Janet Jackson is the fastest-selling performer for this year's Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. There are only 5,000 tickets left and those are in the upper ring -- bad news for Latonjia Hines.
She said, "I really did not want to sit up there. I wanted to sit on the field level where I could have bought it for $25 on Ticket Master. Instead, now I have to pay $300 for it if I really want to go."
Rodeo officials say they try to keep resellers out the ticket buying process, but can do nothing about the price the tickets command on the secondary market.
"Most of our transactions are done by credit card and we're able to trace back and see if they are ticket brokers and if so, we're going to stop that," said Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo spokesperson Leroy Shafer. "But when you are selling 1.2 million tickets to the general public, they are going to end up in ticket brokers' hands, they are going to end up on eBay and they're going to end up on Craigslist."
There is a way to get a good Janet Jackson seat from the rodeo but it is also an expensive option. The rodeo has about 1,800 season tickets available. Each season ticket runs about $500 each and that gets you one ticket to every show.
Rodeo officials expect not just the Janet Jackson concert to sell out, but also Selena Gomez and KISS concerts. There are only about 7,000 tickets for each of those shows.
Rodeo officials say the $18 upper ring seats are the only single ticket option left at face value for Janet Jackson. There is one last chance to get a face value ticket from the rodeo for less than $18. If the show sells out, the rodeo will sell about 3,000 standing-room only tickets about a week before the concerts begin, and only if there is a sellout.
