Who Needs Tickets?

Tickets to events are a situation where the rules of capitalism are fairly clear: You have an item - the ticket - of which there is a finite supply. So - in a completely free market - the demand for that item would determine the price. If everyone were okay with that arrangement, the tickets would be sold through some sort of auction system, this guaranteeing all the tickets get sold, and at the maximum price.

But people aren't okay with that. For whatever reason, we feel that tickets should be within reach of the average fan. I guess that's because sports is seen as being for the young and young-at-heart, and the arts are seen as being above base things like money. Of course, you don't have to look far to see inconsistencies in that. Sports cars are also for the young and young-at-heart, but no one feels a moral need for them to cost the same as normal cars, rather than what the market will bear. Also, we're okay with the original ticket price being high; well, we're not okay with it, but we don't regard it as the same level of immorality as scalping.

So we insist on fixed ticket pricing, and the determination of who gets one of the limited number of tickets is done randomly. Or it's determined by passion, as measured by camping in front of the box office or waiting by the computer for the second they go on sale. And this arrangement is what enables scalping in its many forms. That concept is stepping in and grabbing that extra money off the table that the original vendors aren't allowed to.

But it should be noted that the capitalist and emotional sides of this issue aren't necessarily at odds. After all, concerts and sports events have the problem that more people want to attend than will fit. Most people would agree that it seems fair if the most passionate fans attend. Capitalism is all about deciding who gets scarce resources, and in an ideal world, it would work here too. Those more passionate fans will be more willing to spend money on the tickets, and will out-bid those who are less passionate, and thus would rather spend some of their money elsewhere

But that assumes everyone has approximately the same amount of money. And as we all know, that's not the case. The huge difference in wealth distorts the market: an upper-middle-class but borderline fan will easily out-bid a dedicated fan on minimum wage, since the small slice of the wealthy person's entertainment budget will be greater than the entirety of the poor person's entertainment budget.

This week, we saw these principles taken to new extremes with the Tragically Hip farewell tour. On the capitalist side, the supply is extremely limited, since it's the final tour, and Gord Downie's health will limit the number of concerts. But on the human side, a final tour is the time when it feels more important than ever that attendees be determined by passion rather than wealth. Those expectations have come face-to-face with a ticket industry that has edged closer and closer to being an unrestrained market. Although it happens all the time, this particular time that our weird sorta-free-market ticket system let the rich out-pay the passionate, it seemed so much worse.