A new bill introduced this week in the New York State Assembly could devastate the secondary ticket market in the Empire State by calling for caps on what brokers can charge for resold tickets and establishing a new waiting period for reselling tickets.
Proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester, A08283 sets out to systematically overturn all of the gains brokers made over the past two years when New York passed sweeping and progressive reforms that made ticket resale legal in the state.
The proposed bill calls for a 25 percent cap on what tickets can be resold for above face value; a ban on show producers, concert promoters and others from reselling tickets; and a ban on any ticket being resold for one month after the initial onsale.
In addition, the bill requires facility obstructions or seat limitations be posted; and a mandate that information of the exact number of tickets available to the public be released before or at the time of the initial onsale.
“This legislation will reintroduce a price cap and focus on the middlemen who are reaping exorbitant fees at the expense of the average person,” Brodsky, who is reportedly interested in running for state Attorney General, said in a statement. “Recent events such as hugely inflated ticket prices for Hannah Montana and the [Bruce] Springsteen sale debacle provide ample evidence of a dysfunctional marketplace in which consumers either lose out or pay sky-high prices.”
At a press conference this week, Brodsky reiterated those concerns, saying that he was trying to look out for fans who he believes have been gouged by brokers.
“In the end, we are interested in protecting the ability of New Yorkers to attend events, doubly and triply the case when the venues for these events are publicly supported,” he said.
New York and a slew of other states in recent months have begun to revisit ticket resale laws within their jurisdictions as fan complaints mount. Partially driving the new focus is the proposed merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which has brought the secondary market to the forefront because of the way Ticketmaster allegedly rerouted customers to its premium-priced ticket resale Web site TicketsNow.
In addition to Brodsky’s proposal, New York state officials recently have also briefly considered other legislation that would affect ticketing, such as requiring a percentage of seats at sporting events be affordable, and introducing new taxes on event tickets.
At the same time that state officials are looking to clamp down on brokers, in New York City officials are looking at ways to improve transparency among primary and secondary ticket sellers.
“This latest proposal would push New York back to the Dark Ages in terms of the secondary market,” said Dan Pullium, director of Government Affairs for TicketNews’s parent company TicketNetwork. “All of the consumer protections, ticket availability, discounts and transparency in the market would be undone.”
Particularly onerous to brokers and fans, Pullium added, is the the waiting period proposal, which believes “guarantees that ticket prices will climb and that consumers in search of tickets will be forced to return to the alleys and sidewalks,” which offer no consumer protections or guarantees.
“The secondary market isn’t what it used to be and over the last decade it has created customer service-oriented options for consumers,” he said. “If this bill is enacted as proposed, the only losers will be the consumers of New York.”
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If the government wants to put price controls in place for the Ticket market then they can. But they should also address price controls on real estate, stock market, gold, oil, food and everything else that consumers or investors can buy. This is a free enterprise nation, It was not founded on price controls or government intervention. If someone thinks the price is too high don’t buy it. The price will come down because of supply and demand. That is what a free market and free enterprise system is based on.
We never hear about anyone complaining that brokers bought tickets 6 months in advance of an event and end up eating the tickets because no one was willing to pay those exorbanant prices the brokers charge. Maybe we need legislation or some kind of subsidies for ticket brokers so they can’t lose money. The market will filter out high prices. Ticket brokering is a speculative business and as such should have rewards for that speculation. There are no guarantees any tickets will resell and that you can get your money back or even make a profit.
I finded interesting that no one brings up the fact that the biggest sport team in the world is partners with the biggest scalper in the world. (Yankees and stubhub). I have no problem with the yankees or stubhub. but i do have a problem with them working together A supplier of tickets parntners with a secondary sellers? That is just as bad as ticketmaster and ticketsnow or worse. The yankees as of a year ago where taking season ticket holders tickets away from them if they found them on stubhub. Now they are partners with them(something is wrong with that picture). Mlb can not be partners with a secondary supplier. There has to be antirust laws they are breaking monopoly laws and other business laws. But not one newspaper t.v news station or any politician pick up on this story. But 2 seats for springsteen they are all over it. It is time some one address this problem. Because where this is heading the teams themselves will resale there tickets on a secondary market if they have not started doing that already. So Lets see if any reporter or congressmen pick this story up or they just turn there head.
