Mr. DeGeorge went to Washington on Monday, and there were fireworks. Last Monday in Washington D.C., Tom DeGeorge was on Capitol Hill as part of his continued fight for the country’s independent music venues.
During the hearing at the House Committee on the Judiciary, DeGeorge—co-founder and owner of Crowbar in Ybor City—was asked to testify in front of lawmakers deciding how to proceed after a jury decided that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operate a monopoly and a separate Department of Justice antitrust settlement that critics have dragged as having no teeth.
Crowbar will close this summer after two decades in Tampa’s historic and entertainment district. DeGeorge, the Southeast Regional President of the National Independent Venue Association, has been critical of Live Nation and Ticketmaster and continues to be vocal after the jury verdict and DOJ settlement.
In his testimony, DeGeorge urged lawmakers to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster and force them to separate their promotions, sponsorship and ticketing operations. Citing data showing that 64% of indie stages in the U.S. are unsustainable, he said that without serious action, venues will close to the detriment of bands and fans.
“We cannot let that happen. To have a healthy ecosystem, everything has to stop. Start from the bottom up, not from the top down,” DeGeorge added. “And right now, the only people that are eating are the hogs at the top, and it’s got to stop.”
Monday’s “shadow hearing”—meaning it was not sanctioned by Republicans, who control both the Senate and House of Representatives—included not just DeGeorge, but The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, former DOJ lawyer Roger Alford, and Chicago indie promoter Jerry Mickelson.
Alford, blasted the $280 million DOJ settlement, which fell short of the antitrust department’s goal. “One would hope that institutional and personal integrity would have protected against such prosecutorial abuse, but unfortunately that has not happened,” he added.
After the DOJ settlement, Bonta—together with more than 30 other states attorneys, including Florida’s—continued the antitrust fight against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, winning the verdict last month.
“Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster and monopolized the ticket industry, forcing venues into restrictive contracts and raising ticket prices—all while mocking Florida consumers,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a news release.
Uthmeier was referring, in part, to messages between Live Nation employees, making fun of Tampa fans being exorbitantly charged for parking and other ancillary charges like VIP access and lawn chair rentals.
In one exchange, Ben Baker, then working in Tampa as a regional ticketing director for Live Nation, laughed about charging $50 for grass parking, adding “i charge $60 for closer grass” and telling Weinhold that he charges $100 for oversize parking that is still almost a mile from the venue entrance.
“robbing them blind baby,” Baker wrote in another message. “that’s how we do”
At Monday’s hearing, DeGeorge detailed a 2025 meeting he had with then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Gail Slater.
“I told her the Live Nation trial was a matter of life and death for independent venues. She made me feel heard. She seemed to really care about this fight,” DeGeorge said.
Slater led some of the DOJ’s most prominent antitrust cases, but resigned less than a month before the Live Nation-Ticketmaster trial began.
“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today,” she wrote on social media. “It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role.”
“Three days into the trial, the DOJ settled with Live Nation for an amount that’s only one weekend of sales for that company,” DeGeorge said in his comments to lawmakers. “For those of us who have spent years trying to bring culture to our communities, it was all very hard to stomach.”
The DOJ settlement is expected to play out through the TICKET Act, legislation introduced by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz which would require sellers to show the full cost of tickets—including fees—before purchasing. The bill passed in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support and is awaiting a Senate vote.
DeGeorge’s testimony comes a month after Live Nation announced plans to build a new 4,300-capacity music venue in Ybor City as part of the ongoing Gasworx development—just a short trolley ride from Crowbar and a proposed downtown Tampa, 3,500-capacity venue from Tampa developer Strategic Property Partners (SPP).
A change.org petition called “Protect Ybor City. Reject the Proposed Live Nation Venue” has garnered more than 3,200 signatures since it was posted by Angel D’Angelo on May 8. The petition, in part, takes issue with the Gasworx developers’ planned variance and removal of a mature grand oak at 1419 E 4th Ave. and 1402 N 15th St., where the venue is planned.
“It also threatens what remains of Ybor’s independent music culture, a culture that has already been pushed to the edge,” D’Angelo wrote.
D’Angelo asked petition supporters to attend the Tampa City Council public hearing on Tuesday, May 26 at 9 a.m. and submit written comments.
Last month, Kettler (stylized all-caps), the developer that will help build Live Nation’s proposed Ybor City venue declined to comment when Creative Loafing Tampa Bay asked for a response to the antitrust jury ruling and backlash following the plans to open the venue just blocks away from Crowbar.
“This is a lawsuit that doesn’t involve KETTLER, so it would not be appropriate for us to weigh in,” a rep for the company added.
Brittany Flores, Live Nation Florida Market President, told CL,” “Tampa’s live music scene is thriving, and we’re excited to support its continued growth.”
“Currently, there is no venue of this size in the market, and this project will help fill a longstanding gap for artists and fans. We believe the venue will help attract touring artists and strengthen Tampa’s position as a destination for live music,” she added. “Together with KETTLER, we’ll continue listening to community feedback throughout the process to help ensure the project reflects the character and history that make Ybor City so special.”
Reps for SPP’s downtown venue have not yet responded to questions from CL; we’ll update this post if they do.
In a multi-bullet response to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, a rep for Live Nation pushed back on claims that it runs a monopoly, saying plaintiff’s “ticketing monopoly relies on a gerrymandered market representing roughly 14% of U.S. primary tickets, excluding major categories like sports and stadiums.”
The email claims that Live Nation has advocated for consumer protections, including “an industry wide resale cap” and stronger enforcement of the secondary market. The company also claims that “70% of tickets sold are under $100,” and that artists, not ticket brokers, get more value when they choose market-based pricing tools.
But even some of the biggest artists in the world can’t wrap their heads around concert prices. Two-time Grammy-winner Jason Mraz recently told CL that he has “a little bit of leverage” when it comes to pricing tickets, adding that he tries to start admission as low as possible.
“And then there’s dynamic ticketing, which I don’t understand,” Mraz said adding that the resale market, where tickets cost twice or three times as much, is also confusing.
“It always has felt unfair. I don’t know how to combat it,” Mraz told CL. “If you try to sell tickets outside of the system. There isn’t really enough platform outside of the system to compete with the real system. So I’m still at a loss.”
Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
This article appears in May 14 – 20, 2026.