That's not the ticket

That's not the ticket

government watch by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

A Gulf Coast entrepreneur struggles to succeed against the titan of his industry: Ticketmaster. A state bill that offered a little help was recently defeated in a debate over free markets.

When a state bill concerning the reselling of tickets for concerts and sporting events was defeated in a committee vote last month, the general consensus - in media reports and in Tallahassee circles - was that the vote was a victory for free market proponents in what's known as the secondary ticket market.

But Brian Marshall, who runs Tickets Talk LLC, a Sarasota-based ticket brokerage and Web site under the same name, says the bill was actually a defeat for consumers and small businesses that cater to those looking for tickets to popular and sold out events.

For the past year, Marshall and several other owners of independently run businesses like his across the state have been saying Ticketmaster, the behemoth of the ticket and event-hosting industry, has created a monopolistic atmosphere for itself by selling the first run of tickets to the event and then selling tickets not sold the first time in the secondary market, at higher prices due to alleged exclusivity.

"The whole industry is changing," says Marshall, who says even though he's not quitting the business yet, he's thought about it. "I don't know what's going to happen in the future."

Marshall, a Review 40 under 40 winner in 2004 for his self-run business, also sits on the board of the Florida Association of Ticket Brokers. As such, he's had a closely personal view of the battle and the bill, which was defeated 5-3 in a straight party line vote March 19 during a House Agribusiness Committee meeting, with five Republicans voting it down.

Several Republicans on the committee, including Bill Galvano of Bradenton, say the bill amounted to restricting the free market forces at play for any commodity, an opinion shared by Ticketmaster lobbyists. That's why the Legislature repealed Florida's ticket scalping law in 2006, a law that previously restricted the resale of a ticket for more than $1 over its original face value.

The defeated proposal was known as the 'Hannah Montana Bill' because its sponsor, Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach and the House Minority Leader, was one of hundreds of Florida parents who suffered a major case of sticker shock when seeking to buy tickets from secondary ticket resellers to a concert at which teenage musical sensation Hannah Montana was going to perform. Gelber was looking at buying tickets that cost at least $1,000 each on resell prices.

But Marshall and lobbyists for the ticket brokers association contend the bill had real merits beyond controlling the price for shows starring the Disney created superstar.

The bill was designed to open the door to the often-secret process of what makes up the secondary ticket market. It included provisions for licensing every ticket reseller, banning computer software that allows some of the bigger resellers to virtually jump the line and horde tickets and forcing the promoter or host of the event to publicly disclose how many tickets are held back from being sold in order to create demand later for the secondary ticket market.

The last provision was the key for Marshall and other independent ticket brokers. There is an industry held belief, denied by Ticketmaster officials, that the host of the majority of the sporting and concert events held in Florida has purposely held back face-value tickets when the event first goes on sale, just to create demand later. And since Ticketmaster holds the right to the first sale of the tickets at many events, it can exert a large control over the resell market.

"I'm not a big proponent of big government by any means, but these practices aren't right," says Marshall. "I believe in a free market system. Not a free market system that only works for big business."