TicketNetwork, under the program, could be eligible for state incentives totaling as much as much as $7.75 million …or, in figures more understandable to users of the site, the equivalent of 14 fairly good Lil Wayne tickets.
The preceding was a joke and not intended to reflect the actual cost of Lil Wayne tickets on TicketNetwork. Also, I have no evidence of TicketNetwork doing anything wrong or evil. I mention this because TicketNetwork has exhibited an attitude toward free speech that lies just a few centimeters north of the Church of Scientology.
When the president of The Bushnell theater spoke unflatteringly of its business practices at a legislative hearing, TicketNetwork sued him for slander. I've been covering state government since shortly after the Civil War, and I've never heard of this before. Public hearings are generally considered fact-finding opportunities at which a free flow of ideas is encouraged as part of the democratic process. Also, most of the people at them are usually asleep, which limits the damage of any particular remark.
TicketNetwork also tried to get the Journal Inquirer to transfer a reporter away from coverage of a performance venue it wanted to build, using the argument that she lived in the vicinity of the project. Chris Powell, the JI's effervescently crusty editor, said it was telling that TicketNetwork assumed anybody who lived anywhere near their project would have an animus against it.
TicketNetwork's CEO was also recently sued "for continuous, severe, pervasive, insulting, and offensive remarks, sexual harassment and sexual advancements" directed at an employee who says she was fired after she complained. The lawsuit lists various instances of offensive behavior including a company-sponsored party where he "pushed himself against the plaintiff and grinded himself against the plaintiff and other female defendant employees while dancing."
Hey, lawyers, is too much to ask that you learn English? "Ground himself." Good grief.
Officials of the Malloy administration said they knew nothing about that case. See, that's another selling point. Connecticut will provide you will millions in loans and grants without so much as typing the name of your company and "lawsuit" or "prosecution" into Google.
According to a report by my WNPR colleague Diane Orson, the company and its ticket resale brethren are also being examined by the state Department of Consumer Protection, especially because of complaints by consumers who thought they were dealing online with the actual box office of a venue, when it fact it was a company like TicketNetwork.
I found people making that charge at a site called complaintsboard.com. One commenter, fumbling for words to describe his affection for TicketNetwork, wrote: "This company is filth. Disgusting, overcharging filth. May they all get testicular cancer."
This is an especially unkind thing to wish if it turns out there really is a lot grinding going on there.
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