Sharks and mobsters
The otherwise dry topic of national antitrust policy took a sharply local — and colorful — turn on Tuesday, as local concert promoter and club owner Seth Hurwitz took center stage as a key witness against the merger of concert business giants Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
“Apparently it took something as simple as not being able to get Bruce Springsteen tickets to finally wake the public up,” Hurwitz told a Senate subcommittee, referring to fans’ recent accusations that Ticketmaster had attempted to gouge them when Springsteen tickets went on sale. “I am deeply sorry it has taken this long for everyone to start figuring out what is going on here.”
But Hurwitz, who owns the 9:30 Club and concert promotion company IMP Productions, was just warming up. Answering Live Nation’s claims that the merger would help them look out for fans’ best interest, he replied, “Trust the dictator to serve the needs of the people? I suppose it could happen. … [But] why shouldn’t they try? You can’t blame them any more than you can blame a shark for eating people.”
And, he wondered, why no acts other than Springsteen have spoken out about Ticketmaster. “Doesn’t that say as much about the problem here as anything? Kind of like the shop owners in mob-era Chicago that were afraid to speak out about having to pay ‘protection.’ ”
(Photo: Carrie Devorah)
