The journalists at Provo's Daily Herald don't just publish editorial opinions they live them.Take this editorial on scalping tickets for the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana show at the July 4 Stadium of Fire in Provo:
Should Utah ban or restrict a practice that pushes the prices of tickets into the stratosphere? Heck, no. This is free enterprise. It's supply and demand. If a music fan really, really, really, REALLY wants to see a celebrity, he or she is going to cough up the dough. ...
Sure, ticket prices may be exorbitant and inflated -- some say unfair. .... This year's Stadium of Fire show will no doubt give rise to plenty of grumbling that Utah, and Provo in particular, should join the list [regulating scalping]. ...They shouldn't. The free market remains far and away the best regulator.
The editorial goes on to say that if a scalper "has the brains, guts and good luck to get $500 or $1,000 for a ticket purchased for $100, the ticket is worth $500 or $1,000."
That might explain why at least seven Daily Herald employees, including a guy with no kids, stood in the line to buy Miley Cyrus tickets.
UPDATE: Today the Daily Herald officially laments the anguish of disappointed ticket buyers, but says any controls on scalping are impractical: "The more you think about it, the sillier it gets."
11 Comments:
The problem with the Stadium of Fire people is that they did NOTHING to discourage scalpers, and everything to encourage them. When they decided to publish the fact that there was a 25 ticket maximum, it was almost like inviting the scalpers to come. Show me a family that really needs 25 tickets (with apologies to the YFZ folks, but they are probably not fans of Miley, she sometimes exposes her arms in public).
Scalpers want shows where they can buy 25 tickets.
The Stadium of Fire people should be flogged, fired, and ran out of state for being greedy.
I hate to contradict Glen's most frequent poster, but I have to say his accusations of greed are directed at the wrong people. The Stadium of Fire, and their ticket-selling minions will make the same amount of money whether the tickets are sold 5 at a time, or 25 at a time, because they are selling for the cover price. The people he means to flog, fire and run out of the state (he forgot tar & feathers, but...), are the scalpers, who have no relationship to the stadium of fire. Perhaps he meant to flog, fire and run off, the stadium of fire folks because they are stupidly encouraging or enabling greedy behavior. But then, most of the rest of the residents would have to be pushed out immediately thereafter
If they expect that many scalpers, then why not raise the ticket price and cash in on the excess demand? Scalpers are a sign the face value is too low.
Actually, glen's has it right. The stadium of fire officials were better than first in line to buy tickets because they didn't have to be in line to buy tickets. Also, the Daily Herald is a joke of a newspaper which should be abolished. If you ever need a good laugh, just look through their past editorials.
While I think this situation is outrageous, it seems to me that there are two greater flaws with the event as a whole. First of all, the Stadium of Fire is supposed to be a long-running family event, not a one-off money grab for BYU.
Booking an event like Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana for the uninitiated...) was obviously going to grab headlines. After the fiascos surrounding her tour over the last year, BYU and the promoters obviously knew that this stampede would be inevitable.
I know many people who are long-time fans of the Stadium of Fire, who didn't even try to get tickets this year. BYU and the promoters blatently abandoned these long-time fans, opting for a quick-and-easy money and press grab. Congratulations it worked. I hope that in the future, fans of the event will realize that they and their families are little more than a number on the bottom line of the promoter's balance sheet.
The second issue I have to wonder about is parents who are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars per seat to take their children to see this mental junkfood for a couple of hours. We wonder why there's a financial crisis in this country? Guess...
I have a hard time blaming this solely on ticket scalpers. Within a day of those tickets going on sale, I counted 78 Hannah Montana for-sale ads on one local TV station's online want ads site. CraigsList was crawling with them as well. Greed? Never... ;-) If you're upset about your family not seeing the Stadium this year, point a finger at the nearest neighbor and it seems you will be much closer to the problem.
I have bought tickets on the after-market before, especially when I didn't know about the onsale happening. Some of us better things to do than constantly obsess about when our favorite performers are coming to play. I also once worked with a source ticketing organization for years. While these shows tend to highlight the higher end of margins, I can tell you for a fact that I have seen sellers standing in front Broadway events with a fist full of tickets that they can't sell for half their value because of poor attendance at the show. They are subsidizing these shows just as much as they are profiting off of Hannah Montana.
If we want to solve problems, let's focus on being an example of fiscal responsibility to our children. Don't support inflated prices by buying tickets if they are priced outrageously. Restricting the sales is naive, and will just push them underground (as I saw growing up in Boston), and lead to much higher levels of fraud.
What's wrong with Daily Herald employees trying to make a little extra money? Maybe they're simply hoping to be able to afford one of those fashionable, sleek Tonka truck phone headsets that Trib reporter and Salt Lake Crawler tipster (not to mention ex-Herald letter to the editor receptionist) Donald W. Meyers wears everywhere these days.
(Motto: I know I look ridiculous wearing this combo phone/food processor, but I wouldn't want to miss that one call a day I might actually get on this thing -- even if it is only Doc Brown saying he wants his flux capacitor back! Besides, it whips up a great smoothie!)
Speaking of Trib reporter Donald W. Meyers, isn't he the one that wrote most of the Daily Herald's past editorials when he worked there?
Can you cut irony with a flux capacitor?
Good to see the Tribune lay off Bob Murray long enough to crack down on -- gasp! -- a man, who doesn't even have any kids, with the audacity to wait in line for Stadium of Fire tickets! Oh, the humanity! Someone alert Reno 911!
What's next? A tip about a single woman buying BYU season football tickets or a straight man attending a Ballet West performance?
The Daily Herald is a much better paper with Myers gone. The editorials are more informative, better written, and regularly celebrate the freedoms that make America great. Of course the SL Trib couldn't get much worse.
First of all, folks, get your facts straight. That contraption Donald W. Meyers wears is not really a phone. It is actually a recording/playback device. Meyers made a tape of all the great moments in Utah County Democratic Party speeches from the past 15 years and has the 23-second compilation playing through his earpiece on a continuous loop throughout the day.
Is nobody checking ebay??? The news talks about these huge ticket prices so I checked ebay out of curiosity. Not only are many of them only going for face value, but some for less!
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