State senator seeks investigation

Eric Kearney wants to know why tickets seem to sell out before they even go on sale.

COLUMBUS (AP) — A string of sellouts may be all good for 15-year-old pop star Miley Cyrus, star of the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” TV show, but the phenomenon has one Ohio lawmaker wondering.

State Sen. Eric Kearney, a Cincinnati Democrat, called Monday for the state attorney general to investigate the Ohio ticket industry to determine why so many of the hottest shows and sporting events seem to be sold out before tickets even go on sale.

In addition to asking for a probe by Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, Kearney said he plans legislation to make ticket transactions more transparent to the public.

He said his concern stemmed from a complaint from a Cincinnati parent who had problems purchasing tickets to the Hannah Montana show.

“When my staff and I investigated further, we found the problems of rampant scalping and immediately sold-out shows are happening across the whole industry, from concerts to sporting events,” he said in a statement.

“The important thing to realize in relation to the Hannah Montana show is that demand far exceeded supply and, on top of that, there were likely some unscrupulous individuals who were using automated computer programs to cut to the front of the line,” said Ticketmaster spokesman Joe Freeman.

On her television show, Miley Cyrus, daughter of country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus, plays high school student Miley Stewart, who lives a secret second life as famous pop star Hannah Montana. Her show reaches 5 million viewers each week.

The sold-out “Best of Both Worlds Tour,” which began Oct. 18, follows the release of her double album, “Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus,” which has already sold more than 1 million copies since its release in June. Her first album, released late last year, sold more than 2 million copies.

Parents in both Columbus and Cincinnati were steamed by how quickly tickets for Cyrus’ shows sold out at venues there. Some fans equated the phenomenon to The Beatles or the Rolling Stones, but Kearney said he suspects ticket sales are being manipulated.

Cyrus is scheduled to appear at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus today, and at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati on Thursday. Both performances are sold out.

“Ticketmaster and event promoters operating in Ohio should be aware that customers are angry at the way they do business,” Kearney said. “This isn’t just about Hannah Montana. It’s about every big event that comes to Cincinnati. Someone is profiting, and parents are left paying the price.”

West Hollywood, Calif.-based Ticketmaster Inc., a unit of New York-based IAC/InterActiveCorp., is the largest ticket broker in the world.

“These shows would have sold out within minutes in any event,” Freeman said. “What law enforcement and public officials should be focusing on, as Ticketmaster is, is making sure there is a level and fair playing field for fans to have an equal shot at these tickets.”

The request from Kearney follows a year of legal brawling among ticket distributors in the state.

This fall, Ticketmaster filed a federal lawsuit against a technology company then based in Ohio, RMG Technologies Inc., that it said was making and distributing software designed to automatically flood its Web site with requests and allow users to purchase tickets in bulk.

A federal lawsuit filed in California accused RMG of infringing copyrights, violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and breaching the Web site’s terms of use. A judge sided with Ticketmaster and granted a temporary injunction against RMG in October.

In July, Cleveland-based electronic ticketing venture Flash Seats filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster, accusing it of anti-competitive and monopolistic practices. The same month, Ticketmaster sued the Cleveland Cavaliers and Flash Seats in a U.S. District Court in California asking the court to rule that it has exclusive rights to handle all the team’s ticket sales.

Flash Seats offers sports teams and live entertainment venues paperless electronic ticketing, and provides season ticket holders a way to sell and transfer seats electronically.

In September, Flash Seats filed a federal lawsuit seeking to guard itself against what it says is patent infringement by a competitor, Irvine, Calif.-based Paciolan’s Ticket Marketplace.