Posted on 03/12/2026 12:00:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Live Nation employees described ticket buyers as "so stupid" and joked about "robbing them blind" in private messages from the company's internal Slack account.
The exchanges were collected as part of a 2024 antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which was tentatively settled earlier this week. Live Nation would be ordered to open ticketing deals to other vendors and to pay up to $280 million in damages.
The federal government had been joined by attorneys general from 39 states and the District of Columbia who said Live Nation and Ticketmaster had maintained an illegal stranglehold on the live entertainment industry, leading to higher prices for consumers amid fewer alternative options.
What Did the Live Nation Employees Say About Ticket Buyers?
The two Live Nation employees were Florida regional ticketing director Ben Baker and Virginia regional ticketing director Jeff Weinhold, according to The New York Times.
"These people are so stupid. I almost feel bad taking advantage of them," Baker reportedly wrote after customers paid $199 for "VIP Club Admission" at a Kid Rock concert in 2022. The Times said Weinhold responded: "I have VIP parking up to $250 lol."
"Because this was a private Slack message," Live Nation said in a news release, "leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly." They argued that the comments should be excluded from evidence at trial, describing this as an "irrelevant" private exchange that did not reflect company policy.
Lawyers from the U.S. Justice Department countered that the messages instead "provide a candid, contemporaneous look into how they view the prices that Live Nation charges fans for ancillary services at their respective venues."
Also in 2022, Baker appeared to openly mock ticket buyers who added a "premier parking" option that netted an unnamed venue some $666,000 in 2021. "Robbing them blind baby," he wrote, according to the report. "That's how we do."
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They are right of course you know? Anybody that would spend thousands of dollars for a seat to see a performer for about an hour that he could just as easily see on youtube is pretty stupid.
Good thing they don’t need to rely on me for income.
Bruce Springstein is charging $7,000 a ticket for floor seats and $1,000 ticket for the nosebleed seats.
He’s got boat payments. And the horse ranch for his daughter.
Appears that Springsteen is taking advantage of the mentally-ill, aka TDS’ers
I wouldn’t pay $7 to see Springsteen.
Buyer beware
Most I ever spent was $250 to be front row at a King Crimson concert. First and only front row experience, and worth every penny, but concerts where even crappy seats go for more than that are just ridiculous.
Yeah, Rush is coming to Fort Worth in June. Nosebleed seats are upwards of $350. Hard pass. I paid $150 for Tedeschi-Trucks and Buddy Guy last year. Great concert.
they have been doing that since their “Ticketbastard” days
Nice novelty of seeing them with that new female drummer...but not worth it.
Getting truly great seats to a concert is worth it if you can afford it, though. Front row, seeing my favorite band was easily worth it.
“Getting truly great seats to a concert is worth it if you can afford it, though. Front row, seeing my favorite band was easily worth it.”
Back in ‘93, Spinal Tap came to the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. A guy who I worked with was a part-time box office employee at the Orpheum.
We paid him in advance and he got us two seats center stage and only 4 rows back.
Quite seriously, that may have been the loudest concert I’ve ever been to. My ears rang for two days afterwards. I’ll never forget the giant horned skull suspended from the ceiling as the eyes glowed red and occasionally smoke blew out of its nose.
Classic.
It seems that when someone is successful then he thinks that he has arrived and no longer has to work for his money.
But the ones who are still coming up and trying to make a good impression seem to be the ones who do the best. As are the older, retired ones who come out of retirement and feel they have to prove that they still got it. LOL
I don't understand why the government is getting involved.
I wouldn’t cross the street to see that jerk for free.
It's bad enough to fix prices, it's another to tell artists they won't play certain venues if those venues don't bow to LiveNation.
A real “Man of the People” /s
The funny thing is that for a fake band, some of their songs are pretty decent. Or at least very entertaining.
I’d like to see Rush again, but $350 is just too much for nosebleeds.
Maybe if Neil magically returned, it would be worth it.
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