Tickets to see A Christmas Carol at the Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City on Nov. 25 cost at most $99, if you purchase them directly from the box office right now.
Get them from StubHub, though, and you'd shell out nearly $400. As of Oct. 27, other ticket resellers like Tickets Center are listing the same tickets for up to $1,009.
Danielle Ezell leads the nonprofit advocacy group Oklahomans for the Arts. At a Senate Business and Finance Committee interim study Monday, she said everyone suffers from what's become a ruthless monopoly of ticket resellers scamming everyday people.
"The people are being hurt," she said, "hard-working families who have been saving for a night out, seniors who trust what they see online, and box office staff who then get blamed for something they didn't even do or have any part of."
Ticket resellers deploy bots to buy normally priced tickets from the venue or a certified seller, then sell the same tickets at a massive upcharge, often multiple times to separate unsuspecting people, which means venues and artists hurt too – from the lost business of turned away patrons.
In the case of the Lyric, she said, it means the nonprofit has to allocate resources to mitigate not just a compounding financial loss, but a tarnished reputation with patrons and donors. Like it did for its recent production of Come From Away, when it warned patrons on social media against buying tickets for $1,075 on StubHub, while the tickets at the box office were between $32 and $98, depending on the seats.
And it turns out the problem is rampant.
"The Civic Center…is home to several other of our nonprofit companies here in Oklahoma City, and they were having the exact same problem," Ezell said. "And then I called the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, which hosts multiple groups… same issue. The McKnight Center in Stillwater shared some stories with us."
Elizabeth Gray is the CEO of the Civic Center Foundation. Her testimony during the study provided insight into the scale of the issue for an organization like hers.
She named a few of the nonprofits that work with her venue: The Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Oklahoma City Ballet, Canterbury Voices, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Painted Sky Opera, and several others, including the for-profit OKC Broadway.
Gray told lawmakers that as an engineer by education, she couldn't help but bring the statistics.
"Our current ticketing system has been in place since 2016, and since then we have sold over 2.2 million tickets from our primary system, which is about 260,000 tickets a year, and that's … anywhere from 240 to 260 ticketed performances per year," Gray said. "So you can imagine when there are issues at every single performance, every single night, almost 365 days a year, how draining and straining that can be on an organization."
She said the Civic Center Foundation bleeds an average of $17,000 annually on credit card disputes coming from disgusted patrons who bought tickets that may or may not have ever been valid. So far this year, Gray said, credit card dispute costs are at around $14,000.
It's not just affecting nonprofits, stakeholders explained. Venues like Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa and other mid-sized and small show venues across the state are also feeling the bleed. Nor is it just a problem in Oklahoma.
Ezell pointed to country artist Garth Brooks' recent cancellation of a planned Nov. 7 tour stop in Kansas City. The reason: Bots bought out over 90,000 tickets to his show, closing off access to the most desirable seats at the advertised price.
Due to excessive bot activity, ticket sales for Garth’s third show in Kansas City have been shut down.
— Garth Brooks (@garthbrooks) October 23, 2026
Garth and the promoters are evaluating next steps and the future of the show.
We appreciate your patience and will share updates as soon as possible -Team Garth
A proposed solution
Ezell, along with leaders at various ticket-selling venues and certified sellers across the state, are pushing for tighter regulation around secondary ticket markets.
It's why they've helped develop and propose legislation like this year's Senate Bill 1241, by Ponca City Republican Sen. Bill Coleman, who also called the interim study.
"I certainly understand that there's a problem, especially with fraud in the world of online ticket sales," Coleman said. "Also, we know bots are a problem out there."
His bill proposed banning the use of bots from purchasing event tickets, except for sports. Bots are defined as "any machine, device, computer program, artificial intelligence, or software that bypasses security measures or ticket purchase limits, alone or with human assistance, to acquire admission tickets on a retail platform."
It also specifically prohibits deploying bots to use multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to exceed posted ticket limits or circumvent electronic queues, presale codes, sale volume limitations and security protocols.
Punishment for violation is contingent on what a court might decide, as the bill language requires harmed parties, whether that be an individual, nonprofit organization or business, to file a lawsuit against a company using bots to resell their tickets.
Coleman said the bill maintains a free-market approach to regulation.
"One of the things that was approached to me about was putting a cap on ticket prices," he said. "I've decided I'm not going to do that and continue to go with a free market on the ticket prices."
And while the measure failed last year, he said he plans to run it again with the continued backing of stakeholders.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage
