Scotiabank Center faces fan backlash over Ticketmaster deal

HALIFAX, NS — Sports and music fans alike are unhappy about a recently announced deal between Scotiabank Center and Ticketmaster.

The Halifax arena said on Tuesday it will soon transition to selling tickets online exclusively through Ticketmaster’s platform.

“It’s just sad to see a bigger monopoly come in and take over even more local spaces. . . . It feels like they’re just sold out,” Dartmouth resident Rachel Smith said in an interview.

Smith said some of her fondest memories of the venue are from performances by bigger artists like Carly Rae Jepsen. She fears that additional costs and ticket reselling, which is becoming more common in the online ticketing market, will drive up prices, making events inaccessible to many local consumers.

Fraudulent buyers will set up dozens or even hundreds of automated bots to automatically buy as many tickets as possible. The tickets can then be offered on resale sites for multiples of the original price, making it easy for sellers to make a profit.

Nova Scotia has no laws preventing this practice, and neither does the federal government.

Halifax resident and hockey fan Amy Langdon said she was shocked when she read the announcement.

“It seems like everywhere you look everything is going up in price, and this is just another example, unfortunately,” she said in an interview.

Erin Esiyok-Prime, Scotiabank Centre’s director of marketing, said she wants people to realize that someone trying to make money reselling tickets isn’t exclusive to Ticketmaster, and that the company’s proprietary resale platform will help fans avoid they get scammed.

In January, during the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, resellers bought tickets from Ticket Atlantic and tried to get thousands of dollars for sold-out games.

“You will see people (resell tickets) in places like Facebook Marketplace, or just one-on-one through an email. And that’s fine, but there’s no security, there’s no authentication. So you’re taking a risk,” Esiyok-Prime said.

However, Ticketmaster won’t be the only way to access future events. Those who want to buy physical tickets for events will see no change in the current system: physical tickets can be purchased on the day of an event, if available.

Those who have tickets for an upcoming event will be contacted by Scotiabank Center to transfer them to a Ticketmaster account. Anyone who does not have an account will have to create one.

In response to Scotiabank Center’s announcement post on Twitter, fan reactions ranged from skepticism to frustration over the transition. Some said they would no longer be attending Scotiabank Center events because of the change.

Esiyok-Prime acknowledged that people are concerned about the provider change, but claims Ticketmaster will benefit both the venue and fans.

“We feel like this is the right tool and, frankly, the only tool that can really help us deliver what we need for our fans, our customers and our community,” she said.

The process of finding a new ticketing service began in 2020. Starting with a list of possible candidates, venue options narrowed down to just four, with Ticketmaster ultimately being the successful candidate.

“Think of it as a technology change versus a business change; it makes things easier to track,” Esiyok-Prime said.