Gary Adler, attorney for the National Association of Ticket Brokers and advocate protecting ticket ... [+]
The world of live event ticketing is complicated, with ever evolving struggles between promoters, team owners, venue operators, legislators, rights holders, performers, shows and fans. Historically, there has been limited cooperation among these parties as everyone acted in their own interests. Promoters and performers, teams and players usually want to get top dollar for tickets because they keep that money. Primary and secondary markets impose service fees when tickets trade because that is how they can pay the costs of doing business and still make enough money to satisfy their shareholders. Legislators get miles of media coverage trying to defend “the little guy” who apparently always wants the least expensive ticket possible, even while leasing an $85,000 F-150 pickup from Ford. And, the distribution of tickets remains archaic, with a full year’s schedule of a touring band often being put on sale at 10 am local time on a single day after which the tickets are all sold and the noise levels rises incredibly once people realize they missed the window.
The reality is that in an ongoing power struggle over access to tickets, control of the prices and when or if the ticket can be transferred, it takes a very particular combination of patience, logic, and persuasiveness to cut through the chatter. It is also extremely helpful to be skilled in the practice of law to quiet the shouting from the less informed.
Gary Adler is a lawyer who has spent the past twenty-seven years working within the live event ticketing space. He is the primary lawyer for the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB), a trade organization of ticket sellers with a defined ethical code and an adherence to best business practices. In that role, Gary meets with executives from primary and secondary ticket markets to discuss solving issues which need attention. The most frequent issues are when tickets are sold as transferable, then later made non-transferable, or new state or Federal regulations related to the conduct of how tickets may be sold or restricted. He also coordinates experts and lobbyists to help educate lawmakers as they consider whether to amend existing laws or enact new ones governing the ways in which tickets can be sold, bought, or transferred.
The future of access to tickets is being complicated as new blockchain and software rules-based protocols are built to either restrict transfer of tickets or use technology to select or bar specific buyers from completing a purchase. The most recent example of this trend was the Bruce Springsteen on Broadway ticket sale in which thousands of purchases were blocked from people because SeatGeek’s software believed they were ticket resellers. As always, the law of unintended consequences applied, and Bruce Springsteen became the first major act of 2021 to be unable to sell 51,000 tickets. That sale was a preview of how rules-based software can determine who can buy a ticket. The more significant question is should that be allowed? This is the kind of question Gary deals with all the time.
Professionals in the event ticketing business, like professionals everywhere hold annual conferences. Gary and the NATB team organize World Ticket Conference, an annual event which takes place in Las Vegas, NV. At WTC ticket sellers, promoters, markets, and professionals gather to review the events of the past year, the challenges faced and the potential changes ahead due to new protocols or because of legislative activity. This year’s conference will be particularly interesting coming just after live entertainment is moving back to full attendance following the complete cessation of all events in March 2020. It will also be fun to see everyone back together in one space, as last year WTC took place over Zoom with, you guessed it, Gary Adler hosting.
There will be a lot to discuss this year, and a lot to celebrate. The entire live event ticket ecosystem was at peril of complete collapse. More than 70,000 events worldwide were canceled or postponed, tickets which had been bought and sold repeatedly had to be refunded all the way back to the original purchaser. NATB members went deep into their pockets returning the money they had earned selling tickets to events which were scheduled to take place between March of 2020 and June of 2021, theaters closed without any idea when they could open again and consumers who had bought billions of dollars of tickets for those Covid affected events had to be made whole.
At the same time there were legislative struggles over whether to allow restrictions on transferring tickets, pressure from promoters and team owners to establish exclusive control over tickets even after they had been sold, and numerous attempts to further regulate the ways in which people who purchased tickets for resale conducted business.
To quote Talking Heads, Gary’s job was “same as it ever was.” He is the point man who again and again explained the consequences of actions which were being proposed by one or another participant in the ticketing ecosystem whose filter did not extend beyond the focus of their own interest.
I spoke at length with Gary. Here is our conversation in both video and audio podcast format:
When you are the lawyer for a rambunctious association of clever and successful entrepreneurs who all have an opinion and nearly all believe their opinion is correct, you must have a broad palette of skills and a deep capacity to listen, explain and lead by logic rather than emotion. If you still have that gig after 27 years, it speaks volumes about your talent. Gary Adler is like the guy at the circus who shows up every day, climbs into the cannon and gets launched across the arena. For everyone else it is exciting to watch, but for that human cannonball it is just another day when you believe in your ability and hope your aim is true.
