In a lengthy Q&A with Billboard's Ray Waddell, StubHub President Chris Tsakalakis offers his thoughts on the recent Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger, artists reselling their own tickets dynamic pricing and speculative ticket resale. Tsakalakis, one of the most influential executives in ticketing, also talks about how he would like to see the companies in the primary and secondary markets begin to work more closely in the future. "All fans care about is getting a ticket to a show. Do they care whether it's primary or secondary? Probably not," he said. Full Story...
Broadway welcomed "Next Fall," a play by Geoffrey Nauffts, on its March 11 opening night at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Sheryl Kaller resumes her role as director of the split drama-comedy, which earned rave reviews during an Off Broadway run in 2009.
Switching between flash-backs and present-day scenes, the play tracks the five-year relationship of 45-year-old atheist Adam (Patrick Breen) and his 30-year-old boyfriend Luke (Patrick Heusinger), a conservative Christian. As the play opens, Luke is in a coma as a result of an accident, and Adam is left in the waiting room with Luke's equally conservative parents, Arlene (Connie Ray) and Butch (Cotter Smith), who are in-the-dark about their son's sexuality. Full Story...
Comedian Conan O'Brien may have lost his coveted spot as host of "The Tonight Show" on NBC, but the funnyman still hopes to perform for audiences across North America. Skirting a clause in his parting agreement with the network that keeps him off television until after September 1, O'Brien has confirmed a 30-city spring tour that will keep him on the road from April through June.
The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour launches April 12 at Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, OR, and concludes with a June 14 event at Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA. One major stop for O'Brien is a June 11 slot on the comedy line-up for this year's Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN. Full Story...
Live Nation Entertainment is hoping to gain local approval for a new, 28,000-square-foot concert venue in Silver Spring, MD, a project that has been years in the making. The Washington Post reports that plans for the 2,000-capacity facility were recently presented to the public, and Live Nation hopes to host its first concerts there in about 18 months, which is considered an expedited pace. In 2008, Live Nation signed a 20-year, $3.26 million lease with municipal officials for the music venue, which is located on a site that once held a J.C. Penney department store but was donated to the county by its previous owners. Full Story...
Shambolic rocker Courtney Love is getting her act together -- and her band -- for some concerts across the U.S. and Europe this spring. The new line-up for fallen alt-rock darling Hole will be on the road for at least four national shows and 10 more overseas.
While Love's itinerary is more internationally based at the moment, her U.S. dates are certainly spaced to allow a lengthier national jaunt than she has currently revealed. The new Hole line-up is slated to debut with back-to-back concerts in Austin, TX. The first show is an early evening gig on March 19 at Stubb's Bar-B-Q, followed by an SXSW Music Festival showcase at 1 a.m. on March 20 at Dirty Dog Bar. Full Story...
NeuLion, a New York-based end-to-end technology services provider, this week announced a partnership with Duke University Athletics that will make NeuLion the new ticketing provider for all of the institution's sports events.
Previously, Paciolan ticketed Duke's athletic events; Paciolan, which was owned by Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment, was recently sold to Comcast-Spectacor. Full Story...
(This story was updated Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:35pm EST to add a comment from Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.)
Two U.S. congressmen have proposed a new bill in the House that would regulate the ticketing industry, a proposal that is separate from Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.'s BOSS ACT that he introduced last year. Full Story...
The web surrounding oft-delayed Broadway production "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has become a bit more tangled with the departure of leading lady Evan Rachel Wood.
Producers for the superhero musical, with tunes penned by U2's own Bono and The Edge, released a statement regarding the sudden split on March 9. Wood was cast as Mary Jane Watson, the main love interest for Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker. Full Story...
For the first time in its 25-year history in Las Vegas, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR) is requiring season ticket holders only use an as-yet established proprietary ticket exchange to resell their tickets, a move that has drawn the ire of the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB).
In a ticket policy statement document released earlier this year, the WNFR said it plans to launch the "2010 Official Online Wrangler NFR Ticket Exchange" sometime in May, and the organizers make clear that they will not tolerate season ticket holders reselling their tickets anywhere but through the group's exchange. Full Story...
(This story was updated on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, at 4:56pm EST to add a comment from StubHub.)
The Boston Red Sox, the last holdout from the secondary ticketing deal Major League Baseball (MLB) signed with StubHub in 2007, has finally agreed to let the ticket exchange giant be its authorized online ticketing partner. Full Story...
