The Journal

Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Opinion/Editorial

When a bill legalizing ticket scalping in Missouri passed this August, state Sen. Matt Bartle said that the legislature was striking a blow for the "regular guy." Unfortunately, it seems that "regular guy" means any parasite who wants to make a quick buck at other people's expense, and the main victims of this new legislation were the people who wanted to use their tickets to attend events rather than resell them at ridiculous prices.

Under the old laws regarding the resale of tickets, people could resell their tickets for the same price they bought them. This allowed those had bought tickets and would not be able to attend to make up for the money they had spent.

With the new law, people can purchase as many tickets as they want and resell them for whatever price they please.

When they originally passed the bill, legislators said that legalized scalping would increase the number of scalpers and force those who had been reselling tickets illegally to lower the exorbitant prices they were previously charging.

Those who passed the bill might have had a point. After all, scalpers would be forced to reduce their prices if they wanted anybody to buy from them. However, two words have proven them wrong: "Hannah Montana."

"Hannah Montana" is an Emmy Award-winning show on the Disney Channel that has become incredibly popular among teenage girls. The titular character Hannah is played by Miley Cyrus, musician, Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter. Hannah is an average schoolgirl by day, but a pop star at night. The show mainly focuses around her attempts to keep her identity a secret from everyone except those closest to her.

When the wildly popular Disney Channel performer's tickets went on sale, 4,000 tickets were to be sold to the general public and the other 4,000 were to be sold to the performer's fan club. The tickets sold out almost immediately, as expected. The only problem was that instead of the tickets selling to parents trying to get their kids into the event, the tickets went to scalpers, who immediately began marking them up to insane prices. People who wanted to buy the tickets for their families went from spending the $25 to $56 to being forced to pay upwards of $400 to attend. On the Internet, some are charging as much as $800 for tickets.

By legalizing scalping and subsequently increasing the number of scalpers, the law has the opposite of the intended effect. It creates an environment where a greater number of tickets are sold to people who have no intention of using them, causing ticket scarcity and allowing scalpers to set any price that they choose.

Perhaps the party that deserves the most blame is Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's vigorous support of this legislation can be traced to one important fact: with more scalpers in line buying multiple tickets, the chance of an event selling out is far greater. More tickets sold means more money for Ticketmaster.

As for how this law passed, it's no big secret that Ticketmaster's chief lobbyist is Andy Blunt, brother of Gov. Matt Blunt.

As long as scalping remains legal, ticket buyers can expect to remain at the mercy of whoever gets to the box office before them.

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