Tessa’s Tout Trouble

U.K. concert promoters are angry because they say culture secretary Tessa Jowell’s two-year investigation into the secondary ticket market has failed to come to grips with the issue.

Although she has said she wants to address the problems faced by British fans that pay through the nose for a ticket with a poor view or hand over cash for a ticket that never existed, most of the people who run the country’s live music shows no longer believe she intends to do much about it.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Web site reported yet another meeting between Jowell and the U.K.’s promoters, venues and ticket agents under a headline that said "Tougher Protection For Ticket Buyers." But so far there’s no indication that the government is going to provide that tougher protection.

The Concert Promoters Association (CPA) feels Jowell had the chance to outlaw secondary selling but failed to take it, and that she has failed to give the live music business the backing to sort the problem for itself.

Rob Ballantine from Manchester-based SJM Concerts, who worked alongside Geoff Ellis of Glasgow’s DF Concerts to put forward the CPA point of view, is resigned to the fact the industry will have to learn to live with the touts.

"O.K., if it’s here to stay, then we’ve done all we can," he told Pollstar after a February 8 meeting at the DCMS London headquarters left the promoters scratching their heads and wondering where this two-year dialogue with Jowell has taken them.

Ballantine said he’s "deeply disappointed" that so little has been achieved and that the government’s failure to do anything to rein back the touts will mean a major shift in the way promoters sell tickets.

"If they’re going to end up on the Internet at inflated prices, then sooner or later the promoters will put them there at inflated prices and ensure the acts get at least some of the extra money from these online sales."

He pointed out that some incoming U.S. acts are already wanting the front 10 rows of their concerts auctioned off because they’re aware of how much other people have been making out of these seats.

"I think she’s fed up with it all but she can’t make it go away. She’s certainly not confronting the issue. She’s talked about it for two years but now it looks as if she’s just stuck her head back under the duvet.

"She’s promised protection and she’s failed to deliver it. She’s failed the consumer."

The concert promoters had hoped Internet sites would be made to insist sellers provide the seat number or original transaction reference to show their tickets exist and that they’re genuine, but there’s no sign that the DCMS is anywhere near making such a ruling.

Jowell said she’s continuing to investigate whether there is a case for putting in place a system to protect events of national importance, such as the Ashes and the Concert for Diana from the grasp of touts. But Ballantine said Jowell is only talking about the sort of high-profile events where her lack of action might blow up in her face and embarrass the government.

Various eBay representatives have said it would create a huge logistical problem to monitor all ticket ads, but when people started offering tickets for the Lady Di Wembley concert at five times the £45 face value, they were removed from the site in less than an hour.

National Arenas’ Association (NAA) chairman Geoff Huckstep said his organisation fully supports the CPA view and he’s as vehement as Ballantine when it comes to criticising Jowell.

"We’ve backtracked from where we were six months ago. I was more encouraged when Sean Woodward (Labour MP for St. Helens South) chaired the meeting for the DCMS because I think he’s got a better grasp of the situation.

"We’re on the front line and we see all the trauma and misery when people turn up and there’s nobody to meet them with their tickets, or they get what they thought were front row tickets that happen to be in the back row.

"We’re going to start making a record of these incidents. [Jowell] keeps asking for more evidence – how much more evidence can she possibly need?

"Maybe we should just invite her to work the box office or the front of house when these people turn up and can’t get in because the touts have let them down. It would be some good consumer research for her."

Huckstep said he can easily envisage a time when the disappointed fans will wreak their own revenge on the touts. One tout has already been escorted off Wembley Arena property for his own safety.

Those attending the February 8th DCMS summit included the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR), Society of London Theatre, SJM Concerts, Mean Fiddler Music Group, Rugby Football Union, FA Premier League, The Football Association, See Tickets, Live Nation, Westminster Trading Standards, Ebay and Seatwave.

It was the fourth ticket touting summit the DCMS has held. The first was in November 2005, followed by further meetings in April 2006 and July 2006.

The minister’s department said a further meeting is expected before the end of the year, but no date has been fixed and Ballantine is far from sure it will happen.

The CPA is sure to discuss the situation at its meeting at London’s Royal Gardens Hotel March 9th, the opening day of this year’s ILMC.