Garth Brooks Defends TicketMaster Amidst Congressional Hearing, Calls for an End to Scalping

Ticketmaster has lengthy been a nuisance for followers who need to snag tickets when their favourite artist comes into city. The latest debacle involving Taylor Swift tickets has led to a congressional investigation into anti-competitive techniques utilized by the corporate. Nation star Garth Brooks has emerged as a defender of Ticketmaster, claiming the actual downside is scalpers who put an excessive amount of demand on the ticketing web site.

Congress is investigating Ticketmaster after the disastrous Taylor Swift pre-sale tickets state of affairs

Garth Brooks | Kevin Mazur/BBMA2020/Getty Photos for dcp

Since Ticketmaster and Reside Nation merged, the corporate has held a monopoly over the ticket-selling trade. In November 2022, Taylor Swift followers swarmed the web site when the pre-sale for her upcoming The Eras Tour. Many Swifties had been excited to safe their seats for the tour, however many had been greeted with web site crashes or extreme wait instances in queues. Taylor Swift issued a press release after the incident, stating she was upset her followers had to take care of this concern after being “assured” that Reside Nation may deal with the demand. 

Shortly after, scalpers offered tickets on resale web sites for hundreds of {dollars}. The mum or dad firm, Reside Nation, blamed the state of affairs on bots and overwhelming demand. The outrage that adopted led to consideration from congress, which introduced a listening to to look into attainable anti-competitive practices by Reside Nation. The hearings are ongoing, with many artists, professional witnesses, and Reside Nation representatives offering testimony. 

Garth Brooks wrote a letter to congress defending Ticketmaster and blaming scalpers

Swifties is probably not too pleased with Garth Brooks, who just lately despatched a letter to congress defending Ticketmaster. Within the letter, the “Friends in Low Places” singer says the representatives he labored with from Ticketmaster confirmed a “true concern and care for ticket buyers.” He shared a narrative about refusing to play at AT&T Stadium except the Cowboys group allowed Ticketmaster to deal with the gross sales. 

Brooks then mentioned it’s laborious for any service to deal with extreme demand and a few issues are out of their management. He then ends the letter by asking congress if they will look into making scalping unlawful, as he believes that is the primary concern plaguing prospects. 

“While I have you, My question is, as a country, why don’t we just make scalping illegal? The crush of bots during an on-sale is a huge reason for program failure NO MATTER WHO THE TICKET SELLING COMPANY is,” Brooks writes. “And the one who ALWAYS pays for this atrocity is the customer, the LAST one on whom that burden should fall. Making scalping illegal eliminates bots, eliminates dynamic pricing controversies, puts less pressure on the system because it puts everyone on a level playing field.”

Different artists are testifying in opposition to the ticketing company

Whereas Garth Brooks helps Ticketmaster, many different artists are taking a stand in opposition to the ticketing service. In accordance to Taste of Country, the unbiased band Lawrence testified and mentioned that the service wields its energy unfairly by mountain climbing up costs and stripping the band’s income from “a $42 ticket to $6, pre-tax.”

Joe Berchtold — CFO and president of Reside Nation — said throughout the listening to that the corporate solely owns 5% of U.S. venues, however many critics counsel that the venues it owns are probably the most worthwhile and highest-profile.

Source link