Stop wealthy seat-holders’ big profits from reselling at Royal Albert Hall, peer says
Stop wealthy seat-holders’ big profits from reselling at Royal Albert Hall, peer says
Share:
Sales of trustees’ tickets should go through the RAH box office rather than commercial sites, Lord Hodgson proposes. A potential conflict of interest in the way the Royal Albert Hall is governed will allow wealthy individuals and companies to increase their opportunities to make big profits from seats they own at the charitable venue, according to a member of the House of Lords.
Peers are expected to vote this week on a proposal to avoid a conflict between the private interests of trustees who own seats and the RAH’s charitable status. The move has the support of the Charity Commission. Robin Hodgson, who is tabling the amendment to the Royal Albert Hall bill, said the trustees were planning to “take more powers to themselves”, potentially creating “nice little earners” by selling unwanted seats on commercial events sites such as Viagogo.
The potential conflict of interest lies in the composition of the RAH’s council of trustees and the increasing practice of seat-holders – individuals and bodies that own 1,268 of the venue’s 5,272 seats – selling their tickets at inflated prices. The RAH hosts about 400 events a year, from the Proms to pop concerts.
The hall, which opened in 1871, was funded from the start in part by people who were allocated seats in return for investment. Today, seat-holders include companies, charities and individuals, some of whom have family ownership going back to the 19th century.
Seat-holders who do not wish to use their seats for a concert or event may return them to the hall’s box office for the face value of the ticket minus 10%. But in recent years, some seat-holders have resold tickets through third-party websites at much higher amounts.
