This Week's Attitude

Ticket scalping has exasperated serious entertainment seekers for more than a century, although it seems to have manifested after rock and roll concerts burst on the scene in the 1960s. (For the uninitiated, ticket scalping is a tradition where original buyers sell tickets — legally and illegally — at marked up prices.)

Whether it's a Broadway show, championship boxing match or other high-profile sporting event (like the Super Bowl) or music concert, scalpers lurk near venues ready to pounce and offer genuine — and counterfeit — tickets, sometimes priced more than 500 percent above the listed price. Even the presence of undercover law enforcement officials, deployed to catch the culprits, doesn't deter brazen scalpers seeking profits well above the box office rate.

Over the years artists and event promoters have tried various methods to counteract the scalpers with little or no success. No matter how in demand a show is, ticket agents, who operate legally in a secondary market, and lawbreaking scalpers manage to acquire some of the best seats in the house.

Every time ticket sellers came up with another method to deceive scalpers as soon as tickets became available, the scalpers found a way to circumvent them. It was sometimes achieved by paying a small fee to youths or homeless individuals to wait in line hours before a box office opened and scoop up — the first and best — tickets, which the scalpers would later sell to eager fans who were shut out. It was also assumed legitimate ticket brokers had some access to venue ticket sellers for prime seats.

No doubt there were payoffs. A similar situation occurred when I worked at Radio City Music Hall. Before a box office employee got caught, he was paid to hold choice seat locations for an agent, who later sold them at inflated prices.

Obtaining tickets for the hottest shows can be frustrating for avid fans. No longer is it customary to wear wristbands and wait hours in lines at venue box offices. With the Internet accessible to everyone in an instant, online ticket buying has become the preference, though some people still opt for purchasing tickets over the telephone — if they don't mind frequent redialing.

Several years ago, a few companies, like StubHub, set up shop in Delaware, where it's perfectly legal to sell tickets to events for whatever the market will bear. It's not uncommon to find StubHub, which acts as an intermediary, offering tickets on the Internet much higher than face value. They are reliable and trustworthy — if you don't mind paying exorbitant prices! They justify their existence claiming it's the embodiment of supply and demand. That argument is flawed because it's questionable how they got hold of the tickets in the first place. Besides, those prime tickets they're selling are usually tapped into and diverted from genuine fans that never had a fair chance to obtain them in the first place

Ticket scalping drew lots of media interest late last winter when tickets for three Bruce Springsteen shows at the Izod Center in New Jersey went on sale. A flap arose when thousands of online ticket buyers were directed by Ticketmaster — which controls 70 percent of the U.S. market for tickets — to the company's subsidiary, which was already selling prime seats at higher prices. Obviously, someone at the source was diverting them from the public sale, in order for them to be sold at marked up prices. When Springsteen learned of the problem, he blasted Ticketmaster, which promised to end the practice.

However, the Izod ticket debacle drew the attention of a few politicians from New Jersey and New York, including Sen. Charles Schumer, who vowed to enact legislation to prevent such a situation from recurring. This week, Schumer introduced legislation to curb legal ticket scalping and urged it be quickly passed. The bill would require ticket sellers to register with the Federal Trade Commission and subject them to substantial fines for violations.

Two years ago, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and other state politicians urged the dismantling of New York's ticket scalping law when it was up for renewal. At the time, and to no one's surprise, it was revealed that several of those elected officials, including Spitzer, accepted modest campaign contributions from organizations that stood to benefit if the law expired.

Money talks and the law subsequently passed, making ticket scalping legal by lawfully operated businesses, but not for the vultures who skulk around rock concerts.

However, this week, New York's assembly switched back and passed new legislation to reinstate limits on ticket scalping by brokers and other legitimate sellers. The senate is expected to follow suit and the governor will likely sign the bill into law by month's end.

Thousands of fans shut out of last month's Springsteen shows in New Jersey got another chance on Monday when tickets went on sale for three shows he's doing before Giants Stadium is demolished. The native Jersey rocker told his May 21st audience: "Before they bring the wrecking ball, we'll bring the wrecking crew." Tickets were sold out in less than an hour - with no complaints thus far.

Six days prior to Monday morning's sale, several brokers were selling high-priced tickets, including some for nonexistent Giants Stadium seats. When the scheme was exposed, the ticket sellers were sued by the New Jersey Attorney General and could lose their business licenses, as well as be subjected to financial penalties.

As ticket prices for rock concerts rose over the last 20 years I've shunned them, due partly to the inflated cost, but mostly because I've lost interest. Today, there are less than a handful of rock bands (Springsteen and U2 among them) I care to see play live.

I cringe at current ticket prices — especially in the $250 range — for concerts and steer clear of illegal ticket sellers. As I age, I may be losing my hair, but I refuse to get scalped when buying tickets!