Manitoba concert industry looks for big changes to combat ticket scalping

Concert producers, venue owners and ticket sellers hope the Manitoba government will listento their advice about updating legislation on secondary ticket selling also known as ticketscalping.

Industry leaders met with government officials Wednesday about changes they think are needed to Manitoba's ticket-selling laws.

Fans who try to click their way to some prime seats online are frustrated by the high cost of tickets and their lack of availability.

• Winnipeg concert fans fed up with scalpers asking $10K for a seat

The Progressive Conservative government promised to bring in new legislation on secondary ticket sales in their throne speech last year.

Kevin Donnelly, the senior vice-president of venues andentertainmentfor True North Sports and Entertainment and a longtime Winnipeg concert promoter,has seen too many fans arrive at the arena painted in their favouriteteam colours, or parents with a child in tow expecting to see Justin Bieber, only to find out the tickets they bought from a secondary website or Kijijiaren't valid.

"It is immensely frustrating and disheartening. Somebody has boughta ticket thinking they are going to come in and take in an event, whether it's a sporting event or concert, and when you are buying from any of these sites, any place other than Ticketmaster, we can't give any statement that the ticket is valid," Donnelly said.

"Especially if it is on a Kijiji site or something, that ticket may be duplicated numerous times over and you never know, as the purchaser, if it's valid or not. So we see countless people coming to the door and not able to get in because their ticket is fraudulent."

The concert business has changed radically since Donnelly started as a promoter and people physically lined up in downtown Winnipeg to buy ticketsto see their favourite acts.

Now the bulk of tickets move online.

• 'The whole system is rigged': An insider exposes what stands between you and the ticket you want

Case in point seatsfor this summer's EdSheeran concert go on salenext week, but there arealreadyseveral websites offering the tickets.

The momenttickets go on sale to the general public through Ticketmaster, ticket brokers deploy computer botsto scoop up blocks of tickets. Those seats are then re-sold through websites such as Stubhub, often for several times the originalface value of the ticket.

They get away with the practice because the ticket brokers don't physically operate in Manitoba and aren't subject to provincial lawsthat make reselling tickets for more than their face value illegal.

True North wants to give fansguarantee

Donnelly saysManitoba is virtually the only jurisdiction in North America whereit's against the law to resell tickets for more than the original price.

It means True North can't resell tickets in competition with those ticket brokers and fanscan't be sure what they'vebought online.

He wants the provincial government to change the laws and allowTrue North to start its own reselling site.

"We are in this conversation to try and level the playing field so we can provide a safe place for our consumers to go and buy and sell tickets, because they are currently going to an unsafe place to buy and sell tickets," Donnellysaid, addinga True North reselling site would assure fans they're buying genuine tickets.

Beating the bots

The convenience of buying concert tickets from your computer, phone or iPadhas also ushered in a huge industry of seat reselling.

It drives companies such as Ticketmasterto distraction as they watchticket brokersfrom all over the world using computer botsto hooverup tickets seconds after they go on sale to the public. Ticketmasterspends millions of dollars a year trying to combat the bots.

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Ticketmastershut down 5 billionbotslast year, according to chief operating officer Patti-Anne Tarlton. Butnew ones pop up and grab tickets. The company is committed to fighting"the bad operators," she said.

"When we talk about bots, it's a use of technology at a speed faster than a fan can purchase a ticket to try and circumvent the rules."

The rules Tarltonis talking about are those in place from the content provider the sportsteam or theartist that may limit a fan to only four tickets, but are easilyignored by ticket brokers.

Tarlton says a good start for provincial governments is to ban the bots.

"If you were tosayin Manitoba, for example, that bots are illegal, from a Ticketmaster perspective a global grand perspective we are already working in other jurisdictions. So to the extent that we can use local legislation in a jurisdiction that's helpful," Tarlton said.

Ontario is considering how it should change its own legislation and has asked for public feedback.

• 'Scalper bots' that scoop up concert tickets to be outlawed in Ontario

Consultations with stakeholders in Manitoba have only just begun and it's unlikely new legislation will make it into the current session of the legislature, but the minister of culture is committed to changingthe rules.

"We know it's heartbreaking when families show up at the MTS Centre or the Investors Group Field, they've got tickets in their hands, they paid for those tickets and they are denied because unbeknown to them they bought tickets on the secondary market and they weren't valid," saidRochelle Squires.

Asked when the legislation will arrive, shesaid Manitobans should"stay tuned."