AHHHHHH HANNAH MONTANA!!!

Everyone knows that Hannah Montana, aka future president of the USA, is the hottest thing in town, and will be at least for the next few months. Ticket brokers agree that this is the HOTTEST tour EVER. Which is saying a lot. Asking brokers when the last time they saw a tour do so well for brokers and they scratch their heads.... not even U2 generated demand like Hannah Montana for tickets on the secondary market. So what is it about her? Is she super talented? Does she have the best writers writing her TV show and her music? Nope! She simply appeals to the most powerful age group in America like nobody else has done before. For example, look at what this mom (and her husband lawyer) are doing just to get Hannah Montana tickets. Ridiculous and wrong on so many levels.


http://www.ticketnews.com/North-Carolina-Parent-Sues-TicketsNow0100807
North Carolina Parent Sues TicketsNow Over “Hannah” Prices
Mon, 10/08/2007 - 3:13pm — TicketBuzz
By Alfred Branch, Jr.
It was only a matter of time.
Disgruntled North Carolina parent Lyn Peraldo, upset over the price she paid for Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus tickets, filed suit against TicketsNow last week alleging the company and others essentially conspired to rig the system.
Peraldo was allegedly shut out when she tried to buy tickets last month for the Nov. 25 Montana show at the Greensboro Coliseum, and went onto TicketsNow.com and bought four tickets for more than $1,000 as part of a birthday gift for her six-year-old daughter. She then filed the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that TicketsNow and others in the “ticket brokering industry” possess “a sophisticated system and the means (internet, telephone, pre-purchase and in person) to purchase at face value a number of the tickets identified herein in such quantities that Plaintiff and many others had no realistic opportunity to purchase said tickets from the ‘Greensboro Coliseum’ for face value, it being the specific business plan, intent and goal of Defendant to acquire and immediately resale as many of said tickets as possible at grossly inflated prices, which in this case it did to Plaintiff.”
"I watched parents with little girls, bursting into tears, walking back down toward me, saying they'd sold out," she told North Carolina TV station WGHP. The lawsuit is seeking in excess of $10,000 in damages.
According to a copy of the lawsuit, provided by WGHP, Peraldo claims she bought four tickets from TicketsNow.com for $225 a piece, despite the face value of the tickets being $56. She also allegedly paid a service charge of $135 and a shipping fee of $14.95.
Neither Peraldo nor a representative for TicketsNow returned messages at press time seeking comment.



Details of the lawsuit aside, what is really interesting here is the question of the legitimacy of ticket reselling. Hannah has brought out some very passionate parents (ok, and sometimes very mean parents) which has led brokers to passionately defend themselves. So who is right? Do parents have the right to be pissed at ticket brokers? Are ticket brokers wrong for selling tickets above face value?

There are some things being said in this debate that I would like to comment on:
1) "Ticket brokers are exploiting parents and the children who want to see Hannah"
Wrong. Selling tickets is not a trick. Brokers do not trick parents into buying tickets. It is not a scam. There is a product and a price, and parents choose to pay that price for the product, just like going to the grocery store and paying $5 for a case of Pepsi. The origination of the product is irrelevant to the sale of the product. So are Pepsi Distributors exploiting parents? They are making a profit that PepsiCo, the producers, don't see.
2) "Ticket brokers do nothing but take money away from those that really deserve to be making money"
Wrong again. Ticket brokers provide a service. Ticket brokers provide a means for fans to get tickets when they are unable to beat the masses on ticketmaster.com to get tickets. If reselling tickets was illegal and ticket brokers did not exist, would parents be happier then? Not if you ask the thousands of parents that paid the fair market price for tickets on the secondary market and made their children happy. Also, its not like Hannah, the promoters, or anyone else involved in making the tour happen is losing money when TicketsNow makes a sale.
3) "Ticket brokers cater to the rich"
True. Actually, lets think about it. Brokers provide a means for wealthy people to get the seats they want for the shows they want to go to. But what you never hear about... because nobody complains about this.... is that brokers allow the less wealthy fans to buy tickets often at a huge discount for less popular events. Season ticket holders to any baseball, basketball, or hockey team practicaly give tickets away for a lot of games, giving people without a lot of money a chance to see their favorite team at a huge discount.
4) "Ticket brokers are not good people, they simply make a living by leaching off the work done by promoters who make the event happen"
Wrong. Ticket brokers are good people. They are sales people and smart businessmen/women. If they were dirty low lifes, they wouldn't make it as a ticket broker. Believe it or not, there is a lot of competition and not every broker makes money. More importantly, ticket brokers provide a service and in the case of a lot of broadway shows, can provide financing for the show itself.

In the end, this is really about a bigger problem.... kids are spoiled and parents are so confused and so clueless as to how to make their kid happy that they spend $800 for one night of entertainment.