# ticketmaster/garth_brooks/saddledome fiasco



## daddybigbucks (Jan 30, 2011)

I thought this was pretty interesting for a discussion:
Here is the story and is all word of mouth:

Calgary Stampede is celebrating 100 years this year and wanted to set it off with a bang. So they booked the second biggest selling artist of all time, Garth Brooks.
Garth Brooks doesnt do concerts anymore but does a biweekly show in Las Vegas which is a solo act. Small and Personal, they say.
Anyways, tickets went on sale a couple days ago for $60 a ticket. Supposedly, Garth wanted to keep the ticket price low, so anyone can buy them.
Well, the tickets were sold out in 53 seconds. I think the Saddledome holds like 17,000 seats.
On stubhub and kijiji presently, the going price is now $500 to $10,000 a ticket and if you read some of the ads on kijiji, it is very shocking. 
Such as "give you my truck for tickets", "my mother is on her deathbed and her last wish is to see garth brook"," i want to take my orphan step kids", and my favorite " I am offering my body and my mother's body for whatever you want for tickets".

I dont know how serious these people are but it is quite nuts. I just don't understand why they can't *come up with a solution that would make scalping ineffective and everyone would have a shot at tickets*. 
I came up with an idea but thought i would like to hear other peoples ideas first.


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## JDWood (Apr 3, 2009)

Stop buying any tickets that are handled by ticketmaster, we already know they sell the biggest number of tickets to thier sister sites for resale.
Garth could cancel, he knows whats happening with ticketmaster.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I would like to make money on this crazyness, last time Justin Beaver was here the same thing happend. Keeping note for next time.


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## canehdianman (Apr 7, 2009)

JDWood said:


> Stop buying any tickets that are handled by ticketmaster, we already know they sell the biggest number of tickets to thier sister sites for resale.
> Garth could cancel, he knows whats happening with ticketmaster.


This is the problem. I would like to see an investigation by the Competition Bureau into their actions. A nice $300 million judgment against them might straighten them out nicely.

I'd like to see more ticketmaster alternatives popping up, like diyobo.com or eventbrite.com, but ticketmaster seems to have most of the large venues locked into long term contracts.


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## daddybigbucks (Jan 30, 2011)

Jungle said:


> I would like to make money on this crazyness, last time Justin Beaver was here the same thing happend. Keeping note for next time.


really? i guess its no different than buying and selling art to the highest bidder. But not for me.

There is no real interest on the forum for this but here is my idea:

Have a online auction for *each and every *seat. 
Start at $1 and the sky is the limit.
Have the auction end date of 2 days before the concert so cancellation by artist is almost nil.
Anyone who puts in a bid is bounded to that bid by credit card.

To me, what will happen is as follows: 
the richey rich will put in huge bids for the best seats and will no longer complete for general seats. Everyone will have equal chance at the seats to their maximum cash they want to spend. They still may not get a seat but thats life.
Scalpers will not be able to make a nickel off this so they will disappear.

If the artist truly wants to make it affordable to the general public then he can use a raffle system for seats for $1 a raffle so every ticket you buy gives you a chance at a seat for $1.

To me, that is how the stock market or fine art auctions work and would work good for something like this.
any opinions?


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## CashMoney101 (Mar 6, 2012)

I'm not always frugal, but when I am-- I buy concert tickets for $10,000.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

In the case of Justin Beaver, the tickets were being sold online for less than $100 then resold on kijiji for $1000... 
And these girls are going nuts for this guy..
Just saying if it's that easy, why not make a few hundred dollars? What's the risk? You sell the ticket back for face value?
Surely Beaver fever will allow this. 
ANd it seems they are too in love with Garth as well.


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