Publication: Wall Of Sound [Internet]
Date: April 18, 1997
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Title: "Prince Takes on Scalpers"
Written By: Staff

After canceling almost a dozen shows in 1997 because of excessive ticket-scalping, Prince has decided to take measures to insure that all the money made at his weekend concerts in San Jose will go to its intended recipient, his Love 4 One Another charity. The Purple One bagged a scheduled show at the San Jose State Event Center on April 12 after discovering that tickets were being scalped for exorbitant prices on the Internet. With the announcement of two replacement shows at the Event Center April 19 and April 20 came word of a new ticketing system designed to discourage scalping. The question is, will the flaming hoops that Prince fans have to jump through to attend the show also discourage ticket-buyers? Here's how it works: tickets went on sale at four Bay Area venues only, the Event Center itself, the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, and the Warfield in San Francisco. Prospective buyers could not camp out nor could they line up before 9:00 a.m. At 9:30, lottery numbers were handed out, and at 10:00, a number was drawn to decide the order of the line. Once in line, fans could buy a maximum of four ticket vouchers, at forty bucks a pop, cash only. Photo I.D. was required to pick up the vouchers, and will be required when the vouchers are presented at the Event Center the night of the show. The box office will then exchange the vouchers for tickets, at which time fans must immediately enter the show. Hanging around waiting for friends or selling tickets is strictly forbidden.

"It's not a mad frenzy here," a spokesperson at the Warfield told Wall of Sound at 10:30 a.m., a half hour after tickets went on sale. "But that might just be our location. We had some people show up last night to camp out, but the Tenderloin District [in San Francisco] really isn't conducive to that. It'll sell out, but we still have tickets available." Only time will tell whether Prince's new system will eventually pan out, but it's clearly time someone takes a stand--after all, on-line scalpers are hawking the first ten rows of U2's Pop-Mart tour for as much as $1500 a seat.