Ticketmaster to require vaccine or negative covid tests to attend concerts

[Yankees02]

I would think this will apply to everything not just concerts. The new normal

Sorry if this was posted already

https://nypost.com/2020/11/11/ticketmaster-to-require-negative-covid-19-test-vaccination/

[Sutton Ross]

Good.

[Jordan Catalano]

I think thinks great. And really we can look at this as the first real step to getting venues reopened and actual plans being out in place for that. It’s kind of exciting!

[Sunny11]

Anything that gets asymptomatic people to get tested Is a great thing. So many young adults use ticketmaster, a group with a disproportionate positivity rate.

[Theater3232]

What would happen if people buy from a reseller like Stubhub or direct from the box office? Also, many independent venues do not use Ticketmaster. Would there be enough people who get vaccinated (and who feel comfortable attending) to make it profitable to reopen theaters? (https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-05-27/only-half-of-americans-say-theyd-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine-survey) Charlotte says we can't open until there's a huge mass of people in theaters.

[Jordan Catalano]

The article says ticket resale won’t be allowed.

[ArtMan]

Unless they change the number of days it takes to get back your test results, this plan is ludicrous.  This week it took me six days to get back my test results for a test I took Friday morning.  Other times it wasn't that long. Anywhere from three to five days.  They expect me to shell  out money for a ticket and hope I get my results back in time for the show?   There are places that give you results within a hour, but the wait period, to take the test, is over 5 hours.   I am sure the test can only be so many days old, to be valid for their purposes.

[Jordan Catalano]

I suppose they’re counting on rapid tests.

[Robbie2]

I take it BWAY will follow the same or similar route with Telecharge to require a vaccine or negative covid tests to attend BWAY shows in their houses! Excellent...slowly moving forward in preparing for openings next years but still 10 months + away from reopening!  https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/touring/9481166/ticketmaster-vaccine-check-concerts-plan

[Scarlet Leigh]

It's a start but my main concern is the extra cost. Most insurance companies (if you even HAVE insurance) will cover a covid test once ever x amount of days. As things start to reopen, if everything will require a test that was taken within 7 to 14 days of the event date but your insurance will not end up covering tests taken that often, is going back to concerts and potentially theatrical events worth the cost of taking tests anytime you want to go out somewhere? 

[AEA AGMA SM]

Scarlet Leigh said: "It's a start but my main concern is the extra cost. Most insurance companies (if you even HAVE insurance) will cover a covid test once ever x amount of days. As things start to reopen, ifeverything will require a test that was taken within 7 to 14 days of the event date but your insurance will not end up covering tests taken that often, isgoing back to concerts and potentially theatrical events worth the cost of taking tests anytime you want to go out somewhere?"

Luckily once the adults are in the White House again Biden has wide availability of free testing as the number one bullet point of the outline of his plan.

https://joebiden.com/covid-plan/

[Fosse76]

I wonder under what authority Ticketmaster is able to implement this. They don't operate venues or produce the events, nor do any of their employees work in such venues. So how can they dictate such a policy?

[Broadway Joe]

Jordan Catalano said: "The article says ticket resale won’t be allowed. "

Might be a thing in some states but NY forces the ability to transfer tickets. It protects the consumer where in some places not allowing transfers of tickets gives ticketmaster complete control over the market and secondary market.

I know people don't like scalpers but people have fought against ticketmaster over this stuff because they should never have the ability to control everything. If someone can't make in last minute or a few days before or whatever they should fully be allowed to sell their tickets or transfer them to the new person.

If this goes through the common sense thing would be that the new owner of the tickets would just have to provide their covid info.

Either way this is all a hard pass from me. I love concerts but I'm not running back into a concert venue with this flawed system because this does nothing to prevent someone from contacting covid after getting a test and getting covid in less than 72 hours before the show and still spreading it, not to mention the false positives that do occur.

[Broadway Joe]

*

[Fosse76]

Broadway Joe said: "This does nothing to prevent someone from contacting covid after getting a test and getting covid in less than 72 hours before the show, not to mention the false positives that do occur. "

Or the false negatives.

[Broadway Joe]

Fosse76 said: "Broadway Joe said: "This does nothing to prevent someone from contacting covid after getting a test and getting covid in less than 72 hours before the show, not to mention the false positives that do occur. "

Or the false negatives."

Yup exactly. I'm also not against vaccinations either but I'm certainly not going to be one of the first ones running out to get this vaccination and I feel like there will be plenty of people who feel the same. I'm not saying the vaccination isn't going to be safe but I'm not rushing out to go take it just so I can be entertained. I've gone without Broadway and concerts for this long now that I can wait longer before I feel like it's safe enough.

