A "suite" offer for subscribers plus thoughts on Live Nation's recent court defeat

This offer is only for a ticket to the suite. There is no food, drink or parking included. This 100-level suite is located above Sections 7-9 at Prudential Center.

To purchase tickets for any of the shows listed above, call/text me at 833-TIX-9137 or email me at mcollazo@dahday.com.

A note: paid subscribers received early access to this special, limited availability offer. To become a paid subscriber, click here to sign up:

Live Nation takes a rare “L”The recent jury ruling against Live Nation, which has thus far led to at least one announced settlement pay-out to Washington D.C. concert-goers, comes off as a rare David-beating-Goliath moment. Since the Obama Administration allowed Ticketmaster and Live Nation to merge, this publicly-traded company has been an industry Goliath. Live Nation owns ticketmaster. Live Nation owns a ton of live event venues. Live Nation is the largest concert promoter in the world. In many instances, Live Nation is bringing you the artist to a venue it owns and issuing primary tickets via the platform it owns. This circular revenue can fend off competition and options for fans, artists and ticketing platforms.

Since the backlash from how Taylor Swift’s Era Tour presales played out in November of 2022, anger towards ticketmaster and talks of breaking up the company started to gain momentum.

Back then, I spoke with Morgan Harper, the current Director of Policy and Advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, during the Taylor Swift controversy about this issue, which you can watch here:

Fast forward to this year, where the Trump Administration secretly made a sweetheart deal to try to kill a promising court case requiring, among other things, Live Nation to shed some amphitheaters in a sell-off. Anyone who knows the live event business knows how low revenue and fickle amphitheaters are to the larger live event space. Making Live Nation unload these seasonal, outdoor venues in mostly vacation towns was probably doing the company a favor.

Despite this blatant backing of Live Nation, dozens of states and the District of Columbia went ahead with the case and won in court.

“This is a historic victory for fans, artists, concert promoters and venue owners who have suffered for decades under the thumb of ticketmaster’s monopoly,” said Morgan Harper in a recent statement. “This jury verdict is vindication for the states who pursued this case and for the rule of law. Now the remedy must match the violation. Live Nation and ticketmaster must be broken up.”

To read more about Live Nation and the anti-monopoly push against it, I recommend checking out Matt Stoller and David Dayen on this issue and reading this statement from Stephen Parker of the National Independent Venues Association.

If a break-up could happen, the hope certainly would be artists would have more options to promote and sell tickets to their live shows, since most major artists only have Live Nation and AEG to choose from. One ticketing platform that could benefit from a less ominous presence from ticketmaster would be SeatGeek, which is not only a secondary market competitor to Stubhub, Vivid Seats and other marketplaces but also a growing primary platform for venues like AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, Delta Center in Salt Lake City, UT and Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL, among others.

Finally, all fans and live event lovers crave lower prices and easier access. If the time-honored rule in economics holds true, real competition and choices for artists, fans and venues would help cut down prices and barriers to enjoy a show.