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May 17, 2012
$53K to see Babs
Fans singing blues over high ticket price$
The NY Post
by Claire Atkinson
Something’s not kosher about ticket sales for Barbra Streisand’s “Back to Brooklyn” concert in October, fans of the singer are crying.
Minutes after a pre-sale started last week, tickets were gone — only to turn up on resale sites moments later, avid fans charge.
And now, just days before the May 21 official sale date, resale sites are choked with tickets — with one down-in-front ducat being offer on eBay yesterday for a staggering $53,000!
“I feel like fans do not have any real opportunity to buy tickets at face value,” one long-time Barbra fan, Evan Cohen told The Post.
The Manhattan dentist said he got online to buy tickets at a Streisand-fan only pre-sale the minute it opened but was shut out.
Thousands of other fans are sounding off on chatboards and Facebook pages. The brouhaha has reached from Carroll Gardens to California, where Streisand apologized on her website for the ticket snafu.
“We apologize to those who were unable to secure tickets from our limited allotment, and we are doing everything we can to accommodate as many fans as possible,” a statement on her site read.
Of course, another statement on Babs's website also said she was opposed to the "autocratic power of eminent domain to take land from unwilling sellers" for the KeystoneXL pipeline, but that's not stopping her from performing in an arena built with the "autocratic power of eminent domain to take land from unwilling sellers."
Ada Diaz wrote, “So scalpers can get tickets but fans can’t. If Barbra wanted to fix this she would cancel all sales and do this over.”
“Crazy, unbelievable,” wrote fan David Stewart.
“This is disgusting and I would have expected more from [Barbra]. Does [Barbra] know about this?” wrote Adam Mazzuca.
Adam, see above, under KeystoneXL pipeline.
Brett Yormark, CEO of Barclays Center, said in a statement to The Post, “As much as we’d like to, we can’t control what ticket buyers do with their tickets. Barbra Streisand performing at Barclays Center is a once-in-a-lifetime event and we truly wish we had enough tickets to satisfy this incredible demand.”
NoLandGrab: Really, Pinocchio Brett Yormark? Because just a week ago, you were on Good Day New York saying just the opposite. The following exchange takes place at the 5:12 mark in the video below between dimwitted host Rosanna Scotto and The Great Prevaricator:
Scotto: How do we ensure that we don't get all those scalpers in there and they don't glom all the good seats?
Yormark: We're going to protect the interests of the consumer... and the public will have access to those tickets for sure.
Posted by eric at May 17, 2012 12:04 PM