AZOFF BECOMES MR. FIXIT AFTER FLAWS IN TICKETING SYSTEM REVEAL THEMSELVES

Ticketmaster Entertainment chief Irving Azoff acted quickly and decisively Wednesday in response to anger from the Springsteen camp over Ticketmaster.com’s redirecting of Bruce’s fervent fans to secondary ticketing service TicketsNow, despite the fact that first-run seats were still available. Not wanting to strain relations with Springsteen and manager Jon Landau, and hoping to avert a PR nightmare generated by frustrated ticket buyers, Azoff issued a public mea culpa, along with a pledge to fix flaws in the system he inherited. Here is the full text of the statement:

An Open Letter of Apology to Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team:

While we were genuinely trying to do the right thing for fans in providing more choices when the tickets they requested from the primary on-sale were not available, we clearly missed the mark. Fans are confused and angry, which is the opposite of what we hoped to accomplish. We sincerely apologize to Bruce, his organization and, above all, his fans.

We recognize that we need to change our course. We have committed to Bruce and state publicly here that we have taken down all links for Bruce’s shows directing fans from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow. This redirection only occurred as a choice when we could not satisfy fans’ specific search request for primary ticket inventory, but to make sure there is no misunderstanding in the future, we also publicly state that we will never again link to TicketsNow in a manner that can possibly create any confusion during a high-demand on-sale.

Specifically, we will not present an option to go to TicketsNow from Ticketmaster without the consent of the artist and the venue, both of whom work together to bring the joy of live entertainment to millions of fans.

If any fans inadvertently purchased tickets in the resale marketplace believing in error they were purchasing from the initial on-sale, we will refund the difference between the actual purchase price and the face price of the ticket. (Please don’t abuse this good faith gesture—we did not give brokers any preferential access to tickets.)

We are committed to helping deliver the most transparent and best live entertainment experience to fans. We will do better going forward.

Sincerely,

Irving Azoff, CEO, Ticketmaster Entertainment