More ticket-price shenanigans

I’ve been attending concerts since freshman year in high school (Bad Company at the Spectrum in 1976 was my first), but it wasn’t until this summer that I’d made my way to the PNC Arts Center for two shows — for John Mellencamp w/Lucinda Williams and The Police w/Elvis Costello. The facility, which seats more than 17,000, is a nice outdoor ampitheater, with good sightlines and a far more relaxed atmosphere than you find at the arenas.

As nice as PNC is, it has what I would consider a major flaw — an apparent curfew that forces musical acts to shut down by 11. Both Mellencamp and The Police put on great shows, but both had a feeling of being abbreviated — just 17 or so songs each when many concert-goers (I, for one) have come to expect 22, 23, 24 songs from long-established acts — even though we paid the same prices we would have paid at venues without curfews.

That makes this news seem a bit unfair, at the very least:

The PNC Bank Arts Center will institute a $6 “parking fee” per ticket for the upcoming season. That’s right — per ticket, not per car, as most major concert venues charge. That means it will cost $6 to park if you drive alone, but $24 to park if you carpool with three friends. And you will pay for parking whether you walk, drive or take a shuttle bus.

While the folks at PNC — which is owned by the state and run by LiveNation — say the fee is really not new (if you believe that…), the perception is that the venue is pushing up prices and creating a disincentive for carpoolers and others seeking to minimize traffic into the facility.

If LiveNation wants to charge more, let it work to eliminate the curfew — or extend it — so that musicians can give us our money’s worth.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet