With the June 1 expiration of the law governing the way New York ticket brokers operate, battle lines are being drawn on either side of the issue--some of them dictated, in part, by a recently released New Jersey report on an experiment in "free market" ticket sales.
The New York ticket broker debate centers around whether the industry should be deregulated. The current law allows brokers to charge no more that 10% or $5 over the face value of tickets to entertainment events, including Broadway shows--although additional fees such as service and delivery charges can hike prices by as much as 30%. Brokers and their advocates in Albany complain that the 10% figure is too low and have argued that deregulation is the only way to keep brokers in Manhattan.
Bills addressing the issue hit the legislature floor by March; still, many of the players on both sides were looking down the Hudson to New Jersey for guidance. On April 1, that state concluded an 18-month free-market experiment, during which period ticket brokers were unencumbered by pricing limits. Brokers in New Jersey had previously been limited to a resale on tickets of no more that 20% of the ticket price or $3, whichever is greater. New York State Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County), in particular--who last spring argued for a free-market law--was waiting to examine the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs report on the experiment before deciding whether to put forth a bill.
Skelos' hopes that the report would back his views, however, were dashed, for the document does not come down firmly on either side of the argument. While first dismissing privately submitted reports by the East Coast Ticket Brokers Association (ECTBA) and Citizen Action, a consumer advocacy group, the division went on to state that comparisons of ticket sales in the regulated and deregulated periods "are difficult and imperfect. Not all events are equal, and the popularity of any given event can change markedly from year to year, or even month to month."
The report further states, "The Division cannot definitely conclude that prices fell because of the moratorium. Fewer than half of the brokers from whom data was sought responded. None of the brokers who responded had any data for prices during the pre-moratorium period."
"The New Jersey experiment has been inconclusive," asserted Tracy Lloyd, Sen. Skelos' director of legislation. "In our opinion, they have produced a useless type of document. We were hoping it would be conclusive, but it has not been conclusive in either way."
Lloyd said that Skelos would not draft his own bill on the New York broker law, but instead carry a bill put together by the Consumer Protection Board. The board bill calls for retaining the current 10% or $5 limit plus its surcharge loopholes, while increasing protections for consumers. Lloyd added, however, that the senator's office "hasn't deviated from the position that a fair market approach is the best approach."
The board-Skelos bill will compete in the legislature with a bill proposed by Sen. Roy Goodman (R-New York) which echoes his 1996 attempt, calling for a 30% fee limit while outlawing any additional charges.
Opinions on Report Differ
Skelos' opinion of the New Jersey document is not universally shared. Barbara Janowitz, the League of American Theatres and Producers' director of governmental affairs, agrees that the report is "not a successful one." She added however, that, in her opinion, the division leaned toward a conclusion that a free-market system did not work.
Indeed, the report ends with the contention that "there is no persuasive evidence to suggest that the so-called free market approach to ticket resales has lowered prices or made more tickets available to consumers," and that "there is no compelling evidence that it has ensured equal access for New Jerseyans, nor that it has ensured tickets at lower prices."
The league has lined up behind Sen. Goodman's bill, joining the Shubert Organization and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in support of the measure.
"What the league is concerned with and working for is getting a bill out of Albany that really protects consumers by placing a cap on ticket sales," Janowitz told Back Stage. "Any laissez-faire approach in this issue is asking for a situation that abuses the consumer."
In the past, the league has commented that the deregulation of ticket brokers would force producers to raise ticket prices. Janowitz declined to comment on the reasoning behind that