Wynn v Scalpers, Round Deux

Psst! Want some Garth tix?

Err, I mean, HEY YOU, WANT SOME GARTH TIX?

Tonight begins the second weekend of Garth Brooks mania at Wynn Las Vegas. You might recall, Wynn has declared war on ticket brokers (aka scalpers) and instituted Draconian ticketing policies. Entire jobs at Wynn have been devoted to stamping out this evil and making sure that everyone at the show has paid $125 plus taxes and fees and not a penny more to Wynn Las Vegas and nobody else.

Except do a little Googling. My niece, Courtney, did. First thing that pops up when you search "Garth Brooks Las Vegas" is a site owned by Eseats.com.


$385 a seat! And they're not even being shy about it! It comes up even before Garth's Wikipedia page!

The further out the show dates are, the more they cost. This is from VividSeats.Com:



These aren't shady outfits, either. Both companies boast being members of the National Association of Ticket Brokers and the Better Business Bureau. And check out VividSeats.Com's BBB rating:



Over on eBay, two "Top Rated Sellers" are hawking seats, too, at vastly inflated prices:


That's surprising because Wynn had specifically asked eBay to stop allowing such sales. Oh well.

So here's the thing: The suckers who buy those seats will not be able to use them. Folks coming tonight -- myself included because I missed media night with the flu -- must pick up the tickets with all members of their parties present and showing ID. They'll get wristbands that can't be removed until the show starts. The tickets say the names of the attendees on them. And there'll be random checks at the showroom door.

And any legit ticket broker knows this.

I'm not fond of the anti-scalping policy -- it smacks of anti-capitalism to me and seems a recipe for customer service disasters -- but this is the plan and it's no secret to people in the business. What happens when someone buys seats from eSeats.Com or Vividseats.Com or an eBay Top-Rated Seller unaware of the Wynn measures? Do these companies that are knowingly trying to skirt the venue's rules lose their A+'s from the BBB or their Top-Rated Seller privileges? Will they be sanctioned by the National Association of Ticket Brokers, whose president told me for my Portfolio.Com piece on the topic last month: "It’s Garth’s show and Steve’s show and they certainly have the right to place terms and restrictions as they so desire.”

Jennifer Dunne, the Wynn spokesqueen, said the resort is bracing for problems on this, the second weekend, even though the first weekend went real smooth. She figures folks who heard how ticketing was handled in December will think they can circumvent the system -- they didn't do the wristband thing for the first show, for example -- but that the Wynn team will keep shuffling the deck to make keep their nemeses off the scent.

"What they’re going to find out when they pick up today is that there's wristbands this time," said Dunne of folks who buy via scalpers. "This is what leads to unfortunate situations."

Wynn has taken some smart measures to help fans and ticketholders who might not be able use their seats. They give full refunds until an hour before the show, resell those tickets in a stand-by line and have been releasing tickets they've canceled (because they found scalpers had bought them) days before shows. And the most interesting approach is a section of the Wynn website under entertainment where fans can enter their information -- their names, when they want to see the shows -- and they get on a waiting list. Those people get dibs when tickets come available. Dunne said there are 40,000 people in that database.

I must run to get our seats and grab dinner. I'll be Tweeting what I find -- including images of our tickets and wristbands -- later, so follow if you care. And, of course, I'll be reviewing the show on the podcast, which we'll record live tomorrow from 4-6 pm PT at LVRocks.Com.

Steve Wynn: Socialist?

On Oct. 13, Steve Wynn went on Fox Business Channel to say this of President Obama's health care aims:

"We are seeing socialism-lite here. It would be OK if it worked, it never works.”

Two days later, he was on the Encore Theater stage with Garth Brooks explaining how he would approach ticket sales for the country singer's comeback appearances:

"People that buy seats are going produce ID. And the ID will be used to identify them when they come for the performance. Our goal is not to have these tickets jacked up to $2-, $3-, $4-, $5oo or $1000, which is the case in Las Vegas. We are taking evasive action from ticket scalpers. [Garth] was very insistent about it."

