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.
