[mmastrac]

It feels like the ticketing process in general is broken. There's too much demand for events, making the entire market dysfunctional.

Why don't we 1) make tickets non-transferrable (but refundable), 2) start pricing half the tickets as what the person will pay via auction and the other half as a fixed-price lottery? I'm not aware of many other ways to make things fair when demand outstrips supply so much.

[chrisseaton]

I can't relate to any of the arguments in this thread!

Why does it need to be fair? It's a private business putting on an event that nobody needs to go to except as a luxury entertainment. It's not access to food and water. We don't expect that other limited luxuries should be available to everyone, so why concerts and sport events?

Surely tickets going to the people who'll pay the most is fair?

[bgilroy26]

Selling some at a lottery provides a market for people who would be priced out very early along the curve.

If you want to avoid a Hunger Games situation where only the rich and famous enjoy your product (the NBA and many musicians care about this) that sort of person needs to be provided for

[Shivetya]

Here is the deal, they already give fans an in road on buying play off tickets. Be a season ticket holder.

Now some will argue this is not sufficient but the rub is, if your not going to support the team the full season then why should you have preference over someone who does?

So all teams provide for regular fans. However many people who do complain about the 'system' are fans of fancy, as in fans when the team wins and is in the playoffs.

There are similar passes and priorities for entertainment venues.

[bcassedy]

Season tickets cost thousands of dollars and in many cases have extremely long waiting lists. When I still lived in the DC area, the waiting list for Redskins season tickets was decades long.

It's important to keep the sport seemingly accessible for the long term prospects of the sport.

[travmatt]

Wouldn't this be case-by-case? That argument makes perfect sense if we're talking about a bar hosting a band, but I can't apply that same logic to a stadium whose cost was largely borne by taxpayers with the promise it would enrich public life.

[aianus]

> but I can't apply that same logic to a stadium whose cost was largely borne by taxpayers with the promise it would enrich public life.

Maybe if they charged market rates for tickets the taxpayers wouldn't have to pay for the stadium.

[EpicEng]

Sure, but we're talking about the finals here, not a regular season game. Of course a huge number of people want to go. During the regular season I have no problems getting tickets. Demand is huge, so the price goes up.

[runamok]

At the very least the actual artist and venue are not seeing the profits during most of this price gouging. But the resellers are.

[burkaman]

I guess I just don't want to live in a world where everything non-essential is only available to people who can pay the most. I don't think it should be illegal to act like a capitalist robot, but I hope that some people choose not to when they can, because it makes the world a little more pleasant.

[chrisseaton]

I understand that aspiration, but I still don't get why do people get so worked up about concerts and sport events in particular.

People would think it was very strange if BMW made available a proportion of their cars at a lower price, or if people got angry at swiss watches being resold at a profit.

[burkaman]

Well, there's sort of some false advertising going on with ticket sales. BMWs just have a high price, if you pay it you get it. If they consistently advertised their cars at $15,000 but then allowed their friends to buy up their entire stock and resell it at $60,000 each, I think people would be more upset.

It's not so much about the price as it is about the product being dangled in front of your face and then snatched away whenever you try to grab it.

[mifreewil]

> 1) make tickets non-transferrable (but refundable)

This is apparently what Louis CK is doing for his latest tour. I ordered tickets and I have to pick them up from the box office with ID starting 1 hour before show starts. Or I can request a refund.

[aaronmiler]

Dave Chappelle did something similar when he came through Portland. If your name wasn't on the ticket, you got turned away at the door. People who paid $300+ for second hand tickets weren't allowed in