So what has this year brought. The things that have gone wrong and tits up. The year started with everyone looking towards the “World Cup in South Africa”. But was it with anticipation or fear? I think we all thought it would turn into the nightmare it became. Empty seats, tickets unsold disenfranchised locals etc. Wimbledon saw the surprise of Federer disappearing in the 1st round and Murray not lasting the course (again). We saw investigation into Ticketmaster, GetMeIn, through Anne Robinson and Watchdog. Likely that this is going to run and run. The plus points far outway the bad. The usual scam websites that have blighted the industry, almost disappeared from Google on the days of the big ticket launches of the year. This was helped by many members picking the rogue sites up instantly. The exposure of ASTA-UK this year, has risen to new highs with articles in mainstream Newspapers, Radio and Music Magazines. Most members kept well away from the debacle of Cricket that resulted in big losses for the ECB. The World Cup for England campaign ended up has a damp squid! TWO votes and OUT. We can do without that hassle.

What will next year bring. There will be announcements of tours from the last legs of the ‘Mega’ groups, wanting to make that infamous last pay day. We will be pushing on with the Office of Fair Trading to get the ASTA ’Code of Practice’ accepted. 

Also, February sees the ‘Just Tick It’ campaign set the month aside for ‘Scams Awareness Month 2011′, we will hope to broaden the scope of our alliegence with the Metropolitan Police and the Mobile Phone Crime Unit.

The Public are happier we think as the transparency in the Industry is becoming evident. They know what they are buying – by and large – and their familiarity with the various market, both Secondary AND Primary makes them a much more informed group.

Wishing ALL members and of course the Public for whom we are here, a ‘Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year’.

Well no surprise with that vote. Unconfirmed reports say that England went out in the FIRST round vote. How? We allegedly had 100% in every category needed. Also THREE days ago the rumours going the rounds were saying this would happen, with Russia winning in the 3rd round vote. Something smells in the ‘House of Zurich’.

Today is THE day. The votes are cast, the numbers in, who will win? Are we really bothered. Eight yearsf rom now where will everyone be. While there are a number of advantages to hosting the games, such as publicity for the host country and increased revenue from tourists, there are also a number of potential disadvantages. Hosting the World Cup costs the host country an enormous amount of money. One of the main concerns among nations hosting the tournament, is that the influx of foreigners will drive up the costs of basic goods. According to FIFA, soccer’s main ruling body and the main group responsible for organizing the World Cup, the potential disadvantages of hosting the World Cup, inflation is the biggest concern, believing it would increase the prices of consumer goods. There is also the belief that crime will increase, presumably because of the arrival of thousands wealthy tourists. This asks the question of what will the Police be doing? Will they be trying to combat the increase of this crime and be overstreched in dealing with anything else. This adds to the disadvantage of hosting the World Cup. Can the diversion of resources to manage The World Cup, make sure the games are given proper security and visitors provided proper accommodations. To cover all these costs, the Government might temporarily siphon off some of the services normally provided to its residents.

So to finish, is it really worth while.

Answers to the usual outlets.

The fall out from the paperless ticket revolution continues. American teenyboppers trying to see Justin Bieber, found out to their peril how long they would have to queue to see him. The whole point of this grandios scheme, which is provided by Live Nation Entertainment’s Ticketmaster division, was that the ticket holders have to swipe the credit card that bought the tickets. How many teenagers have that facility (not a lot). Many in the broker community, have complained that Ticketmaster’s offering creates hassles for customers and prohibits them from using cash or buying tickets at the venue box office. We also point out that the system makes simple transfers of tickets to friends or family, for presents, difficult or impossible. One ticket broker, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the night was a mess. He was trying to get the teenagers in but all around him other brokers were having the same problems. In July, the New York Govenor signed a law for a ticket resale bill that requires consumers should receive a choice between paperless or traditional paper tickets at check out. The law was partly designed to avoid the type of problems that occured at this concert. The above ticket broker commented that it’s illegal in New York and they should make it illegal everywhere.                                                         When at an earlier Miley Cyrus concert, the same problems arose, the security people escorted quite a lot of the young teenagers through. Whatever happened to don’t let yourchildren talk to strangers!!

As many of you will have seen, there are a couple of ill informed Scottish MP’s who are attacking “Ticket Touting” again, for all of the wrong reasons. We say “ill informed” as we are aware of the censorship and the cleansing of information given over to these people. Just this morning I responded to this article on the CMU Website: Scottish Politicians try to put Touting Back on the Agenda

On the face of it, the rise of online “Touting” and the lack of regulation seems to be a laudable cause. However, we have serious reservations when only one side of the case is being presented. As we have come to expect from certain corners of the “music industry” and we use the term advisedly as we do know most modern thinking people realise a transparent Music Industry is the way forward.

It was no surprise that my submission was deleted not once, but twice from the contributions box. This was my effort:

10/11/2010 11:34:16#

We, the members of the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents, proposed – in 2008 an “Artists Levy”. We even went so far as to meet several times with the Deutsche Bank who agreed to administer the escrow account for these funds. It was our wish that a percentage of the uplift of the Secondary Ticket sale go back to the grass roots music industry. I worked extremely hard at this and I had the agreement of the Industry. It infuriates me when Secondasry Ticket agents take the blame when things go wrong because as the principal of this scheme I can say irrevocably that it was the self interest of the Music Managers AND the Promoters Association that caused it to fail.

