Eyes shoot to the source of the familiar refrain, men wearing cardboard signs hanging from their necks that read, "Who needs tickets?"
The transaction begins. The sign is flipped, revealing a laminated, color seating map. The seller asks, "What do you need?" The response rarely changes. "What do you got?"
In Seattle, a city that banned scalping for decades, free market capitalism reigns. Two months after the city allowed a law banning scalping to expire, business is booming.
Tickets flew into the hands of resellers and then fans throughout the summer, for the Pearl Jam, U2 and Bruce Springsteen concerts and for Mariners games. The ticket brokers will hit the streets again for Sunday's Seahawks game, and you can bet they'll be out in force for the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney later this fall.
No one keeps track of how many tickets change hands before a typical game or concert, but one longtime scalper estimates that about 800 tickets -- or about 2 percent -- of the 40,000 seats at Safeco Field get negotiated before the first pitch. More>>>
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Concert Tickets, Sports Tickets, Broadway Tickets, Family Show Tickets
posted by ADMIN @ Saturday, September 17, 2005
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