Music

Ontario attorney general investigating resale of Tragically Hip tickets

by Jeremy Mersereau

Here it is, the most Canadian sentence of 2016, at least until a beaver apologizes for the state of its government-funded dam: the attorney general of Ontario, Madeleine Meilleur, says her ministry should look into the tremendously inflated prices of Tragically Hip tickets on resale sites.

As previously reported, presale tickets for the Tragically Hip’s upcoming summer tour sold out near-instantly, but then appeared on resale sites like StubHub for many times their original asking price. Of course, this, um, entrepreneurial practice happens all the time, to bands and events everywhere, but its especially appalling this time in the wake of the Hip’s announcement that Gord Downie has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Sunnybrook Foundation.

CTV News reports that Meilleur says she’s “very sorry for the [fans] of this group that they have to pay a great price to go to the concert,” and that her ministry needs to examine the laws and practices around resale prices. When questioned by reporters about the province’s scrapping of a law that prevented primary ticket sellers like Ticketmaster from owning resale sites, Meilleur said that “the intent was to prevent this from happening.”

Some Hip superfans have turned conspiracy theorists in the wake of the resale fiasco, pointing to the fact the presale tickets were available to the band’s fan club only, and required the entry of a code known only to members. The swiftness of the tickets popping up on resale sites like StubHub has led to some to speculate that primary sellers are somehow responsible for the scalping.

Far more likely, however: Hip fan club members are just as susceptible to call of The Glorious Market as anyone else, whether that means scalping the presale tickets themselves or selling their codes.

The Hip will play 15 shows this summer across Canada. General sale for tickets starts this Friday, July 4th, and will almost definitely end about, oh, 34 seconds later.

[h/t CTV News]