This was an Industry Idea, it was an Industry initiative and it was the “Primary Agents and Promoters” that engineered it’s failure.

I welcome any questions on this point as my notes and diary, including my emails can be produced should anyone be foolish enough to rebuke this.

G Burns Chairman. ASTA

My comments were prompted by this sentence in the article:-

Various efforts to persuade ticket touting websites, which take a commission on each sale, to pay a levy into the live industry failed.

It is quite shameful that the initiative sponsered by the ticketing industry should then be stolen and worse, the true facts be then obscured by an “Industry Leading” publication.

Shame on you!

A look back at the weekends Autumn Rugby Internationals, show a mass of empty seats. How will this be written off. The Welsh Rugby officials have blamed a “blip” for 20,000 empty seats for Wales’ opening autumn international at the weekend. They then continue to say that they are looking at ways of filling the 74,500-seater stadium at the less popular fixtures, especially during the current tough economic climate. ‘Less Popular’, this was the Australians, not Fiji or Samoa. If they cannot sell for this, they must be charging a ridiculous amount which does not help anyone.

Now we come to the Irish. To rigidly adhere to their double-match package right up until kick-off on Saturday, this is to say they were demanding people paid for a double ticket for the South African and Samoan matches. This policy was just sheer stupidity. What price the ticket, was it 80% South Africa, 20% Samoa or why was the price 150 euros? The Aviva Stadium is a wonderful venue for most people. Appalling safety issues have been compounded by seats with obscured views, seats which are drier than others. In fact it could be referred to has a ‘splash zone’ (watch out for Shamu). The gate reciepts because of the missing 15,000 at face value, means a loss of over 1 million.

And that figure does not take into account the cups of tea that were not sold, the sandwiches unmade or the beer bottles left unopened. Even the car park attendant – and let’s not forget, he needs to eat too – went un-tipped!

This rigid selling of over priced tickets by all RFU’s is causing no end of problems to our members.

Again last night, Watchdog had their not so sly dig at the Tickmaster, Getmein second episode. All to do with Take That. Sublety, thay mentioned that Ticketmaster sold out instantly, but surprise, surprise, Getmein had THOUSANDS (at inflated prices). These, of course, are for sale by (genuine fans) not that Ticketmaster do not take their big percentage from these. This topic will not go away and the Watchdog programme WILL proceed with further installments.

It is nice to see the heat in a different kitchen.

Watch this space.

 The rush of the last week seems to have subsided and we are waiting for the next Tsunami to hit. The e-mails and phone calls are still stacking up but they are all being addressed. The consumers, (99%) are more than happy when they get either a call or e-mail confirming they have not been scammed. You cannot please all the people and the 1% do not want to hear any good news. The bad news for them, is when we have to tell them that they have bought from a website running a scam. Even the government has got involved; Business Secretary Vince Cable warned punters to stay away from unfamiliar ticket sellers: “No one should get ripped off by scam websites. Take That fans who think they may have been scammed should contact Consumer Direct for advice.” How does he know what a scam website is? We have our industry people checking daily for these and have been successful in having them removed. We even tried to help The Take That forum with advice but unfortunately they declined our offer.

Today is the day. Overload on the websites and the world comes crashing down. From early doors the traffic was just too much. It is not only the legit people but the number of scams that literally appeared overnight. The usual suspects have again come out of the woodwork for their get rich quick schemes. The phones have been non stop, the e-mails are stacking up, with questions of  “have we been scammed”?. Our replies seem to calm consumers down but their are still certain members of the public who want cast iron guarantees and we are telling them to only purchase from companies that are afilliated to regulated bodies. This is only the start, once the initial rush is over, the second wave will be released.

We are bracing ourselves!

A footnote to our previous delving into the ‘World according to Sepp Blatter’.

FIFA has suspended two of its top officials as it probes reports they solicited bribes in exchange for supporting 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids. Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii are barred from taking part in any soccer-related activity — whether it is administrative tasks, athletic competitions or otherwise. The bans take effect immediately, though the move is “provisional” and could be reversed as the investigation continues.

“Our society is full of devils and these devils, you find them in football,” FIFA President Sepp Blatter told the press conference in Zurich. “We have to fight for fair play. We have to fight for respect and especially we have to fight that the people in charge of FIFA behave as they should do. If this is not the case then we have to intervene.” At least some sort of action has been seen to be taken. If there is now going to be open infighting amongst all these delegates, how long will it take for them to make the final decision. They have also, at long last, decided to look to embrace ‘New Technology’. Tenders are out for addressing of goal line technology only which is still an even bigger embarassment than the vote buying. We all know of the disasters of South Africa and we are hoping the next World Cup runs smoother. Well we can ALL dream. When you read Blatter’s comments, you can can see parallels with our own industry, especially the devils and the fair play.