Writing your own ticket
It was supposed to be an exercise in state-of-the-art ticketing when U2 put seats for its Vertigo tour on sale over the Internet. But if this week’s hullabaloo over one of the year’s hottest tickets proves anything, it’s that buying one ranks among the most aggravating experiences of the modern world.
Whether fans of the band encountered online server woes or paid $40 to join a club promising to give them first dibs before the general public, the result was that some paid almost $200 for seats so far from the stage they were practically on the ceiling, while the unlucky masses got no seats and the option of paying extortion-level prices from a broker or scalper.
The tickets to the U2 shows -- two nights each at Staples Center and the Arrowhead Pond -- sold out in minutes through the fan club presale last Tuesday and general sale Sunday. But the problems were almost enough to make fans long for the days when tickets were sold only in person or over the phone.
Almost.
Those who decided to buy U2 tickets the old-fashioned way were greeted with busy signals and with store clerks who couldn’t sell tickets, even to people who’d gotten there early. There was simply too much demand.
It’s hard to believe that just 10 years ago buying tickets for a live entertainment or sports event through a primary ticket seller, as opposed to a broker or scalper, meant queuing up or dialing in. Whether it was a Rolling Stones concert or a live production of “Cats,” you always knew where you stood -- in line or on hold.
By today’s instant-gratification standards, 1995 seems almost medieval. Ticketing has undergone a quick, if quiet, transformation. Thanks to the Web, our homes are round-the-clock box offices that, U2-type glitches aside, offer more convenience and flexibility than ever before.
Want tickets to a Laker game? Today you can use the Internet to not only buy them but also forward and resell them to friends, family or anyone else. Want to see Gwen Stefani next time she’s in town? You can sign up for an e-mail alert telling you when and where she’ll play as well as how you can get tickets.
How about Disney on Ice’s “Monsters, Inc.”? Instead of paying the same price for a bad seat as you would for a good one, you can fork out whatever you think it’s worth via auction. If you’ve got a hot date and want to make sure you’ll get opening-night seats to the Will Smith flick “Hitch” next week, for an extra $1 you can buy tickets in advance and print them at home.
And that’s not even taking into account the myriad secondary markets such as brokers and individuals on websites like EBay, Stubhub.com and Craigslist.org. In fact, a byproduct of all this innovation is that anyone with a ticket can, if they’d like, be a broker.
It’s the Web that’s enabling the changes. But it’s consumers, artists, sports teams and venues that are demanding them.
“Some of it is trying to anticipate the way consumers are going to choose or want to use technology,” said David Goldberg, Ticketmaster’s executive vice president of strategy and business development. “Some of it is learning from the way we see consumers using and buying. Some of it can be just our own observations or observations of our clients saying, ‘We’ve had people requesting XYZ: Can you help deliver that?’ ”
More changes are on the horizon, although, as another ticketing exec said, you’d need Isaac Asimov to know exactly how they’ll play out. Innovations in bar codes, auctions and e-tickets are leading the charge at present, but converging technologies, and consumers’ reactions to them, will drive the future.
Tickets -- those little pieces of paper we’ve known for so long and put in our scrapbooks -- could soon be a thing of the past, replaced by the screen on a cellphone, or a chip embedded inside it. To buy these virtual tickets, you might enter a lottery. Or, taking a page from Wall Street, you could buy an option to see a band that may -- or may not -- make a tour stop in L.A. It’s enough to make that U2 experience seem downright primitive.
Here’s a look at what’s available in ticketing, what’s planned for this year and what seems far out now but might, in the future, become standard.
The now
Ah, capitalism. What consumers want, consumers get -- for a price. With so many demands on our time, convenience is the name of the game not only in buying, but also receiving and redeeming tickets. Some innovations:
* Print at home
What it is: Instead of buying tickets to next month’s Bob Dylan concert at the Pantages in person, waiting for tickets in the mail or picking them up at a box office, you can print them at your home or office. The bar-coded tickets are then scanned at the venue. If you lose them, you can print them again; just hope that the lost tickets aren’t found by someone else and redeemed before you get there.
Where it’s used: All kinds of events, including movies, concerts, performing arts and sports. All the movie theaters in the Regal chain offer them through Fandango.com, as do Universal Amphitheatre, Staples Center and countless other venues.
Drawback: Because they are bar coded, print-at-home tickets can be used only at venues that are equipped with technology to read them.
*
* E-mail alert
What it is: Say you’re a fan of Margaret Cho and want first crack at tickets to “Assassin,” her upcoming comedy show at the Wiltern LG. If you’d signed up for either an artist or a venue alert online, you’d know when and where she’s playing and how to get tickets.
