FILE – The Ticketmaster logo is seen along the sideline of the field before an NFL football game, Sept. 15, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
No place seemed to enjoy hosting the World Cup more than Texas. From Japanese fans trying brisket for the first time to Croatians taking over downtown Dallas to England fans reportedly drinking 5,000 beers at a single bar in a single night, the energy in our state was unbelievable.
So were the ticket prices.
A single ticket to a World Cup game ran many Texans thousands of dollars — and that doesn’t even feel strange anymore. Live event ticket prices have been surging for decades, and the problem has gotten especially dreadful since the COVID pandemic ended.
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FIFA played the largest role in determining the price of a World Cup ticket, but there was another culprit that seems to always pop up wherever fans are getting gouged: companies like Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster is by far the largest ticket vendor in the United States, responsible for about 80 percent of ticket sales at the nation’s largest venues. This has nothing to do with the quality of its service and everything to do with the company’s strong-arm tactics.
Ticketmaster is all about exclusivity. It loves to sign contracts with artists that give them exclusive rights to ticket sales, establish monopolies over concert parking — even coerce venues into selling their preferred brand of bottled water.
People from all over the world have come here and found that they love America, enjoying so many wonderful things about our country. One of those is not Ticketmaster.
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In America, our founders embraced liberty and free enterprise; they frowned upon monopolies, making only essential exceptions like copyrights and patents to promote ingenuity and competition — not to crush it.
As for Ticketmaster’s competitors, they get elbowed aside. And we all know what happens when a company lacks competition: prices go through the roof.
This is exactly what’s happened in the ticket industry. It’s why live event ticket prices have surged up by 20 percent in just five years. That’s not simple inflation; it’s the ticket monopoly at work.
And it’s why Ticketmaster has such a bad reputation here in the state of Texas.
In 2024, a coalition of state attorneys general sued Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation for engaging in anticompetitive and anti-consumer behavior. In April of this year, a jury agreed, securing a landmark victory against the ticket retailer that will bring real relief for consumers.
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Senator Ted Cruz has also been a leader on this issue. In 2023, he grilled the president of Live Nation in a congressional hearing, demanding to know “Why does everyone else perceive you as a monopoly?”
Shortly after that, he introduced a bipartisan bill called the TICKET Act. The law would tackle another egregious Ticketmaster practice — the endless fees it loves to pile on right before payment, which can drive up the price of a ticket by as much as 30 percent. The bill would force Ticketmaster and every other ticket seller to show fans the full, all-in price of a ticket — including every mandatory fee — right up front, the same way airlines now have to post the total cost of a flight instead of teasing customers with a low base fare.
Cruz and others in this fight deserve real credit for showing leadership. Yet, as summer concerts and baseball season lie ahead, more action is needed to make sure Texans can afford their tickets.
For starters, while the TICKET Act overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 388-24, it’s currently lying dormant in the Senate. The Texas congressional delegation should push for it to receive a full vote.
Cruz has already acted here — as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, he made sure the bill was reported through his committee. Now, it’s time for the rest of the Senate to follow through.
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The Texas delegation can innovate other ways to help make the ticket market fairer. For example, Congress could require an open ticket distribution system that would allow ticket sellers to compete over the same inventory.
This would directly address Ticketmaster’s notorious exclusivity contracts by allowing consumers to buy tickets at whatever website provides the lowest fees, cheapest deals and best service.
In other words, Ticketmaster could still sell tickets, but it would have to compete with other vendors that could offer lower prices and fewer fees. Imagine that!
Texas has long been a world-class destination for entertainers and fans. Home of the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, South by Southwest and musical entertainers galore — you name it, we’ve got it.
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It’s time for our elected leaders to channel our founders’ disdain for monopolies, take on Ticketmaster’s oppressive monopoly, and make sure we can all afford to enjoy the exciting venues right here in the Lone Star State.
Louie Gohmer represented East Texas in Congress from 2005 to 2023 and previously was a state district court judge and 12th Court of Appeals justice.