NUMBER: 9512041971 AUTHOR: Gilyard, Burl; Felder, Denise TITLE: Ticketmasters of the universe. SOURCE: Twin Cities Reader. v21 n39, Oct 4, 1995, p. 17. 1 pages PUBLISHER: Twin Cities Reader STANDARD NO.: 0193-2802 TEXT: Section: TWIN CITIES READER Show TICKETMASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Is the ticketing giant as omnipotent as Pearl Jam thinks? Pearl Jam will go down in rock history as The Band That Fought Ticketmaster. For the last two years, the band has staged a righteous, populist campaign against the ticketing giant, which it charges has prevented the band from staging an affordable tour for their fans. They've testified before Congress and argued that the company holds a ticketing monopoly that grants it effective control over the country's concert business. This summer, the band started an abortive tour, handled by California-based ETM, a fledging ticketing company. But if Pearl Jam has dented Ticketmaster, it's only in psychic terms. In July, the U.S. Department of Justice -- which in 1991 approved Ticketmaster's purchase of primary rival Ticketron -- announced it would not bring an antitrust case against the company. The Minnesota Attorney General's office kept a file on the company from November 1989 to April 1991, when the matter was closed with the knowledge that the feds were beginning to look at the company. Ticketmaster is said to control as much as two-thirds of the major concert-hall business in the country; in the Twin Cities it holds exclusive arrangements with the largest, most frequently used halls. In 1994, the private company reportedly sold 55 million tickets worth $1.6 billion. Corporate conspiracy theorists note that Microsoft cofounder and billionaire Paul Allen now owns 80 percent of Ticketmaster. What often chafes customers are the company's service charges, which are sometimes alluded to in concert ads, but typically not spelled out explicitly until you're on the phone with an operator. A single $18.50 ticket to the upcoming Phish concert at the St. Paul Civic Center, for instance, is boosted by a $4.25 per-ticket service/convenience charge, plus a $1.60 per-order handling charge. The extra $5.85 jacks up the final Phish ticket price by almost 32 percent -- which doesn't even count a $1 per-ticket facility fee. Since 1993, the Better Business Bureau has recorded 18 local complaints against the company. Jane O'Brien, BBB director of operations, says the bulk of the recent complaints concern the company's refund and exchange policy. But she notes that all but two customers have been satisfied with the company's response. In the hypothetical case of the cancellation of the Phish concert, a Ticket-master operator said all charges except the handling costs would be refunded. Local Ticketmaster officials declined to comment for this article without clearance from the company'S L.A. headquarters. L.A. said they would have someone from the local office call; no one did. In the past, Ticketmaster has argued that the fees are the price customers must pay for the convenience of ordering tickets by phone. The company also points out that fans willing to get their tickets at the venue's box office can bypass the fees. Some fees have nothing to do with Ticketmaster. Target Center tickets always include a $1 per-ticket facility fee; the $2 per-ticket restoration fees charged by both the State and Orpheum theaters revert to the city of Minneapolis. Hence a $29.50 ticket to the Chris Isaak show at the State Theatre will include a $4.25 service fee, a $1.60 handling fee and $2 for the city -- $7.85 in charges over and above the base ticket price. But how much does the company really affect the local ticket buyer? In some spheres they're unavoidable, but in many ways Ticketmaster's impact isn't as profound as many believe. * Ticketmaster dominates only a certain segment of the market: mainstream, arena-rock shows where the focus is on selling a lot of single tickets fast. If you favor theater and opera over Tom Petty, you may never deal with the company. Target Center, the St. Paul Civic Center and the State and Orpheum theaters all have exclusive contracts with Ticketmaster, but if you prefer to hear music in local clubs like the Uptown or Lee's Liquor Bar, it's unlikely that Ticketmaster will affect your life. * Ticketmaster or no, added-on service fees are here to stay: Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen's essential innovation during the '80s was to completely reverse the economics of the ticketing business. Whereas venues once paid ticketing companies for their services, Ticketmaster now pays venues and promoters from service-fee revenues. That dynamic is unlikely to change soon. * Concert-going ticket buyers can't choose their ticketing company. Concert halls and theaters sign the contracts with ticketing companies. Neither bands nor fans enter into the equation; hence Pearl Jam's dilemma. People who work with Ticketmaster locally -- from Target Center marketing director Karyn Gruenberg to St. Paul Civic Center box office manager Sam Bartz -- seem uniformly pleased. Brett Young, director of sales for the Historic Theater Group, which handles the State and Orpheum theaters in downtown Minneapolis, praises the company. "I am able to service my clients by using a company like Ticketmaster," he says. "Like Martha Stewart would say, 'It's a good thing.' "Young argues that using an in-house system wouldn't be financially feasible for the theaters and says that he'd have to raise ticket prices. While his Ticketmaster deal is exclusive, he says the company isn't intractable, noting that when Ordway shows are staged in Minneapolis, the company is willing to let the Ordway handle group sales. A few smaller clubs -- including First Avenue, the Cabooze and the Fine Line Music Cafe -- are even beginning to use Ticketmaster for some sales. Lynda Davis of the Cabooze says Ticketmaster will handle seven shows for the club in October, including War and Tab Benoit. She says the Caboose decided to give Ticketmaster a try after seeing First Avenue take the plunge. But the bulk of the club's tickets are sold either at record shops or at the club itself, she says, and she doesn't think Ticketmaster has ever sold more than 100 tickets for a single show. "Basically, it's just an option for somebody if they live far away," Davis says. The Fine Line is now trying to turn any show with a ticket price of $6 or more over to Ticketmaster, while continuing to sell tickets through its own box office. At First Avenue, the club typically limits Ticketmaster sales to 200 tickets per show, again for the benefit of customers outside the metro area. Although promoter Lee Ann Weimar says they've had no problems with Ticketmaster, the club likes to remain faithful to the independent record stores that sell music and tickets for the bands that come to First Avenue. "I have had no problems with them [Ticketmaster] whatsoever," she says. "But we'll never forget our street-level stores." Several local arts institutions that work with a steadier, season-ticket clientele use software from the Madison, Wisconsin-based Prologue Systems to handle ticketing. Twin Cities clients of Prologue include the Ordway, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Children's Theatre Company and Northrop Auditorium. Prologue's sister company, Protix, is among a handful of companies around the country trying to compete head-to-head with Ticketmaster. Protix director of marketing Andy Brolin says, "There's a lot of venue managers out there looking for alternatives, and that's where we're hoping to make our mark." Brolin doesn't consider Ticketmaster a monopoly. "We're generally of the belief that they worked very hard to get where they are and we think they deserve most of their success. They're fond of saying, 'We encourage competition.' We believe that," Brolin says. Still, Protix salivates at the chance to gain a foothold in the Twin Cities market. "We would need someone like the Target Center to change their contract from Ticketmaster to Protix. Then we'd be there in a day with bells on."