Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater, in keeping with their anti-scalping pledge, canceled more than 100 tickets for the August 19 Eddie Vedder solo concert and are reselling them to “real fans.”
According to an email sent out to theater mailing list members (See Below), the venue confiscated the tickets because some people, who they identified as scalpers, were reselling tickets for upwards of $2,000 each.
“We took back over 100 tickets from scalpers who were charging up to $2000 for Eddie Vedder tickets. We refunded their money (except for service fees) & charged them a restocking fee. The restocking fee was donated to a charity defined by Eddie. Now we wanna sell the tickets that we took back, to you, the real fans, on our eMembers list,” the email said. The tickets were being resold by the theater for the face value of $75 each.
TicketNews tried to reach a spokesperson for the theater they did not respond to messages seeking comment.
On the ticket page for the show on the Riverside Theater Web site, it said, “We do not allow scalping – if you buy these tickets to resell them for over face value, your tickets will be taken back and sold to real music fans. We believe in keeping the concert experience pure.”
Tickets throughout Vedder’s tour have been restricted, but generally on the number of tickets that could be purchased at a time, usually four.
The decision by the theater flies in the face of several artists who are reselling premium tickets for a huge markup to their own shows, a practice confirmed by Ticketmaster President and CEO Sean Moriarty this summer.
“This hurts everyone,” said Maryland-based ticket broker Jeff Green of ASCTicket.com. Green bought tickets to the show that were not voided by the theater and was selling them for between $80 and $180 each.
“This venue should stop playing stupid games, and bragging about it. If someone buys tickets sell it to them,” he added.
Last Updated on March 10, 2010
6 Comments
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People who whine and complain about brokers taking advantage of fans is ridiculous, and heres why. Everyone has a fair shot at tickets, be attentive to the artist you want to go see perform, they will most certainly list on their website any presale information. Most importantly know how to buy tickets from ticketmaster, sync your computers clock to greenwich time, and when the show goes onsale punch in the code, and buy seats, WHATS SO HARD ABOUT THAT?? and furthermore here are the tips, when you are typing in the code word in captcha, ignore any words with 4 letters or less, or if the word is smudged, this will get you in faster. Think about it man, this has been going on since the beginning of time, people who are first in line and prepared to buy tickets when they go onsale get tickets, its as simple as that. you can’t hesitate either, you have to know the seating chart ahead of time, be logged into your ticketmaster account, have all your billing information already entered. Buying concert tickets is time sensitive, its not like buying a pair of shoes. It makes me smile when fans think eddie vedder is doing the world good buy funnelling tickets to “real fans”. Its all brokers who are the fans, you could be a fan too, join the fan club, take some initiative, be proactive in your search for tickets to your favorite event. Dont sit around and complain about broker prices, people who dont buy tickets through ticketmaster right when they go onsale ARE NOT FANS ANYWAY.. The odd time i will try to get seats for something i want to go see through ticketmaster, but cant find just the seats im looking for. so i would then go into the secondary market. AGAIN its not some magical secret that brokers have to get tickets, most of the time its just good research. Its an open market brokers can ask whatever they want for seats.
IF EDDIE VEDDER wants to help the situation he should inflate the face value of the tickets to begin with, and donate the extra percent to charity and cut out the middle man. Cancelling tickets ust doesnt work. Most artists who can charge 300 bucks a ticket like van morrison , know they can get 300, eddie vedder should do the same, then hes in control of the cash. Eddie if you are reading this take heed!
rock and roll
If every venue did this it would minimize scalping a great degree. As a music fan and an avid concert goer, kudos to the Riverside for putting the fans first. I only wish every artist had the integrity of Eddie Vedder, and put in efforts to minimize their tickets being scalped instead of trying to profit twice on each ticket sold.
Scalping practices are getting out of hand and it hurts the real fans. Artists like Eddie Vedder know this, and luckily so does this one venue… I only hope other venues follow the lead of Riverside and help put an end to ticket profiteering and ripping off the music fans.
I’ve had tickets for several shows pulled by these clowns – what they don’t get is that the ~Real Fans~ rarely have the opportunity or time to purchase tickets from their box office for popular shows that sell out quickly – hence, they rely on the secondary market in order to attend a show. They don’t seem to care that their state/count/city legislators have determined that there should be no restrictions on the secondary ticket market. I guess their definition of ~Real Fans~ only includes those lucky enough to be on the phone or at the box office before a show sells out. The funny part is that their eMember’s list is comprised almost entirely of.. brokers. I get it in 14 different email accounts – and yes – for every ticket they have taken back, I’ve kept and resold 20. Even Tickets.com which handles their sales does not support them – I’ve received a credit for my service fees on every ticket which was taken back.
Anyway, last comment – when I’ve had to contact customer’s to let them know that their seats were yanked, I always supply them with the box office manager’s extension, as their firdst comment is along the lines of: “What? Why would they care – Obviosuly I am a fan or I would not have paid a premium to see the show”…
I love the fact that scalpers now refer to themselves as “brokers” now.
Makes for a better public image.
“Brokers” have ruined this business.
Glad to see they got their card pulled for once.
Come on, give me some more sob stories…
you’re a yuppie.
To clarify your accusations and rebutt, I would like to explain the difference here…
First the definition:
bro·ker /ˈbroʊkər/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[broh-ker] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. an agent who buys or sells for a principal on a commission basis without having title to the property.
2. a person who functions as an intermediary between two or more parties in negotiating agreements, bargains, or the like.
This is quite cut & dry if you ask me. A scalper sits in front of the venue and sells tickets he/she bought with their own money from fans or box office in the hopes of making a profit off their tickets. You have little or no recourse with these people as you can rarely find them if your tickets turn out to be fakes or stolen.
A broker on the other hand has a legitimate place of business, offers you recourse and/or refund in the event of a problem, as well as a full refund if the event cancels.
A broker pays state & local taxes and is a viable part of our marketplace.
Hope this educates you so you don’t keep making these stupid, uneducated guesses on how the world operates and what people choose to call their livelyhoods!
In short Mr. Anonymous, we don’t kick in hotel doors and slap peters outta your mouth when you are trying to feed your family so don’t be such a jerk and stop slamming other peoples professions!
Its called the land of the free for a reason and if you don’t like it…. plenty of room in Russia for free enterprise haters such as yourself!!
Do people even think before they spout off these stupid remarks?????