How is Ontario’s ticket resale crackdown being received? Fans and insiders sound off

Local fans and manufacture insiders say the responsibility’s displace to censor the reselling of case tickets for more than their original value is a step in the right direction, but some say there are still larger issues that need to be addressed. 

The announcement was made Friday in a news release and over social media posts by Premier Doug Ford.

This is good news to Michael Brown, a Toronto Blue Jays fan who paid more than three times the face value price for four tickets to a game in last fall’s World Series.

“We were expecting to pay $1,380 and instead the price of those same four tickets was $5,043,” Brown said. €œWe immediately contacted Ticketmaster to try and cancel the transaction. They said that there was nothing that could be done.” 

Stories like his are part of what’s driving the provincial government’s latest effort to crack down on ticket resales. In 2019, the Ford government scrapped an anti-scalping rule that would have capped ticket resales at 50 per cent above face value. But on Friday, the province proposed changes to the 2017 Ticket Sales Act that would prohibit live event tickets from being resold above their original cost.

Alongside the new rules for resales, the province is looking to strengthen requirements against selling fake tickets and to create new policies to curb unfair service charges.

Slater Manzo, a Toronto-based music producer and music fan who frequently attends shows, is optimistic the changes will mean more fans will be able to access the artists they love.

But he also wishes the move had come sooner. 

He feels concert tickets are already too expensive, even before resale, noting he and friends paid $230 each for Lady Gaga tickets last September. 

“That’s already a crazy price per person just to go see an artist, and we weren’t even close to the stage,” Manzo said.

Jonathan Bunce, executive and artistic director at Wavelength Music, a non-profit that puts on concerts and festivals in Toronto, agreed. 

Price inflation often happens before tickets even go to resale, Bunce said. Dynamic pricing is an example of this, where prices are adjusted in real time based on market demand, competitor pricing and customer behavior.

“The real issue is how tickets are priced and who controls the system in the first place,” he said.

Guillaume Moffet, owner of Friends & Family co., an artist development and talent management company, echoed the same sentiment.

Without addressing the monopoly that Ticketmaster and Live Nation has on the industry at large, Moffet said he doesn’t expect attending live events to become much more affordable. 

“My biggest concern is that prices may shift elsewhere, higher base ticket prices, hidden fees,” he said.

“I feel like this is a real celebratory moment for live music and live events,” he said.

When resale prices climb far beyond face value, it risks turning fans off of live shows, Chalut said. 

But now he hopes fewer people will be priced out, allowing audiences to focus on the experience rather than the cost.

“Let’s focus on the art again. Let’s focus on the artists,” said Chalut.

Reporter

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