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Buyer Beware: Some ticket resale rules could leave concert goers out of luck

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Published  September 15, 2023 6:36pm CDT
Business
FOX 26 Houston

Growing threat of ticket sales restrictions

The cost of going to a concert especially for a popular artist has grown dramatically in recent years. FOX 26 Business Reporter Tom Zizka says there's a growing threat of buying them on the "secondary market" may become more challenging.

HOUSTON - The cost of going to a concert, especially for a popular artist, has grown dramatically in recent years. A recent Wall Street Journal report notes prices are up 24% since 2019. Now, there's a growing threat that buying tickets on the 'secondary market' may become more challenging.

As demand makes some of those tickets even more expensive, some artists are trying to insist on reasonable access that could leave buyers stuck paying for an experience they're never seeing.

The rock band Foo Fighters have returned to touring, after the sudden death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022. With upcoming dates in the Austin City Lights music festival, the Foos are squeezing a surprise date in Houston, playing the small, 5000-seat 713 Music Hall downtown.

RELATED: Texas Senator proposed legislation to crack down on overpriced ticket resales

On TicketMaster, the seats were gone in minutes, with a warning that any resale has to be for face value, on the site's 'ticket exchange', with no transfers to other buyers.

Already, though, resale sites show some of those seats for sale for hundreds of dollars beyond their $160-$180 price. One listing offers seats for more than $22,000, each. Houston ticket broker Jack Stopnicki is not a fan of the 'transfer restriction' on tickets.

He thinks it keeps prices higher, and adds a level of risk for buyer and seller that could turn some concert-goers away. A similar thing happened during the recent Taylor Swift tour when some Houston buyers got to the gate only to find their tickets were no good.

"Whenever they scanned the ticket, it basically said 'invalid ticket' for all four of our tickets," Danny Tsang told us, at the time.

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While brokers say there is a 'way' to resell tickets that aren't supposed to be, it does require a bit of 'trust' that the show will go on. Jack Stopnicki says buyer beware.

"I would definitely not go to Facebook, or some obscure website that's offering tickets," he says. "I would stick with StubHub, Vivid, some of the major websites that promote shows all over the country."

This potential problem is just the latest in a growing list of complaints about the concert ticket business. There is an ongoing effort on Capital Hill that's led, in part, by Texas Senator John Cornyn, to increase transparency in the industry so that buyers and sellers know exactly what's for sale, and for how much.