Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Insiders doubt B.C. legislation will stop ticket scalping

Event promoters urged to reveal how many tickets are put on sale to general public
kingsleybailey-ticketfan
Vancouver Ticket and Tour principal Kingsley Bailey says event promoters should have to reveal how many tickets are being put on sale to the general public | Chung Chow

The B.C. government’s bid for public input on how to regulate ticket sales for live events is spurring plenty of opinions on what it should do, as well as doubts about whether legal measures will change anything.

While eliminating the ability of resellers to use software, or “bots,” to scoop countless tickets very quickly is likely to find wide support, other suggestions, such as following Ontario’s lead by capping resale prices at 50% above a ticket’s face value, are more controversial.

“If they are going to try to implement a ceiling on what tickets can be resold for, it’s not going to work,” Vancouver Ticket and Tour Service principal Kingsley Bailey told Business in Vancouver.

He said trying to put a cap on a resale price would only push reselling underground.

In addition, many ticket-reselling sites are located outside B.C., where it would be difficult for the B.C. government to enforce its law, he said.

The big issue for Bailey is not a ban on the use of computerized bots (which Ticketmaster and other sites already try to stop) or an attempt to stop people from willingly paying far in excess of a ticket’s face value to get a prime seat.

More important, he said, is to require event promoters and primary ticket sellers to reveal exactly how many tickets are being put on sale at any given time. Often, he said, tickets are put on sale in tranches with only a fraction of the total being offered for sale to the general public.

“We need to know how many tickets are being sold to the general public because right now it’s a grey area – nobody knows,” he said.

He pointed to a study done last summer for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that found that only 46% of tickets for live events are reserved for the public.

“The remaining 54% of tickets are divided among two groups: holds (16%) and pre-sales (38%),” the report noted.

Holds are tickets reserved for industry insiders, such as artists, agents, venues, promoters, marketing departments, record labels and sponsors. Pre-sale tickets are available to groups such as holders of certain credit cards or to fan-club members.

Bailey said the proportion of tickets reserved for the general public could be as low as 30%.

“Let’s say there’s an event at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which holds about 3,000 people,” he said. “That means only 900 tickets go on sale to the general public. Where are the 2,100 tickets going? [The B.C. government] is blaming the bots for buying all 900 tickets but no one is addressing the other 2,100 tickets. Where are they? That’s what we need the legislation for – to find out.”

Former Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver Grizzlies owner Arthur Griffiths, who has long played an executive role in sports marketing, agreed with Bailey that there needs to be more clarity.

“The answer is to be fully transparent, as a promoter, to indicate that you have X number of tickets. The capacity of the venue is Y. You have X for sale and you’re holding back some others for another ticket round.”

He added that he believes professional sports organizations sell all tickets as fast as they can and do not hold tickets back.

Griffiths foresees technology evolving to the point where most events will have tickets that contain an electronic thread that gets transferred with tickets and contains personal information, much like what happens with tickets at the Olympic Games.

That technology could track payments for tickets as well as names, which would help if there is a problem at the arena and the person in a particular seat needs to be identified.

Overall, however, Griffiths opposes government moves to regulate the freedom of people to buy and sell goods.

“The overarching concern is that, more and more, government is trying to get involved with everything we do,” he said. “I would rather have less government involvement in private enterprise.”

Those who want to take part in the B.C. government’s survey can go to www.engage.gov.bc.ca/ticketbuying

[email protected]

@GlenKorstrom