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As the price of groceries, gas, and Disney+<\/a> continues to rise, consumers everywhere are hoping for a reprieve. Thankfully, one of America\u2019s most popular businessmen, Live Nation CEO Michael Rabino, is doing us one better, announcing there\u2019s \u201ca lot of runway\u201d to raise concert ticket prices, too. Last week, Rapino spoke at CNBC Sport and Boardroom\u2019s Conference<\/a>, where he explained that concert tickets were \u201cunderpriced,\u201d especially compared to sports. \u201cI joke it\u2019s like a badge of honor to spend [$70,000] for Knicks courtside [tickets],\u201d Rapino said. \u201cWe have a lot of runway left. When you read about the ticket prices going up, it\u2019s still an average concert price [of] $72. Try going to a Laker game for that, and there\u2019s 80 of them.\u201d Hilarious joke, sir. It is a \u201cbadge of honor\u201d to spend more than the average yearly salary on seeing the Knicks lose. Yet, \u201cthey beat [him] up if we charge $800 for Beyonce.\u201d It just isn\u2019t fair.<\/p>\n Despite the calculations by the CEO of Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, Pollstar reports<\/a> that the average ticket price in the U.S. is $136, nearly double what Rapino believes it to be. He also neglects the numerous music tours canceled due to low ticket sales, which might mean that the prices are too high. People appear to be saving their money for the Beyonc\u00e9s and Taylor Swifts, which has downstream effects on celebrities and working-class artists<\/a> alike.<\/p>\n In recent years, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have faced allegations of violating antitrust laws. The DOJ described the conglomerate as a \u201cmob-like organization<\/a>\u201d that offers contracts that no other company can compete with. Earlier this year, the DOJ and FTC launched a public inquiry into the live music industry<\/a>, which is basically comprised of two companies: Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Judging by how brazen Rapino is about the amount of runway he has to inflate prices, there\u2019s also a lot of runway for regulating Live Nation, too.<\/p>\n