Ticketmaster Might Check Your Vaccine Status
Thursday, November 12, 2020 at 01:14PM Yesterday, it was widely reported that Ticketmaster is hatching a plan to make concertgoers prove COVID-19 vaccination or negative test results 72 hours before entry into shows. If the information is not provided, Ticketmaster will not release tickets, thus barring entry to shows. All of this data will be tracked by smartphone.
The shock and outcry from this news was pretty swift and now Ticketmaster is walking it back, at least a little. Company officials now say yesterday's news was misreported, but also admit they are investigating options to track vaccine status:
"It was widely misreported yesterday that Ticketmaster will be requiring vaccine status/test results for future events. This is not true. Ticketmaster does not have the power to set policies around safety/entry requirements, which would include vaccines and/or testing protocols. That is up to the discretion of the event organizer. We are indeed exploring these options, but it is still only a potential concept. And Ticketmaster will not be able to require such parameters — it would always be up to the event organizer."
The future of concerts will be interesting I suppose. Oh, Brave New World, that has such people in it.
Ticketmaster claims yesterday's report about vaccine and testing requirements was "widely misreported” in a new statement. https://t.co/EoDvarwtzh
— Metal Injection (@metalinjection) November 12, 2020
Ticketmaster will ask people to prove they’ve had Covid vaccine https://t.co/AvLcanvglr
— The Independent (@Independent) November 12, 2020
Reader Comments (7)
Sorry, Carry on.Flame away. 😂🤟
i’m curious what they do when i go for my primus meet & greet next summer and my test results are not available? are they really ready for me to burn the place down for not giving me my money back?
oh and ticketmaster has as much authority as they want, heck they (live nation) own/run/manage half the large venues in town.
The sooner you bast*rds strap on a mask the sooner you won’t have to!
Huh-uh-uh-lo-oh!
And, safely, the sooner the better. I would like a few of the venues near me to still be open once things start to return to normal-ish. I can't even imagine what those workers are going through right now. Throwing some money at the charities that were started to help them out is a good step. But that is just a drop in an otherwise large (and growing) bucket of misery.
Stu, I know you were joking. But perhaps a relaxing sip of pork soda will put you in better spirits!
I think the 'walk back' is, like most everything that Ticketmaster does, disingenuous. True, they don't own venues like Live Nation does. But they have significant weight when it comes to what venues who use them _choose_ to do. And, when I made my snide aside yesterday about this development, it had nothing to do with the idea that things should be done safely (note my nod to Bkallday above). It was more to the point that I wouldn't trust a company like Ticketmaster to be in charge of responsible testing. Why? Their track record on a host of issues--refunds, cancellations v. postponement, fees--suggest that their business model is predicated on asking for forgiveness . . . after someone raises a stink (or they get sued). That is not exactly what I would call a 'gold standard' for putting their customers or the venues with which they work first. It's akin to casinos paying for Gamblers Anon ads or Bacardi reminding you to not drink and drive. The logic might be sound; the messenger is compromised.