I would never buy a ticket from Stubhub or any of the online resellers. These predators use software that allows them buy all of the tickets within seconds and then they have the nerve to use the term "supply and demand" which is total b.s. What choice do people have if they want to go to a concert?? These dirtbags know how to work the ticket system and they do it every time a concert is announced. There should be a limit for each purchaser or not available for purchase online at all. I would be fine standing in line if I knew I could get a ticket at a fair price.

...On second thought with climate change and hurricanes hitting the coast every 18 mo. or so...it's going to be so lucrative to be a musician / an event organizer / venue owner...
These guys will be throwing relief concerts in the coming years, it won't seem so unique. It might even bring the price of the throwing these things a little more down to earth, and closer to the common wo/man in New York/East Coast.
May I suggest that in 18 months they chose Barclays Center and this time Jay Z can headline.
BTW: With the exception of The Boss, most boring line up of artists in recent memory. The crowd is probably clueless as to who Alicia Keys is.

I don't buy the notion that the producers of tonight's concert decided to feature "legacy" acts just because they have a lot of well-heeled fans who can afford to spend $$$ on a ticket. Most of the younger music superstars like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift lack the gravitas required for such an event, and I am confident that nobody will be listening to them 25 years from now.

what a line up of baby-boomer-has-been-not-relevant-washouts. BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Doubt the people who actually need help get dollar one from this boondoggle.

It seems to me that "money" that demands entertainment in order to be available to relieve human suffering is the problem. Are you all paying for a sound system to drown out the cries of the real victims? Let's have a concert to provide relief for the victims of "Super Scalpers". Maybe Senator Schumer can demagog a congressional fund for this purpose? Maybe we should have a fully funded, ongoing Federal Program, established under the "Affordable Concert Ticket Act" (ObamaTicket?

How is this line up any different from the Sept 11 Concert for Heroes, also at MSG? I guess Kanye West & Alicia Keys weren't involved in that one, but different young artists of a decade ago were. The Who had the performance of the night back then - I wonder who it will be this time.

Is the process of going online to ticketmaster truly fair? Do professional scalpers have an inside track or advantage to getting tickets? If there is such a system that allows for this, at very least in this situation, the advantage should have been given to the local community organizations impacted by Sandy to allow them re-sell the tickets to auction off or raise funds for their own causes (instead of individual profiteers), or even distribute tickets to their local communities of volunteers and those individuals most impacted by Sandy for whom this event would have great meaning. It appears that the scalpers made the lion share of the profits generated by ticket sales for this event given the prices I saw on stubhub.

This is precisely why many have ceased "donating" and purchasing concer tickets, even for worthy causes such as this one. Many wish to support the cause or view the performer, ot subsidize layers of indirect profiteering by people who simply make it harder for working people to afford an opportunity. I though Bruce Springsteen was correcting some ticket inequities in sales awhile back but any performer who goes along with
$25,000 tickets perhaps should check an online dictionary for the term "conscience".
Wait- maybe it is woth it ... after all, isn't Clapton still God?

If scalping is illegal, only criminals will resell tickets.

Scalpers also serve the ticket sellers as futures speculators.
They buy tickets that might otherwise go unsold and transfer cash earlier to the sellers.
Not every event is sold out. Scalpers can reduce prices as unsold tickets near the event date.
Theoretically, event organizers could play such market price games, but they are busy organizing.
The smaller, more numerous scalpers are more likely to stumble on successful market pricing strategies.
I suspect that at least some of the scalpers lose some of the time. Those losses are the organizers' gains.
All that scalper-banning regulation can do, is to increase the cost of the transactions, and decrease distribution efficiency, which does not benefit fans.
It sounds like NY's regulations have also sent the reselling industry to NJ.
Other NY regulations have sent many other industries to other states. Eg. NY franchise laws.

Hey, Brian, you had better plan on TiVo'ing the concert because you are reading the part of 'Gentleman' in tonight's reading of A Christmas Carol!

It's quite telling about the state of music these days that the website for the concert has links to twitter, facebook, tumblr, instagram, foursquare, a shop for clothing, etc, but not a page that lists the line up. The only mention of who is actually playing is on a graphic that wizzes by on the page.

I've been a fan of U2 since back when they were playing really small venues in NYC, but what slays me about them in recent years (especially knowing how filthy rich they are) is that to even have a fighting chance at getting tickets to any of their shows now, the only way to do it is to pay $50 to join their fan club, and buy the tickets on a "pre-sale" when they're made available to fan club members. Otherwise, the shows are sold out.

you mentioned other disasters that might warrant fund raising efforts, how about raising funds for those who were already homeless in the area, or having concerts to pay for more affordable housing for anyone?

I know a wonderful professional sitar player if a true one is desired for tonight.

Wow, I couldn't be more underwhlemed by the line up.

Scalping happens even with movie tickets. I tried to see Silver Linings Playbook for weeks, but the movie kept selling out before I got a chance to buy a ticket. Then this weekend, I bought a ticket a few hours before the show, online. At the theater, a guy tried to sell me a ticket when I was waiting for my seat, and the show did not sell out. There were plenty of seats. Maybe all the other times it really was just full, but when I saw those empty seats I was skeptical.

yet another exmaple how the wealthy are the only ones who truly get to enjoy this city and the rest of us have to make do with paltry "Reason to Love New York" by New York Magazine (where the number 1 reason was Barcleys Center - NO thank you!).

No Reasons to Love NY is you can't afford a $25,000 MSG ticket!

I don't like scalping either, but playing devil's advocate here, who if not a superfan is going to pay exorbitant scalping prices?

There was also a story recently in the NYTimes about other, small Midatlantic communities in which a fellow said "No one's doing concerts for us." It'd be nice to think of them too.

If people are willing to shell out enormous amounts of cash for a concert ticket, there is a demand, and the scalpers are at the ready.

Wish I could afford a ticket for my child. Standing in the background, kinda. We will all wait for show to be on U-Tube. Love to the Tri-States (often, Conn. is ignored). ; }}} kay

Who was able to buy the tickets? Everyone I know that tried to get on to the web site was locked out (Wait, wait, wait). Did only insiders get a chance to buy the tickets online? Looks like it.

Scalping is fine...you buy a ticket you own it and can do whatever you want with it.

stub hub is just legalized ticket scalping- no different from the guy n the corner except the right people are getting a cut. is ticketmaster involved and are those slimebags donating anything?

Christie and Cuomo are seeking something like $60 billion combined for New Jersey and New York. This concert, with (according to the guest) and audience of 2 billion is expected to raise $50 million? One one-thousandth as much? Two and a half _cents_ per viewer. Given the performer line-up, maybe we should be keeping an eye our for Elvis.

sorry, but eric clapton is not a guitar master...and certainly not a sitar master

Are the Platters coming?

Really? Bigger than Live AIDS? Gimme a break.