There was an excellent article that gave a more accurate picture of how tickets are
allocated these days for concerts but it applies to other events as well. The performers,
management, venues all hold back tickets for “vips” not to mention they hold back
some of the best tickets to put into the secondary market themselves.

Not something that I think is very respectful of their fans but understandable when
they see how much tickets sell for on the secondary market. This all leads to one of the
main points I’m attempting to make. Much ire is directed at ticket brokers as if they are
the ones buying up all the tickets. The secondary market ticket business offers a
legitimate service and doesn’t deserve the bad rap it gets.

Where do NFL Super Bowl tickets go?

75% of the tickets are split among the 32 NFL teams:

  • 5% go to the host team
  • 17.5% go to the AFC representative team
  • 17.5% go to the NFC representative team
  • 35% go to the remaining 29 teams. Each one gets 1.2%
  • 25% Controlled by the NFL and given to companies, broadcast network,
    media, sponsors and host committee


Most Concert Tickets Reserved For VIPs Before Going On Sale To Public

By Michael Allen, Tue, July 02, 2013
Many concert tickets for famous acts are almost gone by the time the public gets a
chance to buy them. As much as 92 percent of tickets are saved for VIPs claims the
Fan Freedom Project, which is financially supported by StubHub, a ticket reseller.

“There’s only a few people in the room when they decide who’s going to get tickets.
They do not want us to know that artists are themselves holding back tickets, that
venues are holding back tickets,” Jon Potter, of Fan Freedom Project, told the
“Today” show (video below).

“They’re giving them to the high-end credit card holders who get the email three days
before you ever knew the concert was going on sale,” explained Potter. “They’re giving
them to the fan club. And then many of them go to the artist or to the venue.”

Some musical acts that reportedly reserved tickets at recent shows include: Maroon 5
(64 percent), Pink (77 percent) and Justin Bieber (92 percent, which may relieve many
parents).

According to the “Today” show, a recent One Direction concert at the Izod Center in
New Jersey held 64 percent of the tickets for VIPs.

The concert’s promoter Live Nation claims were more than 11,000 One Direction
tickets available to fans.

“These were available through various sales. The One Direction ticket sales, as is typical,
were open, public, advertised in a variety of ways and included on the One Direction
Facebook page,” said Live Nation in a statement.

“The claim that only 4k tickets were made available is untrue and used to manipulate
fans to drive them to secondary ticket sites.” New Jersey State Rep. Bill Pascrell has
written legislation for government oversight of ticket sales and making scalping tickets
illegal. Not surprisingly, tour promoters oppose the legislation.

A few tips the “Today’ show gave to buy tickets include: join the musician’s fan club
(f you don’t mind being buried with e-mails), wait until the day before the show as
tickets that are held back may go on sale and ticket brokers drop their prices
(the day before the concert) in order to re-sell the tickets.

Or you could just listen to the CD, which may be what you will hear anyways at
some “live” shows.

Most Concert Tickets Reserved for VIPs Before Going on Sale to Public (Video)