This story was updated on Wednesday, June 2, at 12:05pm EST, to include webcast information.
New York Yankees President Randy Levine, Veritix CEO Samuel Gerace and National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB) legal counsel Gary Adler are among the scheduled speakers tomorrow, June 2, at a legislative public hearing on paperless ticket transferability before a New York Senate committee in Albany.
The hearing was called as part of the deliberations for an extension of the state’s ticket resale law, which has allowed for unfettered ticket resale since 2007. State Sen. Craig Johnson, chairman of York Senate’s Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, called the hearing, which is scheduled from 12:30pm to 3pm in the Legislative Office Building at the state capitol. While the public is welcome, the speakers were invited.
Click here to view a webcast of the public hearing
The other scheduled speakers are Lance Lanciault, legal director for StubHub; Joe Lhota, senior vice president of Government Affairs for Madison Square Garden (MSG); Robert Wankel, president and CEO of the Shubert Organization; Vito Iaia, senior vice president for Music Services at Live Nation Entertainment; ticket broker Jason Berger, founder and managing director of AllShows.com; ticket broker Leor Zahavi, founder and owner of AdmitOne; and Dan Pullium, director of Government Relations for TicketNetwork.
At issue for state legislators is whether to address paperless tickets, a technology touted by Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division and Veritix, among others, that the companies believe offers fans greater convenience and security from counterfeiters. Paperless tickets allow consumers to swipe a credit card at the gate to gain entry to an event, but such tickets are not easily transferable – if at all – and cannot be bought with cash at the box office.
For ticket brokers and some legislators, including Gov. David Paterson, the lack of transferability is objectionable, and they would like to see paperless as one of the options people can choose at check out when buying a ticket. Both Ticketmaster and Veritix stress that they allow for paperless tickets to be resold within their own marketplaces, but in some cases such sales can result in the seller taking a loss on the transaction.
“This whole issue became a bizarre sticking point in what should have been a simple extension recommendation,” Rich Azzopardi, director of communications for Sen. Johnson, told TicketNews. “The Governor has decided to disregard the findings of his own Secretary of State, who said the issue of paperless tickets needs more scrutiny.”
Johnson, Ticketmaster, Veritix and MSG are among those who do not want paperless tickets legislated, but Johnson called the hearing to learn more about the issue.
“The Senator is confident we’ll have a resolution on this matter by the end of the legislative session, which is June 21, if not before,” Azzopardi said.
TicketNetwork is the parent company of TicketNews.
