[FuzzyDunlop]

Of course, in the UK we don't have much choice other than Ticketmaster and SeeTickets. While there are alternatives for the smaller events, I think there's a chance the whole system could be disrupted.

The problem would be a lot easier to solve if you change the culture of releasing all your tickets at 9am, inviting hundreds of thousands of people to hammer your site all at once, at that specific time.

[bohrsatom]

I think moving away from first come first served would also help, and the London 2012 ticketing process did give this a reasonable shot (although it could be argued with limited success, IMO because they didn't allocate enough seats in this fashion). It would be more straightforward for concert tickets where there are only 1 or 2 price bands for a small number of shows.

Something that was very successful but is rarely mentioned was the ticket resale process. Most people I know who returned tickets this way got their money back and it appears to have done a good job of reducing the size of the secondary ticket market.