Anyone Want Tickets?

A common sight outside the venue for major sporting events or rock concerts are the touts, those men (it always seems to be men) enquiring if anyone has any spare tickets or, perhaps would like to buy one? There was a time, years ago, when these men were considered parasites but now they are pretty much an endangered species as their role has been largely overtaken by the secondary market websites such as Viagogo,  Get Me In! and StubHub.

The secondary market, the traditional way. Photo: Lincolnshire Echo

Now opinion is divided on these websites. On the one hand they provide an opportunity for fans to get their hands on tickets for sold out events but on the other hand the fact that tickets on these sites go for prices that are often more than double the face value opens them up to much criticism. The fact that Get Me In! are a Ticketmaster company, and Ticketmaster are a primary seller immediately makes them a target for accusations that some tickets never actually make it onto the primary market and go directly to the secondary market. My experience of buying tickets online does not give me mush assurance that that is not the case. Last year I booked tickets for a gig by Architects at The Roundhouse for my daughter. Logging on to Ticketmaster at 9am on the Friday morning, tickets were not yet on sale. After refreshing the page several times, tickets became available to book, but were sold out, but guess what, they were instantly available on Get Me In! at vastly inflated prices. Fortunately I was able to buy tickets at face value from The Roundhouse website, where they had gone on sale slightly later than at Ticketmaster.

The Roundhouse

Now the people who run the secondary market websites claim that most tickets they sell are those bought by genuine punters who subsequently realise that they cannot attend the event, but this does not explain why they appear on their sites so soon after the original sale. No one buys tickets and then realises immediately that they cannot go, so either these tickets are appearing so soon on secondary sites because they bypass the primary market altogether or because buyers are purchasing them with the sole intention of selling them on for profit.

The secondary market providers also make the comparison between tickets and cars or houses, claiming that as the owner of a house or a car has the right to sell their property or vehicle, so should a ticket holder. To my mind it's a spurious analogy. Sure, house prices have tended to rise and sellers make a profit, but most people sell to buy another property. Cars, on the other hand depreciate from the moment that you take ownership, but concert tickets or Cup Final tickets are a totally different market and the secondary market makers know this, bumping up prices accordingly. Look, if I want a second hand Volkswagen Golf there are dozens, even hundreds to choose from, but for tickets to see Paul McCartney in Liverpool (face value between £71 and £135) my choice is distinctly limited, as is my chance of getting one on the primary market, but they are on the Viagogo website for up to £1,400 for the sole purpose of making the seller a thumping great profit.

If tickets are in fact bypassing the primary market and this is deemed legitimate practice then the secondary market sellers should be upfront about this and it should be made clear to the public that this is occurring. If it is happening then I believe it is unfair to the general public and should be outlawed. New rules have been introduced to make sellers on the secondary market declare the original ticket price, factors such as age restrictions and limited view but frankly these rules do not go far enough and in any case things like restricted views apart, most of these facts would be known to buyers anyway from their attempts to buy tickets on the primary market.

Back in 2009 the then CEO of Ticketmaster in the US, Irving Azoff, told the US Senate "I don't believe there should be a secondary  market at all. I believe that scalping and resale should be illegal." Harvey Goldsmith, the producer and promoter of rock concerts, Charity events and television was interviewed on radio last week calling for more control of the secondary market. While acknowledging that there is a need for a secondary market (people will always find themselves with tickets to events they then cannot attend), Goldsmith believes that the price of tickets on the secondary market should be regulated to allow only a nominal mark-up, say 10% and I make him right on that.

Irving Azoff. Photo: Forbes

I have to admit to having used secondary market websites to buy tickets in the past. If they have one use it is in sometimes being able to buy better seats than one can acquire when tickets first go on sale, but I have to confess that I have done so through gritted teeth and had to put the fact that I have paid through the nose to the back of my mind. The fact is that I cannot set aside my feelings that I am lining the pockets of either an intermediary company, who have done little to earn my money, or an opportunist who sees that a quick buck can be made.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are one of a few organisations that frown on the resale of tickets. Their website says plainly that, " The ECB is against ticket touting, and is committed to eradicating it wherever possible. The ECB monitors online auction and ticket re-sale sites, and will cancel tickets in breach of terms and conditions: i.e. tickets that are sold on above face value are in breach of ticket conditions, and may be cancelled – leading to refused entry into the ground." Hats off to the ECB, who authorise an official ticket exchange for fans to sell unwanted tickets to other fans at face value. It would be nice if other organisations followed suit, but I won't hold my breath.

Most tickets one buys online come with the purchaser's name and address printed on them, and some venues check that against photo ID when you turn up for the event. At some venues this is easier to enforce than at others, but it is something I'd be happy to comply with if necessary. An argument put forward by the secondary market providers, that they enable fans to get tickets they otherwise could not have bought, just won't wash. If Viagogo or StubHub or Get Me In! were regulated more stringently, for example only being able to add 10% to the face value, more people would be able to get tickets on the primary market. Oh, and don't get me started on "processing fees," or postages, or the fact that some charge you for the privilege of printing your ticket at home because all of those add insult to the injury done to your bank balance when you buy your precious ticket in the first place.

In an ideal world we would all boycott the secondary market , which would collapse if people were stuck with tickets they couldn't sell, but as long as sell out events exist there will be a market and there will be people prepared to pay silly prices for the privilege of seeing their favourite team or their favourite band. I'm just hoping that someone comes along with some rules that have a bit more bite than those that have just been introduced.