NEW POLL: Colorado Voters Overwhelmingly Support Right to Transfer Live Event Tickets and Want Mandated Disclosure of Deceptive Ticket “Hold Backs” When Tickets Go On Sale
Sports Fans Coalition, a member of the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights Coalition, today released polling conducted by Rick Ridder of RBI Strategies & Research finding that voters overwhelmingly oppose many provisions included in Senate Bill 23-060 and support a key transparency provision that was removed from the final bill at the request of large dominant ticket sellers Ticketmaster and AXS. The poll found that 81% of Colorado voters oppose provisions in the bill which could allow companies like Ticketmaster and AXS to prevent fans from freely giving away or selling their purchased tickets. Additionally, nearly 9 in 10 voters (88%) of those polled support a requirement of these companies to disclose their use of the deceptive practice of holding back tickets from the initial sale to manufacture scarcity to mislead consumers into buying tickets at arbitrarily higher prices.
“The people of Colorado do not want SB 23-060 to become law and Governor Polis can rest easy and veto this wolf in sheep’s clothing legislation that will hand gross new powers to the largest and most monopolistic ticketing companies in the nation,” said Brian Hess of the Sports Fans Coalition. “Colorado currently has some of the strongest ticketing consumer protections in the country, and people don’t want to lose their right to give away or sell tickets they can’t use. This bill is a handout to Ticketmaster and AXS and nothing more.”
Ticket Transferability
The poll included a representative statewide sample of 500 Colorado voters ages 18+ and was conducted by RBI Strategies & Research from May 20-22, 2023. The Poll’s key findings include:
By a ratio of 4:1 (81% - 20%) Colorado voters agree that consumers should have the right to give away or sell their purchased tickets
56% of those surveyed “strongly agree.”
62% disagree that box offices, teams, artists, and companies like Ticketmaster and AXS should be able to prevent consumers from buying tickets through secondary marketplaces.
76% of voters say that ticket purchasers should retain the right to resell or transfer tickets
While Ticketmaster and AXS argue they should control tickets even after they are sold, only 20% of voters agree with them.
Nearly 90% of those surveyed support mandating the disclosure of ticket holdbacks.
Holdback Disclosures
Amendments to the bill were passed in the House and later stripped out that would have required companies to disclose how many tickets are on sale and how many are being held back to be put on sale in the future. While this amendment was removed from the bill, it is far and away the most desired provision of SB60 with 88% of Colorado voters agreeing that holdbacks should be disclosed. It is not uncommon for so-called primary ticketing companies and venues to hold back more than half of the true ticket inventory.