Are Residency Restrictions Fair?
Like it or not, the secondary ticket market is here to stay. But some people still look at ticket brokers as the scum of the earth, and this heated topic has come back into the limelight as parents scramble trying to purchase Hannah Montana tickets. As with any popular show, tickets sold out quickly. But in this case, parents started complaining LOUDLY, and pointed the finger at ticket brokers as the major culprits behind the ticket shortage. The fact of the matter is that there simply weren’t enough tickets to satisfy the demands of the public. Take a city like Philadelphia. The city alone has 1.5 million people, and that’s not including surrounding cities (and South Jersey residents). If even 1% of those people wanted to go see the show at the Wachovia Center, the show would be sold out! And let me tell you, there’s a lot more than 1% that wants tickets to this show!
While most performers simply add additional shows, the management instead decides to impose a residency restriction, limiting ticket purchases to those that live within a certain radius from the show. It’s not the first time something like this has happened - In fact, Garth Brooks just did the same thing for his show in Kansas City last weekend. But it does nothing to solve the issue at hand. All it does is screw the out-of-state fans that wanted to see the show.
About 40% of our customers buy tickets to events that aren’t local to them. Why? Business trips, vacation with the family, they’re buying the tickets as a gift for a family member or friend, etc. So if I wanted to buy tickets to the show in Ohio for my nieces, why shouldn’t I be able to do so?
Every year there’s a must-have item, whether it’s the TMX Elmo, PS3, or XBox360. So why should this be any different? Why wasn’t the Attorney General suing the people selling PS3s for $3000 on eBay? Hmmm…


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