Dave Ross says we should hire the Coast Guard to round up scalpers
Jun 9, 2016, 6:05 AM
The New York Times reports that “Hamilton,” the hip-hop history musical, is now on track to make a billion dollars. Which is fitting, since Alexander Hamilton established the U.S. Mint, and also believed America needed to create a class of wealthy people.
And the show will definitely be creating some wealthy people. The investors who put up the $12.5 million to mount the show will get it all back several times over; a total of $15.7 million dollars a year as long as it keeps selling out.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star, gets $6.4 million a year and will get much more when the show hits the road.
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Though casts are typically at the tail end of the food chain in most Broadway productions, the Hamilton cast was smart enough to hire a lawyer who managed to get them a modest cut of the profits too.
But you know which group gets the biggest chunk of the money – some $60 million a year according to the Times? Scalpers!
One woman said she paid $725 for a single ticket.
The scalpers use illegal computer programs to buy thousands of tickets that they scalp for as much as $5,000 each. The only penalty right now is a fine, but the state Legislature is considering adding jail time to that.
Considering Hamilton himself had no patience for smugglers, and in fact established the US Coast Guard to go after them and confiscate their cargo – I say we send the Coast Guard to round them up.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
