With speculation swirling throughout the industry that ticketing’s two top dogs, Ticketmaster Entertainment and StubHub may have settled a nearly two-year-old lawsuit between them, TicketNews has learned that Ticketmaster is separately seeking to seal a recent deposition in the case by President and CEO Sean Moriarty because of its potentially sensitive nature. In a California Superior Court filing this month obtained by TicketNews, Ticketmaster is trying to keep Moriarty’s testimony, and that of the company’s former Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing David Goldberg, from being made public, based on some prior agreements between the litigants on what may be withheld. Read More

Taylor Swift, the 18-year-old country music sensation, will leap frog into headlining arenas next year, according to an agent from the William Morris Agency, which represents her. That revelation was made on the opening panel at the Billboard Touring Conference in New York on November 19 that dealt with artist development. The jump to arenas is based upon her sales of about 600,000 albums last week. Swift has already toured with Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill and Brad Paisley. A few hours later, the official tally was released and the singer/songwriter solidified her position as one of the most important artists to emerge on the popular music scene this decade as her sophomore album, “Fearless,” debuted in the #1 slot atop Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart, with sales of 592,304 copies in its first week in stores. This is the biggest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall, behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay. Read More

With a little over a year to go before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, organizers are finding that demand for tickets is greater than they anticipated. Traditionally, the Winter Games do not draw quite as many fans as the Summer Games, but organizers of the Vancouver Olympics released hundreds of thousands of tickets in October and early this month, which were reportedly snapped up by fans very quickly. Approximately 1.6 million tickets were slated to be released this fall. Read More

Last week, the Boston Red Sox front office announced that they would be freezing all tickets for the 2009 season at 2008 prices. The Red Sox, who play at the smallest stadium in Major League Baseball in Fenway Park, are in the midst of a record 469 consecutive sell out streak despite having the highest priced tickets in the game. Across all sports, teams and leagues are attempting to counteract the tough economic times with a variety of cost cutting measures. The National Football League recently announced they would be lowering post season ticket prices, while teams across baseball have announced either the freezing or lowering of their ticket prices. Read More

Ticket Summit NYC this week welcomed ticket industry veteran Joe Cohen, founder of the popular UK-based ticket Web site Waldorf=Astoria in New York, is the ticket industry’s leading trade show. Cohen, a former senior executive with Ticketmaster Entertainment and online dating site Match.com, will speak on two panels, “Who’s On First? The New Paradigm in the Ticket Marketplace” and “Getting Global: Ticketing & International Expansion.” This is the second time Cohen has participated in Ticket Summit, having been a speaker at the Las Vegas show this past summer. The fourth incarnation of the Las Vegas Ticket Summit is scheduled for July 15-17 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. Read More

It is no secret that the ticketing industry, like other markets throughout the struggling economy, is dealing with plethora of financial and business issues, but TicketsNow President and CEO Cheryl Rosner believes that ticket companies should embrace the challenges. Rosner was one of several Chicago-area business leaders to offer her views on current market conditions before the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center this week, and the overall tone of the briefing was one of more economic gloom for the immediate future. Read More

Overall, ticket sales were down this week with a total of $16,629,333 compared to the previous week’s box office total of $17,125,791. The gross receipts for the season to date are $439,858,283, looking positively flush when compared to the same time last season, $413,226,732. In addition, only two of the 33 productions currently on Broadway, Wicked at the Gershwin and Jersey Boys at the August Wilson, hit the million-dollar mark this past week at $1,305,090 and $1,072,512 respectively. Last year’s strike of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ (IATSE) began on November 6, crippled most of the Broadway productions for many weeks, resulting in low box office totals. Performances of 27 shows were struck, impacting Broadway and the city’s economy. Read More

For the third week in a row, Radio City Music Hall maintains its lead on all competitors, according to TicketNews’s exclusive venues rankings for the week ending Sunday, November 16. Despite October’s sagging ticket sales for its Christmas Spectacular, sales have picked up in recent weeks, allowing the venue to still hold tight to the top slot in the rankings this week, coming in with a respectable power score of 5.29. The Gershwin Theatre once again follows Radio City in the rankings, repeating last week’s number two finish. Broadway’s home to the wildly popular musical Wicked power scores a 3.59 this week. For the second week, Madison Square Garden (MSG) follows the Gershwin in the number three position. With a power score of 3.42, MSG is enjoying strong sales for New York Knicks basketball, Cirque Du Soleil’s “Wintuk”, and the long-awaited Tina Turner tour, currently on its North American leg. Read More

Looking to reach old and new fans who may have turned away from the team following the last few rough seasons, the New York Knicks have turned to price club retailer Costco to help sell some tickets to home games this month, December and January. The move is the latest among sports teams looking at new ways to sell tickets. Some teams have even pledged to freeze or lower ticket prices to attract fans, but traditionally, the Knicks are among the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) better-selling teams, so officials were likely more concerned about finding new outlets. This became more acute following recent losing seasons that have made the team a bit vulnerable to discontent among fans. Read More

Acclaimed singer Patti LaBelle is going back to her roots this winter as she reunites with Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, her partners in the 1970s R&B/soul group Labelle. The upcoming reunion tour is slated to kick off with an opening concert on December 19 at Apollo Theater in New York, NY. The group’s reunion has eight confirmed shows on the books in addition to LaBelle’s solo performances, according to the singer’s official fan club Web site. Highlights include a January 10 concert at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, IL, and a January 29 performance at the Nokia Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles, CA. Read More