Ticketmaster Hobbles Fan Clubs

By Waldo Jaquith
In the latest CounterPunch, writer Dave Marsh reveals that Ticketmaster has a nasty new tactic aimed squarely at Warehouse-like fan clubs. They've sent out letters to venues and artists nationwide, ordering them to hold back no more than 8% of their tickets from general sale for sale through fan clubs. As the Wall Street Journal made known in an April 12th article, approximately 50% of seats at Dave Matthews Band concerts are sold through the Warehouse, which enables DMB to entirely bypass Ticketmaster. This change would reduce the availability of already-scarce Warehouse tickets by roughly 85%. In response to a query from nancies.org, band management issued the following statement: "We are aware Ticketmaster has sent out letters to promoters and perhaps also venues alleging Ticketmaster has the right to limit artist ticketing to only to what they define as 'legitimate fan clubs' and as to those fan clubs limiting their ticketing to less than 8% of the total tickets. Those letters have not been addressed to DMB or The Warehouse. How venues and promoters will react to these letters is still unclear. However, all tickets that have been sold through the Warehouse for the 2002 tour are not affected." Thanks to Matt Casey for the tip.