TKT's Virtually!

Now we are firmly in the 21st century, with technology moved on leaps and bounds, do we need TKT's anymore, or could this be done virtually.

Think of the advantages you don't have to rush over to Times Square to get your ticket.

Than stand in a long queue, which is made worse if it is wet.

You can choose the seat you want online.

If you are handicapped maybe you cannot queue.

You’re never to be harangued by those pushers, trying to offload rubbish shows, whilst you queue.

If you are a visitor you can do your day trips without worrying whether to get to the booth.

If you are a resident, I know some of you don't go over to the booth until later in the day, as you want to get better tickets, but wouldn't you prefer getting your ticket in Starbucks on your tablet, whilst relaxing than worrying about running over to TKT's.

This has to be win win for residents and visitors alike?

Updated On: 5/6/14 at 04:30 PM

It would be another chance to lard on additional fees.

This may be because I don't live in NY, but I actually love going to the TKTS booth. I've met so many people standing in line and it's so fun to hear their stories of why they are there and what shows they are seeing/want to see. And those scalpers have never bothered us! In fact we just got Aladdin tickets from one of them (paid a pretty penny for them but our seats were WONDERFUL and we wouldn't have been able to see Aladdin at all because the box office said they were sold out the entire time we were up there).

I just love the hustle and bustle of it all, it amuses me to no end!

Fisherman, do you have anything better to do than to respond to nearly everyone's posts on here like a little screeching bitchbag? It's a great idea and it will happen eventually. Please join us in the 21st Century. Or don't. I could care less, and I doubt many others do either.

Virtual TKTS may seem like a win, but as FishermanBob correctly points out, a discount without a little perception of effort becomes the de facto full price. Producers don't necessarily want to be at TKTS at all, ideally, but that we have them making seats as available as they do at as steep a discount as they do is TKTS' blessing. Yes, ticket prices have gone up, making TKTS's discount prices more expensive accordingly, but that problem is Broadway's, not TKTS's.

But, to address your original post point-by-point.

--Think of the advantages you don't have to rush over to Times Square to get your ticket.
TKTS operates two other locations downtown that are generally far less crowded.

--Than stand in a long queue, which is made worse if it is wet.
This is the effort required for TKTS' discount. Use a discount code if you want to buy at the box office, but it's less of a discount usually.

You can choose the seat you want online.
--The TKTS discount is incumbent on being sold best-available. Use a discount code if you want to choose your seat.

If you are handicapped maybe you cannot queue.
--I don't believe this is a written rule, but I've seen the security guards at TKTS letting handicapped patrons wait at the front outside the line and come right in the front when they open.

You’re never to be harangued by those pushers, trying to offload rubbish shows, whilst you queue.
--Pop-up ads, pop-under ads and banner ads.

If you are a visitor you can do your day trips without worrying whether to get to the booth.
--As stated before, this is the effort required to get the discount.

it's not an idea who's "time will come" - it's an idea that's half-baked and isn't feasible. Come up with a way to make the discount marketable to producers without replacing the full-price as a de facto ticket price and then we can talk.

---

Could limiting the # of tickets available at TKTS would limit the issue of "then who would bother to pay full price?"

Tickets get sold on the booth for one reason and one reason only and that is they couldn't sell their tickets at full price in the first place. Producers aren't doing tkt's patron a favor here. If it wasn't for the ability to discount, then shows would fold sooner.

There is more than one booth and I have used the one downtown and its quite a walk from the financial district and any subway, thinking people getting tickets in their break.

I have bought tickets from the booth and have seen empty seats in front of me, so they don't sell you the best seats.

Many shows absolutely need TKTS, but they don't want to need TKTS. That's also part of where the discomfort from the Broadway League with allowing TKTS greater opportunities (choosing seat locations, selling via mobile or internet) comes from, in addition to the previously-articulated need to make sure discounts require at least a little effort.

---

"Fisherman, do you have anything better to do than to respond to nearly everyone's posts on here like a little screeching bitchbag? It's a great idea and it will happen eventually. Please join us in the 21st Century. Or don't. I could care less, and I doubt many others do either."

Matt you're the king of pissing and moaning, Prices are too high, I don't like this, I don't like that. Your complaint about short show running lengths and not wanting to pay more than $1 per minute of show was my favorite. Your posts are the most worthless on this board. In order for something to change, it's got to make sense and provide a benefit to both parties. That's how business works. Just whining constantly like you do about ticket prices will change nothing, unless your true goal is to just hear your gums flap.

Has it actually never occurred to somebody that those empty seats in front of them might belong to people who didn't come to the show they had tickets for, for whatever reason? No?

---

It was Phantom of London's post that inspired my query.

---