- 5 hours ago
What is going on with concert ticket prices/costs? Paying too much to see your favorite artist? A Legislative Act named after a Noah Kahan song, called the 'Great Divide Act' addresses this- What is the 'Great Divide Act'? MA Governor Maura Healey joins!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00legislative act named after that noah kahn song which is called the great divide act which would
00:08help those who feel like they're paying too much for concert and events tickets and that that next
00:15guest is the governor of the commonwealth maura healy good morning governor hey good morning greg
00:21i'm interested in this we've talked about a lot when we heard you were thinking of doing this and
00:25and the legislature would have the opportunity to do this we were interested because obviously
00:31people get upset about tickets and how much they cost uh however there is you know a free market
00:40system here and so uh i i'm wondering uh why you are how you how you decided that this is
00:47what you
00:48wanted to do and and how you feel about government controlling the price of anything in our country
00:53yeah well um you know yesterday uh yesterday i i made this announcement noah kahn called in
01:00uh to support it and you know he's been out there talking about this about how you know and we
01:06see
01:07it people having to wait forever getting gouged by these uh resellers uh and uh and just not able to
01:16just totally priced out and not able to to buy tickets to concerts and shows and you know
01:23our approach was let's let's bring some fairness back into the system and you know here here's what
01:28it does okay um for concerts okay we're talking about for concerts not for sporting events this
01:34doesn't touch season ticket holders or anything like that because i know many of them do resell
01:40their tickets but for concert tickets okay which is like a one-time deal your favorite artist is
01:45coming to town big deal uh it's going to cap the resale price for those tickets at 110 so a
01:53ticket
01:53that's 100 bucks can only be resold for 110 bucks and it's also going to cap the service fee at
02:0010
02:00you know we see service fees that are added on top of that i mean tickets that were face value
02:06for
02:06you know we're going at a minimum you know 700 plus dollars and uh you know it would have saved
02:13people all that money it it doesn't affect sporting events here except that for sporting events those
02:20tickets the service fee is is is capped the other thing it does that i think is important is that
02:25it
02:26bans ghost tickets you know during the world cup we heard a lot of reports about people that actually
02:31purchased tickets or sought they purchased tickets through a reseller stub hub seek geek only to find
02:38out when they got down to gillette that those tickets never transferred so they've paid thousands
02:44of dollars and they're left outside in foxborough not able to get into the event that's like illegal
02:50it's fraud it's predatory so we want to ban that here um this doesn't affect people's ability to sell
02:56you know tickets on on facebook or or craigslist um but you know folks you got to understand we're
03:02being taken advantage of by these billion dollar private equity companies that basically run and
03:08program all of um all the companies that are that are professional reselling operations they're not for
03:14us they're they're for them and this is about bringing some fairness back into it governor i've been
03:20hearing a lot this summer about blue dot fever which is this issue that a lot of touring artists
03:26are up against where they schedule these shows to play they can't sell the tickets and then they
03:31either have to fold shows or entire tours completely have you seen any other markets do this what what
03:40you're suggesting and do you think that that will have an impact on that trend also did the blue dot
03:46fever start at taco bell or is that another that's another that's another oh that's another thing okay
03:51go ahead sorry i know well this is like you know what happens when you um the you know you
03:58go online
03:59and you see all the the the seating charts and then the blue dots you know making it like look
04:04like
04:04there's an unsold seat uh and then you know prices get jacked up and things get out of reach i
04:11mean this
04:11is it's all part of the industry you know my goal isn't to dictate you know um what a price
04:19is going to
04:20be because at the end of the day we also would say in our legislation that the artist and the
04:24venue
04:25can sit the can set the price you know they can determine what they think is is right and i'm
04:30trying to give some power back to the artists and a lot of artists including noah khan have talked about
04:35this that like the way these ticket resellers operate it hurts fans and it also hurts the artists
