SALT LAKE CITY — When the curtain rises on Pioneer Theatre Company's new season later this year, audiences will be treated to something new and unexpected.
The famed theater company is ending fees tacked on to ticket sales.
"There isn’t going to be some secret thing added later," Artistic Director Karen Azenberg said in an interview Friday with FOX 13 News.
The decision came about in planning for the 2023-2024 season, which launches in the fall. Costs to stage productions have gone up and ticket prices will rise slightly. But Azenberg said the idea of service fees was frustrating and she just asked: "Can we stop?"
"It’s always bothered me and it’s always bothered people. And I hear it because people are at the window and they go 'Oh. Oh, OK.' What happens if we stop?" she said.
The fees have become a common, but somewhat annoying part of any arts or entertainment event. They're tacked on to sports games, concerts, plays and festival ticket sales. The fees often cover venue expenses and they vary widely. FOX 13 News found fees ranging from $2 to $24 (that one came with an extra $2.95 handling fee tacked on).
"It's escalated in a way that doesn’t seem fair to the consumer and look, theater’s struggling," Azenberg said of staging productions in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Theater is struggling, but it’s not about just putting it on the patron to secretly cover my costs. I want your help. I want your support."
What Pioneer Theatre Company is proposing is to set the rate upfront and that's it.
"I think it’s a great idea to include fees in your upfront ticket pricing. It’s a trend consumers are asking for," said Crystal Young, the executive director of the Utah Cultural Alliance, which advocates for arts and cultural organizations.
Young said she was aware of one other venue in Utah that has eliminated service fees in favor of upfront ticket pricing: the State Room and Commonwealth concert venues. But she said it may be difficult for others to implement, even if artists wanted it.
"A number of our performance venues, including more of those in the for-profit market are government-owned facilities," Young told FOX 13 News. "They have their own fees, fee structures to subsidize the building costs."
Young said when the Utah State Legislature considered a bill offering consumer protections for ticket reselling, her organization tried to negotiate regulations on fees.
"We started with fee caps and looked at all of pricing as part of negotiations. At the end of the day, we lost both of those," she said, adding that lawmakers still hear complaints from constituents about ticket service fees.
Azenberg started announcing the new ticketing policy in her remarks to the audience for nightly shows of Pioneer Theatre Company's production of "The Prom."
"It’s a slow positive burn," she said, describing how audiences perk up as she talks about it.
"Then I get applause. It’s very nice," she said.
