Simulating markets for ticket sales to major events

One of the advantages of living in a major metropolitan centre is the access to major sporting, musical and cultural events. However, in recent years demand for tickets to major events has grown at a much greater rate than the capacity of the venues at which they are held. This increase in demand has led to popular events commonly selling out within minutes of going on sale, and to various, sometimes illegal, forms of secondary markets for tickets such as 'scalping'. It is an area which is fraught with potential legal, ethical and economic issues and the competing interests of artists, promoters, scalpers, fans and the general public. Different strategies and rules have been trialled by event promoters, legislated by local and central governments, and even mooted by academics, as ways to better manage the sale of tickets to major events. These range from ticket sale limits, staggered ticket releases and anti-scalping laws, through to ticket 'lotteries' and auctions, and even suggestions of a futures market for tickets. This paper will present a preliminary examination of several of these strategies for selling tickets to major events using computer simulations of a ticket market. It will examine how different rules and forms of ticket markets can impact on the average price paid by purchasers, the variation in prices paid by purchasers, and the return for the event promoters.