Taylor Swift fans swiftly shut out via Ticketmaster: Tickets to Taylor Swift's May 7 show at Xcel Center were gone in seconds, leaving the new "Hannah Montana law" in the dust.

Oct 30, 2009 (Star Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TMCS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Taylor Swift is the new Miley Cyrus, and ticket brokers are still demons -- at least in the eyes of parents who tried to buy tickets Friday morning to Swift's May 7 concert at Xcel Energy Center, which sold out faster than you can say, "What happened to the Hannah Montana law?"

There were widespread reports of would-be buyers being turned down for tickets less than a minute after they went on sale at Ticketmaster.com. Meanwhile, ticket-broker sites Stubhub, eBay and the Ticketmaster-affiliated TicketsNow immediately filled up with hundreds of listings apiece for the show, amounting to several thousand tickets on those three sites alone, many ranging from $120 to $1,000 per ticket. Original prices were $27, $41.50 and $61.50.

More tickets were being offered for inflated prices at individual broker sites, such as Twin Cities-based TicketKingOnline.com, which had more than 400 listings, but only about 30 were owned by Ticket King itself (the rest were independent sellers using the company's site).

"We got shut out ourselves -- and we're good at this," complained Ticket King co-owner Mike Nowakowski, who said he had a staff of eight try to buy tickets Friday morning, and only one got through with a single ticket purchase.

So what did happen with the so-called Hannah Montana law passed by the Minnesota Legislature last year, outlawing the use of computer programs by brokers to gobble up tickets?

Nowakowski said the law's weakness is that it only applies in Minnesota, so anyone in a state -- or another country -- without a similar law can still use the controversial software.

Nowakowski also leveled blame at Ticketmaster itself, whose financial ties to supposedly independent brokers is coming to light in a lawsuit by a New York broker who said the company paid him to sell cost-inflated tickets for Ticketmaster's profit.

"Ticketmaster probably only put half of the [Swift] tickets on sale and will sell the rest out the back door," Nowakowski said.

Ironically, the singer whose 2007 concerts ignited the Hannah Montana legislation -- Miley Cyrus, who plays Montana on TV -- returned to Target Center on Thursday and did not even sell out the arena in advance. The Cyrus show used a new, "paperless" ticket-selling method that required concertgoers to bring the credit card they used to purchase their tickets. That process went relatively smoothly at Thursday's show.

Swift's publicist pointed questions on the tour's ticket troubles to Ticketmaster, whose spokespeople did not immediately return calls. Xcel Center staffers said the situation at the St. Paul arena is the same as at all other stops on Swift's tour.

"It has been an amazingly popular show across the country, and like the shows before ours, it sold out within minutes," said arena spokeswoman Kathy O'Connor.

She offered a little hope to shut-out Swift fans: The tour's promoter placed a seven-day delay on all delivery methods (by mail, will-call and print at home), so Ticketmaster can look for suspicious orders and cancel any improper sales.

Chris Riemenschneider --612-673-4658

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