04:41so the power is still with the artists the powers of the fans to set the initial face value price
04:48but once you do that you know you can't be like charging 20x you know for something or adding a
04:55service fee um stub hub that's you know uh going to add another 100 or 200 on on tickets so
05:02i mean
05:03that's that's what this does um i think it's actually going to make it it's going to open up
05:07the ability to purchase tickets for more people you know and you know to me the ability to purchase
05:14tickets you know it shouldn't be left for a select few that you know don't have to mortgage their
05:20their home to go see a show i guess so my question is going to be so the red socks
05:25are owned by john
05:26henry and his group which has private equity investment and they what's to prevent them from
05:32raising prices for concerts because they know that the resale will they know the interest is that high
05:38like how does this not how next year is the concert for cold play at fenway not going to be
05:43500 bucks
05:44for a ticket that originally was going to be a hundred dollars well look we also we reached out
05:49when we talked to to the teams um as we were thinking about the kind of legislation that would
05:54make sense and you know um i think that what you what you see and what you're going to see
06:00is you
06:00know artists are going to have control over this they want their fans to to be able to go to
06:04shows
06:04that'll be a negotiation and discussion with a given venue um but at the end of the day you know
06:09this is this is a way to keep put people in seats but give more people access to the ability
06:15to
06:16purchase these tickets and you know i don't think artists want to see their fans gouged i mean that's
06:20why there's such a movement around this um and um you know i'm comfortable with the approach that
06:26we're taking again it doesn't affect sporting events and um season ticket holders for example except
06:33it's going to cap that that service fee um if they're using a if they're reselling tickets on a
06:40platform um so i i think it's i think it's a sensible thing to do you know and i think
06:46i think that uh
06:48i think our venues want to have you know fans able to enjoy and and get out there and not
06:53have empty seats
06:55can we do the same thing with utility rates yeah well i'm trying i'm fighting i'm fighting every day
07:04opposing opposing those rate hikes in fact i'm in a i'm in a legal proceeding right now fighting the
07:09utilities on rate hikes people can't afford rate hikes so i'm fighting them on that you know while
07:14i'm trying to bring more energy in increase the supply i actually just have a question on that
07:20because we don't get the chance to talk to you that often why is my ebersource bill more expensive
07:24for the delivery than for the energy i don't understand that yeah it's something that is uh
07:30it's frustrating to a lot of people um part so what it is is it's the system allows for a
07:38certain
07:38amount of charge to go not just for the the actual gas or electricity but for the infrastructure that
07:46helps enable all that that that builds it it's a way to fund you know the the construction and the
07:52maintenance of all the pipes and wires and lines that deliver energy into our homes but you know
07:58i filed legislation um that i'm hoping i could sign soon that would actually reduce yeah that amount
08:05and would change the way utilities go about doing their business right now if you can believe it
08:10utilities don't have to purchase energy that they send to us at the lowest cost they can purchase it
08:16whatever whatever cost and we end up eating you know eating that and so you know my legislation
08:23does a bunch of things that actually change the way utilities operate that are more fair to people
08:29and our businesses and that will actually reduce our gas and electric bills so i'm hoping um i'm hoping
08:36that legislature acts on that and i'm signing that into law soon yeah it's killing people it's and people
08:42people have to have electricity don't necessarily have to go to a concert so it's absolutely killing people
08:48yeah and which is also why we need more supply you know i approved expansion of a couple existing gas
08:54pipelines we've got geothermal solar um hydro now coming down uh wind we've got to be using everything
09:01i support um nuclear um and and we've got to find a way to bring more energy in and this
09:08is something
09:08our country needs actually i talked to governors from all over the country and everybody's trying to
09:13find ways to lower gas and electric bills right now it's a problem around the country especially in the
09:18northeast um in the in the atlantic uh states and um we've got to do it as quickly as we
09:25can
09:25because you know with all the ai and all of the technology that all of us are using every day
