An elderly couple recently spent over $400 on tickets to see Sierra Ferrell from a third-party website. Upon learning that the show would not have chairs, they tried to get a refund. The scalper refused to issue a refund – a clear violation of the American Disabilities Act (ADA) – and when the couple tried to resell the tickets themselves, they realized no tickets had ever been sent over.
In another case, a mother bought concert tickets on a resale platform as a 21st birthday present for her son – a diehard Louis the Child fan. After spending hundreds of dollars and flying out for the show, the mom received a devastating day-of-show message from the third-party site notifying her that no tickets were available.
On a nightly basis, Coloradans are getting the rug pulled out from under them by ticket scalpers engaging in deceptive ticketing practices.
Fortunately, the Colorado General Assembly passed a solution that would prevent these shady acts from happening. Led by Senators Robert Rodriguez and Mark Baisley, and Representatives Lindsey Daughtery and Mandy Lindsay, the bipartisan Senate Bill 60 passed overwhelmingly this year.
Also known as the Consumer Protection in Event Ticketing Sales Act, this bill outlaws the anti-consumer practice of speculative ticketing and deceptive websites, ensures that those who need ADA seats can actually obtain them, and allows venues to take tickets back from scalpers who violate venue policies and then sell them to legitimate fans.
It’s now up to Gov. Jared Polis to sign SB 60 into law and right the live event experience for Coloradans once and for all.
As Colorado venue operators and event presenters, we’ve been around the Colorado music scene for a long time. The recent stories we’ve heard from our state’s great venues, artists and fans about the barriers to securing access to event tickets continue to be unprecedented and deeply troubling.
Sadly, these stories are not one-offs – they are nightly occurrences in every venue across Colorado. We watch helplessly night after night as fans young and old have their hearts broken by ticket scalpers. The story goes that the fan purchases the ticket on a deceptive website or fake social media account or buys a ‘speculative’ ticket that the reseller never had to begin with.
When reaching out for support, the scalper doesn’t answer the fan’s calls or return their emails and our venue box offices are unable to refund their tickets as they were purchased from third-party bad actors.
These current unchecked practices don’t just hurt fans – they rob Colorado businesses like ours of hard-earned revenue. As venue operators, we often learn after doors open that what we thought was a sold-out show is only 60-70% full because scalpers couldn’t get rid of their tickets.
We’ve now lost 30-40% of our anticipated food and bar revenue, our labor costs are unnecessarily high and to top it all off, we just paid the band top dollar on a deal based on gross ticket sales only to find out more than 30 days later that these scalpers claimed “fraud” and the credit card companies in turn have refunded them back thousands of dollars.
In the current system, everyone loses … except for the ticket scalpers.
SB 60 will go a long way towards ending these harmful practices and putting the power back in the hands of the everyday Coloradans who make up – and support – the state’s vibrant live events industry. It is our hope that the governor will sign this bill to support Colorado’s venues and stop ticket scalpers, who are backed by out-of-state resale platforms like StubHub that serve as a safe haven for price-gouging, from taking advantage of Coloradans.
Gov. Polis – on behalf of our strong Colorado coalition of local artists, sports teams, venues, promoters, and businesses that employ thousands of Coloradans across the state, we ask that you please sign SB 60 into law.
David Weingarden is the vice president of concerts and events at Z2 Entertainment and chair of the Colorado Independent Venue Association. Paul Andrews is the president and CEO of the National Western Stock Show and Complex. Michael Goldberg is the owner of Belly Up Aspen.
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