Legal Eagles Need To Forget The Law Books And Stand In Line

Janet Reno, our nation’s attorney general and a real terror in the mosh pit, probably never has had to stand in line for her Lollapalooza tickets.

She’s probably never had the price of her Wrestlemania seats jacked up by a service charge and a convenience charge on top of a facility fee.

She’s probably never tried to buy “Miss Saigon” tickets on the phone and, while on hold, put up with ads for a credit-card company, a so-called entertainment guide and the original cast album.

We know Reno never has had to do any of these things because, if she had, there is no way her Justice Department would be so quick to shut down its antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster.

Reno’s underlings offered a meek two-sentence statement last week explaining that even though they “will continue to monitor competitive developments in the ticketing industry,” there will be no lawsuit at this time.

Anyone who has tried to do business with Ticketmaster - from the rock group Pearl Jam to poor embattled ticket buyers like you and me - since the government allowed it to buy up rival Ticketron in 1991 will tell you it couldn’t be more of a monopoly if it sold its tickets out of little green plastic houses and red hotels.

The entertainment-industry newsletter Pollstar has reported that two-thirds of the nation’s concert arena seats are bound by exclusive contracts between Ticketmaster and the arenas, some publicly owned.

And the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s study of 80 recent events from California to Maryland found Ticketmaster fees upped ticket prices an average of 27 percent.

Now no one is saying that there shouldn’t be some cost for the convenience of buying tickets by phone or at your neighborhood department store or CD peddler, though, in some cases, that is the only place you can buy tickets. There sometimes is no mail-order or box-office option.

But there are no controls on Ticketmaster’s fees, too few alternatives for the ticket buyer who wants to avoid its added (sometimes hidden) costs, and too few safeguards to ensure scalpers don’t wind up with the best seats.

The system is flawed in ways that increased competition and/or stricter regulation would solve. Yet, while several states are continuing to investigate, the Justice Department doesn’t see this as a serious enough problem to get involved.

How huge and powerful is Ticketmaster? When even an enormously popular group such as Pearl Jam, outspoken in its opposition to Ticketmaster’s fees, is unable to mount a concert tour because nearly all the suitable venues are tied up in exclusive deals with the behemoth ticket broker, you have to wonder.

And there’s plenty of time to wonder when you’re on the phone, being force fed advertising. That’s not convenience. That’s annoying, and it’s expensive.

But that, sadly, is the Ticketmaster that everyone, save for possibly Janet Reno, has come to expect - and with the arrogance that being unchallenged as the only game in town affords, it only stands to get worse.