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Free TimeThursday, October 11, 2007 2:53 PM CDT
Scalpers smiling, parents steamed over 'Hannah Montana' tour
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Forget The Police, Justin Timberlake or Bruce Springsteen. The undisputed hottest concert ticket of the year is for 14-year-old pop star Miley Cyrus, star of the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” TV show.

Fans are so desperate for seats to her 54-date tour, kicking off later this month, that venues have sold out in as little as four minutes and scalpers are getting four to five times the face value — creating a torrent of complaints from frustrated parents.

“We knew it was hot, but we had no idea it was this crazy,” said Debra Rathwell, senior vice president of AEG Live, which is handling her tour. “It’s like the Beatles.”

About 12,000 seats for the Memphis show were gone in 8 minutes. It took 15 minutes in Columbus, Ohio, and swift sellouts have been reported across the country — Nashville, Miami, Lexington, Ky. The Kansas City Council is investigating the matter.

One ticket for the show in Charlotte, N.C., sold for $2,565.

Miley, daughter of country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus, plays high school student Miley Stewart, who lives a secret double life as a famous pop star, Hannah Montana. Her show reaches 5 million viewers a week.

The sold-out “Best of Both Worlds Tour,” which begins Oct. 18, follows the release of her double album, “Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus,” which has already sold more than 1 million copies since its release in June. The first album, released late last year, sold more than 2 million copies.

Paige Nace, 35, hoped to take her daughter to see Miley at the Arena at Gwinnett Center outside of Atlanta. Nine-year-old Arianna had been begging to see her live ever since she started watching the show, Nace said.

“I think that’s it’s pretty cool she is coming here,” Arianna said. “I want to get up on stage and sing with her. Most likely every girl I know likes Hannah.”

But in 4 minutes, tickets to the November show were gone. Nace said tickets were being resold for inflated prices on Internet sites like Craigslist and eBay Inc.’s ticket-reselling subsidiary StubHub.

“All the ticket brokers and scalpers are trying to sell them for $100-200 a piece,” Nace said. “If they would have been face value, I would have gladly gotten them.”

The tour promoter capped prices at $65 and put a four-ticket maximum on each transaction. However, the average ticket for the Hannah Montana tour was being resold for $214. That beats the average resale price for Timberlake ($182), Beyonce ($193), or The Police ($209).

The Police tour has been StubHub’s best-selling tour in the company’s history, but Hannah Montana has sold 35 percent more tickets in the same amount of time, and is outselling The Police by 25 percent based on dollar volume.

Understandably that’s riling a lot of fans.

“It’s always been a problem and it getting worse and worse,” said Rathwell, who says her company is doing all it can to reduce scalping. But with every show selling out immediately, there are few options for parents.

“Hannah Montana has essentially exposed a lot of frustration the average, uninformed ticket buyer has,” said Sean Pate, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based StubHub. “There is so much demand that ticket sellers are pricing on the high side. It’s almost unreasonable.”

As technology changes and more venues start selling tickets online, scalpers are no longer those shady looking guys holding up tickets outside the arena. Most states have no restrictions on reselling tickets, even for a big profit.

Ray Waddell, Billboard’s touring writer, says scalpers use automated computer programs that buy tickets quickly or tie up ticket phone lines with repeated calls. “It’s really getting out of control,” Waddell said. “The industry is kind of fed up.”

Pate encourages Hannah Montana fans to sit tight and wait for prices to go down as the tour dates approach.

“The prices that you see now are not the prices that are going to hold,” Pate said. “Parents need to set a price that they are comfortable with and watch the market on a daily basis.”

Nace is refusing to deal with scalpers at all, but the situation has left both her and her daughter disappointed. “My mom is trying to do everything she can to take me,” Arianna said. “I’m still going to listen to the CDs.”

“I feel like they are ripping off children,” Nace said. “I’m sure there are parents out there would pay that much. But the rest of us shouldn’t be penalized for that.”

On the Net

Web site for Miley Cyrus: http://www.mileycyrus.com

AEG Live: http://www.aeglive.com

Stub Hub: http://www.stubhub.com


Take a look
Miley Cyrus, star of the Disney Channel show "Hannah Montana," arrives at the Teen Choice Awards in Universal City, Calif., Sunday, Aug 26, 2007. The hottest concert ticket of the year is to 14-year-old Cyrus' 54-date national tour. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
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Reader comments on this story - 15 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Arielle wrote on Oct 15, 2007 8:33 AM:

" I tryed to get tickets 1 minute after they were out and they were sold out, I was upset and none of you guys know what yuor talking about. I'm not paying 500 dollars for somthing that was orignally $45. "

