Bill requiring competitive concert ticket sales in Florida stalls at entry gate

Image via AP.

A renewed effort to return soaring event ticket prices to levels more affordable to the Florida masses hit a snag in its first hearing.

After failing to see sufficient support among members of the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, Lake Mary Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur, the bill’s (SB 204) sponsor, postponed a vote on it.

Brodeur’s measure and its identical House companion (HB 177) by Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade are the latest in a yearslong push to counteract what many consider to be a monopoly for event ticket sales.

So far the monopoly holder, Ticketmaster — which according to a Yale University study controls more than 70% of the market for ticketing and live events, including 80% for live concerts — has stymied those efforts with help from its venue partners.

“It’s time we fundamentally disrupt the way tickets are being sold. The once simple experience of wanting to buy a concert ticket and go or maybe give your tickets to your friend has become so complicated by the monopoly that is dominating that really at every level, (and it) ultimately hurts the consumer,” Brodeur said, adding that no one asked him to file his bill.

“I’m an American. I’ve gone to a concert. I don’t like it. This is not a partisan issue.”

Brodeur cited recent examples like $4,000 tickets to see Taylor Swift, $5,000 tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and Bad Bunny tickets that have shot up 35% since 2019 to four-figure sums.

He pointed to a joint lawsuit in 19 states, including Florida, filed in 2010 to prevent the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. A 2019 investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also found Ticketmaster/Live Nation violated the rules of an agreement to prevent them from further becoming monopolistic. The DOJ opened another investigation into the matter three years later.

Brodeur pointed to legislation in California, Illinois, New York and Tennessee designed to impose “consumer friendly protections” and counteract “the chaos.”

He said his measure is “fundamentally different” from those proposals and others the Florida Legislature has considered, including one that failed last year, because it only applies to venues that have received public funding.

“If the public has already helped purchase the venue, why are they continuing to get fleeced when they go to purchase a ticket to go to said venue?” he said.

Before yanking his measure from consideration, Brodeur unveiled a strike-all amendment making clear it applied only to venues that have taken public dollars and classifying tickets as private property.

He later filed another amendment limiting the bill’s strictures to venues with more than 3,000 seats.

Several attendees signaled approval and opposition for SB 204. Gerard O’Rourke of Converge Public Strategies showed support for the measure. Ballard Partners lobbyist Matt Forrest, representing the Florida Entertainment and Arts Venues Association and the New York Yankees, said his group was against it.

So did David Touhey, a former manager of the James L. Knight Center and Wasco Center in Miami who now represents the International Association of Venue Managers.

Touhey said Brodeur’s bill, by prohibiting live performance venues from entering into sole-source contracts with ticket-selling platforms, would actually lead to “further fraud and price manipulation.” Banning those arrangements, he said, would strip control of price-setting from artists and marketers, and the result will be even worse ticket costs than consumers are seeing today.

“Many artists have recently enacted policies that only allow the transfer of tickets at the original cost in order to ensure their fans get access to tickets at the prices they should,” he said. “This is important to artists and events to ensure the positive experience of their fan base, and it is certainly important to the ticket purchasers to ensure they have fair access and they pay the right price for tickets.”

Touhey did not explain, nor did any member of the committee inquire, why it took so long for such anti-price-gouging safeguards to be put in place.