84% believe tickets are property, not licenses

49% of respondents have tried to purchase tickets online but the event sold out within minutesBy an overwhelming majority, Tennessee voters believe they own the tickets they buy and object to ticket policies that restrict fans’ rights to transfer their event tickets, research released last week shows. The survey was conducted by market research firm Zogby Analytics on behalf of Fan Freedom, a consumer organization focused on fan rights in the live-event ticket industry.

The Tennessee legislature is considering ‘The Fairness in Ticketing Act’, which – given typical congressional Newspeak – would take away rights ticket holders currently enjoy. Ticket sellers and venues would have the power to limit ticket resales, where resales can happen, and at what price resales can happen.

• 84% of likely voters believe a ticket they bought is their personal property
• 84% said it is their right to transfer tickets they purchase to anyone they choose
• 75% said it is their right to choose who uses a ticket, whether a ticket is resold and at what price it can be resold
• 72% said fans who resell tickets and fans who purchase those tickets should determine the resale prices

Zogby Analytics surveyed 500 Tennessee likely voters who are also general ticket buyers on behalf of Fan Freedom. The online survey was fielded from March 14 to 15, 2013. The survey results were weighted by age, race, gender, party, education, and religion.

• 14% agreed “The original ticket issuer (e.g., the sports team or the concert promoter) should determine the resale prices when one fan sells to another.”
• 9% agreed “Once I’ve bought a ticket, the original ticket issuer, artist, team or venue still controls the ticket, limiting what I can do with that ticket.”
• 8% agreed “A ticket to an entertainment or sporting event is like an airline ticket – only the original ticket issuer can decide what I can do with my ticket
• 8% agreed “The original ticket issuer should have the right to require ticket resales be made only through their own website or an approved system.”

• 70% of respondents had purchased tickets to a concert, theater, cultural or sporting event online
• 24% purchased tickets to an event online from other fans or individual ticket holders
• 5% have sold tickets to an event to another person through the web
• 49% of respondents have tried to purchase tickets online but the event sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale
• 80% believe that ticket purchasing “bots” should be illegal

For more information on this survey, refer to Fan Freedom Survey.

Author Notes:

Jeffrey Henning

Jeffrey Henning, IPC is a professionally certified researcher and has personally conducted over 1,400 survey research projects. Jeffrey is a member of the Insights Association and the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers. In 2012, he was the inaugural winner of the MRA’s Impact award, which “recognizes an industry professional, team or organization that has demonstrated tremendous vision, leadership, and innovation, within the past year, that has led to advances in the marketing research profession.” In 2022, the Insights Association named him an IPC Laureate. Before founding Researchscape in 2012, Jeffrey co-founded Perseus Development Corporation in 1993, which introduced the first web-survey software, and Vovici in 2006, which pioneered the enterprise-feedback management category. A 35-year veteran of the research industry, he began his career as an industry analyst for an Inc. 500 research firm.