Waits sets restrictions on tickets

May 16, 2008 (The Columbus Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TMCS | news | PowerRating | PR Charts -- Tom Waits is trying to accomplish what Hannah Montana and Neil Diamond couldn't: defeat scalpers.

The eccentric singer-songwriter has teamed with Ticketmaster, the world's largest ticket peddler, to introduce the first paperless ticket system in the concert industry.

When tickets for his first-ever Columbus concert go on sale this morning, fans will be given two options: reserve tickets online or by phone.

They won't be allowed to buy tickets at Ticketmaster outlets or at the Ohio Theatre, the venue for the June 28 show. In addition, they'll be limited to two tickets each.

"Tom doesn't tour a lot," explained his tour manager, Stuart Ross. "When he does, they aren't lengthy tours, so the demand is far higher than the supply.

"All we're trying to do is make sure the tickets get into the hands of the patrons at face value."

A concertgoer arriving at the theater must give an usher the credit card used to buy the ticket as well as a government-issued photo identification. The usher will then swipe the credit card through a scanner, which will produce the ticket stub.

"All you have to do is just show up with your credit card and photo ID," said Rich Corsi, director of programming at the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, which owns and manages the Ohio Theatre. "This virtually cuts out scalping."

Ticket holders won't be permitted to leave the theater once they receive a ticket stub.

Fans who can't make it to the show will lose their money, because they can't transfer their tickets.

"Unfortunately we can't solve every contingency," Ross said, "but we're trying to do the best job we can for the largest number of people."

Several brand-name acts limit the number of tickets sold to one person.

Some -- including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Prince -- have also sold paperless tickets for sections of concert halls closest to the stage.

Waits, though, is the first act to use the system for an entire tour, Ross said.

During his previous tour, a jaunt that stopped in Akron and Cleveland, tickets to every theater-sized show sold out within 15 minutes.

"We really know about supply and demand," Ross said. "That's why Ticketmaster is doing it first with this tour."

Waits' system will slow but not stop scalping, said Jamie Kaufman, president of the ticket-brokerage company Dream Seats in Grandview Heights.

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Kaufman said.

"We have people working for us who will try to buy tickets. If there's an opportunity for us to get something done for someone, we will try our best. People are glad to pay us to do that for them."

Tickets to Waits' shows will be difficult for anyone to obtain, Kaufman speculated. The Ohio Theatre seats 2,779, and Waits is performing at only 11 other similar-sized theaters, almost all of them in the South and Southwest. The closest tour cities to Columbus are St. Louis and Knoxville, Tenn.

For tickets to the 2006 Waits concert in Akron, Dennis Leahy camped at a Kroger Ticketmaster outlet, which sold out in five minutes. Leahy hopes to land two tickets this morning.

"I'm going to give it my best shot," he said. "But I'm lucky enough to have seen him once. If I can't go this time, that's the way it goes.

"The worst thing would be to pay the extra money (to a scalper) and have them turn you away (at the door)."

abeck@dispatch.com

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