Last week a law signed in 2007 that allowed for unlimited markups on event tickets expired, meaning that ticket scalping is again illegal in New York. Anyone who has recently attempted to purchase tickets to concerts or sporting events realizes that you have to be creative or wealthy in order to get decent tickets to major events.
 
When New York did have an anti-scalping law on the books, it served as a moderate deterrent but unfortunately, it did not stop ticket brokers from out of state from scalping tickets to New York State events. Nonetheless, the law did serve the publics best interest by leveling the playing field. Instead of brokers getting the first shot at tickets to events held in stadiums and arenas, many of which taxpayers at least partially funded, the public had a decent shot of getting good tickets.

 In the old days I remember camping out on the lawn of Rochester’s Auditorium Theater waiting for the opportunity to buy tickets to see The Who at Rich Stadium, now known as Ralph Wilson Stadium. The general admission tickets sold out fast, but I was lucky enough to get one in spite of almost being suffocated by fans jamming up against the doors. We paid an extra 50 cents a ticket because the tickets were not purchased at the box office, which brought the total to $10.50. 

 Last year I attempted to purchase ticket to see The Who in Hamilton Ontario. The low-end tickets were $100 a piece but I was not able to purchase any from Ticketmaster because the good seats were gone in minutes. Instead, the lowest priced tickets came in at $175 a piece at StubHub, an internet based ticket reseller. Sure, I did not have to be crushed to get the tickets, but my wallet sure would take a beating.

 Even if I did manage to purchase the regular priced seats they would have been loaded with tons of fees and service charges. I will use my recent purchase of Todd Rundgren tickets for his performance at The Tralf in Buffalo as an example. The face value of the ticket is $30.00, the convenience charge per ticket was $7.45, the processing for two tickets was $3.35 and if I wanted to print out the tickets myself using my printer, it would cost me an additional $2.50. I opted to have them mailed standard mail for free.
 The New York Scalping Law that just went back into effect prohibits scalpers from selling tickets for more than $2.00 over face value. Evidently, that does not cover the “convenience” charge, which is hardly convenient considering many venues do not even have box offices where tickets can be purchased at face value. That means that it is illegal for me to recover the outrageous fees but allows Ticketmaster to charge them.
It is not going to get better anytime soon because Ticketmaster is merging with the nation’s largest concert promoter Live Nation. It is vertical integration at its worst and creates a promotional monopoly on concert tickets. Ticketmaster also owns one of the largest ticket resale companies Tickets Now, which routinely sells scalped tickets within minutes of them going on sale.

Only time will tell if there is a backlash against Ticketmaster. For the time being promoters are reporting brisk sales to concerts in spite of a sluggish economy. If you want to avoid the fees this is a great time of year for free concerts by national acts including the Molson Canal Concert Series in Lockport, Thursdays in the Square in Buffalo, and the Tuesday and Wednesday concerts at Artpark in Lewiston.