You won’t beat touts, Noel, but you might be re-elected
BEFORE I reported and opined for a living, I was an entertainment promoter and managed bands – an early education that informed my subsequent occupation.
And that, along with longevity, gives me an insight into TD Noel Rock’s campaign against ticket touting – a modernist name for an entrepreneurial practice that has been around since ancient Rome. In the 1870s, scalpers famously charged a premium for tickets to Charles Dickens’s sold-out US tour.
Fact: Every campaign by governments to regulate ticket sales has either been rescinded or ignored; they all failed, everywhere.
Noel should meet another politician, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (second cousin of Amy), who boosted a flagging political career in New York by instigating ticketing investigations. They made him popular, but made no difference to the ticket-buying public.
A few facts for Noel: Touting only accounts for 30,000 tickets sold in Ireland, less of that 1% of the total; and only 20% of the 8,000 events held each year sell out. It is the All-Ireland finals, U2, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, etc – some 40 to 50 events in total – that spark a media frenzy. Not so long ago, tickets were only readily available to fans in Dublin and Belfast – now everyone has a chance to buy tickets without having to queue overnight. Fact: There will always be a problem when 50,000 people are seeking tickets for a 12,000-seater venue. Noel, and others, may be tempted by the practice of dynamic pricing – where businesses such as airlines or hotels base prices on supply and demand. Just imagine the prices of tickets for the most popular gigs.
Educational fact for Noel: All these facts are available in a submission by Tommy Higgins, the former European boss of Ticketmaster, available on the website of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
Learning to manage disappointment is never easy for ticket seekers, yet I suspect Noel’s failure to regulate ticket sales will boost his political career – just like that of Senator Schumer.