It seems like a perfect concept: Size 20'S The city doesn't sleepONE actual play Dungeons & Dragons campaign about the secret magical world of New York City, broadcast live before a paying audience at the Big Apple's convention hall, Madison Square Garden, in an epic night of adventure – an event called “Garden gloves.”
But perhaps it's too perfect to exist in a world with Ticketmaster, as many potential moviegoers discovered this week when the corporation's dynamic pricing mechanism came into effect, driving up the cost of some single tickets soared up to $2,000. Dimension 20 crew and parent company Fall out issued a statement on Sunday, writing that it had asked Ticketmaster to stop dynamic pricing for Gauntlet tickets and outline measures to address fan frustration.
This was confirmation of exactly what I had feared.
I entered yesterday 21 in the signal, in the first wave. Every ticket is available to me. Front row seats on the VIP floor cost ~$250. It all disappeared instantly.
Those same chairs today cost a staggering $2361.20 pic.twitter.com/chykGJZK9m
– Liz Duff @producerliz (@producerlizz) April 11, 2024
Ticketmaster, a company whose Wikipedia page has a “Criticism and controversy” section with no less than 13 subsections at the time of this writing and a “See more” section covering the very concept of exclusivity, merged with the house. hosted the Live Nation event in 2010. Its dynamic pricing system uses algorithms to increase ticket prices for “Official Platinum Seats” in real time as demand for them increases (and decreases as demand increases). reduced demand) without a clear ceiling, resulting in ticket prices many times higher than those set by the artist or performer.
In a statement shared on Dimension 20 X And Instagram account, the cast of Dimension 20 explained that flexible pricing and platinum tickets “were not something that was explained to us, nor was it something that was presented as something we have the ability to decline – once we had a better understanding of the situation as a group, we informed Live Nation that our desire was to decline all flexi-priced tickets for the event. this event and for all future events.”
Overall, Dimension 20's statement notes, of the more than 15 thousand “Gauntlet in the Garden” tickets sold to date, the average cost per ticket is $119. “Gauntlet” will also be filmed and streamed on Dropout.tv at a later date. You can Read the full statement here.
Dynamic pricing yes has angered Ticketmaster customers since rolling out in 2022, especially around concert tours for the likes of Bink-182, Bruce SpringsteenColdplay, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift — and even received pushback from the performers themselves, like Cure's Robert Smith. Ticketmaster counters that flexible pricing is a deterrent to ticket sellers: It is difficult to buy tickets at base price and resell them at a higher price if, when demand is high, tickets are already priced much higher than the base price. “Flexible pricing aims to capture more value for artists,” the spokesperson said told the New Statesman in 2022.
But it's no surprise that many ticket buyers feel that these Platinum Seats simply incorporate mercenary activity into a mandatory system. This is made even more complicated for customers and artists because it's difficult to avoid working with Ticketmaster altogether. A 2023 study by the American Economic Freedom Project shows that Live Nation “uses its artist and promoter management business as a bargaining chip to secure exclusive contracts with venues.” Its position in the market is further enhanced by the fact that Ticketmaster/Live Nation handles ticket sales for “78% of the top-grossing arenas” in the United States, including Madison Square Garden.
In addition to opting out of dynamic pricing in the future, Dimension 20's statement also outlines an upcoming lottery system for fans, dubbed “Dimensioneer Tickets,” “where players selected individuals will have the opportunity to purchase up to two tickets for $35 each (for seats located throughout the event space, including the best seats in the house),” adds more information about the lottery will be announced “soon”.
Fans should check out the Dimension 20 and Dropout social networks for that information, and in the meantime, we'll be watching to see exactly what happens in the live D&D scene when a show goes live D&D sold over 15k tickets for one of the most popular US arena venues in less than a week.
