Jay-z Fans Lose Out On 9/11 Tickets To Scalpers

JAY-Z fans have been left outraged after tickets for the rapper’s upcoming 9/11 benefit concert in New York were snapped up by scalpers.

The rap superstar recently announced he would be playing a charity show at Madison Square Garden on the eighth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks to celebrate the release of his new album The Blueprint 3 and raise money for a good cause.

Pre-sale tickets were made available to CitiBank customers at 9am (EST) on Tuesday morning (08Sep09) on the Ticketmaster.com website - three hours before going on general sale.

But when fans logged online at 12pm (EST) to purchase their tickets for the special gig, many were notified there were no seats left - only to find the $54.50 (£36.30) tickets on sale at highly inflated prices on Ticketmaster’s resale website TicketsNow.com and similar agencies.

Some stubs for the benefit concert, dubbed Answer The Call, were even being touted by ticket scalpers for as much as $3,332 (£2,221) on StubStack.com - more than 61 times their face value.

It’s the latest controversy to involve Ticketmaster - company bosses came under fire from Bruce Springsteen in June (09) when fans of the rock legend were forced to pay higher prices for a show on his U.S. tour.

Jay-Z’s Madison Square Garden date is his only scheduled show in the Big Apple for 2009.

All profits from the concert were due to go to the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund, a charity created to support the families of police officers and firefighters who have died in the line of duty.