Why there should be no concerns about LiveNation and Ticketmaster merging

After all, it's not like you can't trust them, is it?

Take, for example, their work in New Jersey, where LiveNation decided to bring in a six dollar parking fee per ticket for the PNC Bank Arts Center.

Yes, that's six dollars per ticket. So if four of you go to a gig in the same car, you end up paying twenty four dollars for parking.

The New York Daily News asked why everyone was charged six bucks to park a car - even if they intended to arrive at the venue by taxi, or on foot, or by hovershoes. So LiveNation took the six dollar parking fee off.

And, erm, put the prices of all tickets up by six bucks instead.

And then, when that was noticed, reintroduced the parking fee.

LiveNation reckons it's always been there, though:

"We have always operated under a system at PNC Bank Arts Center where parking is charged as a per-ticket fee. This policy is in place to alleviate traffic issues ... to ensure that all fans can enter the venue in a timely and safe manner," a spokesman said.

Really? How exactly does charging every single person going six dollars "alleiviate traffic issues"? How does a flat fee have any influence on people entering the venue in a timely or safe way?

If the idea was to use a fee to control the flow of cars arriving at the venue, wouldn't you have to make the fee voluntarily? Because otherwise, if people are foreced to pay a parking fee, won't they think 'if I've paid for it, I might as well use it' and be more likely to drive?

Of course, LiveNation know this. Their spokesman knows that his explanation makes no sense. But it's not like he's going to admit "yeah, we're grabbing cash because we're chiselers. What you gonna do about it?"