$23 reasons to go to the box office

If you are going to the Andrew Bird show at the Uptown Theater on March 23, here (see below) is why the price of your ticket ($45.60) will be nearly double its face value ($23), if you buy it via Ticketmaster. 

These numbers are taken directly from the Ticketmaster site. This isn't breaking news -- lots of fees larded on the price of every ticket -- it's just a reminder of why you shoould go to the box office whenever possible. For future reference, the Uptown box office is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. You must go into the building and go upstairs into one of the offices to buy the ticket. Directions are posted at the street level box office, at the corner of 37th and Broadway. Fred Cannon, one of the Uptown's managers, said credit cards are welcome. You will be charged the face value of the ticket, he said, and a nominal handling fee of $3-ish. 

• Ticket Price:                 $23.00
• Facility charge:              $ 7.00 
• Convenience charge:      $ 8.75 
• Order processing fee:     $ 4.35 
• TicketFast delivery:       $ 2.50
• Total:                            $45.60

That's $22.60 in extra fees, including the $2.50  "TicketFast" delivery, which gives you permission to print your own ticket on your own paper and with your own ink via your own computer. That's after spending $12.10 in "convenience" and processing charges. BTW: with charges, the $28 ticket will run you $50.75.

Comments

[Steve J]

I will never understand the $2.50 fee for printing a ticket when they will mail you a ticket no charge.

And Midland box office has no service charge, except I always seem to have to pay a buck to park for a 5 minutes.

[J.G.]

I wish there were more concerts in Flint, Michigan so Michael Moore would make a documentary on the evil empire that is Ticketmaster.

[CK]

Isn't it 37th and Broadway, not Main?

[Thomas Ballew]

Yes, the Uptown is on Broadway.

Ticketmaster = highway robbery. Should be outlawed.

[Green]

I thought something was odd when I went to purchase tickets, never seen fees that high before, really odd to see this from someone like Andrew Bird, thanks for the story.

[who-fan]

I try to buy tix and the box office whenever possible and, as some one else mentioned, the Midland is the best - no service charge at all. On the other hand, the Beaumont Club no longer even has a "box office" and you are forced to buy tix thru tickemaster (or at the door), which really stinks.

[Professor]

The Uptown has obviously joined all the other pigs at the trough. $3 fee for a credit card purchase. More than 10% levied on me for using what has become the defacto means of purchasing goods and services in this republic.? GFY. All of these businesses were on board with people swiping their cards when the money flowed like wine. Now, we see a great recession and all of them changing their tone on how much plastic they really want to accept. I work for a retailer that has proposed adding fees to purchase w/ cards. Thankfully the staff has been the voice of reason and reminded them that you can't do that to your customers. You either state cash only, or don't charge me a phukin bogus fee when I swipe my card. Of course the Uptown has proven its greed by continually overselling shows and raping me with $12 beers. Where's the Ghost of Concerts Past when you need him?

[Dean]

You know it costs money to process a credit card, right? When you are selling fixed-cost goods as a third party, it would cost your business money to sell tickets to an event that is in your building but not your event. Not to mention the cost of staffing someone all day, all week to sell tickets to people. You gotta think about it from all angles. I hate fees as much as the next guy but would you all rather it go back to the old days of not knowing what you were paying for? Full disclosure is best.

[Disgruntled Ex-Employee]

YEAH! I WANT FREE EVERYTHING! No need for a business to make money or SURVIVE to employ other people, that's just horrendous! I'm entitled to whatever I want at no cost!

Just like a venue or promoter, Ticketmaster is a BUSINESS, they provide a service. It costs money to operate. You don't have to use it.

Guess what lemmings, the real people to blame are the bands and their agents for gouging promoters out of up to 95% of total ticket take, leaving promoters to be forced to be the bad guys by adding their cost of business on top to mitigate what is a massive financial loss these days if a show doesn't perform.

Oh yeah, when the crowds are sparse guess who takes the blame? Certainly not the artist for not drawing a crowd - they get paid in full (usually an amount equivalent to a sell out crowd) - it's the local promoters.

Shame on them for trying to survive too.

[J.G.]

Hey Disgruntled Ex-Employee,

Maybe if every Tom, Dick and Mary weren't stealing artist's music off torrent sites you wouldn't have to pay $125 to go see that Bob Seger show you cleared your calendar for.

Concert promotion is a crapshoot and anybody who gets into the business learns that the hard way. Sometimes you work your ass off and nobody shows up, sometimes you break even and sometimes you put some cheese in your pocket. Concert attendance big and small is way down across the board and that trend will continue. It ain't stopping anytime soon.

The future of live concert capital gain is webcasting. People want to stay home and play with their toys and if bands and promoters want the consumers' money they're going to have to get with the times and modernize. iConcerts is a great example. Another example would be Phish webcasting their NYE run at MSG for $15 a show each night. All those wookies can sit at home, cradle their bong and watch their heroes noodle for 3 hours a night without ever leaving the counch...and Phish still gets their money.

But your comment that "You don't have to use Ticketmaster" couldn't be more wrong. What's the alternative? Stub Hub? Or a scalper on the street? Some schlub on craigslist? Where would you like people to go to buy their tickets if, as you claim, they "don't have to use Ticketmaster" ?

Maybe you know of some magical secret ticket garden that grows on the outskirts of town where people go to pick front row seats fresh off the vine. Please, if you do, let us know.

[Ellen K.]

Ticketmaster used to charge extra if you paid by credit card when buying at a ticket outlet. Perhaps that's changed because now most sales are online, thus via credit card, and so the cost is fully built in.

I agree on paying extra to print your own tickets not making sense. With Etix (which Knuckleheads uses), it's the opposite, $4.50 extra to have your tickets mailed. Now that makes more sense.

Facilities charge is the one I really don't get. Why is that separate from the base ticket price?

[SinCityDisciple]

A few years ago I paid a total of $32 in service fees for 4 $6 tickets to see Paw @ The Bottleneck. Would have been cheaper to drive to Lawrence to buy the tix in person and then grab lunch at the Brewery.

[live music fan]

Disgruntled Ex-Employee can go screw himself. TicketBastard is a scam, plain and simple, and they don't do anything to justify their outrageous charges. At the most, they should be allowed to add $2 to each order. Why should they be allowed to charge a bogus "Facility charge" and then over price their triple-charging of their services? "Convenience charge", "order processing fee", and "TicketFast delivery" are just different terms for the same action, but they're charging over $15 for $.02 worth of work. Ticketmaster, and anyone who defends them, are worthless.

[Green]

I don't understand all the fees either, so you have the facility charge, guessing that goes to the facility, be it the Uptown or Midland, although I would think there money would be built into the ticket price and drink sales. Next, the convenience charge and order processing fee, this is all ticketmaster, its dumb, it should be one fee per transaction and not per ticket and the you-print ticketFast delivery, total joke seeing how you can have the tickets sent to you for free. Go away ticketmaster, go away!

[Danny]

And ironically with paperless tickets being all the rage, StubHub and the street scalpers will be out of the game as well...but you sure as hell better not get sick before the show because you can't even GIVE your tickets away then.

[Christian Louboutin Wedges]

http://www.louboutins-outlets-us.com