Photo: Kravitz/FilmMagic
Bruce Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, has fired back at claims by Ticketmaster that suggest ticket-sale problems at two recent New Jersey concerts were caused by the nearly 2,300 tickets that were withheld from the public. The latest battle between Springsteen’s camp and Ticketmaster began a week ago, when the Newark Star-Ledger investigated Bruce’s May 21st concert at New Jersey’s Izod Center and found only 108 of 1,126 prime seats were offered to the public. That news prompted Ticketmaster’s Barry Diller to tell the New York Post, it was “minimally fair-minded” to point out the problem since “Bruce Springsteen has been one of our most vocal critics on our ticketing policies.”
In an 1,100-word letter posted on Springsteen’s official Website, Landau has responded by lashing out at Ticketmaster for botching the initial onsale of the New Jersey shows — and explaining that holding back tickets for friends, family and media is a common practice. “We do hold significant numbers of tickets when we play New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, as does every arena headliner,” Landau writes. “Unlike some Ticketmaster managed artists, no tickets are held for high dollar resale on TicketsNow, or through any other means.”
Read the complete text of the statement after the jump:
An Update on Ticketing Issues from Jon Landau
Somehow, a new flurry of interest has been created around Thrill Hill’s
ticket holds for the recent Izod Center shows. These are the same shows
that became such a subject of controversy when they went on sale on February
6th. The new theory is that Bruce’s holds were the problem on February 6th,
and not Ticketmaster’s already acknowledged failures on that day. But the
truth is that Bruce’s holds had nothing to do at all with the breakdown of
Ticketmaster’s system.
These are the undisputed facts about February 6th. On that morning, when
our fans went to buy their Bruce and Band tickets for the face value of $95,
they were in many cases immediately linked to Ticketmaster’s wholly owned
ticket reselling company TicketsNow, where prices were many times higher
than $95. We call this “bait and switch.” As a result, an undetermined but
large amount of money flowed into TicketsNow (and eventually Ticketmaster)
even though there were still tickets at normal prices yet to be made
available on Ticketmaster. We perceived this to have been a major abuse of
our fans, complained about it mightily, and added that because of behavior
like this, the pending merger of the number one ticketing company and number
one management company (both owned by Ticketmaster) with the number one
venue owner and operator (Live Nation) might not be such a hot idea.
How do we know that all this is true?
1. On February 6th, when the ticket fiasco occurred, Ticketmaster’s CEO
wrote to Bruce, myself, and our fans to generously apologize, which apology
we promptly and graciously posted on our site. The letter stated that the
problem was the product of an inexplicable “glitch.”
2. The volume of complaints received by New Jersey Attorney General Anne
Milgram exceeded anything ever experienced before and she ultimately secured
a consent degree from Ticketmaster, in which they promised that some of
their practices (”glitches”) with regard to its sister company TicketsNow
will never be repeated.
3. The CEO of Ticketmaster openly testified as to their responsibility for
these “glitches” in front of Committees of Congress.
Based on all of the above, we can safely conclude that on February 6th,
Ticketmaster transferred legitimate requests for tickets at face value over
to their TicketsNow site, where they could charge people hundreds and
hundreds more dollars for the same ticket. The amount of additional profit
generated by scalper type prices through this now famous “glitch” remains
unknown. Whether this was merely an extremely profitable “glitch” for
Ticketmaster/TicketsNow or something else, we have no way of knowing.
Last Sunday, June 14, the Newark Star Ledger ran an article entitled
“Springsteen withheld best tickets from the public at NJ concert, records
show.” This is the same article that the Star Ledger runs whenever we do a
few indoor shows in New Jersey. It suggested that we were in someway
responsible for the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow problem. On Thursday, June 18,
Hits Magazine ran a summary of this article, On Friday, June 19,
Ticketmaster’s Chairman attacked Bruce personally in the New York Post, in
an article called “Ticket Blitzkrieg.” In this article, Ticketmaster’s
Chairman deploys by implication Ticketmaster’s new line: despite their
apology, despite the consent decree with Attorney General Milgram, and
despite their testimony in Congress, the ticket catastrophe was actually
Bruce’s fault.
Of course, the only thing wrong with the Chairman’s spin is that it’s flatly
untrue. He is merely using the time honored tradition of blowing smoke to
distract attention away from Ticketmaster’s already acknowledged
responsibility for their “glitches” on February 6th, the on-sale date of the
two Izod Center shows.
Now lets talk a little about Thrill Hill’s ticket practices. Perhaps the
first thing to be said is that when we play New Jersey, our fans know that
we are usually going to do more than two indoor shows in order to ensure,
among other things, that during the course of a tour, Springsteen tickets
will be plentiful so as many fans as possible will have a chance to get
great seats (hence the five upcoming shows at Giants Stadium.) As our fans
also know, we have kept all of our tickets under $100 and do all that we can
to ensure that as many as possible are sold at face value.
Yes, we do hold significant numbers of tickets when we play New Jersey, New
York and Los Angeles, as does every arena headliner. These holds are used by
Bruce, his band members, and longtime members of his extended organization,
their families and close relations; by the record label for its staff, for
reviewers, and for radio stations; by charities who are provided with
tickets for fund raising purposes, such as special auctions; for service
people who help us on a year-round basis; and for other similar purposes.
Unlike some Ticketmaster managed artists, no tickets are held for high
dollar resale on TicketsNow, or through any other means.
Where are the Bruce holds? The 2,000 to 3,500 tickets closest to the stage
are on the floor and more than 95% of them go to the public, making the
basic premise of the Star Ledger headline inaccurate. Secondly, with regard
to seats held in the best sections on either side, we always blend guest
seats with fan seats so that there are never any sections consisting
entirely of guest seats.
In addition, it is well known that we sometimes release a significant number
of excellent tickets on the day of the show at the box office, which can
only be bought with direct entrance to the venue. It’s known as the “drop.”
Many think that is done on purpose to help combat the scalpers who prey on
fans at the last minute. That is a good thought.
(Also, in connection with the Izod Center shows in particular, we released
some of our holds to Attorney General Milgram to go into the lottery she
created to help deal with people who were penalized by the
Ticketmaster/TicketsNow “glitch” on February 6th.)
Those are our ticket practices, as they have evolved over more than 30 years
of experience. Does anyone seriously imagine that any element of these
practices caused Ticketmaster to redirect ticket requests to TicketsNow for
the Izod Center shows? What would our incentive have been? It’s not we who
earned vastly larger sums when fans paid way over the face value of the
tickets. It was Ticketmaster/TicketsNow.
Final thoughts: We have no interest in having an ongoing conflict with
Ticketmaster/TicketsNow or anyone else. That has not been part of our
history. And it is generally not our purpose to spend time on this site on
matters of this kind. But we do get upset when we see fans being taken
advantage of, as they were on February 6th. So, when that stuff stops
happening (and the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow problems surrounding our recent
show in Washington D.C. shows that these issues are far from resolved) we
will stop complaining. And when the facts cease to be misrepresented, we
will stop explaining.
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
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