The Minnesota DailyâÄôs March 8 editorial, âÄúDonâÄôt cater to scalpersâÄù, misses the point of what Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, is trying to do by introducing legislation to protect the rights of MinnesotaâÄôs live entertainment fans.  

The fact of the matter is that when we buy a ticket to an event, we own that ticket. It is not up to Ticketmaster, concert venues or teams to use technology to control what we the fans can do with the tickets we spend our hard-earned money on.  

Without much expendable income, students like me will suffer the most from the restrictions of paperless ticketing.

Our parents wonâÄôt be able to buy us tickets anymore for our favorite concerts unless they drive to Minneapolis on the day of the show, and they had better not forget their credit card.

If we bought tickets to a Twins game and have to pass up going to finish that 10 page paper we left until the last minute, we would be stuck with the whole price of the ticket.

Plus, weâÄôve all tried to grab tickets for that must-see concert, only to find out that it sold out 30 seconds after tickets went on sale. 

Why? Because artists and venues secretly limit the number of tickets that are actually on sale. Large quantities of event tickets are set aside for privileged groups like fan clubs and corporate sponsors.

If there are fewer tickets available than people that want to go, thatâÄôs going to make tickets more expensive. And if Ticketmaster is the only place you can go to buy tickets, and not on other websites or from your friends, what is going to stop Ticketmaster from charging more and more for tickets?   

So letâÄôs cater to the everyday fans and make sure that we can do what we want with our tickets. The alternative is to cater to the big corporations like Ticketmaster, and we know where that leads.