WFNY Podcast #6
October 1, 2008A Franchise In Denial
October 2, 2008…Because you’re going to need some cash for all of those surcharges.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley has ruled that the Cleveland Cavaliers use of the Flash Seats ticketing option violates Ticketmaster’s exclusive contract with the basketball team.
The Cavaliers had been offering the use of Flash Seats to its season ticketholders as an online venue for selling unused season tickets.
“The Cavaliers are hereby enjoined from using Flash Seats’ products and services to sell or resell Cavaliers tickets of any kind,” O’Malley states in her opinion.
So, not only is Ticketmaster the enemy, but they are now backed by the court of law. Though some of the pricing on Flash Seats got a bit perposterous at times, I tended to be alright with it given that the revenues were going to Dan Gilbert as owner of the service. Any money in Dan’s pocket is ultimately better for the Cavaliers, flowing down to the fans.
Personally, I think the whole Ticketmaster monopoly needs to just come to an end; and I’m sure I’m not alone. However, being that I’m not exactly in tune with their agreement with the team, nor any legal ramifications of said contract coming to an end, I’m just going to sit here and complain and keep paying my surcharges in the meantime.
Ticketmaster beats Cavs over Flash Seats in federal court [Cleveland.com]
21 Comments
The whole problem with Ticketmaster (and other bigtime ticket brokers) are the ridiculous surcharges and the inability to get tickets any other way (outside of scalping.) Just this past weekend I bought two tickets to see Red Wanting Blue at the House of Blues, ended up paying 40 dollars for the tickets, base price 12.50. 6.50 ‘convenience’ fee per ticket plus a 2 dollar ‘processing’ fee on top of all that. I find it remarkable companies are able to get away with this kind of robbery.
Did you have to pay a $9.75 “server convenience charge” to post this thread??
This is just like Pearl Jam in the 90’s MAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!
But seriously, this is never going to end. Ticketmaster doesn’t even bring anything to the table anymore in terms of technology. All they have are name brand and old-school relationships. Why haven’t they been written out of the process yet? Why would anyone sign a new deal with Ticketmaster?
I refuse to use ticketmaster, which makes getting tickets to anything rather difficult. Flash seats and the Indians equivalent (stubhub?)
arewere great ways to get seats without the $10 craptastic surcharge.If this holds up, which it probably will, I will not be going to Cavs games this year. I know, big loss for them.
@ Craig:
Corporations re-sign with Ticketmaster for one simple reason: Monopoly of product.
Like you said, Pearl Jam tried to exclude them and look at the fiasco it became. That debacle actually built ticketmaster’s credibility – hello backfire.
You are not alone. I remember hearing about this ticketmaster garbage pack in the mid-nineties with Pearl Jam, who tried taking on Ticketmaster by selling tickets on their own. Don’t know how it turned out, but I am willing to bet it didn’t end well for consumers. What this situation needs is a nice long, thorough Anti-Trust investigation that has a chance to produce something substantial. Until then, this is going to continue to happen….or get worse. Write your public officials.
@Lisol – I’m sorry you had to pay to see Red Wanting Blue.
I keed, I keed.
I got charged $80 for four games of last years World Series games that were never played here. Tell me how that is fair. I never got issued any tickets so what exactly did I get charged $80 for? Ticketmaster is such BS.
Wow. That’s like robbery Nicko…
Yeah not only did I get slapped in the face with the Red Sox destroying the Indians the last three games in the ALCS, i got an additional slap from ticketmaster.
Anti-Trust. Write Public Officials. Go Cavs.
The really F’d thing about it is that the House of Blues doesnt have its own ticket office. Even if I had dragged myself over to the venue to buy my tickets I still would have had to pay the ridiculous surcharges, because their ticket office IS A TICKETMASTER! Used to be you could go to the venue to avoid this crap.
The issue with Pearl Jam is that the VENUES had agreements with TM, hence the “venue charge” on the tickets. PJ was able to tour selling their own tickets, but they could only play at non-TM venues, which really hamstrung them.
How they escape anti-trust legislation is beyond me.
Microsoft should buy Ticketmaster…
what?
As the resident Pearl Jam expert around here, I should point out that Pearl Jam didn’t take on Ticketmaster on their own. They were asked by the US Dept of Justice to testify against Ticketmaster, and Pearl Jam agreed. Then, the Justice Dept just dropped their case suddenly in a very fishy way (hello, payoff anyone??), and it left Pearl Jam hanging out to dry because Ticketmaster would no longer negotiate their fees in good faith with Pearl Jam. So, for the 96 tour, Pearl Jam tried using some small ticket company out of San Francisco, I believe, and thus could only play smaller out of the way venues (hence the reason they played Savage Hall in Toledo on that tour) that were not held to exclusivity agreements with Ticketmaster. The whole thing was a disaster for the band and the fans. Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster have since worked together and until recently, Pearl Jam’s ticket prices were still about as reasonable as you can get.
So is Ticketmaster a true monopoly? I would say absolutely, but it will be interesting to see what happens now that Live Nation is entering the world of ticketing. It’s either going to breed competition and we’ll get competitive prices, or else things will spiral out of control even worse. It’s gonna be fascinating to see how Live Nation does.
The best part about flash seats was how easy it was, you didn’t need to print off a ticket or anything (btw, how ridiculous is it that you have to pay in order to print out a ticketmaster ticket, on your own printer???). You could get to the arena and they swipe your drivers license or credit card, and it took 2 seconds and saved paper (not that I care about that sort of thing). It was the next generation of ticket technology. And you could generally find some good deals for tickets on flash seats if you used it ahead of time. Forget Ticketmaster, their corporate office needs to be burned to the ground, ala Office Space
Well from a letter I got from the Cavaliers today, the Flash Seats are still around, I can’t resell them though on Flash Seats.
Contents of the email (by the way I have a Bucks and Hawks game in November I want to sell because I won’t be there if anyone is interested. Section 118 – Row 8 – Seats 1-2)
You will still have the ability to use Flash Seats to access Quicken Loans Arena for Cavs games and also to forward tickets to clients, friends and family through your Flash Seats account. As we continue to explore all of our legal options, you will not be allowed to resell your tickets through Flash Seats. In the very near future we expect to provide you with an alternative solution to resell your tickets.
Your tickets for our three home preseason games will be released to your Flash Seats account tomorrow morning.
I’ve used the Flash site and liked it a ton. I am proud to have an owner like Gilbert who will do whatever it takes to win and has some legit business acumen, the most in a town who’s only other recent owner in that bill was Dick Jacobs – who cared more about the $$$ that a W.S. title. Gilbert will write you back if you have a legit idea/beef/concern and that impressed me.
Randy Lerner is a DISGRACE who couldn’t sell his MBNA stock fast enough once his father died (RIP A.L.) Gilbert, good luck this season, I have faith in you guys (except for Mike Brown’s offense).
House of Blues in Dallas has it’s own ticket office.
If Pearl Jam couldn’t defeat Ticketmaster…nobody can!