Posted on 07/16/2002 11:26:10 AM PDT by Drew68
Sell the tickets through the band's website.
Contractually stipulate where the promotional seats will be (Aerosmith did this with something they called the "fans first" tour).
Require the concert venues/ticket distributor to make it clearly available and public knowledge how many and what seats are never offered for sale to the general public.
Such legislation could be written as consumer groups have forced the states to reveal what prizes remain every week in scratch off lottery tickets.
All well worth the price. Anything over $100 for crap seats is just damn crazy. Many artists put caps on ticket prices and play smaller venues so fans don't have to pay so much. Too bad there aren't more bands that keep their fans in mind rather than their pocket.
I seem to recall Keith Richards injuring himself a couple of years ago. Supposedly he fell of a ladder while at his bookshelf (all that the man has been through and this lays him up?).
He's travelled into New York City to see Les Paul play and that would be within the travelling distance. He even brought his mum (I don't know if his parents live in the US but his dad was on the tour when I saw the band in Houston in 1998).
The Summit/Compaq Center would then sell tickets that weren't "standing room" but rather a "license" to sit in any open seat that you could find. Funny how when I try to do this and hold an actual seat ticket, they want to throw me out.
They've seen how the airlines overbook and want even more revenue. Rather than determine what is necessary to meet operating expenses or raising ticket price to offset the demand, they'd rather grab every dollar from every source.
The Astros used to sell "standing room" tickets and even did this with their All-Star game.
I believe my tickets were in row 'ZZ'...so far up and away that I had to watch on an overhead projector screen, as the performers looked like ants skittering around on the stage. The thick green haze didn't help, either. :-) (It was a cold evening...two shows; Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, if memory serves me right.)
If The Who, or any other band for that matter wants to charge any price they want to, more power to them. It is called free-market capitalism. If the price is correct the quantity demanded will equal the quantity supplied (i.e. sellout).
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