Ticket Flap: What Price Convenience? : Fees: If you have the time and patience, there are ways that you can bring home a high-priced ticket for a few dollars less.
How, without benefit of a scalper’s markup, does a $25 concert ticket wind up costing $35.05?
In the last three years, venues and promoters have begun tacking on “facility surcharges” to their basic ticket prices, while the ticket outlets legitimately handling the shows have progressively upped their service charges, now dubbed “convenience fees.”
Hence, a ticket for Dan Fogelberg’s concert at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on May 31 may list at $25, but you can immediately tack on a $2.25 “facility fee.” Then, for the biggest markup, order the ticket by phone, where it is subject to a $5.75 per-ticket “convenience fee” and a $2.05 per-order “processing fee.” Bingo: $35.05.
And that’s before factoring in the nearly unavoidable $5 it costs to park at most venues, not to even speak of such options as the $4.50 beers and $18 pepperoni pizzas one might resort to once inside the venue.
There are ways to bring home a ticket for less. If purchased at the amphitheater’s box office (which is only open on days of performances), the Fogelberg ticket would be $28.25, reflecting a $1 per-ticket box-office service charge, plus the ever-present $2.25 facility surcharge. The facility fee also applies when purchasing tickets in person at a Ticketmaster outlet, which also adds another $3.50 per-ticket convenience fee, totaling $30.75 for the Fogelberg ticket.
By far the most expensive way to buy a ticket is charging by phone, which runs $6.80 per ticket more than at the box office and $4.30 more than when buying in person from a ticket outlet. Despite the added cost, many people opt to order by phone.
“An amazing number of people call here asking for the charge number,” said Irvine Meadows general manager Matt Curto. “I guess they’d rather pay the cost than drive around and wait in line.”
According to one county talent buyer, “ facility surcharge is just another way of saying, ‘Give us more money, thank you.’ ” As promoters and facility managers prefer to put it, the surcharges are a way of meeting a variety of production and maintenance expenses and of assuring a reasonable return amid the ever-competitive concert market.
Consumers might complain that not including surcharges in the base ticket price misrepresents the true cost of the tickets. For promoters, though, it is necessary to set the fees apart from the ticket price; otherwise, performers would be entitled to the same percentage of those charges that they receive from the ticket price.
Promoters and facility managers argue that it is the high percentages and the guarantees they offer artists that make the surcharges necessary. With the Orange County concert market being touted as the most competitive in the nation--fueled by artists’ agents playing off the affluent market and the long rivalry between the Pacific and Irvine Meadows amphitheaters--the county was one of the first places where surcharges took hold.
The Pacific Amphitheatre doesn’t charge a facility surcharge--tickets bought there are already saddled with a 10% State Amusement Assessment Fee because the venue is on state property. Those funds go to the state, though a certain amount of it goes toward maintaining the property, according to Rich Meany of the Nederlander Organization, which promotes shows at the venue.
Fans’ pocketbooks get off slightly easier at the Pacific, both because its box office is open every day and because the ticket agency it deals with is Ticketron, which tends to charge less for its services. If a $22 ticket (which would include $2 for the state fee) is purchased at the Pacific box office, there is no added service charge. If charged over the phone through Ticketron, the additional charge is $4, as opposed to Ticketmaster’s $5.75 and additional $2-per-order fee. Purchased in person at Ticketron outlets, a ticket carries a convenience fee of $3.25.
That difference in fees was a factor in UC Irvine choosing Ticketron as its off-campus agency, said campus director of program services Lance MacLean.
“It’s important to us that it costs less for a consumer to get tickets through them,” MacLean said.
Tickets to events at the University’s Bren Events Center or Crawford Hall aren’t subject to service or convenience fees if tickets are purchased at the campus box office.
There is a $1.50 surcharge on all ticketed events--concerts, sports and otherwise--at the Bren and Crawford, which goes toward the operating expenses of the facilities. The halls are particularly reliant on that fee, MacLean said, because the monies generated from parking and concessions--typically windfalls for other concert venues--go to other campus departments.
The 2,500-seat Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim has a $3 facility surcharge on all shows, making the $18.50 ticket for comedian Richard Jeni’s show Saturday $21.50.
According to Celebrity promotions director DeLaine Roberts, “the surcharge very simply goes toward operating the facility and the general maintenance and cleanup caused by all the shows that come in here.” Because of the increasing expenses and financial risk of putting on a show, he said, “the charges that facilities didn’t used to pass on to the consumer, they do now. Since it is the consumer that generates the mess, and some do more than others, (theater operators have) incorporated that into a fee to insure that the place is ready for the next bunch of customers to come in.”
There is no ticket service fee charged for Celebrity show tickets purchased at the box office. Purchased elsewhere or over the phone, tickets are subject to Ticketmaster’s standard fees.
Despite the shaky economy and ticket costs, Irvine Meadows’ Curto says concert ticket sales remain high. “It seems people always have $25 if it’s someone they really want to see,” he said.
Curto said promoters are also mindful of tightening budgets, pointing to a recent four-act Meadows show for which tickets were $10.67 (it was a co-promotion with radio station KROQ, which is 106.7 on the dial). Tickets for a subsequently canceled Deep Purple show were priced similarly.
By most accounts, about 40% of the face value of a concert ticket is eaten up in operating expenses shared between the promoter and the venue.
Most insiders agree that about 85% of a show’s profits are paid to the performer with the remaining 15% going to the promoter.
About 15% of the Ticketmaster convenience fee is paid to venue owners to subsidize long-term, six-figure contracts signed with each facility guaranteeing Ticketmaster exclusive ticket-distribution rights to the building.
Ticketmaster officials claim that about 50% of their $3.50 fee pays for operating expenses such as rent, payroll, telephone switching network and facility phone lines, credit card fees, programming and maintenance of computers.
Another 25% of the convenience fee is paid to Music Plus, May Co. and other stores for acting as Ticketmaster outlets.
Although Ticketmaster would not disclose how much profit is built into each convenience charge, insiders estimate the agency earns at least 10% (or 35 cents) in profit on each $3.50 convenience fee charged.
Consumers who choose to charge tickets over the phone pay a higher “convenience” fee, which Ticketmaster said helps defer additional costs due to an elaborate telephone switching network, sales operators, local number phone-line access, and credit card fees.
Those purchasing seats by phone are also charged a $2.05 “processing” fee for the entire order, which, on the average, is spread out over three tickets per call, according to Ticketmaster. The processing fee generates additional profits and covers the cost of mailing and handling of tickets.
Times staff writer Chuck Philips contributed to this article.
HOW A $25 TICKET BECOMES $35.05
$2.25 FACILITY FEE CHARGED BY THE VENUE: Retained by the venue for “refurbishment” costs. $5.75 CONVENIENCE FEE CHARGED BY THE AGENCY: Consumers who charge tickets by the phone pay the “convenience” fee, which is applied toward additional costs from a telephone switching network, sales operators, local number phone line access, credit card fees and other charges. $2.05 PROCESSING FEE: Those purchasing tickets by phone are also charged a $2.05 “handling”fee for each order, which averages three tickets per call. PLUS $5 PARKING: Most venues offer few parking choices other than their own and typically keep all these revenues. CHEAPER WAYS TO BUY TICKETS: * At the venue: $25 base ticket price, plus $2.25 facility fee, plus $1 box office fee. * At the agency: In-person purchaser pays $25 base price, plus $2.25 facility fee, plus $3.50 convenience fee.
TOTAL $35.05 If purchased by phone from an agency
Source: Ticketmaster