• Watch Ticket resale sites like Stubhub, eBay and Ticketliquidator.com like a hawk. You need to know which way the market is going to get the best deal. If you log in to Stubhub like you are going to sell tickets you can see the last 20 transactions. Act like you are going to sell a ticket and follow the steps till you have to put in a price, the details you enter do not matter. (Make sure you close the window before finalizing that you have tickets for sale) If the prices are going up it is most likely a good time to buy. If the prices are going down, hold out till they stabilize at a minimum to purchase.
• Do you want a seat back? Sections 1-8 and 15-22 have seat backs. Seats will give you a little more room, though they are still small compared to modern stadium width wise and in terms of leg room.
• The best rows at the Rose Bowl are rows 25-45, you have an elevated view where you can see the whole game from.
• The low rows at the Rose Bowl are HORRIBLE!! If you are below row 15 you definitely won’t see much of the game. The low rows are pretty flat and you will be blocked by those standing in the rows below you or the teams or staff on the sidelines. Row 77 is a better row than row 10. When I worked at a ticket broker we would only sell lettered rows to those customers we didn’t want to sell tickets to again.
• Know the seat numbers before you purchase. Call your broker to find out the seat numbers (click here to see why it can be good to use a broker). If you look at the seating chart the aisles go up the middle of the section at the Rose Bowl. For example sections 19 and 20 meet in the middle. Section 19 carries a premium to section 20, but if you know the seat numbers you could end up right next to or a few seats away from the other section for a couple hundred dollars less per ticket.

The Rose Bowl is a smaller more intimate stadium than most of the new monstrosities and a good knowledge of the seating chart will help you get the best bang for your buck.  If you have any questions on where to sit  hit me up on twitter @ticketanalyst

Currently the Billboard Touring Conference going on in New York City. Ticketnews.com published this article about the panel that discussed the issue of paperless ticketing with representatives from Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Stubhub and Ticket Network. Stubhub and Ticket Network as the owners of the two largest ticket exchanges on the secondary market have the most to lose from the paperless initiative by Ticketmaster and Veritix (formerly known as Flash Seats). Basically the primary ticket sellers are doing their best to lock out any secondary ticket providers hoping to capture that market for themselves. Consumers should be very weary of the paperless ticketing provided by Ticketmaster. Why is Ticketmaster’s paperless ticketing bad for you the consumer?

• There is no transfer of tickets. 2 years ago Celine Dion put tickets on sale for her tour that was occurring a year in the future. A lot can happen in a year, the economy can tank, one can lose their job, or an employer could transfer you to another state or country. If you need to, want to, or have to sell your tickets you have no way to do this.
• Consumers are also hurt because there is an artificial floor set on the selling price of tickets. The National Association of Ticket Brokers has stated that 40% of the tickets on the secondary market are sold at below face value. A few weeks ago the super group Them Crooked Vultures featuring Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters along with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin played shows in Philadelphia and Boston. The shows were instant sell outs. However on the secondary market the tickets were selling for $4 each in Philadelphia and $15 each in Boston. If Ticketmaster had its way the only amount you could pay for the show would have been $65.
• Paperless ticketing only stops the casual reseller who flips tickets on Stubhub or eBay from “scalping” their tickets. The professional brokers are willing to fly anywhere in the country if they are able to make a lot of money and paperless ticketing isn’t going to stop them from doing so. I have talked to a few that flew to London knowing how much they would make from the Led Zeppelin reunion. Reducing the supply on the secondary market only increases the prices.

Until Ticketmaster implements a way to transfer tickets there is no reason that paperless ticketing should be used unless the show is within 3 weeks of the on sale. Veritix does allow transfers of tickets and therefore is not operating in such a monopolistic manner.

There is also a quote in the article from Ticketmaster president David Butler that states: “We provide a service for the artist to decide how they want to handle the relationship with their fans.” This seems a little hypocritical. If it is just a service they provide why do they not let the artist decide whose service they would like to use? If their service is so good they should be open to competition and wouldn’t need to have exclusive agreements with venues where the artist is not allowed to use any other ticketing provider for their show in that venue. Butler goes on to state “The artists are the rights holders.” If this is true why does Ticketmaster stipulate that artists are only allowed to hold back 10% of tickets for their fan club if they have another service issue the fan club tickets?

Paperless ticketing is about increasing the profitability of a large corporation and increasing the net worth of a billionaire and not about the artists. Instead of trying to shut out the secondary market these companies and artists need to embrace it. They have 1,000 or more salespeople who have all the best clients who are willing to spend loads of money on their product. Instead they are trying to freeze them out, which will just alienate all the fans in the end. The teacher who has been laid off no longer has something of value to sell and the CEO of XYZ company who must now focus on buying tickets instead of making more money at his company and just making a call to a broker at his or her convenience.