I believe it is simply wrong for the government to tell private business what they can charge for their product. If the consumer thinks it is too much then they do not have to purchase. Let the law of supply and demand apply. Government needs to stay out of private business decisions on pricing. There is more than enough history showing that price controls do not work
First of all, I find it sad that the government has such a knee-jerk reaction to a situation that results in them regulating an industry they know little to nothing about. They’re using two concerts as justification to reform an industry they have little understanding about, and the funny part is the Springsteen and Hannah Montana debacles were not the doing of the secondary market but rather the unethical behavior of the primary market, specifically Ticketmaster. If you’re serious about preventing something like that from happening again – whether you’re a nobody Assemblymen from Westchester, or a Democratic Senator in bed with the companies who’s merger you’re supposed to be overseeing – is simple: pass a law that prohibits primary market agents (including ticket vendors, promoters, venues, and artists) from re-selling tickets on the secondary market, and make the penalties for violating this law significant enough to act as deterrents. You do that, and you’ll never have a debacle like that again.
OR you can do some window-dressing, make it look like you’re making a difference by restricting resale laws, but does anyone think they’re going to work? Nope. They’ll just drive prices higher, like they were when NY State restricted secondary market sales years ago. It will push secondary market sales closer to the black market, thus providing less protection for the same consumers these legislators are trying to protect in the first place.
to the governors and assemblymen who are so hell bent on changing the laws. This shows that if you let the market dictate the prices the secondary market can be a benefit for buyers. I dont see anyone referencing this type of information in any of these hearings. It is all Hannah Montana this and Springsteen that. And for the record there are only a handful of Springsteen shows that are selling at an inflated price. The majority of the shows out west are selling at less then half the cost. So please stop focusing on two bad examples and look at the secondary market as a whole. Thank you
https://www.ticketnews.com/Secondary-market-for-sports-tickets-experiences-an-overload5091354
Brokers caused fiasco, we all know it by speculating. TM did nothing wrong except not think ahead to not link to TNOW when their was a page error. The whole metro areas system was down. Promoters and artist sell tickets,not TM.
ticketmaster, artists and venues from reselling their own tickets. Case in point Taylor Swift at Madison Square Garden. These tickets are onsale at ticketmaster.com:
Get some of the best seats in the house. Live it up in Official Platinum Seats—and savor special bragging rights before and after the show!
29 Official Platinum Seat Listings Available | Show All « prev (1 – 15) next » Section Row Seats Qty Price Per Ticket
77 B 3 – 4 2 US $548.11
77 C 3 – 4 2 US $548.11
75 B 3 – 4 2 US $542.04
77 D 3 – 4 2 US $542.04
77 E 3 – 4 2 US $542.04
75 C 3 – 4 2 US $530.40
75 E 3 – 4 2 US $530.40
Clearly these are not being sold by a ticket broker! Maybe the government should be looking into this as well
Brokers weren’t the ones holding the tickets back from the public so they could gauge them on the resale, the promoters and Ticketmaster were. Brokers weren’t the ones directing customers to TicketsNow from the original onsale page and then getting them to pay massive markups, the promoters and Ticketmaster were. In these two instances, and in almost every instance that has sparked mass public outrage over the last two years, it has been a case of the artist and Ticketmaster manipulating both the primary and secondary markets. They were only able to do this because of TM’s ownership of TicketsNow. That is the issue here.
That’s the problem whenever anyone – be it the media, the government or just individuals – look at a few examples of something and not the whole of the industry. As a broker, I’d say I sell about 75-80% of my tickets for less than the public would be able to buy them for. And often brokers who speculate on things like Springsteen end up losing money if tickets are unsold close to the concert. The system isn’t broken, but of course in order to see that you’d need to look past the headlines and really examine it, which our government and media seem too lazy to do.
Ticketmaster helping artists re-sell their own tickets at such massive markups, whether it be on the secondary market or loosely through the primary market “ticket exchange” is the key problem here. Make it illegal for anyone to sell tickets that were not acquired through a channel that is publicly accessible (i.e.-presales, onsales, season/subscription tickets, etc.) and the problem is solved.
I find it ironic that the government is so hellbent on ‘protecting’ consumers from the secondary market, but no mention of doing the same with the primary market. I, for one, would like to see some limits on ticket fees and charges, which will only be completely out of control should the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly be approved.
Dan Pullman said it best, We are heading back to the dark ages. I would urge everyone who has the time to reach out to their local politician and discuss their views with them. You can find a list of them here
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
The brokers and promoters do sell tickets. So does ticketmaster which profits from the high service fees it charges on the auctions and premium seats it sells. If ticketmaster wants to support transparency it should support legislation requiring the venue and artist to advertise how many tickets it will make available for a public sale and pre sale. It should also advertise how many tickets of the holds will goto the ticket exchange. That will allow ticketmaster to become just a ticket seller and not subject to as much criticism when the show sells out in 2 seconds. Ticketmaster should also have better pr to justify some known industry issues like the hannah montanah fiasco which was due to a lack of tickets being made available on the public sale.