Dale wrote on Oct 6, 2007 1:41 PM:

" 1st of all - gag - you couldn't pay me to see Miley Cyrus. 2nd - there are only a certain # of tix available for each concert. If you aren't lucky enough to get one before they sell out, then it's your choice whether to pay outrageous prices for those that are sold by scalpers. 3rd - one option to help with the scalper problem would be to limit ticket purchases to 4 per person & make them all Will Call pick up on the night of the show. The person who purchased the tickets has to be the one to pick up the tickets & an I.D. and purchase confirmation would have to be shown. It won't completely stop the problem, but it will cut down on it. "

I bet wrote on Oct 5, 2007 12:36 PM:

" all you hipocrites commenting on how lame the people are on here for being angry would have a few choice words to say if you were paying 4x the value of a ticket to your favorite football teams game. "

Boo Hoo wrote on Oct 5, 2007 7:07 AM:

" This is what you guys rant about... scalpers. Don't you think there's more important stuff to focus on?? "

Move on wrote on Oct 5, 2007 6:48 AM:

" The fact that people know a lot about her (I heart hannah ) show most of you watch to much TV and need to get a life. If you don't want to pay inflated cost, than don't and quit complaining. That is life. Do something constructive with your kids that does not cost a lot of money. "

To: anti-scalping wrote on Oct 5, 2007 4:09 AM:

" That sounds nice & logical, until you think about it for a second. This is the generation of parents and kids where "Mooooommmmmmmmyyyyyy, I want it" usually yields results. "

To: Indian Joe wrote on Oct 5, 2007 4:08 AM:

" Brittney was probably a very nice little girl when she was 14 as well. Fame like this has a tendancy to chew up and spit out people without remorse. Brittney was born in rural Louisiana...see how much good it's done her? This is yet another example of a media mogul (Disney) smacking their lips at the prospect of profit by exploiting someone wh ultimately won't be able to handle the attention. Once her 15 minutes are up (and it will be up quickly as kids the age of her fans have the attention span of a hyperactive gnat) Disney will spit her out the back end of the marketing machine that created her and probably take most of her money in the process. "

anti scalping wrote on Oct 4, 2007 3:13 PM:

" just never buy tickets from scalpers... it is not the end of the world to not attend a concert, game, etc "

Indian Joe wrote on Oct 4, 2007 10:39 AM:

" TO: ANOTHER ONE; No she won't grow up to be another Brittney Spears. She is a very nice girl from Burwood Tn. or Thompson Station. A very small place. She is from a nice family and will grow up to be a wonderful lady. "

Another One? wrote on Oct 3, 2007 11:49 AM:

" Give her 6-7 years and she'll be another Brittney Spears, in and out of rehab. "

Like any other event wrote on Oct 3, 2007 5:12 AM:

" The only way to stop this practice is not to pay $250 or more for a ticket. If everyone said forget it and they started getting stuck with these tickets then it would end. Unfortunately the internet age makes it easier for everyone to buy and sell these things at outragous prices. The tickets for a Cubs play off game are a perfect example, not that I would pay face value to see them lose the first round of playoffs let alone the price on stubhub.com "

I heart hannah wrote on Oct 2, 2007 4:42 PM:

" Hannah Montana is a disguise for Miley Stewart. Miley has brown hair and she wears a blonde wig to be hannah. She disguises her self to cover up her idenity as a famous singer she doesn't want the kids at her school to know she is a star and so she doesn't have to deal with paparazi. The photo isn't Hannah Montana it is Miley. In the show her name is Miley Stewart when not in disguise in real life her name is Miley Cyrus. GET IT RIGHT PEOPLE!!!!!!!! "

I thought wrote on Oct 2, 2007 1:23 PM:

" Hannah Montana was a blonde? "

Online ticket thing wrote on Oct 2, 2007 11:23 AM:

" is way out of hand. It's getting to be where the Average Joe fan can't get face value tickets unless he gets really lucky when they first go on sale or unless he has a connection. Otherwise, he has to pay outrageous mark-ups, service fees, convenience fees, etc.... I'm an average fan and I've had to cut way back on the amount of events I attend. "

Robert wrote on Oct 2, 2007 10:18 AM:

" The only way to put a dent in scalping practices is to stop phone and online orders and have ticket sales only at the venue windows. No it won't completely stop scalpers and yes it will take alot more time but you won't have scalping companies buying up huge chunks of tickets and raping the public for higher prices. This way if someone wants to scalp, they wait in line line like everyone else and they only get the minimum amount of tickets just like everyone else. This will definitely stop the scalping companies from tying up phone lines and websites. When is the public going to say enough is enough??? "

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