Live Nation Entertainment is facing a PR nightmare as newly unsealed court documents expose exactly how some of its ticketing directors feel about the fans paying their salaries.
While the company recently reached a tentative settlement with the Department of Justice in a massive antitrust case, these internal messages paint a picture of a corporate culture that viewed high fees as a punchline.
The messages, which date back to 2022, feature Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, two men responsible for managing ticketing across various regions. Their digital paper trail shows them laughing about “price gouging” customers and “robbing them blind” through “ancillary fees” like parking and chair rentals. In one specific exchange regarding the high costs, Baker wrote that “these people are so stupid” for actually paying the inflated prices.
The greed wasn’t limited to the tickets themselves. The directors discussed charging as much as $250 for a single VIP parking spot. Baker even bragged about a tiered system for parking on the lawn, noting he was charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass.” He seemingly took pride in the strategy, writing, “Robbing them blind, baby. That’s how we do it.”
Live Nation fought to keep these messages hidden from the antitrust trial, but Judge Aran Subramanian ordered their full release. Federal attorneys argued the chats offered a “candid, contemporaneous look into how they view prices.”
In a statement to Variety, a Live Nation spokesperson tried to distance the company from the scandal, claiming “the Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate.” The company insisted that leadership was blindsided by the private messages and pointed to a $1 billion investment in venue upgrades as proof of their commitment to fans.
Despite the “junior staffer” label from the company, records show Baker recently served as the head of ticketing for Venue Nation, while Weinhold holds a senior director role in the D.C. area.
While the DOJ settlement may have saved the company from being forced to sell off Ticketmaster for now, the legal battle is far from over. A group of 27 states, including New York, California, and Colorado, is still pursuing its own lawsuits against the entertainment giant.
