Why you can't get tickets: The Ticket Game (CBC Marketplace)

this is marketplace is your favorite concert really sold out the fix was in right from the get-go the truth about tickets prime minister how'd you get your ticket why your shut out I was the biggest baddest guy who took all the tickets it's criminal it's legal because of your government the odds are absolutely stacked begins the fan how to score the best seats for the best price this is your market place everyone's pumped to see Canadian rock gods The Tragically him the hips farewell to her has been sweeping the nation the shot unruly Wan Gore Downey is battling cancer so everyone wants to say goodbye everybody was from miles around bah guys tickets tonight in Kingston the band will be taking the stage could be the last time ever sort of came of age with these guys he sort of grew up with that music you know it was like a really important time for me and it just uh it just I'd like to be here when it's done but Geoff Cameron doesn't have a ticket he's not alone what do you got on I think it sucks it is upsetting it is really upsetting nobody got tickets Jeff was ready at the Ticketmaster site but the entire tour sells out in mere minutes obviously where there's a lot of demand it's going to be a harder ticket to get but I think that I think it should be easier is there too much demand or something else going on Peter McClatchy think so just minutes after selling out those same sold out tickets turn up on resale sites like StubHub selling way over the face value everybody said there's 1500 tickets on StubHub or thousands of tickets on StubHub all jacked right up what's that tell you House tells me that the fix was in rate from the get-go is the fix in we're not just talking about concerts we're talking high demand sports theater so many Canadians trying to buy affordable tickets strike out time to find out why we've come to Las Vegas a place that knows a thing or two about playing the odds and we're talking to insiders to find out what your chances are of scoring that ticket on the Vegas strip we need a high roller who's lived the high life Ken lotion he's a notorious scalper I know how to get your tickets ken says in the game of tickets the deck is stacked against the fans all system's rigged now this sharks sharing his secrets coming clean for the first time I was the biggest baddest guy who took all the tickets and broke all the little girl's dreams yes I was that guy so how'd he do it with special software called BOTS virtual robots are programmed to buy from official ticket sellers like Ticketmaster the second the sale starts BOTS swoop in beating humans to the seats a big reason why you strike out bonds our system was set up to hit 50 shows in one hour and buy all the tickets in under two minutes were you beating the system was like getting myself first in line mmm sure and that allowed you to buy tickets faster and buy many more tickets than most people could many other factors for that but yes we made it so that you could just had to hit one button and you could buy a hundred two seats at once you know we had the capability of buying 15,000 tickets in two minutes Ken snatch the best seats to big events like you to the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand then resold for huge markups sometimes as much as a thousand percent I was worth like fifteen million dollars or thirty five he was living a rock-and-roll lifestyle partying away the money all of the expense of the fans are you not then getting in the way of fans who actually want to see something and her heart broken when they can't absolutely I was when I feel horrible about it do you yeah really so I got sober I'm a different person than I used to be okay no longer in the bot biz Ken says it's time to make things right if you eliminate BOTS which is what I think needs to be done you're up then the fans will have a chance but BOTS aren't the only reason why you don't stand a chance ken shows us where to find the pros who have other ways of snatching up seats this is the largest convention there's another this room in Vegas is packed with brokers it's the difference between scalping and brokering and you're nothing brokers make a living gambling on tickets they buy at face value then we sell online to the highest bidder hey guys how you doing I'm David with CBC Erick Garland and rafi Aguilar know how to play the odds how do you get your tickets I get tickets just like everyone else gets tickets you know like you wait till 10:00 a.m. on whatever day and the ticket okay no when a show is going on say like you know I know about the pre-sale and yes I purchased tickets man but hold on they know about the pre-sale that presale is supposed to be reserved for fan clubs and certain credit card holders another reason why you strike out brokers they bust in on sacred territory to edge out the fans The Tragically Hip yeah that was a huge show the last tour like they were ever going to do the biggest thing that a broker knows how to do is when tickets are undervalued for you know for like the demand of the show a lot of people wanted tickets couldn't get tickets and they disappeared like that right what's going on there well you can just I mean yeah I'm broken yeah but how do those brokers get the tickets I mean I use iPads and computers there's an you know he's good surf if it's a full-time job you'll make sure you do everything you can to get as many tickets as can did you get tickets tickets for comfortably hip any of those tragically yeah I got some taken for trading how many tries to take you to get those tickets well I mean I mean I feel like I'm oh no is it way yeah did you sell all of your hip tickets already maybe yeah the Moriya maybe a lot of fans are fin that's