Tony Dimitriades speaks out on Fan Club Issues

[SNicksed]

This just in from Tony Dimitriades, manager of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, regarding the Highway Companions club.

Your concerns regarding fan club tickets and the system for acquiring and delivering them have been heard loud and clear.

The first day glitch which prevented your codes from being accepted by Ticketmaster has obviously been fixed, but should never have happened. Although the technology that is supposed to make all this happen seamlessly is way over my head, the buck ends with me and I apologize to everyone who was affected by it.

I want to explain to everyone what we intend to do to make the Highway Companions fan club experience a better experience. To do this I would like first to give you some idea of what I believe to be the problems that must be overcome. After that I will tell you what we are doing to resolve those problems.

Problem: How do we get the best tickets available and what are the best tickets available?

Answer: This varies from venue to venue. The buildings and promoters take some holds before anybody, mostly for season ticket holders. This number can be just a few hundred and, in some cases, it can be more than a thousand. This is a complex issue because in Columbus, for example, the venue only has 1,600 seats in the lower section. So we have to make a decision whether the tickets we get are good enough. We certainly got the best available as indicated by the building and/or the promoter and they were all allocated to the fan club. The results are still not acceptable. So I have instigated a process to trace every ticket held by the promoters, the building and through Ticketmaster, and will try to trace where these tickets have gone. This is a complicated process which others before me have taken on and I have yet to find anyone who has had 100% success. Nevertheless, it needs to be done even though it will take some time and may not resolve the immediate issue.

Problem: But then where do all the "good tickets" go if I am on the site within minutes of the fan club presale?

Answer: The answer is not as simple as I would like. First, every person buying tickets has two minutes to confirm their order when they go through the process of credit clearance etc. Some people hold several tickets as options to see if they can get better. Professional scalpers have numerous people become members of the fan club and when they get online they do the same thing. All this puts many of the best tickets out of the system and unavailable. In fact, professional scalpers have sophisticated automated software that enables them to make rapid, multiple attempts to gain access to tickets thereby giving them a huge advantage over everybody else trying to get online early. Disgusting? I agree. This could mean that several hundred tickets, normally the best available, are held up in the system so you may get on early but miss the opportunity to get these tickets. When someone gets on after you, they may pick up tickets which have just been released.

Problem: So are scalpers causing this problem?

Answer: Yes, but not entirely. You may be thinking that I am referring to professional scalpers. The fact is that an equal number of tickets sold through these secondary ticket sites such as EBay are by people, say a guy and his friend, or his girlfriend or wife who will buy two pairs and sell one pair. They are scalping and by doing so get into the show for free or even make a profit on top. This is as much a problem as the professional scalpers and together with all these other things I have talked about, some of them seemingly minor, put pressure on the total inventory of seats held for the purpose of making sure the fans get the best seats.

Problem: OK what is the solution?

Answer: Not easy and partly not immediate. I may be able to find who the seats held by the buildings and promoters are being held for, but that does not mean that I can free a substantial number up for the fan club. I have with Signatures put in place a system that scours the major secondary ticket sites and notes the location of every ticket offered for sale. We can then find out where those tickets come from. If we see a thread emerging, we will try to close it. But some of this is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, at least for the immediate problem. It will mean that we will continue to refine the system moving forward especially for the future. You should know that in many states scalping is legal. In fact in some, the scalpers are entitled by law to insist that the buildings put aside for them a certain number of tickets (499 I believe in New Jersey for example).

There is one thing we can do going forward but it will please some people and may not please others. We considered it, but I was persuaded that the majority of people would not want it. I am now prepared to put it to the vote.

We can require all ticket buyers through the fan club to give ID details and be required to pick up their tickets at Will Call on the night of the show by providing identical ID. The advantage of this is that many scalpers will be unwilling to take a risk of buying tickets through the fan club so some better seats will become available for future shows. The disadvantages are that there are many people who like to have their tickets in their pockets before they leave their house. They may not know the venue well, have a problem finding Will Call. They may be late or a large amount of people may arrive at Will Call together and have to wait. Human error, sometimes at the venue, sometimes ID may be lost or forgotten. The weather may be bad and waiting in line may be out in the open.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOTE, GO TO THE NEWS SECTION OF TOMPETTY.COM AND LOOK FOR THE STORY HEADLINED: "4/28/06 - A MESSAGE FROM TONY DIMITRIADES REGARDING THE HIGHWAY COMPANIONS CLUB"

Finally, you may ask why is the fan club worth it.

Well, beside the new site coming soon with special features including streams and occasional downloads for members, the "Highway Companion" CD and other goodies that we come up with from time to time, you will need to be made to feel comfortable that the tickets will be the best available and better than you can get any other way unless you are prepared to spend hundreds of dollars and make a scalper that much richer. We will do everything in our power to keep up our end of the bargain and try to minimize the problems I have talked about. I want you to get the treatment you deserve, tickets that (hopefully!) make you happy and a show that I know will be great.