State Briefs

CFD warns: Don’t fall prey to ticket scalpers

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Less than 24 hours after Cheyenne Frontier Days announced its 2022 Frontier Nights concert lineup, CFD officials warned people to beware of ticket scalpers. 

Musicians on tap for the annual series of shows range from Wyoming-based artists Chancey Williams and Ian Munsick to top country music duo Brooks and Dunn, country/ rap/rock artist Kid Rock and rap/country musician Jelly Roll. 

Scalping refers to the practice of buying event tickets, sometimes for face value, and then reselling them to consumers at an often significant markup. 

CFD CEO Tom Hirsig told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that the practice undermines the volunteer effort to keep the event less expensive than commercially organized concerts. 

Last year, the average ticket to a Frontier Nights concert, which sometimes includes multiple bands, cost about $90, CFD data show. Hirsig estimated that’s about $45 less than an equivalent show that is organized by a for-profit venture. 

The “many websites claiming they can sell you tickets for our night shows,” the organization said, are actually “doubling the ticket price and hoping to buy online at cfdrodeo.com and pass those tickets on.” 

Because it can be hard for individuals buying tickets to easily determine that the website where they are purchasing them is a reseller and is not actually CFD, Hirsig said it has a hard time educating concertgoers so they don’t take part. 

“People think we are selling those tickets to the scalpers, and we do everything we can to prevent” this, he said. “We have software in place with AXS, our ticket provider, to identify ticket scalpers and prevent them from buying.”

Lummis, Barrasso support postal reform

PINEDALE (WNE) – U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis released statements earlier last week supporting bipartisan postal reform legislation. 

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 passed in the Senate by a 79 to 19 vote on Tuesday.

“While this reform bill is far from perfect, it gives USPS the resources it needs to keep our post offices open and operating at full speed,” Sen. Barrasso said. 

Sen. Lummis also said it’s far from perfect but said it was the better alternative to a bailout.

“People across Wyoming, especially our most rural residents, rely on the postal service for everyday necessities, and I’m confident that this bill will address some of the challenges they have been facing, particularly in terms of reliability and speed of service,” Sen. Lummis said.

Key provisions in the bill include: Required six-day delivery, elimination of retiree health-care pre-funding mandate, non-postal services like hunting and fishing licenses, rural newspaper sustainability and requiring an integrated network for parcel and package delivery.