ticket
resellers, such as TicketsNow, let
you buy online, offer guarantees of
valid tickets or your money back,
and have good records with the
Better Business Bureau. Pardon
us, though, if we don't nominate
them for sainthood. They are still
middlemen -- that is, scalpers --
marking up ticket prices by roughly
two to five times their face value,
depending on demand. Scalpers
use two Internet methods -- ticket
brokerages and ticket
marketplaces -- to resell tickets.
Markups at each are roughly the
same.
Ticket brokerages use several
methods to get tickets. Some hire
large numbers of contract scalpers
to buy tickets online or at box
offices when a Ticketmaster sale
opens. Others buy them from
insiders, such as teams, music
promoters and corporate sponsors.
The most-visited ticket brokerage
on the Web is TicketsNow, which
resold $140 million in tickets last
year. TicketsNow charges a fee of
10% of the ticket price, which
already includes the scalper's
markup plus a shipping fee.
Earlier this year, Darryl-Ann Harries
of Chicago bought tickets from
TicketsNow for herself and five
friends to attend a James Blunt
concert. She paid $65 each for
tickets with a $28 face value. "I'd
rather pay extra and get exactly
the seats I want than go to
Ticketmaster, where the best seats
never seem to be available," says
Harries.
TicketsNow recently began to offer
ticket insurance, which guarantees
a refund of your ticket price and
shipping fee if you can't attend for
covered personal, medical or
travel-related reasons. The policy
typically costs 5% of your ticket
price and shipping fee. Expect
other ticket sellers and resellers
to begin selling similar policies
soon.
Some ticket brokerages sell
packages that include
transportation arrangements,
restaurant reservations and other
spiffs. For the concierge-like
service, you pay a premium of 10%
to 20% above the price that
scalpers charge for comparable
tickets.
Case in point: Last December,
Steve Willett of Johnstown, N.Y.,
bought seven tickets apiece for
Wicked, The Lion King and the
Radio City Christmas Spectacular
on a month's notice from ticket
broker Golden Platter Sports.
Although Wicked was sold out,
Golden Platter provided him with
tickets in the third row for $225
each (face value: $125). Golden
Platter also booked a car service
to transport Willett and his family
between their hotel and the
shows, and reserved tables at
restaurants.
You'll find ticket brokerages in
local phone listings. These white-
glove scalpers work primarily with
corporate clients seeking group
tickets for sports events and pre-
and post-event parties, so you
should call to ask if they serve
individuals. Also ask if they offer
money-back guarantees that cover
ticket delivery and validity.
Shop the markets
Of course, eBay is a prime source
of resold tickets.
If you like the idea of auctions, you
will be pleased to hear that some
official ticket sellers have gotten
into the game. Many musical acts --
including Madonna this spring --
will fob off tickets to events
through auctions, usually run by
Ticketmaster. In most auctions, the
highest bidders receive seats
closest to the stage, while the
lowest winning bidders get seats
that are farther away.
Web marketplaces share a
drawback: Some crooks use these
sites to unload fake tickets. One
scam is to sell multiple
photocopies of a bar-coded
electronic ticket, which means that
the first person to have the ticket
scanned by a gate agent will be
admitted, while holders of tickets
with identical bar codes won't.
Neither eBay Express nor eBay will
reimburse you if your ticket
purchase goes awry.
Enter StubHub a marketplace that
promises to refund the price of
any ticket that fails to reach you by
FedEx or admit you to the seat
promised. As added protection,
StubHub sends staff to major
music and sports events to
replace dud tickets with
comparable or better tickets on
the spot, when possible. For its
service, StubHub charges 10% of
your ticket price, plus shipping. Of
course, the fees are added on top
of any existing scalper markups
over your ticket's face value.
Sports fans should consider sites
where season-ticket-holding fans
unload tickets to individual games.