09:32that sucks a lot of energy use you know and uh and we just need more energy into uh to
09:38our our region
09:39um so that we're able to have the power that we need for our economy and people can have with
09:45greater
09:45supply lower gas and electric bills put in a good word for us with noah khan because wiggy called him
09:51whiny on the show and he won't come on so if you could could you put in a good word
09:56you did not yeah yep ruined the whole thing like could have had the guy on the show and wiggy
10:01absolutely and mego too mego i never said anything that disparaging i just said i said he's a b minus
10:08yes you know what i love i i love noah khan so you're talking the wrong person i think you
10:16know
10:17what i love about him is he's found a way to talk about mental health and hard stuff in uh
10:23in songs
10:24that actually like are happy sounding and make you feel good you know i i just think the guy's been
10:31remarkable and hey you know he's a new englander you know lived a long time in watertown
10:35remonter we love him you know gotta root for him um mego has been filling in for courtney courtney's
10:42back in a week but it's uh it's her last day today could we do some sort of a a
10:46proclamation or
10:47something for for mego absolutely yeah i want you to uh you write that don't let wiggy write that
10:54you write that okay okay get the language to my desk and and we'll have a proper citation for mego
10:59okay with like the official like the stamp thing and the comes in the blue uh folder and the whole
11:06like office of the governor like the whole thing that she could hang up yeah yeah absolutely i i'll do
11:12that as soon as i uh i'm meeting those the guys with the traffic cone the scots they're coming to
11:17my
11:17office okay enough enough with the scottish people also i was going to ask you about that i mean that
11:24was it must have been i don't know if we have the financials in yet but the economy with with
11:29the
11:29world cup and with everybody here i think there was a lot of stories leading up to it that it
11:33might
11:33have been a little softer than people anticipated do you have any numbers that because it felt like
11:39such a major success for the region yeah we're still getting numbers on that i can tell you that
11:44you know bars and restaurant sales are way up um more activity in hotels obviously but you know i i
11:50think
11:50we'll get the numbers and the numbers are important and i knew it was going to be an economic boost
11:54for
11:54us i also knew we could pull it off and you know people like to be negative naysayers about how
12:00whole
12:00you know this whole thing is going to go we had fantastic public safety no issues through world cup
12:06ma250 now the tall ships um we also had great public transit that was working those trains back and
12:12forth to dilette we carried you know over 100 000 people down there um and always on time and and
12:18you
12:18know it worked out great um but the the the price for like the happy energy vibe joy showing off
12:25massachusetts i've heard from so many people who are like you guys showed us a really great time you
12:30were welcoming you were warm it was fun we're coming back we're coming back and we're going to bring our
12:35families back and maybe this time we'll get down to the cape or you know it's it's going to have
12:40a
12:40lasting positive economic impact for our state for sure can you put that glasgow traffic cone right in
12:48the middle of a bike lane please
12:53no i gotta protect the cone just put it like smack dab right in the middle of it um all
12:58right final
12:59thing for me happy hour you promised us when is it coming yeah i am i i'm on record i'm
13:06supporting it
13:07you know i used the world cup as an experience as a as an opportunity to say we should extend
13:11bar hours
13:12which which we did um and i was glad to see that so you know i'd like that to continue
13:17and uh i said the same about happy hour because again it's about a vibe and energy and i'm really
13:23focused as you know like keeping 20 somethings here keeping you know our young people here that's
13:28why i'm building 100 000 homes so people can afford rent and buy you know buy a place it's also
13:33about
13:33energy and part of it is like you know creating spaces where people can hang out have a good time
13:39drinking or not drinking just places where people can be you know and hanging out together and that's why i
13:45think this stuff is important so i'm going to keep pushing for it governor thank you for taking the
13:49time as always and we'll see what happens when it comes to the great divide act
13:53yeah all right good to see you have a good weekend guys all right there she is the governor of
13:58the
13:58commonwealth
13:59commonwealth
13:59commonwealth
13:59commonwealth
13:59commonwealth
13:59commonwealth
13:59commonwealth
Comments