A clash of manifestos
Seatwave was created by a group of people who believe that getting tickets should be really easy and safe.
It was with interest, then, that I read the most recent blog entry of David Semple, who runs the leftist blog Though Cowards Flinch. Semple suggests that Dr Eamonn Butler, of the Adam Smith Institute, is wrong when he says that:
“An open and secure secondary market has got to be good for fans. Seatwave, for instance, offers a guarantee that the tickets it sells are genuine, 150% refund if they do not arrive on time, and a full refund if the event is cancelled (which is more than you get from many promoters).”
Semple also argues that secondary ticket markets are “effectively making money for no work” and are “mak[ing] life harder for normal people whilst contributing nothing to the performer”. Strong words. Let’s see how his argument stacks up.
Firstly, the statistics show that most UK sellers (85 per cent) on Seatwave sold fewer than six tickets last year. Hardly the work of “parasites” (Semple’s word).
Secondly, the secondary marketplace performs a valuable service for fans. We’ve all faced the prospect of not being able to make an event – for whatever reason – for which we’ve already bought a ticket. Without sites such as Seatwave, fans would be left with unwanted tickets and no remedy.
And at the risk of provoking David Semple’s ire with the Adam Smith Institute still further, perhaps he should mull over these words from James Lawson:
“Events organisers encourage a second-hand market in tickets by setting prices artificially low. Prices used to be set cheaply to boost sales in merchandise and records. Organisers also wanted to ensure high turn outs. This is still usually the case, but that is not a reason to stop legitimate traders selling at true market prices.”
As you’ll find stated elsewhere on our site, our guiding principles have always been that:
- We will help people get to events and we’ll help them do it in a secure way
- Many people believe that tickets have become just too expensive…we agree and we undertake to do our best to reverse this.
- We will make it easier to purchase tickets.
- Our experience has been that ticketing agencies treat consumers badly – to us that doesn’t make sense and we commit to treating our customers with respect.
It’s generally accepted economic theory that transparent markets are more efficient and help to reduce prices. Seatwave operates as transparent a ticketing exchange as possible. We also take every opportunity – and even try to create opportunities – to lower ticket prices for fans. We won’t promise that Seatwave will always have the lowest priced tickets, but we will promise to try in the short (and long) term, to lower the average price of all tickets.
As for Semple’s “jammed phonelines” and tickets at venues being sold out too quickly for fans to get hold of them – as one of the comments to James Lawson’s article recognised, that points back to the people who whinge most about them…namely the promoters and venue operators themselves.
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