ASTA Are Proud to Support


ASTA Supports Centrepoint

Centrepoint is the leading charity for homeless young people.
Every day we provide housing, life skills training, work placements and support to over 700 young people, giving them the foundation to start tackling the issues that led to them becoming homeless and to develop the skills they need for a brighter future.


In Partnership With
LiveUK & Audience UK
The Music Event of 2012
LiveUK
ASTA & it's Members Support Live Music

NATB (For US Information)
National Association of ticket Brokers

Over The Moon???

The latest fiasco coming out of the Illustrious Olympic Organizing Committee involves nothing to do with Athletics, Football etc. It seems they approached that infamous Rock Group ‘The Who’, to see if Keith Moon would be interested in rejoining the group for either the Opening or Closing Ceremonies to show of our dominance of the 60s and 70s world music. How is it then that no one realized that Keith Moon, who gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname “Moon the Loon”, died from a prescribed drug to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms on  7 September 1978.  Moon was cremated on 13 September 1978, at Golders Green Crematorium in London and his ashes scattered in its Gardens of Remembrance.

The band’s manager, Bill Curbishley, said ”I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who’s anthemic line ‘I hope I die before I get old’.

“If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him.”

It may be far better if The Olympic Committee addressed any further correspondence to this address and see if they get even more of a reaction.

Share

Michael Rangos, the UberTout, faces an Eyewatering Tax Bill

Michael Rangos, serial scammer and someone who has cost the taxpayer dearly may finally have met his match. It looks like he joins a long list of slippery crooks headed by the infamous Al Capone who thought they had got away with it. Only to be killed off by the taxman! Read the rest of this entry »

Channel 4 Dispatches: “Let He Who Is Without Sin…”

we welcome tonight’s programme “the Great Ticket Scandal” as it promotes transparency in a marketplace all too lacking in same! Something this organisation has called for for years. It clearly demonstrates that not everyone has been completely truthful. The Advertising Standards Agency have actually taken action last year against Seatwave for advertising themselves as a “Fan to Fan” website when they are clearly not. Viagogo’s attempt at an injunction to stop the programme was misguided in the extreme and it is little wonder that it failed.

There are some individuals in Law Enforcement who would do well to pay particular attention to that part of the law which makes it a criminal offence to lie or otherwise mislead a Parliamentary Sub Committee. And then reconsider their relastionship with that organisation.

JLS ALERT

Be very AWARE of this  Website!!!!

jls-tickets.com is a SCAM website.

Avoid this like the Plague. It has been brought to our attention and through our people in the know, that this is the latest attempt to lure the public into parting with their well earned money. They DO NOT have tickets, so DO NOT be taken in by them. We have warned you of many other scam sites in the past and this is just the latest in a long line.

Share

The Net Closes In??

The whistle has been blown on the “Whistleblower”. Word coming out of the USA is that the FBI are looking into the financials of Chuck Blazer, the man who helped with the downfall of Jack Warner in FIFA. Now the spotlight has turned to payments to Blazer accounts in the Cayman Island and Bahamas. Blazer is contracted to work for Concacaf but several payments have come from the Caribbean Football Union, a separate part of the regional confederation, tightly controlled by Warner for two decades. Blazer denies any impropriety. The most recent payment of $250,000 was in March this year, before the split. Blazer deposited the cheque in a Bahamas account and initially claimed it was ‘repayment of a personal loan.’ However Blazer now claims that Warner may have misused the CFU account and says he is prepared to repay the money.When asked about his offshore accounts and dealings, declined to answer whether any had been reported to American Tax or IRS. One such strange asset, happens to be a vintage antique Mercedes 300 “Adenauer” Saloon valued at around £80,000 that he had renovated over a two-year period. Blazer declines to explain why the car is registered in Zurich as belonging to FIFA. (Never mind a ticket,would you buy a car off this man?). Chuck gets good press in the USA over his ‘whistleblowing’ duties but, the replacement of ‘good ole Jack’ caused him to be sacked as a priority. This led to FIFA firing Austen and re-enstating Chuck! It is laughable that FIFA enjoys a status as a not for profit sporting organization. It is actually a sinister business organization operated by robber barons with no regard for ethics or integrity; power is all that matters.After Blatter’s farcial re-election on June 1, opposed by the English and Scottish FAs and a monstering by the world’s media at a post election press conference – he disappeared, re-emerging in Baku clasping the hand of Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev who guarantees a warm press, encouraged by the torture and imprisonment of critical reporters. Later Blatter turned up in Zimbabwe to an ecstatic greeting from Robert Mugabe. These are two of the most tyranical rulers in the world or should this mean three?Where next? The Commitee including Placido Domino and Henry Kissinger to help clean up Fifa appears to have evaporated.Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has called for the game’s top clubs to clean up football as he believes FIFA can no longer be relied upon to govern properly.Rummenigge, wants clubs to instigate a revolution in the game. This would mean once again Football running Football.

