As we reported this morning, scalping tickets is now legal on the Missouri side of the state line. The Missouri legislature made that change earlier this year. The upcoming Hannah Montana concert at the Sprint Center -- or "Hurricane Hannah" as it's fondly called -- brought the scalping discussion into the limelight.
Governor Blunt's political rival, Attorney General Jay Nixon, did not let the law change stop him from going after three ticket brokers last month. One of those, Ticket Solutions, is based out of Overland Park. Yesterday, Owner Russ Lindmark told me on the phone the lawsuit has since been dismissed because he agreed to give away several dozen tickets to charitable organizations. He also said he'd previously considered opening a store on the Missouri side of the state line. However, the run-in with the AG soured him on that idea.
Always out-spoken ticket broker Hal Wagner is already open for business in Independence. The owner of Ace Sports & Nationwide Tickets timed his first day of sales with the law change. Wagner argues that ticket brokering is much more reliable than black market business conducted on street corners and parking lots. As he puts it, "We never put a gun to anyone's head. Clients call us and are willing to pay." The most notable example: a Johnson County mother who "had to have" seven consecutive tickets to Hannah Montana and forked over $1,100 apiece.
According to today's Star article, the Chiefs also lobbied for the law change. They apparently have seen problems with counterfeit tickets and now let season ticket holders buy/sell tickets above face value right on their website.
Apparently, Missouri was one of the dwindling states that still had an anti-scalping law. Kentucky and Arkansas are the closest states of the dozen or so remaining.