NUMBER: 9711063295 TITLE: Rock 'n' ripoff? SOURCE: Consumer Reports. v62 n11, Nov 1997, p. 7. 1/2 pages PUBLISHER: Consumers Union STANDARD NO.: 0010-7174 TEXT: Magazine: Consumer Reports November, 1997 Section: Front Lines In The Marketplace ================== ROCK 'N' RIPOFF? ---------------- Fleetwood Mac is on the road after a 10-year hiatus, but there's one thing missing from all the ads for the rock group's 36-city U.S. tour: ticket prices. The aging supergroup is not alone. Ticket prices have been disappearing from more and more concert ads for four or five years. Why? "Concert promoters don't want to scare people away with the price," says Bob Grossweiner, New York bureau chief for Performance magazine, which covers the music business. What fan will balk at the price after elbowing to the box office or speed-redialing through jammed ticket phone lines? Most are glad to grab the ticket - before someone else does. But there's plenty for consumers to complain about these days. For their part, bands are cranking up prices as eagerly as they turn up the amps: $52 for U2; $78 for Sting, and up to $82 for the Rolling Stones. Fleetwood Mac will squeeze as much as $125 a pop for its Oct. 19 engagement at the Irvine (Calif.) Meadows. Ticket prices for top acts were up 39 percent in the first half of this year versus the same period last year. Price hikes were a big reason, although bigger bands are touring this year. There are other hands in fans' pockets, too. Concert venues in the past two years have begun tacking on a $1 to $2 "building facility charge." And Ticketmaster, which dominates U.S. concert ticket sales, piles on an average $2 handling charge on phone and Internet orders. Add to that a Ticketmaster convenience charge that averages $3.50, a 6 percent increase over last year. The price of convenience for the Stones' Sept. 25 concert at Soldier Field in Chicago hit $8 per ticket. Many bands now offer two-tier pricing so the plebes can still rock and roll. Still, a cheap seat at a recent Fleetwood Mac concert at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., fetched $45. Some bands reserve only the last two rows for cheaper seats. Because of Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts with more than 3500 venues - including the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Madison Square Garden in New York, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and nearly all major concert halls - the only way to avoid phone-sale surcharges is to camp out at the box office.