The Scoop on Scalping
It’s generally known that reviewers receive free theater tickets, but it should not therefore be thought that we don’t keep the paying customer in mind when assessing a show. Every self-respecting writer takes ticket prices into account in recommending what to see, always considering the crucial, bottom-line question: “Is this worth the price of admission?”
For that reason, the conscientious critic is also interested in another aspect of ticket sales: scalping, the slang term for the sale of tickets at prices far in excess of the price shown on the tickets themselves. Those who deal in this shady business activity are called scalpers and shouldn’t be confused with reputable ticket agents in this city and state who operate strictly under New York State law, which stipulates that a ticket may not be sold by anyone for more than 20 percent above its face value. In other words, a $100 dollar ticket to The Producers can be sold through a licensed ticket agent for an amount not to exceed $120 (plus the $1.25 restoration assessment now imposed on tickets).
Anything over that price is scalping, although a purchaser — a tourist, say, who is uninformed about local laws — may not realize that someone with tickets to sell at outrageous prices near a theater or hard by the strategically placed discount TKTS booth in Times Square is operating illegally. Indeed, ticket pricing and how far the face value of a ticket can be hiked when re-sold is a complicated issue made even more gnarly by the increasing use of the Internet as a sales tool. While New York State has the 20-percent rule, other states don’t. This means that a $100 ticket re-sold in (for instance) New Jersey for more than $120 doesn’t constitute an illegal sale. The same goes for a website like eBay: The rule is that, if a ticket to a New York event is sold by someone in New York, then New York law must be abided by. But a seller (really, a re-seller) in Connecticut who’s offering tickets to a New York show needn’t adhere to the New York law.
Perplexing? For many people, it is — and we’re not just talking about ticket buyers. Producers and theater owners regularly find themselves at a loss (monetary pun intended) on the subject. They’re also enraged to see and/or hear about tickets being sold at inflated prices with none of the proceeds going to them or to others involved with the production. And, to some extent, they’re frustrated because it seems there’s little that can be done to ameliorate the situation. Margo Lion, who’s a producer of
One partial answer is the Broadway Inner Circle. This is the company that was formed when the producers of The Producers were looking for a way to minimize illegal scalping while maximizing their own profits. Through Broadway Inner Circle, one may purchase those much-publicized $480 tickets for The Producers as well as high-priced ducats to other Great White Way blockbusters like Lion’s Hairspray. The way the $480 breaks down is that $80 worth of it is a service charge and the rest goes into the show’s till. Joe Farrell, Broadway Inner Circle’s CEO, says that “our goal was to take money people were spending and get most of it back into the hands of people investing in the show, the stake-holders.” He adds, as if to acknowledge the situation’s complexities, “Our goal was not to stop scalping.”
That rationalization for the $480 tickets is further amplified by Richard Frankel, one of those miffed Producers entrepreneurs, when he talks about the line that stretched from his show’s box office on the day that tickets went on sale for the return engagement of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. “Most of them were street people, all of them with $800 dollars in hand,” Frankel reports. “They were the only people who purchased tickets from noon until five o’clock. Scalpers had dumped their people there at midnight. They tried to dump them two nights before; people at our theater saw that. Scalpers were standing across the street and directing them. When these people got to the box office, they’d say things like, ‘I want eight for the mezzaline.'” Needless to say, the correct word is “mezzanine”; Frankel suggests that the mispronunciation marks the buyer in question as in no way theater-savvy. (The $800 to which Frankel refers has to do with the eight-ticket-limit imposed on box office purchases.)
in The Producers? One way or another, it may cost you
a lot more than $100 per ticket
Frankel and his fellow producers do have an organization to which they can turn with industry problems: the League of American Theatres and Producers. Jan Svendsen, the League’s marketing director, says, “What we try to do is inform consumers that there are many options” for purchasing tickets through proper channels — e.g., the box office, Telecharge, Ticketmaster, and the TKTS booth. “It’s a proactive stance,” she notes. Svendsen also mentions that, according to studies of purchasing patterns among people hoping to see a show, “one of the barriers is that they really didn’t know how to buy tickets. We also learned that people perceive that shows are sold out when they might not be. We try to encourage people to go to the box office” — or, she says, to the Broadway Ticket Center located in the Times Square Visitors Center. To help wise-up ticket buyers, the League has an educational campaign. Does Svendsen have a sense that progress is being made? “I absolutely do,” she replies.
The League is also active on the legal front, according to Barbara Janowitz, the organization’s government relations professional. “What the League is most concerned with is that ticket scalping legislation becomes permanent,” says Janowitz. She’s talking not only about avoiding the necesssity of having to renew the 20-percent law every year or two but also beefing it up; yet she’s not sure that commercial ticket brokers are on the League’s side, since they might want the hike cap to be pushed even higher. Ideally, according to Janowitz, the League would like to see not only a permanent bill and a reasonable ceiling on ticket prices but also some long-arm protection. By that she means laws in neighboring states — where, it’s believed, much scalping is carried on — that match the New York law. “Am I optimistic that we’re going to get laws that mirror each other?” Janowitz asks and then answers, “No.” Is she optimistic about a permanent law? “Someday.”
The word “someday,” which has a wistful sound as Janowitz utters it, seems to reflect an industry-wide facing of reality. Producers brooding over ways to protect themselves and the consumer are conscious of the legal obstacles that exist, and the New York State Attorney General’s office isn’t much help. A spokesman contacted for this article said brusquely, “It’s a local law enforcement issue.” A spokeswoman for the New York City district attorney’s office was sympathetic to the question but said that unless inquiries pertained to specific arrests, no information was available — and, since scalpers are elusive, arrests are hard to pinpoint.
Little can be learned from eBay, where the auctioning of tickets for The Producers, Hairspray, and Mamma Mia! is a daily occurrence. Some of the prices advertised run into four figures — as high as $3,999 a pair for the New Year’s Eve performance of The Producers starring Lane and Broderick. (This is not to say that the tickets will actually go for that amount.) Hani Durzy, speaking for eBay, remarks first that “the vast majority of people using the eBay platform are individuals” rather than companies. He goes on to insist, “Our policy is that we permit the resale of tickets to the fullest extent allowed by existing laws.” He adds that “if a seller is in the same location for an event as the bidder, the seller cannot accept bids above limitations.” Although Durzy allows that eBay’s is “not a fool-proof system,” he also remarks, “Our philosophy is that people are basically good.” In that vein, he calls attention to eBay’s feedback opportunities and says that they have yet to turn up evidence of theater-ticket fraud.
This leads to the one fairly certain conclusion anyone can make about the price of theater tickets and the long-running scalping phenomenon: It’s a caveat emptor situation. The more the consumer knows, the less likely he or she is to be victimized by marauders, no matter where or how they operate. “Let the buyer beware” may not be an entirely satisfying response to ticket scalping but, apparently, it’s still the best one available.
