Ticketmaster and the NCAA were served this past week with a class action lawsuit. The suit claims the two parties conspired to force ticket purchasers to pay a non-refundable fee for the chance to buy tickets to the NCAA basketball tournament. The suit called the collaboration an illegal lottery.
The way it works is that you send in your money for the tickets and a $10 service fee. If you get selected, Tickermaster keeps all the money. If you do not they send back the amount for the face value of the tickets, hence keeping the service fee.
We have many thoughts on this:
Why not just up the service fee on the tickets purchased to cover the “service” expense and avoid the whole mess?
It is closer to a ponzi scheme rather than a lottery. Ponzi schemes would come under the same scrutiny.
If we could come up with our own lottery, we would. Good money in that.
Why is anyone getting so worked up about $10?
We can answer the last one. We have said this before. People believe they have an inalienable right to purchase tickets to an event. This is why the “scalping moniker” stays with the ticket brokering business. As long as this moniker exist, people will choose not to come into this easy money business and keep the door open for us.
http://www.hbsslaw.com/NCAA
http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10838073
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=29523
http://www.wibw.com/sports/headlines/19196554.html
To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
All politics are local
The players
• Salvatore F. DiMasi – Massachusetts Speaker of the House
• Richard D. Vitale – friend of DiMasi, newly registered Massachusetts lobbyist
• William F. Galvin – Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
• Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers (MATB) – people like us, but they all do this full time
MATB paid Vitale $60,000 in 2007 to work as a lobbyist. Vitale said he was a “strategist” not a “lobbyist”. In 2006, Vitale loaned DiMasi $250,000 at a very low rate for DiMasi’s condo. DiMasi could not have taken the loan if Vitale were a lobbyist.
In 2007 Vitale and DiMasi pushed through legislation that would deregulate the ticket industry. The bill has not passed the state senate yet. Galvin is investigating exactly who did what.
If one were to research the Vitale / DiMasi relationship, it would not take long to realize there was some back-scratching going on. It just happens to surface with the Ticket Broker Bill being at the forefront.
Bills like this are becoming more and more commonplace. They will continue to do so. The occasional Hannah Montana parent explosion and corrupted politician only slow the progress but do not stop it.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/17/ticket_brokers_paid_vitale_60000
To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.
• Salvatore F. DiMasi – Massachusetts Speaker of the House
• Richard D. Vitale – friend of DiMasi, newly registered Massachusetts lobbyist
• William F. Galvin – Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
• Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers (MATB) – people like us, but they all do this full time
MATB paid Vitale $60,000 in 2007 to work as a lobbyist. Vitale said he was a “strategist” not a “lobbyist”. In 2006, Vitale loaned DiMasi $250,000 at a very low rate for DiMasi’s condo. DiMasi could not have taken the loan if Vitale were a lobbyist.
In 2007 Vitale and DiMasi pushed through legislation that would deregulate the ticket industry. The bill has not passed the state senate yet. Galvin is investigating exactly who did what.
If one were to research the Vitale / DiMasi relationship, it would not take long to realize there was some back-scratching going on. It just happens to surface with the Ticket Broker Bill being at the forefront.
Bills like this are becoming more and more commonplace. They will continue to do so. The occasional Hannah Montana parent explosion and corrupted politician only slow the progress but do not stop it.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/17/ticket_brokers_paid_vitale_60000
To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
It’s the Economy
Times are tough. Oil is $126 a barrel. Gas is closing in on $4.00 a gallon. Bread prices are up 25%. Eggs prices are up 50%.
While we are not economist, it seems pretty obvious that we are in a recession. We never actually know that we are in one until after it is over. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters with a decline of GDP. Since figures for any given quarter do not come out until months after the quarter is done, we do not know we are in a recession until it is over.
Quarterly reports aside, there is no argument that times are tough. Here is one that goes against the grain. MLB officials say attendance is 2.6 percent ahead of record-breaking figures from last season. There does seem to be some evidence that spending habits are changing a bit when it some to how they spend money getting to the game and once they are at the game. MLB does not publish beer sales so it is hard to really determine that number.
One does not have to look far to hear stories about how people are tightening their belts. We are in the middle of the concert and baseball seasons. Out own ticket sales are brisk for each. This only makes us more excited when the economy rebounds a bit.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jo-mlbandrecession043008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
http://sportsline.com/columns/story/10786518
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/5770530.html
To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.
While we are not economist, it seems pretty obvious that we are in a recession. We never actually know that we are in one until after it is over. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters with a decline of GDP. Since figures for any given quarter do not come out until months after the quarter is done, we do not know we are in a recession until it is over.
Quarterly reports aside, there is no argument that times are tough. Here is one that goes against the grain. MLB officials say attendance is 2.6 percent ahead of record-breaking figures from last season. There does seem to be some evidence that spending habits are changing a bit when it some to how they spend money getting to the game and once they are at the game. MLB does not publish beer sales so it is hard to really determine that number.
One does not have to look far to hear stories about how people are tightening their belts. We are in the middle of the concert and baseball seasons. Out own ticket sales are brisk for each. This only makes us more excited when the economy rebounds a bit.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jo-mlbandrecession043008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
http://sportsline.com/columns/story/10786518
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/5770530.html
To learn how to make money being a ticket broker, visit www.MyTicketBiz.com.
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