Where it’s used: Ticketing outlets such as Ticketmaster.com, as well as individual websites representing artists, venues, sports teams and other events.
Drawback: It’s haphazard; whether an alert is offered is up to the artist, team, venue or promoter.
*
* Variable price ticketing
What it is: Imagine you’re a UCLA basketball fan and don’t care who the Bruins play. You’ll pay less if you see them play against Arizona State next week than USC a couple of weeks later. The rivalry keeps prices high.
Where it’s used: All types of events -- football games, live concerts, family events -- except theater and arts-oriented shows.
Drawback: In sports, hotter teams, players and rivalries fetch higher prices.
*
* Auction
What it is: Families attending this weekend’s Disney on Ice production of “Monsters, Inc.” in San Diego bid on their seats instead of paying a set price. Last year, Ticketmaster ran hundreds of online auctions nationwide.
Where it’s used: The Harlem Globetrotters, WWE, even monster truck rallies have used them to bring in higher prices for the best seats so they can offer the rest at lower prices that will bring in more people. For low-supply, high-demand events, auctions help whoever’s putting it on get a price that, in the past, only scalpers or brokers could get.
Drawback: Whether an auction is offered is up to the venue, artist, team or promoter.
*
* Fan clubs
What it is: Many online fan sites offer registered members perks, including first dibs on tickets before they’re available to the general public.
Where it’s used: Online, by most top recording artists.
Drawbacks: The perks usually come with an annual fee. And, as evidenced by the recent U2 sale, the number of tickets allocated to registered fans sometimes doesn’t meet the demand.
*
* Ticket exchange and forwarding
What it is: With sports seasons being so long, it’s unlikely season seat holders can attend every game. This feature allows them to exchange, forward and resell their tickets online, using the same outlet through which the tickets were originally purchased. (For ticket exchanges at nonprofit theaters, see sidebar.)
Where it’s used: Just this week, the Dodgers unveiled their program. Other teams include the Angels, Lakers and -- when they aren’t locked out in a labor dispute -- the Mighty Ducks.
Drawbacks: The service is currently available only for season-ticket holders.
The coming year
Look for more widespread use of all the above services. An industrywide movement toward bar codes means that a ticket will also serve as more than a simple piece of paper with the sole purpose of allowing entry to an event. And, as the world goes wireless, so goes ticketing:
* Prepaid amenities and concessions
What it is: Tickets aren’t just tickets anymore. They can also include prepaid parking, food and drinks.
Where it will be used: Staples Center, online movie ticket service Fandango.com
*
* Wireless alerts
What it is: Operating on the same concept as an e-mail alert, event notifications are sent to a cellphone, PDA or other wireless device when tickets go on sale.
Where it will be used: Ticketmaster.com
The future
Look for more innovations in consumer convenience, many of which will negate the need for buyers to bring anything with them to an event. The experts predict the following:
* Wireless tickets. Cellphones, PDAs and other wireless devices could be used to purchase tickets; a bar code on the LCD screen would serve as the ticket itself.
* Interactive TV. And you thought your remote control was good only for changing channels. Watch a Dodger game on an Internet-enabled TV and someday you may be able to use it to buy tickets to an upcoming game.
* More variables affecting variable price ticketing. Prices for, say, sports events will be affected not only by seat location and opponent, but also time of day, day of the week and weather.
* Prepaid merchandise. In addition to concessions and parking, bar-coded tickets could be used to pre-purchase event T-shirts and other merchandise, including CDs or videos recorded live at the event.
* Lottery. Instead of first-come, first-served, ticket buyers would enter their names into a lottery that would give them the chance to buy a ticket.
* Ticket options. Think stock options, except for tickets. The show hasn’t been scheduled, or the game isn’t a certainty, so the ticket doesn’t even exist. But should an artist or performance come to town, or if your team makes it to the playoffs, you’ve bought the right to purchase the ticket ahead of others when it becomes available.
* Will-call kiosks. It’s the same concept as e-ticketing at the airport. There’s no need to remember to bring your ticket. Just buy it over the phone or online and use your credit card at a self-serve kiosk to print out a bar-coded seat assignment that’s used for access.
* RFID chips. Operating on the same premise as a prepaid, electronic pass for cars that use toll roads, a radio frequency identification chip embedded in a phone, handheld device or smart card would get you into an event. The ticket holder is, in effect, the ticket. Walk through a sensor, your chip is read and presto. You’re in.