The top fan resale site is
Ticketmaster's Sports Ticket
Exchange, which resells season
tickets for 37 professional teams in
several sports. Ticket prices are
often lower than the comparable
box-office price. And Ticketmaster
guarantees that tickets are
authentic, charging fees that vary
by team and recently ranged from
$2 to $30.
StubHub also resells tickets for
professional teams in many sports.
The fee is 10% of the ticket price. If
StubHub accidentally resells a fake
ticket, it will refund your money.
Why is it hard getting a great
ticket?
In a year that's shaping up as the
largest collective of A-list touring
acts since the mid-1990s, demand
for tickets is so intense that
nabbing a great seat — make that
any seat — is nearly impossible by
conventional methods.
Months ahead of concert dates,
superstar draws such as U2, the
Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney
and Bruce Springsteen are mostly
ultra-fast sellouts, underscoring
overwhelming demand from a
huge fan base of teens to baby
boomers.
Combined with the selling
efficiency of the Internet and
swelling competition from
scalpers, "your chances of getting
a great seat after a concert goes
on sale are almost non-existent,"
says Arizona State University
economist Steve Happel, a concert
business expert. "Tickets are gone
in a heartbeat."
Because lots of tickets are
snapped up by scalpers,
marketers, promoters, tour
sponsors, bands, fan clubs and
sports stadiums, which often give
preferential treatment to team
season-ticket holders seeking
concert seats, ordinary fans are
often last in line.
Concert sellouts mostly are a
hallmark of older, established male
rock artists and country stars such
as Toby Keith. Though Madonna,
Cher and Janet Jackson have had
top-grossing concert tours, most
female artists, as well as
contemporary, urban and hip-hop
performers, generally do better
selling CDs than concert seats,
says Ray Waddell, senior touring
editor for Billboard magazine.
"There've been some hot hip-hop
tours — 50 Cent and Eminem could
be huge this year — but most
never equal what they do at retail,"
he says.
Across most genres, many bands
and promoters are still smarting
from 2004, when high ticket prices
and lackluster fan interest led to
several money-losing tours. This
year, Clear Channel
Communications, a major tour
promoter and venue operator, is
slashing some prices to lure fans.
Still, dinosaur bands such as the
Rolling Stones and Motley Crüe
continue to command top dollar:
more than $400 for face-value
tickets. And die-hard fans are
willing to pay several thousand
more to an increasingly
sophisticated network of scalpers.
"There's a cadre of wealthy fans
pushing up prices of popular
acts," says Princeton University
economist Alan Krueger, who
helped coin the term
"rockonomics."
Long among rock's top-grossing
live acts, the Stones have sold out
32 North American concert dates
on sale so far. Four others are
near sellouts. The band is adding
shows to meet demand and might
expand its tour to 50 shows, says
veteran tour director Michael Cohl.
All 28 of McCartney's U.S. shows
were fast sellouts, as were several
shows added to satiate fans.
U2 sold out all 110 North American
and European concert dates, most
of them within minutes. By the time
U2 ends the tour at Portland's
Rose Garden Dec. 19, its global
windfall will surpass $300 million —
the biggest single chunk of this
year's $3 billion concert market,
says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of
industry tracker Pollstar. The
Stones and McCartney tours could
each reap $100 million, he says.
Where do the tickets go?
Traditionally, most fans got the
best concert seats by camping out
in front of venues and buying
tickets as soon as sales opened.
That time-honored technique is
proving increasingly frustrating.
Bruce Voelker tried landing four
$50 floor tickets for U2's
Philadelphia show by having a
relative line up hours before the
box office opened. Only one ticket,
far from the floor, was available
when he reached the front of the
line. "Everyone's competing for
the same concert," says Voelker,
28, a biologist in Baltimore.
Most buyers are funneled through
Ticketmaster, which sold nearly
100 million tickets last year to live
events and other entertainment
through the Internet and a far-
flung network of sales outlets and
call centers. "When you have the
Internet and thousands of outlets,
seats sell out virtually instantly,"
says David Goldberg,
Ticketmaster's head of strategy.
