Comments on: An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen

By: Katy Perry Scalps Her Own Tickets…Wait No Big Deal : The New Rockstar Philosophy

Fri, 20 May 2011 11:07:46 +0000

[...] but this again is not that shocking. Even The Boss was involved in a scalping fiasco recently. You see these mega stars are falling on hard times. It’s understandable that [...]

By: kshane

kshane — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:11:31 +0000

A friend is at the show at Giants Stadium tonight. He just texted me that he scalped a ticket for tonight in the parking lot for $50. It's a very good seat in section 111. He got a GA seat for tomorrow night for $75. These prices are roughly half of face value, and I venture to say that if he'd waited a little longer, he could have done even better. So if these shows are indeed “sold out,” who's buying all the tickets?

By: kshane

kshane — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:11:31 +0000

By: kshane

kshane — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:11:31 +0000

By: kshane

kshane — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:39:04 +0000

You're right about paperless tickets, but we're talking about stadiums here. I don't think I would like to be at a venue where 60,000 people have to produced id which has to be checked. Entrance to these venues is already difficult with the security pat downs. I think those are probably a good idea, though the pat downs are so cursory that it doesn't seem like they're achieving anything other than possible deterrence. If you forced ticket holders to produce id, you'd have to arrive at a venue hours early, just as you do at an airport. This would be onerous even in reasonably sized theater.

Yes, the artists can do their part to stop this, and so can the fans. That's the whole point of my letter.

By: autodidact

autodidact — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:00:58 +0000

1. The artists could stop these shenanigans by technological means. Paperless tickets requiring ID at the concert hall.

2. The corporations could not gouge people on these tickets, which after all are a non-essential item, if people did not pay the outrageous prices for the original tickets or for the scalped ones. I might pay $40 or $50 to see Rush, but $200 to see The Police? I mean, really. The simple answer is to close your wallet and shut them down. Mrs. Reagan said it best: Just say no. (The bailouts are another thing entirely, as this was done by politicians, indebting all of us against the will of most of us. We had no choice in that.)

So basically, the artists can do their part to stop this. And if they won't, the concertgoing public can also stop it, if they want to. There are other choices. My friend saw Bruce Cockburn recently in a beautiful 300-seat venue, and purchased tickets directly from the box office.

By: annielogue

annielogue — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:03:48 +0000

Heh. We live near Wrigley Field, and my son's school was given a block of 1200 tickets to tomorrow's game against the D-backs. They are decent seats, too – terrace reserved in right field. You just know they were holding these back in case the Cubs were still in the running for something this last week of the season, in which case the tickets would have been turned over to the Chicago Cubs very own scalper agency. Alas.

By: Springsteen Helping the Scalpers? « 30 Days Out

Springsteen Helping the Scalpers? « 30 Days Out — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:18:37 +0000

[...] Our good friend and great writer Ken Shane has written “An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen” on the entertainment site Popdose.Â He asks, if Bruce Springsteen is so opposed to ticket scalping then why does this Populist hero apparently condone the practice?Â He thinks it’s time for the Boss to step up and protect his fans.Â Read it here. [...]

By: barefootgirl68

barefootgirl68 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:53:19 +0000

To quote Bruce “no one wins unless everybody wins” and I still believe that.

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:42:12 +0000

I'm afraid so, although I think most of the audience has guessed as much.

Anyway, you're gonna have to school me on the art of scoring comps, that's all I gotta say.