AS REPORTED in the last issue of Hot Press, Fine Gael TDs Denis Naughten and Alan Shatter are planning to put ticket touts out of business with a Private Member's Bill, due before the Dail in September. The effect of this proposed bill, if implemented, would certainly be to hurt scalpers - and not just those on the streets outside venues at major gigs and sporting events, but also the illegitimate agencies who procure tickets and advertise them at above the going rate in the national press.
Under the terms of the bill, which has the public support of the GAA, the National Youth Council, MCD and Ticketmaster, it will be illegal to place or publish advertisements for tickets for sale at above trade value. Given the substantial increase in the number of ads placed in the press for major shows like Garth Brooks and the Spice Girls over the past couple of years, this covers a substantial portion of the scalping market - specifically those situations where ticket-buyers trade over the phone in advance, rather than buying from traffickers on the night. Curiously, the street-touts - who see themselves as inheritors of a long and honourable tradition - are keen to distance themselves from the advertising racket.
"Ticket touting is a way of life," one trader told Hot Press. "Don't mind what you read in the Buy ... Sell, #100 tickets for the Spice Girls and so on, that's only for certain people. Once one person puts an ad like that in, then they all do it. The agencies are getting #650 a ticket for the World Cup - there's no way you would get that on the street.
"I don't sell T-shirts or anything," he added, "I just buy from anybody that has spare tickets and try to get as much as I can for them. A lot of times I lose. I got stung at Phil Collins down in The Point Depot - and that was a sell-out gig. I got done loads of times."
"It's not like we're charging for the essential things in life," added a second source. "If I was charging #100 a week for a roof over some guy's head, or a tenner for a loaf of bread, I'd expect to be shot. But people are putting their hands in their pockets - nobody's twisting their arms. It's entertainment, it's not the essentials. There's a bloke here in town who sells old #1 notes for #20. It's like that - it's a business."
The proposed Private Member's Bill would give Gardaí the powers to arrest, search, and confiscate tickets from suspected touts. Those found guilty could face a #1,000 fine and/or six months in prison. Denis Naughten has criticised the present government for formally refusing to enact legislation to ban touting, and he has demanded stronger laws and the direct intervention of the Gardaí. According to the scalpers however, there's no shortage of intervention from the boys in blue.
"But there's powers at the moment," argues one. "They're stopping and searching everyone under the Misuse of Drugs Act. It's getting to be a police State. The police have a tactic now where they just grab the tickets out of your hand. Even if I was selling them for less than face value, they'd grab them."
Another tout has similar complaints about the Gardaí.
"It's not like you're born in Dublin at all," he attests. "It's like you're living in South Africa. I voted for peace in Northern Ireland, but I'll tell you, there's no peace in my own town. The relationship between the police and Dublin people, that's what you want to look into. Go down to Croke Park and stand beside any of the touts and you'll see for yourself the way the Gardái treat us."
Inevitably, this bill could be viewed as an attempt by Naughten, Fine Gael's Youth Affairs spokesman, to win the votes of predominantly young concert-goers. It could also be seen as yet another attack on the marginalised and unskilled, similar to the hounding of unlicenced street vendors on Moore St. and Mary St..
And while touting is part of the black economy, there are substantial differences between trading in pirated merchandise and selling tickets at above the going rate. Despite reports of scalpers asking for #100 a ticket at the recent Smashing Pumpkins Olympia show, the common perception of street-touts as greedy merchants preying on the purses of innocent concert-goers is undoubtedly a distorted one.
"I'm only getting a few bob here and there," one hawker stated. "There's no way you'd make a living at it. Touting in this town is not the same as England. We sell tickets cheaper."
Furthermore, the relationship between the hawkers and the venues is far from straightforward. Certainly, the security staff at many shows aren't overly concerned about touts; the regulars are generally left alone, unless they're seen to be harassing paying customers.
Besides, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that certain venues may be using the touts themselves to flog tickets - scalpers have their own promotional worth. This would certainly account for the number of tickets being sold in the street at face value.
Either way, while unwilling to be seen to condone touting in any way, one venue manager admitted to Hot Press that traffickers have their trophy value: visiting acts feel let down if they don't see a little illegitimate trade going on outside their gigs. Like it or not, touting is seen within the industry as a reliable barometer of how hot a ticket is.
So, what about reports that touts are eating into ticket allocations by buying them up in bulk and in advance, depriving gig-goers of the chance to buy their own?
"Everything is on spec," counters one source. " I don't know where they're getting their information from, that we buy tickets in advance. I wouldn't do that because the venue could put on an extra show."
Another tout puts a different spin on it.
"Ordinary people are buying extra tickets to sell later to cover themselves," he observes. "It's just like playing the stock exchange."
Finally, all the touts Hot Press spoke to thought it was absurd that a political party should concern itself with a practice that, while being illegal, is relatively far down the list of social ills.
"The law should be left the way it was in the first place,"
one ticket-hawker concluded. "It's been going on since I
was a child." n