Says Waddell: "These days,
everyone has cell phones and
computers to tap in. There's an
intensity that wasn't there five
years ago."
With hotter acts, phone and online
ticket hunts are often futile. Soon
after the electronic sales gates
opened for McCartney's Atlanta
concert in September, "there were
no seats, even in the nosebleed
section," says Glenn Hughes, an
ad executive in Murray, Ky.
Hughes, 54, managed to buy two
$125 tickets to McCartney's Tampa
show. With airfare, hotel and
incidentals, Hughes and his wife,
Patricia, will spend more than
$1,000.
McCartney's 58 shows in 2002
pulled in about $125 million, the
year's top-grossing act. But he and
other big-name artists are doing
fewer 2005 shows. Springsteen,
who is on a solo acoustic tour, is
opting for smaller, more intimate
venues, which further drains a
limited ticket pool.
Just how many tickets are held out
by artists, promoters and venues
and never made available to the
mass market is closely guarded.
Ticketmaster says sales are
proprietary. Clear Channel
declined comment. Waddell
estimates that up to 20% of tickets
are held back. "They go to bands,
promoters, (venues), sponsors,
radio promotions and record
labels," he says. "These are
generally the best seats."
His estimate may be low. "In some
buildings, you might need 2,000
tickets for the fan club, 2,000 for
radio stations and the band and
5,000 more" for companies such as
American Express that use pre-
sales for marketing, Cohl says.
Sports coliseums and stadiums
may be ideal for packing in huge
concert crowds. But stages,
equipment and other limitations
cut seating. Scott Stadium in
Charlottesville, Va., holds 61,500
fans for University of Virginia
football games, but for the Stones'
show Oct. 6, there's space for just
51,000.
Moreover, arenas and stadiums
owned by professional teams or
managers often allow season-
ticket holders first crack at concert
seats.
Boston's Fenway Park holds 36,298
fans for Red Sox games. Seating is
limited to 30,000 for the Stones'
August shows. Red Sox season-
ticket holders grabbed 12,500 a
show after Stones fan club
members had their shot; only
about half were left for general
sale.
The MCI Center in Washington, D.
C., holds up to 20,675 fans for
Wizards NBA games. Seating at
U2's shows Oct. 19 and 20 will be
limited to 18,000. Season-ticket
holders and U2 fan club members
were first in line, leaving 12,000 a
show for general sale. Both sold
out in 30 minutes. For the Stones'
MCI show Oct. 3, just 15,000 seats
were available for general sale.
They were gone in 20 minutes.
Coldplay: Sold out in 10 minutes
Coldplay sold out two September
Madison Square Garden shows in
10 minutes, says band manager
Dave Holmes. The Garden can seat
20,000, but seats weren't sold
behind the band's stage, reducing
the gate to 14,000. Fan club
members got 1,400 tickets. "The
rule of thumb is the first 15 rows
go to the fan club," Holmes says.
Ticket holds for the band, guests,
concert promoter and band label
Capitol Records — also
considered choice seating — left
about 10,000 seats for general
sale. "We try to take care of our
fans, but we still get complaints,"
Holmes says. Marketers also grab
chunks of tickets for pre-sales.
American Express won't release
specifics but says it had
"thousands" of pre-sale tickets for
several Stones shows. "There
were enough to make it worthwhile
for card members," spokeswoman
Judy Tenzer says.
Tour sponsors such as
Ameriquest, the mortgage
company underwriting the Stones'
U.S. shows, also get tickets,
typically 100 to 500 a show, for
promotions, employees and
clients. "They're supposed to be
good seats," says Ameriquest
marketing chief Brian Woods.
There'll be even fewer seats for
average fans at the Stones' show
Nov. 4 in Anaheim, Calif., near
Ameriquest's corporate
headquarters. "We've got over
10,000 employees here," Woods
says. "How can we sponsor a tour
and not allow every employee to
see the band?"
