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'Project Showtime' scheme by Ticketmaster's Azoff angers Rep. Pascrell
A revelation that Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff tried in vain to hatch a scheme to acquire six secondary ticket sellers more than a year before taking over the reigns of Ticketmaster has New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. saying Azoff contradicted himself in his Congressional testimony this past winter.
Pascrell, a vocal critic of Ticketmaster's proposed plan to merge with concert giant Live Nation, said a Wall Street Journal story about the "Project Showtime" initiative, which also reportedly included the clandestine steering of premium Van Halen tickets to brokers for a profit, is further proof that the ticketing industry needs more oversight. Pascrell has proposed legislation called "The BOSS ACT" that would regulate secondary and concert ticketing. The acronym for the bill, H.R. 2669, stands for Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing Act.
“Once again Ticketmaster has been caught saying one thing in public and another in the boardroom," Pascrell said in a statement. "In February, the CEO of Ticketmaster, Irving Azoff, stood before two Congressional committees and stated that he’d like to see the secondary market eliminated. Mr. Azoff [pictured on the right during congressional testimony with Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino] assured us that, had he been CEO at the time, Ticketmaster would never have purchased TicketsNow nor would the company have attempted to profit from online scalping.”
He added, “Now we have learned that in 2007, Mr. Azoff courted many of prominent ticket brokers he later vilified, and even colluded with them to push some of the best seats in the house to several prime concerts directly into the hands of scalpers, in exchange for a percentage of their profits. This direct contradiction to what Ticketmaster told members of Congress earlier this year calls into question the motives of Ticketmaster, not only in regards to their position on the secondary market, but for their proposed merger with Live Nation. I would hope that Ticketmaster’s view of the merits of ticket scalping doesn’t solely depend on what their cut of their profits might be that day.”
Ticketmaster did not return a message seeking comment about Azoff's actions, and Live Nation spokesperson John Vlautin only responded with a terse, "no," when asked whether that company would comment. Attempts to reach Sen. Charles Schumer's press secretary Josh Vlasto were also unsuccessful.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Azoff tried to strike deals with the owners of Ace Ticket; Barry's Tickets; Gold Coast Tickets; Total Tickets; Elite Ticket Service; and Alliance Tickets. Ticketmaster was looking to buy the six brokerages for about $25 million each.
Attempts to reach two of the principals involved in the discussions, Jim Holzman, owner of Ace Ticket, and Barry Rudin, owner of Barry's Tickets, were unsuccessful.
“These revelations are further proof that Congress must quickly pass the BOSS ACT and bring much needed transparency to the ticketing industry," Pascrell said. "We must continue to shine a light on these anti-consumer and anti-competitive ticketing practices.”
(The image accompanying this story is from Boston.com)
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I'm as little a fan of Azoff as anyone else, but I think this is a lot of fuss about nothing. First of all, all Azoff has to do is say he was exploring the idea. As far as I've read and heard, he never actually made any concrete offers to any of the companies in question. Secondly, he has come down hard on TicketsNow and the way Ticketmaster has used it to abuse both the primary and secondary markets (even though, he hasn't really said its Ticketmaster's fault). He could easily just say, if he had acquired any or all of these companies, he had no intentions to abuse the market the way TicketsNow has. It definitely makes him look like a hypocrite, but c'mon, the guy is a top executive at a large company, you think he's the only one to do one thing and say another? I don't see how this affects the merger other than maybe casting some doubt on Azoff's credibility, which, according to Pascrell, was already in doubt. I don't think this affects the merits of the merger, although it won't help it's chances of approval, which is seeming like more of a long shot every day.
What I don't understand, is why everytime Ticketmaster or Live Nation get caught doing some back door deal that makes people upset, why Pascrell thinks it's proof of further oversight needed in the secondary market.
Ticketmaster forwards people to TicketsNow...more regulation needed in 2ndary markets. TM bypassing primary sales and giving premium seats directly to brokers...more regulation in 2ndary markets needed. TM and artists holding back thousands of premium seats to fake sellouts and get people to buy the crap seats. Must be because 2ndary markets don't have enough regulation. The TM/LN merger isn't a big deal if we can only regulate the 2ndary market....
The issue here doesn't seem to be the 2ndary market, but every big press article is about the primary market, not the secondary. Fix & regulate the primary market and the ways brokers are getting their premium seats. Brokers are getting their premum seats from the PRIMARY market. Just seems to be that TM is the problem, and not sure why Pascrell thinks by fixing the secondary market he'll stop the greed and deceit of the primary market players.
It's because Ticketmaster's response to the whole Springsteen & Hannah Montana fiascos was that it wasn't their fault, it was the fault of the evil brokers who were taking tickets away from the 'real fans' before they had a chance to buy them. This worked well for them, and the public, ignorant of the reality of the ticket industry, bought it, as did Congress.
The funny thing is that, if you want to prevent it from happening again, you don't need to overhaul either the primary or secondary market. All you need to basically do is create two laws:
1. No entity in the primary market can own an entity in the secondary market, and vice versa.
2. No one can post for resale tickets acquired in a means in which the public does not have access to.
Simple solutions, and would solve the problem. I'm sure a few brokers would complain, but so few brokers actually have access to big concert tickets outside of presales and onsales, that they would just have to suck it up for the good of the industry.
Well NATB, I will be dropping my membership with you, as we all know you only cater to the big guys, and to the six businesses involved in the deal, would like to see the BOSS ACT to limit you instead of me, obviously you rule the markets too. Ken Sulky care to explain to this to the membership. Maybe you should be getting these six businesses to pay the laywer fees, instead of hounding the membership. The only ones who benefit will be these six.
You have it all wrong, first of all this revelation puts a stop to the merger. Secondly, the brokers didnt sell out, would you have? And look at the NATB contributors list, these guys are big brokers, but they all top the list of contributors. Lets be glad these brokers are like us strong and independant. By the way if you souldnt come up with a thousand bucks to preserve your livelihood, shame on you. Good luck in your next career.
A week or so ago, I saw a series of posts on an unrelated story from the NATB VP that basically attacked some guy who called out the NATB for some things that have happened lately. The VP was pretty abusive in his tone, and to me, only came across as giving a damn about large brokers, and more or less ridiculed anyone who was a smaller broker as a 'wannabe'. As someone who is not a multi-million dollar business in terms of revenue, but makes more than enough to get by, why would I waste my money on a membership in an organization that admittedly only cares about large brokers? They obviously don't have my interest at heart, and probably would rather see me lose my business so their larger members can expand at my expense. Screw that!
I thought that ticketmaster was planning all this to make it harder on brokers
no ticketmaster is planning the merger to make as much money as possible. They could care less about the artists, brokers, or fans. They could care less about the artists, because the only reason they regulate is to please the artists just enough to generate headlines. they could care less about the brokers because they want to make all the secondary money themselves. And they could care less about the fans because they want to raise the service charges just enough that no one complains. By merging with live nation ticketmaster/livenation will be the only place to go for tickets to major venues for fans/brokers and also the only place to go to get promoted.
no ticketmaster is planning the merger to make as much money as possible. They could care less about the artists, brokers, or fans. They could care less about the artists, because the only reason they regulate is to please the artists just enough to generate headlines. they could care less about the brokers because they want to make all the secondary money themselves. And they could care less about the fans because they want to raise the service charges just enough that no one complains. By merging with live nation ticketmaster/livenation will be the only place to go for tickets to major venues for fans/brokers and also the only place to go to get promoted.