Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Anti-ticket scalping group Fans First Coalition has ZERO credibility

You've long heard the parable about the fox guarding the henhouse. But here's a parable with a new twist, the fox guards the henhouse then has the nads to actually publicly complain about other foxes guarding henhouses.

A group calling itself Fans First Coalition has been started to try and eliminate ticket scalping by online groups after the very public debacle with the Bruce Springsteen tickets at the Izod Center. The new group points out that a now defunct company called Wiseguy Tickets Inc. bought up thousands upon thousands of tickets to sporting events, concerts and other live shows and then resold them online at up to five times the ticket price.

We agree. Companies like Wiseguy Tickets DO ruin the market for fans of live shows. What they do his heinous. Fans First is right to point this out.

BUT

Fans First also allowed you know who, Ticketmaster -- the Lord Voldemort of online ticketing agencies, to actually join their coalition. It really makes your head explode doesn't it? Ticketmaster, who has their own ticket reselling exchange called TicketsNow where you buy tickets for much higher prices than the show sells for. How's THAT for irony?

Ticketmaster was investigated in 2009 by the New Jersey attorney general after fans who wanted to buy tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Izod Center in East Rutherford were redirected to TicketsNow, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster. TicketsNow sold the same tickets at much higher prices.

Fans First Treasurer Randy Levy excused away Ticketmaster's inclusion into their quest by saying "It's not a perfect world, but we have to start somewhere."

Wow, head meet ass.

While your aim may seem noble, allowing Ticketmaster anywhere near your group destroys any credibility your group was hoping to lay claim to. As long as John Dillinger is working for the FBI don't tell us the FBI is serious about cracking down on gangsters.

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