Sunday's Best: Week 20: 2022
Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 01:59PM Monkeypox, oh my! The odd outbreak is a nice reminder to keep on washing your hands aggressively - especially since we are in yet another COVID-19 surge in America... just in time for concert season!
Concerts always make me think of Ticketmaster and then I usually get mad. On three separate occasions this past week, I looked up seats for different shows and in each instance I was just plain turned off by the ridiculous ticket prices and fees. I know every person reading this site can agree with that sentiment! No one thinks, "Hey I wish Ticketmaster charged me MORE for the privilege of buying a ticket online!"
Now, I see the story below from The Washington Post about Live Nation and Ticketmaster getting tons of pandemic relief funds meant for small venues. Now, Live Nation had a workaround which was technically legal but still let them get funds for venues owned as a subsidary. Be sure to read the entire article - it is very detailed. From the piece:
Live Nation as a parent company did not directly receive any money from the program, but the government relief to its subsidiaries still protected its investments and improved its long-term outlook, however slightly. The earnings of its subsidiaries provide Live Nation with crucial cash flow and enable it to service its debt, it said in securities filings. The aid enabled the companies to pay staff and recover more quickly from the disruption, their executives said in interviews and emailed statements.
In one case, one of the companies that received funds from the SBA borrowed money from Live Nation and its other owners in the first months after covid hit, showing how the parent company played an active role in its survival. In another case, one of the subsidiaries that received taxpayer funds did not need to tap an available credit line from Live Nation, showing how the grant could have shielded the parent company from having to finance the entity’s survival.
Just makes me sick and that's our Sunday's Best Worst for this week! #Pitchforks!
Subsidiaries of Live Nation, the corporate parent of Ticketmaster, received millions in pandemic aid meant for independent venues https://t.co/RfGbItORYq
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2022
Reader Comments (5)
No surprises when companies we love to hate get relief . . . not to help their employees, but to service their debt and protect their investments. And it isn't political (save insofar as it involves politics . . . no aisle-pointing here!) to say that the oversight on distributing these relief funds was poor (at best).
Granted, many big corps. were shamed into returning funds after it got the antiseptic light of publicity. That's a net-positive. But many more Mom-and-Pop businesses had to jump through Byzantine hurdles and still didn't get relief. That is a net-negative. Oh no, a paradox!
In my area, far too many good places are gone due to the pandemic. And countless people who worked in those places are now barely scraping by. Thank goodness prices on consumer goods haven't gone up. Oh wait. They have? My bad.
I'd wish ill (a pox on their house?) upon those who profited (or back-filled) their coffers during the pandemic. But it does no good and wastes space I have for more optimistic things. Besides, tilting at windmills makes you look stupid. Not that these are illusory evils, mind you. But the effect is the same. Besides, Sancho Panza left me for another gallant fellow living in a tent. So I am going to have to find a new (billy) squire! Zing!!!
Bro..i found your "billy"slash Squire *wink*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npoUI1obH_M
One thing on fees. Say you have a venue 8,000 seats. Lets say Faster Pussycat sells it out. $32 a seat. Ticketmaster fee is say $16. Then you have Aerosmith, sells it out. $132 a seat, and the fee jumps to $42. That is just insane when you think about it. Handling, service, processing, etc... whatever they want to call it. Why the hike vs. the FACE value of the ticket ?
But then again, I have a buddy who tips on principle vs. the actual cost of the meal. $12 hamburger or $40 steak should be the same tip. :)
And oh yeah, more scares of COVID and pox... maybe it's time to update the "high", "medium", "low" levels of measurement, instead of using the same dart board.
Dartboard is a reflection of what health departments or whoever in your area uses as low, medium, high levels of transmission. Now there is science behind what they use a cases per 100,000 ,etc...
Not all powers that be follow that to determine low, high, medium - thereby having their own dartboard. They use words like HIGH scares people just in that word or they will use a 75% increase even though if you had 5 people last week and you got 9. 75% sounds so much better. Faith in science, vaccinations, etc... can go along ways vs. HIGH or percentages in click bait headlines.