Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

USA and Canada (April 1 - June 4, 2009). Special concert for fans in NYC (February 19). Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
JacquelineR
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by JacquelineR »

I hope that people will calm down and quit casting blame on Leonard and his management. The presales were for our benefit, and when there were problems at the Beacon the rules were tightened in response. So hard when demand is far greater than supply, but this supply is not something like a popular t-shirt, he is one man. Ticketmaster runs a dishonorable business, and they pretty much have a monopoly on things (this will get worse if the merger with Live Nation goes through). Free market capitalism is an ugly thing, and the only good thing to have come out of all this venom is that other artists have been exposed for being in cahoots with scalpers - but Leonard has not been part of this and I never questioned his integrity - thanks Marie and Jarkko for getting to the bottom of this. If people want to try to fight this go after the real villains - contact state Attorney General's offices, state and federal officials, and send letters to media. Point your fire and negative energy where it really belongs.

Question: Was this kind of craziness going on during other legs of the tour, or just when they came to the North America?

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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by News Gal »

Here's a link to the Connecticut Attorney General's site. I'm thinking I may contact him about the issue soon. The problem experienced in CT was with a Bruce Springsteen concert, not a Leonard Cohen one, but I may have to talk to him about the issues with the LC tickets too.

http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?A=3673&Q=434396


Something I find worrisome (and maybe telling) is that the concerts affected are all in the Northeast--NYC for Cohen, CT for Springsteen.
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by jarkko »

Question: Was this kind of craziness going on during other legs of the tour, or just when they came to the North America?
There was criticism towards Ticketmaster in UK - especially because of their strange methods of showing tickets in random order and adding tickets sporadically to their website. Also the scalper issue is really bad in UK. However, for the most of Europe no problems were reported (except that the tickets sold out so quickly!!). Many of our members managed to get excellent seats also in the front of the orchestra in most European countries. -- Juts like right now in Germany: Eventim started to sell Berlin with seats in the center of the first row!
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common trial
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by common trial »

Thank you again, Marie and Jarkko!
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colombo
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Response to Megan2c2b

Post by colombo »

Colombo, your conclusion is not correct. Again, --

Robert Kory explained that this ticketing option had been offered and that he had declined on Leonard’s behalf. We also confirmed with Elliott Leflko at AEG that Mr. Kory declined. Not only that, Mr. Lefko explained that Mr. Kory has gone so far as to require that no peer to peer secondary ticketing of Cohen tickets be allowed on TicketExchange to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. As a result, no one, neither fans nor ticket brokers, can resell Leonard Cohen tickets through Ticket Exchange. We have checked ourselves on TicketExchange, and we found no Cohen tickets available through the Platinum Ticket program.

The tickets that were offered for sale on TicketExchange were NOT tickets as described in the Wall Street Journal article. They were not tickets that Leonard Cohen authorized Ticketmaster to filter to TicketExchange. Leonard did not authorize nor participate in this program. However, to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and to prevent some from drawing that conclusion, as you have done, Mr. Kory has had ALL sales of tickets to Cohen concerts, whether offered by fans or ticket brokers, removed from TicketExchange.
Megan, it is your conclusion that is incorrect. As Jonathan and others have so clearly described, the tickets for Leonard Cohen's show that appeared on TicketExchange DEFINITELY originated through management. These were NOT reseller tickets that were posted on the website. If you knew anything at all about TicketExchange, which you clearly DO NOT, you would know that. For the second Leonard Cohen show in Oakland on April 14th, the Marketplace option to "sell your tickets" was never enabled. The ONLY place these Marketplace tickets originated was with the promoter. Now if management was doing this behind Leonard's back, shame on them. But don't pretend that these tickets were just fans reselling extras. Far from it. This was a concerted effort to extract as much money from the ticket-buying public as possible. That it backfired and produced this negative publicity was entirely predictable.

Again, I applaud Mr. Cohen from disentangling himself from this nefarious and abusive sales tactic. But to now pretend that it never happened is a blatant falsehood. And all the handwringing by you and others on this board who simply spout platitudes about how this particular artist "would never condone" such a tactic cannot rewrite history.

Fact: AEG held back choice seats at multiple price points in an attempt to sell them for 2X-3X-4X face value AND MORE.
Fact: Fans on this board complained about this abusive sales practice.
Fact: Mr. Cohen heard of these complaints and demanded that it STOP.

You can believe what you want, but these are the facts. If Robert Kory maintains that this was done without his permission, so be it. Nonetheless, it happened.
Last edited by colombo on Tue Mar 17, 2009 4:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by News Gal »

Then here's a good question--why isn't AEG being hung out to dry? Or is that coming later...
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Hanging AEG out to dry?

Post by colombo »

I think the answer to that one is pretty complex. But if AEG acted in violation of their contract with Mr. Cohen's management company, then there is a potential breach of contract action there.

You'd think that these sales practices of offering inferior seats at a "presale" and then feigning a sellout to spur demand for higher priced "VIP" and "Platinum" seats would run afoul of various states' consumer protection laws, wouldn't you?

