Ticket Scalping Angers Backstreet Boys

Pop-singing group Backstreet Boys is furious that more than 1,000 prime tickets controlled directly by the promoter of its Oct. 31 concert at the Denver-based Pepsi Center ended up in the hands of scalpers.

“To think scalping of this type occurred at our Denver show infuriated us,” the group said in a statement Monday. “We were horrified to learn that our fans were manipulated and ripped off in this way.”

The group said in its statement that it had hired investigators to get to “the bottom of this criminal activity” and discovered that 1,200 tickets in specific sections under the control of the show’s promoter, Los Angeles-based House of Blues, were funneled to scalpers. Backstreet Boys said that most of the tickets, which were priced at $38.50, ended up costing fans about $115 each.

According to the statement, Backstreet Boys has asked the House of Blues to donate $75,000 to the Columbine College Fund, a Littleton, Colo., charity established to help students at Columbine High School, where gun-toting teens opened fire on campus earlier this year.

A representative for the House of Blues previously denied that the company had any involvement in the ticket scalping, but said it had launched an internal investigation into the matter. No one at the company was available for comment Monday regarding the charity donation.