not fair than I getting tickets but you just gotta be quick you got to be ready to go you know people sure but pretty tough to be brokers when it's their full-time job time to find out if the ticket giant is looking out for the little guy we've come to Los Angeles we're talking to the people who own Ticketmaster Live Nation the biggest promoter on the planet hi David Joe Burke told me to meet here Joe Burke told his chief operating officer fans are frustrated that the tickets seemed to sell out within seconds of that general on sale they can't get their hands on what's going on yeah well there's a big problem and the big problem starts with bots every year we block about 5 billion BOTS trying to attack our Ticketmaster system even if we're 99% effective that's a hundred a minute to get through our system yep a hundred a minute get Ian and get to buy do you have a sense of how many tickets to The Tragically Hip to our BOTS got so we think for The Tragically Hip tour the bots probably got close to a third of the tickets other brokers around a third of the tickets and fans ultimately around a third of the tickets only but a third of those tickets are actually available to people guess BOTS and brokers are getting a rest yes so the odds are absolutely stacked against the fan because so much of it goes to brokers did you cancel any tickets that you thought were acquired through BOTS I don't believe we canceled an tickets and in generally speaking we do not make the decision we simply can't identify which were the bot purchase tickets in which were the fan purchase tickets would the charge Lee hip know this yeah yes yeah I mean I know the exact numbers but yes they we were in daily conversation with them about what was going on we all share the frustration with it but they also were very clear they wanted to make sure they weren't doing anything that would damage any of their true fans and rather than shotgun and take that risk it meant that we there weren't tickets that we could count so of Live Nation can't beat all the bots who so what are the political power brokers doing about bots and brokers time to get some answers this is your marketplace get more marketplace sign up for our weekly newsletter at cbc.ca slash marketplace busting the ticket game this is your marketplace ticket bots and brokers are beating the fans buying up most of the seats to big events like The Tragically Hip the game feels so fixed in Kingston Geoff couldn't get a ticket at face value but look who did the perfect night cheers guys now he's got a ticket but you don't exactly it's fine I'm pretty sure he didn't buy his ticket from scalpers and that's fine let's find out Prime Minister how'd you get your ticket I played for them like everybody else who did you buy it from Prime Minister Ticketmaster did you get your ticket through Ticketmaster clearly Jeff doesn't have the connections but if he really wanted a ticket he could buy from sites like StubHub it's a marketplace where anyone can resell their tickets for big markups at least in the case of the hip capitalizing on something that's so tragic you know it sort of makes it that much more unsavory he's refusing on principal but Peter McClatchy is desperate and buys you're right there right there what's the face value of that ticket and be 90 bucks let's say 90 bucks okay and you're paying I paid for 33 us us the last thing I wanted to do is pay these guys this money but I had no other choice I have to be at the show so I bought the tickets yeah hey folks can I ask a quick question of you did anyone pay four figures for a ticket you paid four figures for a ticket can I ask how much come on anyone else pay high three figures for one ticket 1,200 seats us for 750 se how many times over the face value seven seven times when the resellers are jacking it up to on the thousands then that blocks a whole a whole bunch of people away from being able to see their favorite band or seeing art or when you take the art away from the people that's that's a problem number one so how do those prices compare to the old school scalpers Jeff checks it out seen anybody looking for one fifteen hundred I don't think I can do 1500 dad ray better than that but some tickets on StubHub go even higher check it out up to thousands of dollars for a ticket people are being robbed they're being ripped off it's criminal actually it's criminal except that it's not it's actually quite legal is that right yep reselling tickets for profit is legal in Ontario and in most provinces they have made it so lucrative and so easy for online scalpers to get into it to get into the marketplace and snap them up so that the average person doesn't stand a chance there's no way that should be tolerated he's right so we're going to talk to the political power brokers who open the floodgates in the first place back in 2015 the Ontario government changed the ticket scalping law to allow anyone to resell for a profit so long as you can prove the ticket is real or offer a money-back guarantee you're good to go we've come to the Ontario legislature to meet Attorney General Yassir Naqvi I think many fans would be surprised that it's legal to do something that for many for a long time was illegal and it's legal because of your government well it's ensuring that there's protection that there is a tent occasionally tickets there's the money-back guarantee what I want to make sure is that we we deal with this challenge of technology we got to look at these bots and see how we can prevent the bots from from taking place so we're looking at those policy options or trying to stop bots got it but what about the brokers those who are basically preventing fans from getting those tickets and then charging those same fans double triple or