Ticketmaster tries to prevent
scalpers from edging out fans by
limiting purchases and setting up
optical barriers to prevent
scalpers from using automated
computer programs to gobble up
blocks of tickets. "We take a lot of
measures to ensure everyone has
fair access, but it's a constant cat-
and-mouse game," Goldberg says.
But security experts say it's not
hard for hackers to circumvent
anti-scalping security measures.
"An intermediate-level
programmer can script something
relatively easy, and it costs almost
nothing to set up a scalping
system," says Joe Stewart of
security monitor LURHQ.
Moreover, scores of consumers
who obtain the pre-sale password
code Ticketmaster and band Web
sites typically require often put the
codes up for sale on their own.
Online auctioneer eBay currently
lists 270 auctions just for pre-sale
concert-ticket access passwords.
Scalpers see pure gold
For years, fans often got choice
tickets by joining band fan clubs.
But scalping networks also buy fan-
club memberships — a cost-
effective method for obtaining
face-value tickets for resale — a
concept U2 didn't grasp until its
botched pre-sale fan-club sales
effort. U2 offered up to eight
tickets to those paying $40 to join
its fan club. But a small ticket pool
and competition from scalpers
overwhelmed supply, prompting
U2 to pay back fan-club fees. U2
drummer Larry Mullen weighed in
with an apology during the band's
acceptance speech at February's
Grammy Awards.
"For scalpers, U2 is the Super
Bowl," Waddell says.
The Stones charge $100 for
"platinum" fan-club membership
and a chance for pre-sale concert
tickets. Members can preview
seating availability online. "If you
don't like the seats, you don't have
to buy the membership," Cohl
says. "We're hoping to match
hopes and reality."
Coldplay doesn't charge fans to
join its club. About 500 scalpers
posing as fan-club members have
been blocked from buying tickets
so far, but Holmes concedes many
use access to resell tickets.
For those whose concert dreams
remain unfulfilled, scalpers are an
increasing supply source. About 20
states prohibit ticket resales or
require broker licenses, but anti-
scalping laws, mostly misdemeanor
offenses, are lightly enforced.
Up to 30% of hot concert tickets
probably are sold by scalpers,
fueled largely by growing Internet
sales, Happel says.
Scalpers and ticket brokers take in
an estimated $1.5 billion a year
reselling concert tickets. Once
confined to local brokers and
shady scalpers hawking tickets
outside venues, resellers are well
represented on the Internet, which
has spawned hundreds of online
marketers such as TicketsNow and
StubHub.
Two front-row tickets for the
Stones' Boston show Aug. 21 are
selling for $7,410 on ticketsnow
The company also developed
"plug-in" software that allows
brokers to link to a central selling
database. "Business is booming,"
founder Mike Domek says.
Competitor stubhub another
Internet site that serves as a
clearinghouse for buyers and
sellers, says soaring ticket prices
in the secondary market simply
reflect supply and demand. "If it's a
great seat, that ticket will trade at a
price regardless of restrictions
and price caps," says StubHub co-
founder Jeff Fluhr.
With fans willing to shell out
thousands, scalping becomes
tempting for musicians, too. As the
drummer for Semisonic — opening
act for headliners Matchbox
Twenty and Sheryl Crow — Jacob
Slichter frequently got free tickets.
"One show we had tickets to were
going on eBay for $3,000," says
Slichter, author of So You Wanna
Be a Rock & Roll Star. "It was
tempting to sell, but it seemed
sacrilegious."
Most musicians concede there's
little to stop scalpers. "Scalping
has been around forever," says
Jimmy Buffett. Front-row tickets to
Buffett's show Sept. 4 at Chicago's
Wrigley Field are being offered by
online scalpers for $1,560.
"I don't have any answer to it,"
Buffett says. "I'm doing less dates,
and there are fewer tickets, and
that's the problem. It's the law of
supply and demand. If people
didn't want to sit there, it wouldn't
be happening."