Share

What next for FIFA?

Where do we start with Joseph Sepp Blatter and FIFA? The appointment of Henry Kissinger to investigate could spell the end of his reign. Kissinger’s secretive consultancy firm tightly controlled the so-called Olympic reform process in 1999 after the catastrophic scandal in Salt Lake City. Also Kissinger worked on the failed American bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, so it could become personal between them.The big powers behind the throne, are not the FIFA members, but the Sponsors, or partners that FIFA likes to call them.Coca-Cola, Adidas, Visa and the other global brands that pay for his presidential life style and the comforts that keep his members voting for him. It does not take them long to drop people, with the many get out clauses in contracts (Wayne Rooney a case in point?).This could also be the American power grab for world football, a sport that is now globally popular, too dripping in money to be left under the control of the third-rate clowns who’ve reduced it to a daily scandal show.In Zurich last week, if the World’s Press hadn’t been so busy abusing the English and Scottish FA’s attempts to clean up FIFA they could have strolled to the nearest newsstand and bought a copy of one of the weekly newspapers Handelszeitung.According to their headlines ‘Kickbacks: Fifa blocks release of documents’. Their reporter Jean-Francois Tanda revealed that FIFA had gone to court in the canton of Zug on May 24 in a desperate attempt to stop publication of the final report by theInvestigating Magistrate. This sums up an eight-year probe into the bribes by FIFA’s top officials from the ISL marketing company. The report is sitting in the Zug prosecutor’s office. It won’t gather dust. Like usual with such a damning report, FIFA will delay things through the courts and this process could take at least 12 months maybe more.What are the sponsors saying in public? Adidas talk about ‘the negative tonality’ Coca-Cola, ‘The current allegations are distressing and bad for the sport’  McDonald’s: “We expect that the current issues will be resolved in the best interest of the game” Emirates is ‘disappointed’ as for Visa: ‘The current situation is clearly not good for the game and we ask that FIFA take all necessary steps to resolve the concerns’. Lastly Budweiser: ‘It is our expectation that FIFA will address and resolve this situation in an expedient manner, we are watching the current situation very closely and expect FIFA to resolve these issues in a right and proper manner’.THREE out of the five are all USA Companies, Kissinger will have open and direct lines of communication with ALL of these.Who else will be on this Committee? Kissinger, Johan Cruyff and the Tenor Placido Domingo. We think it will take more than ‘A Tenor’ to sort out over $100 million in bribes from a marketing company.

Share

Ticketindex.net – the biggest scam yet?

Possibly the biggest ticket scam ever, Ticketindex.net leave thousands outside Take That concerts. But is that the end of it? Read the rest of this entry »

Whats to come?

Is the year about to explode into life? The next couple of up and coming months offer things on the horizon. Then we are faced with the usual summer month lull. Membership is on the up and we are ALL sticking together. Across the pond, they are revisiting the paperless ticketing in New York, but some of the big acts are considering their options of whether to tour in the state that brings the legislation in. UEFA wants to crackdown on ticketing sales. Are they trying to divert flak away from their internal problems and the FIFA bribes scandals. Will Blatter get back in or will the next man, Mohamed Bin Hammam, be any different. Thanks to members vigilance, scammers are now being found out quicker than they ever thought they would. Even the Primaries are changing direction with the promise of tickets being delivered soon after they are purchased. We are sceptical of the RFU’s attack on ViaGoGo as this has been orchestrated by no less a person than that bastion of “legitimate ticketing” Mr Nicholas Bitel, the infamous leader of Max, Bitel, Greene Solicitors at Law and representatives of the English Croquet Association. Esteemed indeed. It will of course push the whole of the Rugby Ticket sales offshore and to the advantage of Mssrs. Bitel and the disadvantage of the consumer. We wonder who he will pick up the cudgel for next? The English Cricket Board? The Ryder Cup? One thing is for certain, he won’t delay!

