Just when it seemed as if the ruckus had finally begun to die down, the Hannah Montana ticket debacle once again emerges to the forefront. New York City councilman Leroy Comrie has proposed a new law that would help protect consumers from experiencing a similar ticketing fall out in the future.
Called “The Hannah Montana Bill,” the legislation would follow in the footsteps of several other pieces of legislation proposed by multiple states in the past few months. Under Comrie’s proposed bill, publicly funded venues would be required to hold 40 percent of their seats for individual consumers. The consumers would then be required to pick up their tickets in person or agree to sign a statement declaring that the tickets would be for their own personal use. Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal recently proposed similar legislation in that state.
In an interview with the New York Sun, Comrie outlined his motivation for proposing the law. “Because of the way these ticket brokers dial in and develop computer programs to snap up the premium tickets, the regular customer has a very slim chance of even being able to purchase a ticket nowadays,” said Comrie.
Should the law be put into place, Comrie claims that it would allow average people a chance at obtaining fairly priced tickets to high demand events. The state of New York repealed its ticket resale restrictions in 2007, allowing tickets to be resold at competitive market value prices. It is unclear how Comrie’s proposed bill would affect the statewide law regarding free reign over ticket resale.
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There was hardly any tickets available in the secondary market for NY because Ticketmaster made it state resctricted to purchase tickets. Therefore, prices was sky high!!
At the same time toronto had no restriction so everyone went for that instead.
There was a huge flood of tickets for toronto which created a competitive market place.
Then everyone will be on the honor system. I am sure that will work. And oh yea councilman have you ever heard of a will call policy. By putting tickets at the will call window that does absolutely nothing. People will just buy extras and just walk in with the people they sell them to or hand them off. HOW ABOUT THIS FOR AN IDEA! Lets start by making ticket sales regional to where the event is. There is no reason some person in California or Seattle should be able to purchase 8 tickets to the Springsteen show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Or on the flip side, why can people buy 8 tickets for a show at the Wiltern Theatre in California when you live in New York or Conn??
Have you ever heard of people traveling? Going on vacation? Following their favorite performer to different areas of the country, (like people did with the Grateful Dead)? Wanting to see their favorite baseball team when they’re on the road?
If you’re going to prevent people in CA from buying for an event in NY, you may as well prevent them from buying anything in NY, like gas, or a plane ticket.
This is a free country — you can’t put regional qualifications on what we can or cannot buy whether it’s tickets or anything else.
That is ridiculous about the gas and plane ticket because people arent buying extra to scalp on ebay and stubhub. And yes I have heard of people traveling to a show and I know it will shut a very, very small percentage of people out but it is better then having some idiots buying up all the tickets for shows in NYC when they live in California and Seattle. And last time I checked most bands tour from city to city. Therefore they can see their favorite band locally instead of paying hundreds of dollars to fly across the country to see a band that will play within 50 miles of their home. Furthermore if you actually are a music fan you would know that we are in a different time with music. There are a very, very small group of artists that people travel around and tour with since Jerry died and Phish broke up. I dont think Susie Q in San Diego bought 4 tickets to see Springsteen at MSG to pay $300 for a plane ticket and $300 for hotel rooms when she could go see him at the Cox Arena for ticket price and $20 in gas money. As for sports that is tougher because teams have fans all across the county.
Finally for the record they can and do put regional qualifications on some venues and events. Go look at any event at the Moore Theatre in Seattle, WA. Tell me what the additional information says
Or you can sell tickets to everyone and make the tickets WILL CALL only for people out of the area. Then we know that they are buying them in order to use them instead of selling them
I think passing a law is ridiculous. Tickets to the general public are already limited regionally at Ticketmaster locations. A Californian cannot buy tickets to a New York event at an outlet. You can however buy online for anywhere in the United States.
This was changed with the last group of Hanna Montana tickets that went on sale last fall. Ticketmaster on line set buying restrictions based on your residence by your credit card billing information.
Believe it or not only a small fraction of tickets goes to brokers. Promoters hold back tickets, fan clubs get tickets, the venue holds tickets etc. Why not complain and set a law about the Super Bowl then. Every year only about 500-1000 tickets are available to the public. ALL the others go to the league and corporate sponsors. Hardly seems fair that out of 60K plus seats less than 1000 goes to the public. Ticket prices on eBay soar from 5000-10000 a seat for nose bleed.
Bottom line, Hell have no fury like little Johnny not getting what he wants.
Sorry to say, Daggar!
Supply and Demand will rule over any of these silly laws. The one way to stop resale is sell a GA ticket and let people pull their seat location inside the venue (through a kiosk that generates random locations). Let it be electronic so it would stop (the human corruption element). If the ticket is worth more, especially than if it is worth way more than the printed price, and human beings are involved, their is bound to be corruption.
They’re just setting up hurdles : )
are we kidding ourselves? if the promoters put up the money for the show and control the tickets what would make you think that the public will get those”great seats” for a low price. thew will just keep raising the price of those sections most wanted ie all the bitching and moaning from people two cheap to pay to see there favorite act that think they are going to benefit in fact will still be paying the premium .wake up america smell the coffee this is a free market right?