Almost exactly a month ago, headlines in San Luis Obispo, California blamed scalping for the paucity of tickets available for Garth Brooks’ show at the Mid-State Fair.
Wednesday, the same newspaper published a story detailing how hundreds of tickets are now available for the show, having been released by the promoters, for whom they were held back in the first place.
Tom Keffury, sponsorship and publicity manager for the fair, made the announcement to the local media, indicating that a couple hundred “Production Tickets” were now up for grabs. “This is standard concert industry practice,” he’s quoted as saying. “It happens for every show. Often times, [production ticket releases don’t] happen until the actual day of the show… so getting the Garth shows ‘built’ and approved a few days in advance was very cool.”
When tickets went on sale in late June, fans complained that the 14,000-plus seat venue was sold out within moments of the sale’s official beginning. In one report, The Tribune discussed how the tickets sold overwhelmingly went to residents of the local area. Despite its own reporting, an editorial the next day bemoaned that scalpers had gamed the system and kept the locals out.
It appears, however, that the discussion should have included a third option – holdbacks.
Given that a report by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman estimated that more than half of the tickets for any given show are held back from the general public and given to the artist, venue officials, and promoters as well as presale offerings, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Wednesday’s story, reported by Sarah Linn, indicates that prices on the secondary market were going for as low as $9 – which means those who had access to whatever percent of the 14,875 tickets (times two, since a second show was added for tonight following the rapid “sellout”) had little reason to try to sell the ticket themselves.
