TicketMaster Plans to Launch Ticket Auction
The sky's the limit, as bidders compete for the best seats in the house. Fed up with watching ticket scalpers and brokers rake in the huge bucks for prime seats at their venues, Ticketmaster plans to debut an online auction program for choice seats to selected concerts and sports events later this year. The move may drive up the price of front row seats when they start going to the highest bidder, but some analysts say the impact would likely be minimal.... Princeton University economics professor Alan B. Krueger ... called the open auction a "positive development." "For the top artists, tickets are still sold below what the market would bear, even though prices have shot up over the last six years," Krueger told POLLSTAR. "This is especially the case for the best seats in the most expensive cities. "If the auction is widely used, I suspect price variability will increase; we will see greater dispersion in prices across artists, across cities and seats for the same artist."... Source: Pollstar.com Thinking Economically How might Ticketmaster's online auction program lead to market equilibrium for the best tickets? THINKING ECONOMICALLY Synthesizing
1. Do you think Ticketmaster's plan in document C would help or harm Pearl Jam's wish "that no one will pay more than $20" to see them (document A)? Explain your answer.