About a year ago I had mentioned that states had begun creating legislation to combat problematic ticket resale practices given that legislation on the federal level was either slow to emerge or viewed as insufficient.
Recently, Illinois had joined the effort. In particular, they wanted to address the problem of speculative ticket sales:
“Every day, patrons are being sold what they believe are valid tickets, when, in reality, they are only paying for a chance that someone may be able to secure a seat,” said John Mangum, Lyric’s general director, who was also joined by leaders of The Auditorium and Harris Theater.
“This practice leads to confusion, frustration, and what many in our field now call ‘front-gate heartbreak,’ when audiences arrive at a performance only to learn that they do not actually have a valid admission ticket.”
In some cases, the seats people purchase don’t exist either. The pavilion in which the Ravinia Festival occurs recently completed a renovation that changed their seating chart. However, the entities masquerading as the Festival’s ticket sales site are still selling tickets based on the old map which includes tickets that no longer exist.
I have run into the same issue at two venues for which I worked for the same reason. For a year or two after a renovation people show up with tickets for seats that no longer exist. It can be difficult to suppress a grimace and remain optimistic as you tell people they have been scammed and try to suggest options.
The story mentions that the Lyric Opera sets seats aside for those who arrive with fake tickets so they can see the show. But say this practice results in losses of $2500 to $5000. I am not clear if these losses are due to providing them seats at no cost rather than making them pay on top of what they already paid the scammer. If they feel the need to hold tickets aside that may mean the performances are well-attended and they are forgoing advance sales revenue and losing out when those tickets remain unused the day of the performance.