THE Paperless Monopoly!

Over in the ‘Good Ole USA’, unrest is gaining momentum over Ticketmaster’s proposal of moving to a ‘Paperless Ticket’ Society. The latest dissenting voice comes from ‘The Atlantic’ magazine. The editor raises the issues that everyone could see happening from the first time it began to raise it’s ugly head.

For starters, how would these restrictive paperless tickets work? The Primary ticketing agencies would then have sole control over sales, restricting the transfer of tickets and allowing them to be resold only on their own exchanges (at their highly inflated price). You purchase these paperless tickets with a credit card and must provide the same credit card and a photo ID at the event venue. A swipe of the credit card at the gate produces a slip confirming the location of the reserved seat. The ticket cannot be transferred, sold or given away to another consumer. Either of these systems would make consumers worse off. Consumers would not be able to purchase tickets for friends or family has gifts. Would you have to give YOUR credit card to the people going to the event? The restricted transfer system would allow Ticketmaster to extend its monopoly of ticketing to the secondary market. It would control the fees, prices, and processes for resale of tickets. This would eliminate consumers’ rights to transfer or sell a ticket.

From Ticketmaster’s point of view, it would make great sense. At the moment, they control a large percentage of the World market, this would give them 100% control. This practice  appears to be anti-competitive and would therefore mean them having a monopoly. 

For all their idea of saving a few more trees from being cut down, the underlying fact is, that it is one more way of them cornering the worldwide market.

Share

Kettle – Pot – Black! Harvey at it again.

Mr Harvey Goldsmith, that well known entrepreneur has, at the Event Production Show at Olympia chosen to attack his favourite whipping boys,the “Ticket Touts” – throwing derogatory comments about  ebay in for goodmeasure.

Mr Goldsmith is essentially calling for a ban on Ticket Resale to “protectthe consumer”! Come on Harvey, who are you kidding? Let me explain the laws of simple supply and demand to you, in many, manyinstances, demand far outweighs supply and anyone with a modicum ofbusiness acumen will tell you this in turn drives up the price. And if youare the Promoter, and you have kept the best seats back because we all know the nosebleed section is sold first, you can then sell all the prime stock you are still holding for a premium!So,to recap: Mr Goldsmith is breaking current consumer law with hisdraconian Terms and Conditions, further threatens the Consumer who hasbought his ticket in the first place and then wants sole control over thesupply of those tickets.

As a consumer myself I have long since wondered who it is exactly willoversee the Promoters? It really makes me wonder about the current proposals as outlined by Sharon Hodgson MP. Who is it behind that I wonder as I have my suspicions.Purportedly spurred on over her inability to purchase “Take That” ticketsMs Hodgson has proved to the Ticket Industry as a whole that she has noidea at all as to how the Industry operates. She too has been hoodwinked by these self same Promoters Harvey Goldsmith claims to represent. “I can’t buy any tickets” she cried! Why not we wonder? Can’t anyone in the Hodgson household operate a computer? She herself claims she can – well if that is indeed the case – jump onto the Ticketmaster website and “Take That” your favourite band has plenty of availability this morning for Sunderland Tickets, her constituency, ranging in price from £75 to £300+. Helpyourself though we do fail to see the “added value” she is bleating onabout actually is with a £300+ ticket to see the same band a £75 ticketwill get you. Standing a bi t closer to the stage we presume? Then Harvey himself whinges that “the current way in which tickets aredistributed is ‘appalling’, and that as a promoter” That’s IT Harvey, AS APROMOTER you have TOTAL control over the ticket distribution and we inviteyou to get your act together and distribute the tickets in a fair andTRANSPARENT manner that the Consumer gets a fair chance at buying them. Furthermore, we the Industry support an Industry sponsored solution to thecrooks and neer’ do wells who latch onto this industry and fleece thepublic. Every time we turn around there is a another call for “GovernmentAction”. Why? We know better than anyone what the problems are in thisIndustry and we are best placed to fix them. I think you forget MrGoldsmith, a genuine Ticket Broker relies on repeat custom – not a one offkilling – so they can continue in business as long as they have.

Share