Case Study: In the New York Market, Ticket Prices Are Coming Down

By Alfred Branch, Jr. – TicketNews.com

Interested in seeing Genesis at Giants Stadium in late September? You’re in luck, if you’re looking for a bargain. A quick survey recently of some secondary ticketers revealed that not only were tickets available, but at some surprising prices.

For example, TicketsNow, the nation’s second-largest secondary ticket seller according to TicketNews’ exclusive ranking, was recently selling premium seats for the September 27 Genesis show for $150 a piece, not including nominal convenience and shipping fees.

Similar tickets for the same show available at Ticketmaster.com, the official primary ticket seller for the concert, were selling for face value, $227 plus nominal convenience and shipping charges. . .

The prices of tickets offered for events in the New York area, often by brokers in the region, are falling. And, often at prices well below the original face value.

Prior to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s June 1 signing of legislation that made ticket reselling legal in the Empire State, critics of the move were convinced that a free market would explode ticket pricing, making events unreachable for all but the wealthy and corporate clients.

But, such is not the case.

With Broadway, its major concert venues and premiere sports teams, New York is one of the most lucrative ticketing markets in the country, if not the world. So, there will always be premium prices being charged for hot shows or sporting events, and people willing to pay those premium prices. But, less than two months since New York opened the gates to an open ticket market, the sky isn’t falling but ticket prices are.

Reunion tours from aging ‘80s rockers aren’t the only ones susceptible to falling prices – at least Val Halen certainly hopes that’s not the case. On the current American Idols Live tour, tickets for the August 24 show at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island were selling briskly, but some ticket prices were low. TicketLiquidator.com and TicketsNow were selling tickets with a face value of $39.50 for as little as $11. Some $49.50 face valued tickets were going for amounts in the $20 range.

Tickets for New York Jets and Giants pre-season games, and New York Rangers and Islanders pre-season games, were seeing the same types of reductions. These are day-of ticket dumps or sell-offs, these were tickets for events weeks in advance.

“We’re seeing it regularly,” said one New York City ticket broker of price drops. “The old adage is still true, that a ticket is only really worth what people are willing to pay for it.”

The market forces of supply and demand appear to be alive and well.