How do ticket brokers--the legal middlemen who sell concert and sporting event tickets at sometimes 20 times face value--always seem to have the best seats in the house?
The California Assn. of Ticket Agencies, an organization that represents about two dozen of these firms in the Southland, maintains that brokers purchase choice seat locations from season ticket holders and/or from people hired to stand in line at box offices when events go on sale.
But music industry insiders and thousands of disgruntled fans have long speculated that some brokers purchase their best seats under the table from employees working for ticket agencies, promoters or at venues where events are staged.
A $1-million-plus federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on March 15 by Ticketmaster, the largest ticket agency in the nation, is the first legal action in California against a ticket broker for allegedly thwarting the legal ticket distribution system.
The suit charges Barry's Ticket Service in Encino with fraud, unfair business practices and violations of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, alleging that the broker solicited a Ticketmaster sales operator to "unlawfully" provide Barry's with prime seats. Ticketmaster is seeking to recover at least $1 million in punitive damages plus injunctive relief against the broker.
"We filed this suit to send a message out loud and clear to all the brokers," said Fred Rosen, chairman of the board and CEO of Ticketmaster. "We have had it up to here with brokers and intend to use every means at our disposal to vigorously prosecute anybody who practices this kind of abominable conduct."
Barry Clark Rudin, owner of Barry's Ticket Service, acknowledged purchasing tickets from the sales operator but denies initiating the contact or even knowing the young man worked for Ticketmaster.
"I never solicited or bribed anybody," Rudin said in an interview. "I bought tickets from the guy, but when he called us he never told us he worked for Ticketmaster. What I did was not illegal or unethical. If it wasn't for all the hassle with this suit, I'd probably do the same thing again."
Scalping--selling tickets on or near the grounds of an event without a license--is a misdemeanor in California. Still, no law prohibits individuals from buying up blocks of seats and reselling tickets for profit off grounds.
