Sandy benefit ticket scalpers draw fire

NEW YORK — After days of complaints from music fans, the producers behind the 12-12-12 benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy victims denounced scalpers Friday for reselling tickets to the event on StubHub and other websites for many times their face value.

The producers — James Dolan of Madison Square Garden, John Sykes of Clear Channel and the film producer Harvey Weinstein — urged people to shun the tickets popping up in the secondary market and to give to charity instead.

“It’s despicable,” Weinstein said. “Don’t buy them.”

Their comments came at a news conference at which they also announced that the Rolling Stones had joined the lineup for the concert, next Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. That addition makes the concert one of the largest gatherings of major rock musicians in recent memory, with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Dave Grohl, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Eddie Vedder, Roger Waters, the Who, Kanye West and Paul McCartney, among others.

On Thursday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, sent a letter to StubHub and three other online ticket exchanges, urging them to not allow sellers to profit from demand for the concert.

A spokesman for StubHub, Glenn Lehrman, said it did not have the technology to require sellers to give their profits to charity. He said StubHub had decided the best policy was to give its fees to the cause, rather than reject the tickets altogether.

Tickets for the concert sold out on Ticketmaster within minutes of going on sale. The face value of the 13,500 tickets sold on Ticketmaster ranged from $150 to $2,500, but they have been listed on StubHub for much more.