Country music star Eric Church has been staunchly fighting against ticket scalping for years, but he’s made his biggest stride against them yet. In a bold move, Church voided 25,000 tickets that were purchased by scalpers, and will be reselling those tickets directly to his fans.
In an AP interview, Church shows his passion for the issue. “They buy thousands of tickets across the U.S., not just mine, and they end up making a fortune,” Church said. “They use fake credit cards, fake IDs. All of this is fraud.”
He’s particularly adamant about getting his tickets into the hands of his fans, and has tried numerous tactics over the years to do so. Everything from paperless tickets to fan clubs and more have certainly helped, but scalpers still find their way in.
Meanwhile, Church has one of the top grossing tours in the country according to Pollstar, with an average ticket price of $60.67. His performances are marathon affairs, as he explains. “We’re doing 39-40 songs,” Church said. “I played three hours and forty minutes in Atlanta. I want the fans who are, by the last hour of the show, pulling me to the end.”
Church also shows his disappointment over the lack of enforcement for the BOTS Act, which was signed into law by President Obama and criminalizes the use of ticket bot software. “They are not really backing it up with prosecuting these people,” Church said. “I don’t believe they will anytime soon.”
Ticket scalping is particularly hard to enforce, and requires action on a case-by-case level in order to prove effective. If other artists take strides like Church, there may be room for reform after all.
[H/T Billboard]