many times more well I'm we're looking at those policy options and I've asked for that that kind of analysis see what kind of options are available to us since something you're looking into yeah well of course do you think your legislation is working doing what it was supposed to do well clearly that example shows that there no more needs to be done and I'm committed to doing that two weeks later Naqvi announces he's going to outlaw those ticket bots we want to bend bots for for selling tickets but since they can operate from anywhere policing that will be a challenge I can even have fun meanwhile at the ticket conference in Vegas Don Vaquero is tired of brokers taking all the heat there's a big misconception that the brokers are the reason that fans can't get tickets Don runs his own resale site the ticket network and says it's time for the music and ticket industry to come clean what's happening that a minute after tickets go on sale they're all gone right so honestly that the that's where the fallacy begins everybody in the industry knows that most of the best tickets for most of the shows are never sold to the public it's the industry itself holding back the tickets yep the best seats are held back by VIPs like the band and the promoter next tickets go to fan clubs and certain credit card holders all consumers want to know is where the tickets are going and how to get good seats yet another reason why you strike out the average concert goer gets last pick former Ticketmaster boss Nathan Hubbard sure shed light on why fans are screwed wrote all about it online says by the time the actual sale to the general public happens 90% of the tickets might be gone really so what is his former colleague Joe Burke told from Live Nation say about that that would be a real extreme situation but they have does happen but to have a third of the tickets gone sure absolutely there are absolutely a lot of thickets get sold through the various son sales so in our minds a fan club presale is generally an open to the public event if I look at that 20,000 seat stadium sure how many tickets does the average fan at the normal time have a shot at they might have a shot at 10 to 15 thousand of those tickets but our concern is they don't necessarily even have a fair shot at those because you've got the box going after those same tickets at that moment but for their work the bots they might only shot at half of the stadium can depending on the show yes chasing the truth this is your marketplace you want to know which artists are helping fans score seats find out more on our Facebook page your hot ticket marketplace so you have to figure hours before the hip show in Toronto Street scalpers would be the only one selling it out of my face but apparently not inside people are lining up at the ticket window in trying to get tickets for weeks and all of a sudden they released all these tickets I'm very confused we're confused - so our researcher Sara Hobson line to our surprise the show everyone thought was sold out may not be I have many of my friends telling me right now you're wasting your time down there all the tickets are sold out meanwhile I'm standing in a line to get tickets at face value that are available and nobody knows they're available seem to have won more tickets after waiting in line for over two hours were next Danny ticket left it's good too all the seats are selling at face value all right there thank you yep go stub open they were like 700 bargain hurry through the balcony crazy okay we're finally in not a moment too soon but outside still selling obviously it's sketchy how they did it you know what I'm here I'm getting in hmm what's going on it was sold out but again they always keep seats find from me I stay above maybe what 200 tickets for tonight's show and check it out good seats are still available over an hour into the show still selling if you knew there were tickets wouldn't you be here what is Live Nation say about that the tragically hip website had no more tickets available for the Toronto show but tickets were on sale in the box office so does no more seats mean sold out or Kenmore seats come available it does happen it does happen every day with every tour that we have that seats become available or because of the other distribution channels if an artist has held 20 seats for family and friends and then it turns out for that show they're not coming and those seats get released not in large numbers but those happen every day I guess I was the guy who paid $1,000 and I see someone walking by with a $50 ticket they just bought the night off I'd be a bit angry sure to the sold out always mean sold out so sold out always means 95% plus sold sure enough there's last-minute seats in Kingston - hello can you can you hear me Jeff didn't get one of those but he's no longer in need oh thank you very much I can't even can't even begin to thank you his wife didn't listen bought him a ticket anyway I'll send you pictures okay okay thank you very much all right bye I'm in so awesome it's time to say goodbye to Canadian rock gods The Tragically Hip Sun outside the nation watches a rare moment remember most fans who strike out never get this chance next week on marketplace dumpster dining okay this will discuss some people what your supermarket doesn't want you to see as a whole lot of food Canadians trash 31 billion dollars worth of food we hear from big box stores to your shopping cart I'm just gonna throw it out for you in advance no no no why is seemingly good food being thrown out the garbage

Channel: CBC News

Views: 569,827

Rating: 4.7369208 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network

Id: q9xZznpVWXA

Length: 22min 26sec (1346 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2016