HOUSTON — Why are tickets for concerts and sporting events so hard to get, and so expensive when you do find them?
Why they’re hard to get
According to Variety, the big reason is that Ticketmaster holds back as much as 90% of the available tickets. Those tickets are held back for the secondary market. That includes credit card companies, promoters, radio stations, and fan clubs. The tickets that are available are often snapped up by resellers.
If you think ticket scalping is a modern phenomenon, in 1856, the New York Times wrote about so-called ticket speculators, calling the practice intolerable.
In the 21st Century, those resellers are online, but how are they allowed to sell tickets with a 7,000% percent markup if ticket scalping is illegal? The short answer is it is not illegal. There is no federal law against it. While a handful of states do have laws against it, Texas is not one of them. In Houston, there is only a city ordinance that limits selling tickets on public property without a permit.
What can fans do?
There is no magic bullet for the average fan, but the experts say there are some strategies that help. Like, signing up for credit cards that offer pre-sale tickets. While not everyone wants to put their credit score at risk for a concert, the companies do get a portion of those held-back tickets. Also, sign up for fan clubs, big artists now release tickets to their die-hard fans before they go on general sale. If it’s an option, try going old school and lining up at the box office.