£650 for Macca ticket? We Can’t Work It Out..
Official briefs dearer than resale sites
TICKETMASTER have been blasted for selling official tickets for Beatles legend Paul McCartney’s Scots show at higher prices than resale sites Viagogo and StubHub.
Ticketmaster’s Platinum seats for the SSE Hydro gig cost up to £650, with new tickets dripped into sale day by day, creating a false idea of scarcity.
Not a single ticket for Macca’s show on December 14 has been listed on the firm’s own secondary sites Get Me In! and Seatwave, proving how easy it is for them to cut out touts when they wish.
But Ticketmaster have been offering plenty through Platinum selling, which are generally tickets near the stage.
The firm have previously fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority for falsely claiming Platinum briefs were the “best available”.
The Record found StubHub were selling Hydro tickets for Section 50, to the left of the stage, for about £360.
Viagogo were selling identical ones for about £400 – but it was £500 for an official Platinum ticket on Ticketmaster in the same section.
Fan Mairi Baird said: “Desperate to see Paul McCartney at the Hydro … but can’t justify paying £470 for a ticket.”
The pricing set-up flies in the face of Ticketmaster’s claim that Platinum undercuts tout prices.
Adam Webb, of the FanFair Alliance, who are battling touts and back the Record’s Stub Out the Touts campaign, believes Ticketmaster should say why they are selling at inflated prices at the outset, rather than releasing small batches of the “last few remaining”.
He said: “It’s increasingly important that ticketing information is provided clear and upfront to audiences. It’s something FanFair are pushing for.
“If a mass of tickets were being held back, then released at vastly inflated prices, that would understandably raise wider concerns.” McCartney, 76, is playing his first Scots gig in 10 years and the Platinum price hike was sanctioned by his management. His publicist Stuart Bell was asked if the singer wanted to comment on Platinum selling or touts. He referred us to Ticketmaster, who normally ignore our requests. But via Bell, Ticketmaster said: “Platinum tickets are a very small percentage of the most sought-after tickets in the house and are priced closer to their actual market value to take touts out of the equation. “The full value of these tickets goes back to the industry and not to resellers.”