Miley mania makes moms hoppin' mad

The tickets disappeared in seconds. Then reappeared minutes later on the Internet with inflated prices. You can still find a seat for next Sunday's Twin Cities concert by Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana, Disney's biggest princess since Snow White -- but it will cost you.

The most-in-demand ticket locally since the 1991 World Series, aimed at the most demanding audience -- teen and tween girls -- the Cyrus tour has created a national controversy over how tickets are sold and resold for hot concerts.

Attorneys general in four states have launched investigations, prompted by questions from angry parents. How do brokers get tickets? How many go to radio stations for giveaways and fan clubs for pre-sales? Has the Internet rendered obsolete the idea of camping overnight for a seat? Now you're competing not only against neighbors, but pros in Omaha, New York, Seattle -- anyplace you can log on.

"It's an instant era, a different buying process," said Courtney Hasko, director of marketing for Target Center, where Cyrus will perform. When tickets went on sale Sept. 8, "people in line [in the arena lobby] had laptops and they were on their cell phones. One guy got his tickets and stepped out of the line."

The arena will be set up to hold 14,000 fans of Cyrus, the 14-year-old singer-actress who will perform half of her "Best of Both Worlds" tour as herself and half as her alter ego, Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana."

She likely could have sold three or four times that many tickets, but the 54-city tour, which starts Thursday in St. Louis, is limited by her shooting schedule and other commitments.

Of those 14,000 seats, thousands are being resold on such websites as TicketsNow.com, which has 422 listings ranging from $75 (singles in the nosebleed and limited-view sections) to $696 for four on the floor (face value: $64 apiece).

It could be worse. On ticket broker StubHub.com the average resale price for the Minnesota show is $161, compared with $239 for all stops on Cyrus' tour, said Jessica Erskine, a spokesperson for the broker.

Those prices will certainly come down as the concert nears, although consumers need to be careful if they purchase a ticket through a broker to allow time for delivery. Because the Minneapolis show is on a Sunday, same-day delivery can be problematic, which leaves street sales as a possibility.

At least some fans got lucky this weekend. Several hundred extra seats became available after the stage setup was finalized. But those were quickly snapped up Saturday.

Angry fans -- or 'ex-fans'

"It's disgusting all around," said Elisa Soper of Andover, who canceled payment on her $29.95 membership in the Hannah Montana fan club when she wasn't able to get pre-sale tickets for her daughters, ages 9 and 12. She also tried the Ticketmaster route and, like thousands of parents, was shut out.

"Now a $24 ticket is going for five times its value," she fumed. "It's morality -- it's about what's right and wrong. I won't allow 'Hannah Montana' on our TV, and I've taken away the CDs. You don't support someone who doesn't support you."

The tour has cast a sharper light on a ticketing process already under scrutiny. Earlier this year, Ticketmaster sued RMG Technologies, a Pittsburgh firm that allegedly sells software geared to scalpers. Users are "bombarding Ticketmaster's website with millions of automated ticket requests that can constitute up to 80 percent of all ticket requests made," the suit says.

Even savvy consumers can find it hard to compete. Greg Lundgren of Lino Lakes, who develops software for Lawson Companies, had several web browsers open when Cyrus tickets went on sale Sept. 8 at noon. Trying for four seats, he was stunned to get a response within 15 seconds that not even a single was available.

"That's never happened before," said Lundgren, who has scored high-demand tickets for Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones. "It seemed impossible, technically, that they could all disappear in seconds."

Where do they go?

Whether the tickets end up in the hands of brokers, fan-club members or radio stations, by the time they go on sale locally "maybe 40 percent of them are gone already," Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert journal Pollstar, told the Chicago Tribune.

Out of 11,000 seats available for the Cyrus concert in Kansas City, "we got about 8,400," Ticketmaster's Joseph Freeman told the New York Times. "Of those, half went to the fan club while the other half was sold to the general public."

Inundated by complaints about Cyrus tickets, attorneys general in Missouri, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Arkansas have sued brokers and scalpers. The Minnesota attorney general's office said no such lawsuit has been prepared here and would not comment on whether any complaints have been received.

Did the Aug. 1 repeal of Minnesota's scalping law have any impact on this concert?

"That had no effect whatsoever," said Mike Nowakowski of Ticket King, a longtime broker with a Minneapolis office. "It's a national market now."

Nowakowski sticks up for his industry by noting that brokers are simply conduits for individuals who buy extra tickets and then try to sell them. When demand is high, it works out for the buyer. In July, however, resellers felt the sting when the bottom fell out for the Police concert in St. Paul.

One Cyrus seller on Craigslist.org listed himself as "Elvis." Based in New York, he offered two single tickets in section 109, one in row A, the other row X. He was willing to take $200 for Row A, $325 for the pair. Asked why he had tickets to a Minneapolis show, he replied, "This is my line of work."

Try explaining that to little Izabel or Madeleine. Better to simply say, "You can't always get what you want."

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299 Jon Bream • 612-673-1719