So how do ticket brokers get concert tickets before you?
Ticketmaster and its relationship to secondary ticket sellers was in the news a lot throughout 2018. Billboard rounds out the coverage with this article on how ticket brokers manage to get to concerts before you.
Country star Eric Church and his management team are known for pushing back against ticket scalping; on his 2017 tour, they canceled the tickets of brokers and those they suspected were professional resellers.
But this October, a little over a week before Church’s upcoming Double Down Tour stop at Staples Center in Los Angeles went on sale to the public, secondary ticketing firm DTI emailed ticket brokers to notify them of a chance to buy Church tickets for resale, asking for minimum orders of 60 seats at $137 a pop — the same price that would be offered to fans.
“Exclusively for active DTI members, I have a small window to help you acquire Eric Church,” wrote Jason Lai, vp partnerships at DTI Management, in the email.
Lai cautioned that “due to the fact that it is Eric Church, there are no guarantees of the request being fulfilled.” But Lai knew that Church would have a hard time canceling the tickets being offered for his L.A. shows because they were part of Staples Center’s Premier section. The collection of 2,500 seats along the upper perimeter of the lower bowl is first offered for purchase by Staples owner AEG to individuals who have already paid as much as $18,000 per seat for tickets to the four sports teams that play at the arena. Staples’ Premier seat program is similar to season-ticket platforms offered at nearly every other arena and amphitheater in the United States.
