“Everybody thinks there’s a conspiracy, nobody bothers ever to check the facts – above face value sales represent less than 1% of the overall market”
With Ticketshop, Tommy Higgins was a pioneer of the Irish ticket selling industry and an original backer of Riverdance. When he sold his business to global giant Ticketmaster, he became boss of their European operations. In this podcast with Sam Smyth, he talks about the “torture” of the various competition probes into the industry, the economics of entertainment and the so-called black market in tickets. He also speaks about building his business from scratch, explains why Croke Park is underutilised as a venue, and reveals what acts are guaranteed to draw the biggest crowds. Now retired, he talks about his new role chairing Sligo Rovers.