Am I the only one who sees the contradiction here? Other observers have been intrigued by how Wynn can extol the joys of doing business in totalitarian China while casting aspersions on Obama's efforts to revive a capitalist economy and provide health care for all. But I'm more intrigued by a different paradox.

Isn't shutting down scalpers the same as attacking the free market and capitalism? Aren't they people who make an investment at Wynn's foolishly under-market price of $125 a seat and take the risk that others will want to pay more? Sometimes scalpers are wrong and get stuck with tickets they can't move; that's the nature of the beast, no?

Let's go over the rules as they are published on the Wynn website:

Specific procedures have been put in place in an effort to ensure that the tickets for concerts are accessible to fans at face value and through authorized sales channels exclusively.

Limit 6 concert tickets per order or per person or per credit card. Persons who exceed the ticket limit may have any or all of their orders and tickets cancelled without notice by Wynn Las Vegas, LLC at its discretion. This includes orders associated with the same name, e-mail address, billing address, credit card number or other information. No exceptions.

Tickets will be available for pick-up at Will Call at Wynn Las Vegas after 12 p.m. PT on the day of the concert upon presentation of valid photo I.D., confirmation number and actual credit card used for payment. Under no circumstance will tickets be distributed in advance.

Ticket holders must enter the Encore Theater with their entire party. Wynn reserves the right to request valid I.D. of the ticket holder prior to entry into the Encore Theater at show time. The person who purchased the ticket(s) must be a member of the party entering the theater.

All ticket sales are final and are non-refundable and non-transferable.

No one has the permission of Wynn Las Vegas to sell this ticket for a price in excess of $143.00.

Management reserves the right to cancel any ticket and refund the face value of the ticket to the ticket holder, if management determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that such ticket was purchased from a ticket reseller at an amount in excess of face value.

Tickets must be picked up no later than one-hour prior to show time or will be subject to cancellation with no refund.

That's cold. No refunds. No advance ticket issuances. Final. Non-transferable. No exceptions. Theoretically you could resell them for $143 or less, but how would anyone get in under that circumstances? You can't even, so far as this reads, GIVE AWAY your tickets. Huh.

At the press conference, the crowd -- including journalists!?! -- cheered this anti-scalping effort. But those folks won't be cheering so loudly when they try to surprise Grandpa with tickets for Christmas during his upcoming Vegas trip and realize he can't get in without the presence of the ticket-buyer, who's not going on the trip. Can I call ahead and make such an arrangement? If so, how do you know if that's really my Grandpa or if it's some ticket-broker client? What if I get swine flu three days before the show? I'm stuck with tickets and Garth is stuck with empty seats? Again, I can't even give these seats away?!?

Today, Wynn Las Vegas staff began a thankless game of whack-a-mole. Jade Bailey-Assam, the Tweeter (@WynnLasVegas) wrote: "We're looking for unauthorized sales of Garth Brooks tkts. Please help & tweet links to sites where you see tkts for sale."

Well, gee, how hard could that be? EBay alone has about 100 entries already. Scalpers have figured out the end-run, that they can pick up the seats themselves on the day-of and personally deliver the tickets. A pair of seats advertised as center section Row H on Feb. 12 has 22 bids now and is at $710 right now. That's three times the face value and there's five hours to go on that auction.

The intensive efforts that would have to be undertaken here are unreasonable and prohibitive. It would require someone being hired specifically to do nothing but root out this alleged evil. As Steve Wynn, in his heart of hearts, must appreciate, entrepreneurs will always find a way. Always.

The folks hurt by this? The normal people, actually. They'll be stuck with tickets they can't resell if they really need to and can't give away if they so desire. I thought of a partial solution, but these rules don't allow for it: Wynn should accept refunds less, say, 10 percent. They know they can resell them, so at least that solves the problem of what people can do if their circumstances change at the last minute, if they get sick or snowed out or whatever. This still doesn't solve many other dilemmas herein, though.

I appreciate the idea here. It's admirable. It's nice. Garth wants everyone to enjoy his performances and to pay the face price because that's fair. Wynn wants to oblige his talent to close the deal.

But he might have considered saying this to Garth:

"We are seeing socialism-lite here. It would be OK if it worked, it never works.”