Gerry McMahon is fed up with the direction ticket sales have gone in Glasgow. He says, “Citizens before profiteers!”
Gig goers in Glasgow looking for tickets at the SEC are being treated shamefully these days.
The Scottish Event Campus is 90% owned by Glasgow City Council. However, free market policies are everything if you want a ticket for a gig. OVO energy and 02 mobile customers get priority for tickets. That means in reality the tickets for the best locations and most reasonable prices go to these customers.
Therefore, the citizens of Glasgow, who are not OVO or 02 customers, who paid to build the venue are last in the queue for tickets.
The end result is they often miss out.
So, for example, this week Paolo Nutini, tickets had already sold out on at least one night before the plebs were able to buy them.
Of course it’s even more galling when vultures like Viagogo and Stereoboard have already used complex software to buy tickets and sell these to customers at overinflated prices.
What an absolute shambles, I’m sure gig goers elsewhere in the UK face similar obstacles.
Music is a hugely important part of the Arts in Scotland and beyond. It’s shameful that workers, who want to attend gigs are being treated so badly.
The SNP council are the major shareholder for the SEC. They have the power to change this.
If they don’t they’re willing accomplices to a situation where 2 private companies with no actual involvement in the music industry monopolise ticket sales for the SEC.
There are also wider challenges that face gig goers; many venues put tickets on sale for artists more than a year in advance. This means customers need to fork out exorbitant prices for an event that is 12 months or more away.
Since Covid it’s also the case that the prices for most gigs have increased significantly beyond the rate of inflation. Therefore, many music fans are forced to pay increased prices at a time when inflation for essential resources like Gas, Electricity and Petrol have literally gone through the roof. It’s not just the increased prices for tickets that irk music fans, booking fees are also another means of fleecing customers! As a general rule the more expensive the ticket the higher the fee.
The whole area of ticket sales in Scotland is a shambles and music fans are fleeced at every opportunity.
It’s time for the Scottish Government to undertake a review of the whole area of live music in Scotland.
The review would not only look at pricing and the sales process, it would consider how we nurture and support new bands so we can have a strong and vibrant music scene in Scotland and prices are reasonable and affordable for customers.
