Blockbuster Entertainment Group might be taking a stab at challenging Ticketmaster, the ticket sales giant that has been accused of monopolizing the industry.
Some Blockbuster Video stores around Philadelphia will sell tickets for the company's joint-venture project, an amphitheater in Camden, N.J., expected to open in early summer.
The ticketing experiment will be closely watched in the music industry. Blockbuster has more than 3,300 video and music stores in the United States, and the venture would be spearheaded by two entertainment industry giants, Sony Music and Blockbuster's $9.6 billion parent company, Viacom. It would represent the first big challenge to Ticketmaster's dominance.
None of the partners involved are talking about the project. Blockbuster's partner, Houston-based Pace Entertainment, is not even talking about the Camden experiment, which has been reported in publications such as The New York Times. But employees at several stores said they expect to start selling tickets forthe amphitheater by March.
The $56 million, 25,000-seat Blockbuster-Sony Music Entertainment Center at the Waterfront is a partly state-funded project designed to help revitalize the troubled New Jersey community of Camden.
The rock band Pearl Jam canceled a tour last year after dueling with Ticketmaster over service charges. The band filed a complaint with the Justice Department claiming that the company has a monopoly over ticket distribution in the United States. It testified against the company in a Congressional antitrust hearing.
Ticketmaster sold 52 million tickets to concert, sports and other entertainment events last year, and its service fees added to the price of admission have gone as high as $18 for Barbra Streisand's concert. More typical is $3 to $8, with different fees for cash or credit card.
The owner of the nation's largest concert promotion company said he didn't doubt the Blockbuster venture was testing for a bigger project.
But Cellar Door Co. chief executive Jack Boyle said selling tickets could prove harder than the companies expect. Mr. Boyle said his Fort Lauderdale-based company examined alternatives to Ticketmaster for its new amphitheater now under construction in Gainesville, Va., and found them unworkable.
Ticket sales by phone, for example, require a phone room staffed by 50 to 100 operators, he said.
Blockbuster referred questions to its partner, Pace, which wouldn't answer questions about Camden-area ticket sales, either.
"We're working out the fine points," said spokeswoman Angie Finn. She said other Blockbuster-Sony-Pace amphitheaters -- Raleigh
and Charlotte, N.C.; Phoenix; Houston; Pittsburgh; San Bernardino, Calif.; and Nashville -- currently use Ticketmaster.
A spokesman for Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster said the public will decide whether the Blockbuster-Sony venture will succeed.
"It's a service business," said spokesman Larry Solters. "If [customers] find it convenient and expedient, they will succeed."
The company rejects the argument that it exercises monopoly powers to crush competitors, he said.