Kennedy Center swaps ticketing vendors

The Kennedy Center has decided to replace its long-time ticketing provider with Ticketmaster, a move that has prompted conflict of interest concerns among observers and former staff.

The change will affect the annual Kennedy Center Honors gala, scheduled for Dec. 7 at Capital One Arena. This year's honorees include Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet, and Barbara Mandrell. As of Nov. 11, the center has only a submission form for ticket information, with no confirmed sale date.

For decades, the center used Tessitura, a non-profit platform. The switch to Ticketmaster coincided with a period when former president Richard Grenell served on the board of Live Nation, Ticketmaster's parent company. Grenell was appointed center president in Feb. 2025 and joined Live Nation's board in May 2025. SEC filings show he earned $260,205 from Live Nation in 2025, plus stock worth approximately $14,200. The center's tax filings indicate he received no salary from the Kennedy Center.

Columbia Law School professor Richard Briffault said the dual roles raise standard conflict of interest questions. "This is literally conflict of interest," Briffault said. "If you have a duty of loyalty to an entity in which you're an officer, and at the same time you have a financial stake in another entity that does business with, and benefits from, the business with the entity on whose board you sit, that's a problem."

Center spokesperson PJ Elliott said the center began evaluating Ticketmaster in spring 2024, before Grenell arrived. "The Center began evaluating Ticketmaster in the spring of 2024 and determined it had outgrown its previous ticketing system," Elliott wrote. "The agreement followed standard procurement review." Two current and former employees said Ticketmaster was not seriously considered until later.

New artistic director Rick Canny, a former talent agent, has taken a leading role in the ticketing decision. In a March email, Canny stated he shaped many terms of the deal. He also noted that IATSE union members were laid off earlier this fall during a building closure for renovation. A former executive noted the previous system allowed the center to manage its own data and customer relationships, a function Canny said Ticketmaster could eventually handle.

Ticketmaster faces ongoing scrutiny. The Department of Justice settled an antitrust suit with Live Nation in March for $280 million. A separate suit by 33 states and D.C. resulted in a jury finding in April that the companies operated as a monopoly.