The Papering's on the Wall: Free Tickets
a Necessary Evil
Mark Brown
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
August 31, 2002 Section: Entertainment/Weekend/Spotlight Edition:
Final Page Number: 3D
At the B.B. King Blues Festival at Fiddler's Green a couple of
weeks ago, just one box-office window was open for will-call and
walk-up sales - all paid ticket sales.
Three windows were open for ``ticket vouchers'' - that is, freebies.
The show eventually had about 4,000 paid fans and at least that
many who got in for free to see King, George Thorogood and more.
They saved anywhere from $22 to $50 per ticket - not counting
service charges.
It's called ``papering'' the house, a practice once unheard of
but something that becomes crucial for survival in these hard
times in the concert industry.
It's actually good business to let people in for free who wouldn't
ordinarily buy tickets. Those people do buy beer, food and parking
once they're there (with proceeds going to the promoter) and T-shirts
and other merchandise (with proceeds going to the artist).
``If you're a venue operator, it's in your best interest to make
money in a bad situation,'' say Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar
magazine. ``It's possible to offset the loss to have people park
and drink beer, even if they didn't pay to get into the show.''
Often, thousands of tickets go to promotional partners; e-mails
are sent out that can be printed and traded in for tickets at
the box office.
(The Denver Newspaper Agency, the business arm of the Rocky Mountain
News, is a promotional partner with Clear Channel and HOB, so
employees of the News were offered free tickets to poor-selling
shows, including INXS, David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar, Simple Minds
and Lenny Kravitz.)
Nobody in Particular Presents has in the past simply left stacks
of tickets on counters at restaurants and record stores.
Some artists won't allow it. Paul Simon and Brian Wilson played
to a far-less-than-capacity house at Fiddler's last summer because
of Simon's refusal to paper.
``Simon's stance is fairly rare. Most artists would rather play
to a full house whether the people paid to get in or not rather
than to play to an ocean of empty seats,'' Bongiovanni says. ``And
fans feel better when the show is full rather than wondering,
'How come I'm the only one here?' ''
``We don't do that much papering. We did some at CityLights, but
we limit it,'' says Clear Channel's Chuck Morris. ``I believe,
in the long run, that papering hurts a facility. But to be truthful,
some of the CityLights shows were papered. On the shows that sold
2,000 or more tickets, we didn't paper.''
There's a downside, though. Hard-core fans who paid top dollar
to get into a show seethe when they see a bunch of people getting
free tickets. It also makes people more hesitant to pay for tickets
when there's a possibility of getting them for nothing.
``There are people who are waiting for free tickets. I don't want
to be in that position,'' Morris says. ``We have a great product,
and I don't want to water it down. There are buildings in this
town where people are waiting for free tickets.''
``You can't have a reputation that people don't have to pay for
tickets,'' House of Blues' Barry Fey says.
``It hurts me to give away tickets. We do it in conjunction with
our sponsors - the News, Coors. We don't just flood the streets
with them. In the old days, people would call me and say, 'You
got any extra tickets?' I'd say, 'Do you have any extra refrigerators?'
It's our product. We don't want to give it away.''
Now that promoters own venues such as the Fillmore and Fiddler's
Green, papering makes sense. They get the proceeds from parking
and concessions.
``When the amphitheaters started sprouting up, . . . they realized
they don't have to make money on the door,'' Fey says. And that's
why 30 cents' worth of beer sells for $7 at a concert. ``You charge
what you can charge because it's a captive audience.''
Mountain West Music 2002 |
