The Today Show ran an exposé this morning trying to show why you, the lil guy, can't get tickets to the concert you want—nay, are entitled!—to attend. Here is Jeff Rossen and Avni Patel's report:
We've all been there. You want to see Maroon 5, or Pink. Your kids want tickets to Justin Bieber. The minute tickets go on sale you go online, credit card ready, and guess what? You're shut out. Entire arenas, sold out like that. So where do those tickets really go? We're pulling back the curtain to show you who's really getting those seats. ...
So what's really going on here? Jon Potter is with Fan Freedom Project, a fans' rights group funded by ticket reseller StubHub, and what he found may stun you: By the time tickets officially go on sale, most may already be unavailable. "A huge percentage of these tickets will have already been sold before you have a chance to buy the two that you want," he told us. ...
"The little guy gets shafted, as usual," said New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell.
Pascrell says this industry is out of control. Now he's drafted legislation for government oversight. "What I want is that people will know ahead of time how many tickets are going to go on sale for the general public," he told us.
First of all, you and your kids have terrible taste in music. Secondly, life isn't fair. Deal with it. Third, and most importantly, the government has absolutely no business whatsoever regulating concert ticket sales. This is an absurd overreach of government power, the sort of populism that sounds pleasing to the idiot masses but represents just another unnecessary intrusion into the private sector.
What is the compelling government interest here? Why does the federal government care who an artist sells their goods to? What will the unintended consequences be of such action? Who will really benefit here? (Besides Stub Hub, of course, the ticket broker fomenting this outrage.)
I've written before about scalping and I stand by everything in that piece. Especially the bit at the end about how we don't need government interference in the market. That goes double since we're not necessarily talking about scalping, here: we're talking about fan club presales, American Express exclusives, and radio station giveaways, as well as tickets held by band members and the venue itself.
Who is Bill Pascrell to say who the Verizon Center should sell their Bieber tickets to? Who is Jon Potter to demand that Stub Hub get a bigger share of the market by cracking down on these entirely innocuous practices? Who is the American public to tell Bruce Springsteen who should get a ticket set aside? Guess what, kiddos: You're not owed a ticket to see Biebs or Bruce sing. Life isn't fair.