Desperate fans ‘are to blame’ as ticket touts make killing

‘Driven by supply and demand’

THE boss of Scotland’s largest music venue yesterday claimed fans are to blame for the ticket touts increasing prices.

The chief executive of Scottish Events Campus, which includes Glasgow’s SSE Hydro, said desperate music fans are ‘driving’ the secondary ticket resale market by buying tickets for acts such as Ed Sheeran and Olly Murs for more than five times the face value.

Peter Duthie, who previously refused to ban online touts from buying tickets, said he would prefer a system without a secondary market.

But he claimed he does not accept that music fans are being ‘ripped off’ by the present system, which allows resale websites employing computer software to buy thousands of tickets from the venue’s primary seller Ticketmaster within minutes of them going on sale.

He said: ‘It is driven by supply and demand. If somebody pays £500 for Ed Sheeran tickets, I’m guessing they are a true fan.

‘It’s whether you can afford it. I don’t accept the “ripped off” idea. You are making a decision to buy them. If the buyer stops paying exorbitant prices for tickets the secondary market would cease to exist.

‘Measures are being taken to make it hard for touts to obtain tickets. We are moving more into paperless ticketing, if and when this can be agreed by a promoter and artist.

‘This acts as a great deterrent as customers will only gain entry to the concert by having the payment card used, as well as being asked for photographic ID to validate their booking.’

The comments have angered anti-touting campaigner Reg Walker, who operates ticketing security firm The Iridium Consultancy.

Mr Walker said: ‘For high demand events we lose 30-50 per cent of tickets to touts.

‘Touts deliberately target sell-out events and force themselves between the fans and the primary provider to harvest tickets and raise the price for profit.’

Ticketmaster did not wish to comment.