What should you do before you
buy? TICKET BUYING ADVICE
You're sitting front and center, the
orchestra ques, the lights go on
and the curtain rises. Attending a
live performance has to be one of
life's most exciting moments. Here
are some excellent tips to help you
get the best experience.
1. Pick the Right Show
A musical or a play? It depends of
your taste, but you should at least
see one of each in your lifetime.
Long running shows (The Lion
King, The Producers) are always
safe bets and usually have tickets
available.
Independent shows are riskier but
can be more creative and
surprising.
The best way to pick a show is
word of mouth. We also
recommend you read reviews from:
- The New York Times
- Theater Mania
- Playbill
2. Get Good Seats
To enjoy the show, you must have
a decent seat. This doesn't
necessarily mean the best seats in
the front row, which come with a
very high price. Different types of
shows are best seen from
different vantage points. Big
musicals with huge props,
costumes and special effects are
actually easier to appreciate from
the mezzanine (balcony), while you
might want to sit closer for a play.
Whatever the show, seats in the
center are better than seats on the
sides.
When you purchase your tickets,
be sure to have a seating chart for
that theater on hand so that you
can make sure you get seats
you're happy with. If you purchase
tickets online the sites will have
links to seating charts. Seating
charts for every theater are
available at the Playbill site.
If you can afford and want the best
seats, we recommend you:
- Donate to the organization or
become a sponsor if you are
attending a community-based
event, such as theater or opera.
Donors or sponsors often get
priority seating.
- Use American Express Gold or
Platinum. Members can access the
best seats for some shows before
they are sold publicly.
- Go to Web sites such as Front
Row Tickets. They can guarantee
you the best seats.
3. Buy Your Tickets at the Best
Spots
It is very easy to buy tickets online.
eBay is often a good place to find
cheap tickets, but beware of
fraudulent tickets. The most well
known Web site is TicketMaster.
Try getting a discount ahead of
time by going to the Playbill site.
This site publishes discount codes
for numerous shows. You have to
subscribe to the site to have
access to the discounts, but
membership is free. These codes
are good to use in person at the
box office or over the phone.
If you live in major cities such as
Los Angeles, the Bay Area, San
Diego, Las Vegas, or Chicagory
sign up for free with Goldstar
Events to access to first-rate live
entertainment tickets at half-price.
It is easier to get tickets to a show
for a weekday performance than
for the weekend.
Many shows have a "Rush Seat"
policy. This means that if you get to
the theater about 2 hours before
the show and enter a drawing, you
can get seats in the front row for
$20. You need to check with the
theater box office several hours
before the event to get the
specifics.
Matinees are often less expensive
than evening performances.
To find tickets for a sold-out show,
we recommend:
o StubHub
o RazorGator
o Ticket Liquidator
o Concierge Services
NY/Broadway
The most popular way to get a
discount is to go to the TKTS booth
located in Times Square (Broadway
and 47th St.). You can get half
price tickets to most shows at this
booth, although the most popular
shows are never available.
Prepare to wait in line for at least
an hour. The booth opens at 3pm
Monday through Saturday and at
10am on Wednesday, Saturday, and
Sunday for matinee tickets. At the
TKTS booth you can only buy
tickets for a show that day and you
must pay in cash. The most
expensive tickets run about $35.
If you have an American Express
card, use it to get preferred seats,
special treatment and enjoy the
best of Broadway.
Tips for Special Occasions
Whether you're planning to
propose to your sweetheart, want
to celebrate a special moment, or
just have a good time, think about
adding the following:
Arrive in a limousine
Follow the show with a romantic
dinner
Take a nice room in a near by hotel
for the night or weekend
Take your children with you and
expose them early to quality
entertainment
NEVER settle for "obstructed
view" seats. These seats are
cheaper for a reason: you'll often
have a big pole in front of you.
Beware of fraudulent tickets (eBay,
online unknown sites).
The stage is not merely the
meeting place of all the arts, but
is...the return of art to life.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), novelist
& poet.
TM
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