More than £40,000 worth of tickets for pop queen Madonna’s Millennium Stadium show are being sold on the internet – the South Wales Echo reports, with venue bosses being furious about so many seats for the Material Girl’s Cardiff show now being hawked as greedy music fans cash in.

News of Madonna bringing her Confessions Tour to the Welsh capital on July 30 has sparked huge demand from eager fans – with tickets snapped up in just over a day – but now hundreds are being sold on internet auction sites – including two £150 tickets being sold for £695, and three tickets in the middle tier of the stadium going for £780.

In total, 287 sellers were yesterday making money out of fans desperate to see Madonna’s Cardiff show.
Stadium supremo Paul Sergeant, who is pressing the Government to ban to sale of all tickets for concerts and sporting events above face value, is helping to draw up a code of conduct to beat the touts, on the instructions of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
But Mr Sergeant, who admits touting personally annoys him, said the code for organisations like the stadium, the Football Association Wimbledon and the cricket board was a first step to making the sale of tickets above face value illegal.

Legislation has already been introduced for the 2012 Olympics as part of stringent anti-touting restrictions in the London Olympics Bill, although the Government is reluctant to introduce new regulations covering all sports and concerts.
But Mr Sergeant said: “I think that is the direction we are moving in.
“It can be slow when you are working with Government and civil servants, but we understand that we have to work with them.”

The code of practice ticket-sellers, including sports organisations, Ticketmaster and internet auction site eBay have been asked to develop includes restrictions on the number of tickets which can be sold at one time.

It will also create a blacklist of known touts, crack down on the sale of tickets for events which have not been officially announced, and demand “secondary” sellers like eBay vendors list full information including seat number and original price.

“We are trying to protect the ticket-buying public” said Mr Sergeant.

Based on an article by David James and Gerry Holt, South Wales Echo.