Frustrated With Event Ticketing? New Ventures Try To Help

Event organizers hoping to eliminate ticket scams and huge markups in the secondary market are increasingly turning to companies that use technology to allow fans to buy and resell their tickets while putting caps on prices.

Partnering with such companies allows event organizers to take control of the resale of their tickets. Fans who can’t go can return their tickets, which can be reissued to someone who wants to go, helping ensure that venues are filled with fans.

“As in many other areas of our economy, technology is racing ahead to try and address some of the issues that we and others have identified — and any consumer who has tried to buy a ticket recently can probably attest to,” said John Breyault of the National Consumers League. The U.S. ticketing industry is sporadically regulated: Pursuit of those who violate the law by using ticket-buying software known as bots is rare, and laws capping the resale price of tickets are difficult to enforce.

“I think it’s great that there’s a lot of entrepreneurial activity in this space because this market is pretty broken, but I also think some government intervention would help too,” said Eric Budish, a University of Chicago economics professor.

Sound Nightclub in Los Angeles decided to work with London-based mobile ticketing company Dice to make sure that fans pay the price they’ve set — usually $15 to $30 for musical acts — and don’t end up with fake tickets.

“We make a really, really concerted effort to keep our ticket prices as low as we possibly can to make sure that people have a good fan experience,” said Megan Gaver, director of operations at Sound Nightclub.