Wrong. TicketMaster signs long term contracts with venues to be the sole provider of ticketing for all events at that venue. The promoters pick venues based upon the size that they think the performer can draw. Therefore, if the promoter picks a venue that is contracted by TicketMaster the show is forced to use TicketMaster as the ticketing platform. If there is no properly sized venue in a city/region that is not under contract with TicketMaster (there rarely is unless you’re talking about small venues) then the promoter/performer has no choice but to use TicketMaster or not perform in that area. (See: Pearl Jam, early 90s) And as for the stupidly named “Convenience Fees,” that is pretty much all the money that TicketMaster makes on that sale (minus their credit card fees). Here’s a rough breakdown of who gets what from your TicketMaster purchase:

Ticket Price

This goes to the promoter, sometimes minus a few percent to TicketMaster

Convenience Fee

Ticketmaster's profit

Facility Fee

Mostly goes to the promoter. A small percentage may be retained by TicketMaster

Ticketfast Fee ($2.50)

Pure profit for TicketMaster. Ironically they’ll snail mail your tickets to you for free.

Shipping Charges

They may charge you $15, $19, etc, but their costs are WAY less, on the order of $4-8 per UPS package. The rest is profit for TicketMaster

J Cobb
Owner, Team One Tickets & Sports Tours, Inc.

A few feet up would still qualify as “nearby” wouldn’t it? Thus making my statement still accurate as well as practical.

I suppose if one could flatten the earth or had no limits to how high they could raise their antenna... but I thought the submitter would prefer a practical solution.

As long as you have a decent signal somewhere close enough you can run a cable to such as in your attic, or on your roof I can highly recommend the Wi-Ex YX510 from ZBoost (http://wi-ex.com/YX510.aspx). I have one at home and one at my office and they're great — as long as you have a good signal it can repeat for you. If you have no good signal nearby then you're either S.O.L. or stuck with a "mini-cell" thingy from your provider.