Ticketmaster CEO: Secondary ticketing should be illegal

[Farin]

The head of America's biggest tickets agency has told the US Senate that the resale market is a mess and should be banned

[smaller]Sean Michaels | guardian.co.uk | Thursday 26 February 2009 | Link[/smaller]

Secondary ticketing should be banned, the CEO of Ticketmaster, which itself owns resale company TicketsNow, said this week.

Irving Azoff was speaking before the US Senate judiciary's antitrust subcommittee, regarding the proposed merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which is likely to have a huge impact on the gig-going public.

"I don't believe there should be a secondary [tickets] market at all," Azoff said. "I believe that scalping and resale should be illegal."

Last year Ticketmaster bought TicketsNow, one of the largest ticket resellers in America, for $265m (£186m). Azoff was not CEO at the time.

"I never would have bought [TicketsNow]," Azoff insisted.

"Are you open to selling it?" Democratic senator Charles Schumer asked. "Listen, we're a public company," Azoff replied. "If you would like to make an offer, senator, we would love to hear it."

Both Ticketmaster and TicketsNow recently came under fire when thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans were directed by Ticketmaster to buy tickets from the reseller, at inflated prices. While Ticketmaster collected just $7 in fees for every Springsteen ticket sold directly, they made $30 on every ticket sold via TicketsNow.

Ticketmaster apologised to Springsteen and his fans this week, blaming a computer glitch and promising to create a "wall" between the two websites.

Despite this announcement, the "glitch" has again reared its ugly head. CBC has reported that Canadian fans were forwarded to TicketsNow when attempting to buy Leonard Cohen tickets from Ticketmaster. Tickets with a face value of $99-$250 were allegedly being sold at TicketsNow for between $568 and $856. On Thursday, the LA Times reported that TicketsNow is proffering seats for the forthcoming No Doubt reunion tour, with tickets due to go on official sale via Livenation on 7 March.

Azoff himself concluded his interview on a contrite note. "The whole secondary area is a mess," he said.

[Kevin]

Oh , if only this could come true ... even more so for sports.

[Ombre Vivante]

Monopolies are already illegal, but ticketasster has a monopoly on the events market

[Kevin]

I'm curious as to just why or how teams , venues, groups, hosts , etc. ever decided to let go of the exclusive rights to selling the tickets , anyway ? They do sell some usually ... why not all ?