Maybe for this *third* Oakland show we'll actually see some decent seats in the presale.
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Re: Hanging AEG out to dry?

Post by News Gal »

colombo wrote:I think the answer to that one is pretty complex. But if AEG acted in violation of their contract with Mr. Cohen's management company, then there is a potential breach of contract action there.

You'd think that these sales practices of offering inferior seats at a "presale" and then feigning a sellout to spur demand for higher priced "VIP" and "Platinum" seats would run afoul of various states' consumer protection laws, wouldn't you?

Maybe for this *third* Oakland show we'll actually see some decent seats in the presale.


I have a funny feeling that once the tour's over, we'll hear quite a lot about breaches of contract. Here in CT it most assuredly does, and some CT people did definitely get the Attorney General involved. There is a huge story here. It sounds like a company trying to make money off what's considered an economical way of purchasing tickets during a deep recession.
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by danf »

Well I do know that for the Seattle show, there were Platinum tickets made available, and they were closer to the stage than any purchased either through the presale or the regular sale (except the VIP packages).

So I am having a hard time reconciling the statements of Leonard Cohen's management with what I saw happening for the concert at WAMU in Seattle. They do not match up.
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Re: Hanging AEG out to dry?

Post by A Brick in the Wall »

colombo wrote:I think the answer to that one is pretty complex. But if AEG acted in violation of their contract with Mr. Cohen's management company, then there is a potential breach of contract action there.

You'd think that these sales practices of offering inferior seats at a "presale" and then feigning a sellout to spur demand for higher priced "VIP" and "Platinum" seats would run afoul of various states' consumer protection laws, wouldn't you?

Maybe for this *third* Oakland show we'll actually see some decent seats in the presale.
All I can tell you is this -- in the Chicago presale I got seats in the 12th row directly on the center aisle --- I call those decent seats -- YMMV :o
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by News Gal »

No problems were reported with the Waterbury, CT tickets--checked today. Thankfully there's no story there. Phew.
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micropup2008
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by micropup2008 »

Saw Leonard in Berlin at the O2 last October. A huge arena but even though we were sitting about a mile away from the stage, the show was fantastic. Great sound. And Leonard and Co. looked great up on the Jumbotron screens. Hopefully if there is another tour, he will be booked into the larger venues giving everyone a better chance to see him. Seeing him again in Oakland next month and just can't wait.
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by micropup2008 »

I stated earlier I have sent a complaint in to the California Attorney General. Still have heard nothing in return.
News Gal wrote:Connecticut's Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, is currently investigating these cases. You know, I may have a story idea here. It's happened with two artists so far--LC & Springsteen. The state's waiting to see if anyone is next with the P2P sellers. Even though it's been two months, I have a feeling something will come of this investigation by summer.
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by micropup2008 »

Many of our members, but not all. My wife and I came from the US and ended up with seats about a mile from the stage. Nevertheless, we loved the show.
jarkko wrote:
Question: Was this kind of craziness going on during other legs of the tour, or just when they came to the North America?
There was criticism towards Ticketmaster in UK - especially because of their strange methods of showing tickets in random order and adding tickets sporadically to their website. Also the scalper issue is really bad in UK. However, for the most of Europe no problems were reported (except that the tickets sold out so quickly!!). Many of our members managed to get excellent seats also in the front of the orchestra in most European countries. -- Juts like right now in Germany: Eventim started to sell Berlin with seats in the center of the first row!
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aws59
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Re: Comment on the ticket issue from the tour management

Post by aws59 »

All of the tickets I was offered in the two Oakland shows sucked.

I may just be be very unlucky, but I think some of this discussion is overlooking the difficulty/impossibility of the individual computer user in competing with the sophisticated "robot" software that the re-sellers use. I was on Ticketmaster within 20-30 seconds of the sales starting. I was willing to pay top dollar. I had a decent T-connection. I got offered lousy seats.

I know that a lot depends on how many hits the Ticketmaster server can take at a time, and I'll bet it's way above 3000, the size of the Oakland Paramount Theater. So, while, I can agree that choice seats may have been held back, I can also understand that everything may have sold out in those first couple of minutes--- some to fans, and lots in chunks of 6 each to the pros who plan to resell them.

I must admit that I don't go to many sell-out concerts, so I haven't had that much experience with Ticketmaster. What I did notice is that you sort of get a first chance, and then you're done. In only one case of the five sales I was involved in did I ever get offered a second choice/chance at tickets. If we're going to get into conspiracy theories, it would be easy for Ticketmaster to have a secret preferred list of IP numbers who it lets in to its servers to buy tickets. And, you and I are not on that list.

It would be good to hear from anyone who got decent [center orchestra, 1st 20 rows of the center balcony, for example] seats to the Oakland shows from Ticketmaster in the primary market. Of course, many people are on the Forum these days because they are not happy campers, so this may not be the right audience.

I am just glad though, that the Paramount is so small. Even lousy seats there are wonderful compared to some other venues. I am also glad that I don't have to deal with Ticketmaster very often.

aws59
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