All of this still feels like its a long ways off anyway. 

[HogansHero]

So many questions, so few answers. This ought to be a clue to everyone that, like everything else related to Covid, no one knows anything. I suspect that when we (a) actually have a vaccine that's ready and (b) are on the other side of this apparent second wave and (c) are actually ramping up towards indoor public assemblies (something we are coincidentally ramping down from today), a government will establish protocols for everyone. To think that it is going to be up to a ticketseller to decide anything is as silly as thinking that the League was going to decide when Broadway will reopen. This announcement may make some feel like progress is being made, but it is just window dressing. Once again, patience. Today's announcement is going to look terribly naive when the time comes. The good news is that it seems there may be some light at the end of the tunnel; enjoy that without getting ahead of yourselves.  

[uncageg]

I agree with HH.

Also, I think the only way this would work is if everyone had to be vaccinated and be negative. Period. The 24-72 hour thing leaves it wide open for further spread.

As far as the rights of the ticket holder. That may have to change for a while due to the circumstances.

This just has to be shut down. It is very obvious that a lot of people cannot be trusted to follow mandates, just look at the rising numbers. Parties being broken up, the students rushing the field at that college game last week. Even after the vaccine I bet we are still going to see it because of the anti vaxers and people just afraid to get it.

So this all sounds good but I am sure it will not work out as smoothly as they expect. JMO

[Sutton Ross]

I initially thought this was a good idea, and on paper it works. But, because people simply refuse to follow basic rules, this will end up being a huge disaster. This policy will probably last a month or less. 

[HogansHero]

It's worth remembering that Broadway is maybe 1% of ticketmaster. Perhaps there will be some viablility to this elsewhere but not here, and in all likelihood it will have fallen apart (if it ever gets put together in the first place) well before Broadway returns. Re testing, until it changes, anyone coming to NY has to be tested 3 days before coming and then quarantine for 3 days after before testing again. New Yorkers can get tested anytime and for any reason (or no reason). I don't know where there are severe limits but nothing surprises me anymore. In any event, such a person is not a likely candidate for a Broadway show until there is herd immunity. Remember also that once a person has immunity (whether vaccine or otherwise) there is not really a concern about false tests etc. Here again, this is not the first pandemic even though a lot of Americans haven't caught on to that.  The bottom line is that this "policy," however long it lasts, is just a bunch of silliness, kinda like Charlotte opining on the reopening and other nursery rhymes. 

[ArtMan]

Fosse76 said: "I wonder under what authority Ticketmaster is able to implement this. They don't operate venues or produce the events, nor do any of their employees work in such venues. So how can they dictate such a policy?"

Although I completely disagree with this proposal, I think since Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged, they can implement whatever policy they want.  Live Nation is the largest promoter of, at least concerts, and Ticketmaster controls the ticket sales.  If a particular venue wants to book a specific act (for profit of course) they would have to go along with their policies.  Feel free to correct me, if you disagree.

[ArtMan]

double

[Mr. Wormwood]

I have a slightly related science question...

We know there are going to be refusers no matter who tells them how safe a vaccine is. If the vaccine is indeed effective (90%+ as Pfizer is saying for example), are the anti-vaccers just putting themselves and other non-vaccinated people at risk? Like for example, if the whole US population can actually be vaccinated by Summer 2021 and we all go to a theater in the fall along with some who refused the vaccine, aren't those of us who were vaccinated still safe? Isn't it really a choice to put yourself at risk at that point?

I apologize if this is a dumb question but it's something I just haven't been fully able to understand...

[HogansHero]

@wormwood yes, exactly. What makes it confusing is that there are two related things going on in what we read about. There are the personal issues and there are the societal (epidemiological) ones. If you do the things that create personal safety (whether now, with masks, distancing, etc, or later, with a vaccine), you're good. But society (i.e., the government, at least the rational and sane ones) has a broader interest in overall immunity because there are great (and grave) costs associated with the irresponsible among us. 

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Fosse76 said: "I wonder under what authority Ticketmaster is able to implement this. They don't operate venues or produce the events, nor do any of their employees work in such venues. So how can they dictate such a policy?"

Live Nation Entertainment, which owns TicketMaster, operates about 100 major venues and produce many large events. But even event/venues that aren't under their control, I'm sure the venue operators would be happy to let a vendor handle this rather than handle it in house.