New venue offers alternative to Ticketmaster

In addition to spiffy new facilities, concertgoers will notice another immediate difference at the Sears Centre: They won't be getting their tickets from Ticketmaster.

"We aren't a Ticketmaster venue, and we don't want to be," said venue operator Steve Hyman.

Although the Justice Department declined to pursue an antitrust case against the ticketing giant in the mid-'90s, many concertgoers and artists have criticized Ticketmaster as a monopoly. The company requires venues to sign exclusivity agreements, which mean artists must use their services -- and pass steep fees along to fans -- or they cannot play that arena.

"CCO Entertainment has a 10-year contract to operate and book this building," Hyman said. "We're state of the art via phone, box office and Internet, and we're trying to create a more affordable market in terms of convenience fees."

Sears Centre's service charges are not cheap, but they are less expensive than Ticketmaster's. The best seats at Duran Duran tonight and Bob Dylan on Friday and Saturday are $75, and the top ticket price at Lionel Richie on Sunday is $77. In each case, the Internet service fee is $7.50 per ticket, with an additional $4 processing fee per order.

Ticketmaster is adding $11.95 service fees to every $95 ticket for Christina Aguilera at the Allstate Arena on April 21, $11.35 per $75 ticket for Guns 'N Roses at the Allstate Arena on Nov. 27 and $7.95 per $65 ticket for Bob Seger at the Allstate Arena on Nov. 30, along with its processing fee of $4.50 per order.

Jim DeRogatis