Thursday, June 25, 2009
Kotz / The Economy Miley Cyrus Takes on the Scalpers
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:30 AM
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Far be it from Pith to complain about scalpers. Anyone who can magically turn a $40 Predators' ticket into $20 peasant fare is a friend of ours. But Miley Cyrus might disagree.
During her last tour, she found that major scalpers like StubHub were gobbling up the best seats to her shows, then reselling them to Mom and Dad at prices equal to a few months of grocery bills. And since Mom and Dad aren't used to the extortionist pricing that goes on at major concerts, they were what can politely be described as "totally pissed."
Miley's handlers understood this was bad for business. Being a Disney star means looking your sweetest for Middle America, not abetting the liberation of its wallet. So this time around, she's going with paperless tickets. Whoever buys them has to show up with their credit card, as they would for airline tickets, to gain admission. And that keeps scalpers from buying in bulk.
The major scalpers aren't happy about this. To here them tell it, the new system will usher in fraud and darkness not seen since Bernie Madoff. They're even wondering whether their inability to play middleman violates anti-trust laws.
Of course, it must be maddening to be thwarted by a teen star. But if Miley could circumvent the biggest thief of all -- yes, that would be Ticketmaster -- Pith would nominate her for Second Coming.
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