Like Fey, some insiders believe promoters sometimes will sell the tickets to brokers in an attempt to bolster their bottom lines. However, he and others say it happens rarely in Denver and is usually the result of a few dishonest employees.

"Promoters do it all around the country. We caught it here from time to time,'' Fey said. "But the fact that it's a big story in Denver is good. In L.A., no one would be surprised.''

"I think we've shown that it's possible to succeed without doing it,'' said Denver promoter Chuck Morris. "I hope this scandal is a wakeup call to the whole business.''

Even if the allegations are true, law enforcement agents say, they are probably not illegal under state law.

"At first blush, our attorneys said they don't think it's a situation that fits under the Consumer Protection Act,'' said Ken Lane, spokesman for Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar.

Lane said the practice "doesn't exactly fit'' any of the dozens of deceptive trade practices outlawed by the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. In general, the act bans false advertising and fraud on the part of sellers.

Since the purchaser can see the face value of the ticket, and therefore knows the markup, the pricing is probably not a deceptive practice as defined by the act, Lane said.

Yet it is an issue that has aligned such diverse acts as the Backstreet Boys, Garth Brooks and Pearl Jam in a sort of populist campaign to see that their fans can get concert tickets without paying premiums on top of already-high ticket prices.

Some popular acts have been trying to stamp out the practice for years nationwide. Bruce Springsteen, who may come to Denver early next year, often requires fans to show identification to claim tickets. U2 has employed similar methods.

Former House of Blues (formerly Universal Concerts) employees told The Post that the company systematically pulled tickets to high-demand concerts and sold them to brokers over the past two years. House of Blues officials deny the allegation.

The Backstreet Boys, a pop band favored mostly by the preteen set, has been one of the hottest tours this year. But the group may cancel future bookings with House of Blues after learning that the promoter had sold tickets directly to a Denver broker, who then marked them up more than $100 over face price.

But Lane said the state Attorney General's office has not received any formal complaint regarding the sale and no formal investigation is under way.

"It doesn't seem to be something that would fall under a state statute,'' he said. "It could violate a city ordinance or the promoter's contract with the band, but the Consumer Protection Act really doesn't address that part.''

Fey, for one, said he was "shocked, absolutely shocked'' when he heard that Backstreet Boys tickets were sold directly to a broker.

But some large promoters in Denver have used the same tactics for some time, selling tickets more or less under the table to brokers, sources said.

After more than 10 years of selling tickets - some as a storefront broker, some as a street scalper - Stirman knows how the business works and why fans often can't get the tickets they want.

Over the years, Stirman said he has been has been privy to a number these types of deals. He has purchased tickets directly from promoters, tickets that never were made available to the public.

In return, promoters took a cut of the markup. Another Denver-area broker, who said he wanted to remain anonymous to protect his source of tickets, confirmed Stirman's account.

"That's the way the business has worked for a long time,'' the broker said. "We get tickets from a number of sources, promoters sometimes being one of them.''

Sometimes, the line between promoters and brokers gets fuzzy.

Zane Bresloff, whose Awesome Promotions Inc. promotes World Championship Wrestling and its Monday Nitro events, was also a partner in an Aurora ticket brokerage, AAA Tickets and Tours Ltd., for three years in the mid-90s, according to filings with the Colorado Secretary of State.

At the same time, Bresloff was also partners with Fey in B&Z Promotions, a Denver-based promotions company, according to Secretary of State filings.

The two companies were incorporated about one month apart, AAA Tickets in September 1993 and B&Z Promotions in October 1993. They were also dissolved within one month of each other, AAA Tickets in March 1996 and B&Z Promotions in April 1996.

Other partners in AAA Tickets were Margaret Fox, the wife of well-known Chicago ticket broker Barry Fox, and Karl Kehmeier, a friend and business associate of longtime Denver promoter Fey. (Fey also partnered directly with Barry Fox in 1998 to form Interact America, a promotions company that has put on large-scale motivational seminars nationwide.)

Fey insists, however, that no tickets were distributed from B&Z to the ticket brokerage.

But Fey said he can see why promoters would be tempted to deal directly with brokers on concerts like the Backstreet Boys. When a band tries to hold ticket prices low, the show becomes more attractive to scalpers, he said.

And as bigger acts demand larger guaranteed payouts, promoters have been left with a shrinking slice of the pie, he said.

"If promoters have to go to these lengths to make money, whose fault is it?'' he asked. "The groups are to blame for some of this.''

Fey has been the most powerful concert promoter in Denver for much of the last three decades. He promoted almost every popular concert in the area and still knows the business top to bottom.

He eventually sold out to MCA Concerts, which later became Universal Concerts and was bought out by House of Blues this year. But a number of industry sources say Fey may have sold tickets directly to brokers in the 1980s and early 90s, albeit in smaller quantities than what the Backstreet Boys have accused House of Blues of selling.

"I know guys who have bought tickets from him,'' Stirman said. "I've been around when it happened.''

Publicly, Fey has always been virulently against scalping in all its forms. He vehemently denies the charges.

"You hear a lot of things, but I have never dealt with brokers,'' he said. "I know Feyline, Fey Concerts, never scalped a show.''

Two former Fey employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Post that Fey was continually in contact with ticket brokers, particularly Danny Sharaby, a prominent Phoenix broker.

"I was once sent by Barry to Phoenix to meet with Danny Sharaby regarding partnership potential,'' said one high-ranking former Fey employee. "I personally delivered tickets to Danny Sharaby. He definitely had tickets to Fey shows. He trafficked in the tickets.''

The source said that sometimes a dozen tickets were delivered to Sharaby, other times hundreds.

Both Fey and Sharaby, who runs Tickets Unlimited in Phoenix, denied they ever had more than a personal relationship.

"I'm not saying Danny didn't try to buy tickets from me. In fact, that's how our introduction came,'' Fey said. "Once it became clear that I wouldn't do this, we kind of became friends. He had thought I was like everyone else he dealt with.''

Fey said that any employee who says he has sold tickets directly to a broker is not telling the truth. "They're unequivocally liars,'' he said.

Sharaby said Fey would sometimes send him tickets, but never more than two or four at a time and never for anything other than personal use.

"It was never like that. Barry and I are personal friends, nothing more,'' Sharaby said.

Stirman said he never bought tickets directly from Fey. But he said every promoter he dealt with knew Stirman was a broker and had no qualms about selling good tickets to him rather than making them available to the general public.

"There are some promoters in the business who are pretty arrogant about it,'' he said. "It's a problem everywhere, but this is going on in Denver, too.''

Morris, who promotes shows at the Fillmore Auditorium and Pepsi Center as president of Bill Graham Presents/Chuck Morris Presents, said the practice of selling tickets to brokers is considered bad form in the music industry.

Morris said his parent company, SFX, the largest promoter nationwide, has strict guidelines that prohibit selling tickets to brokers. However, some large promoters may not hold to the same standards, he said.

"I've always just found it repugnant, taking money like that,'' he said. "But I'm not naive enough to think it hasn't been going on for many years.

"I would bet the farm that promoters like Doug Kauffman, Bill Bass, Don Strasburg, and Gene Felling wouldn't scalp under any circumstances,'' Morris continued. "I am sure they've never scalped in their careers, but I can't speak as to anybody else.''

Bass is also now a paid consultant for House of Blues, the company accused by the Backstreet Boys. After 19 years on the Denver concert scene, he said he welcomes the increased attention focused on the darker side of the business.

"I can stand the scrutiny. I hope everyone else can,'' Bass said.

Kauffman, of Nobody in Particular Presents, an independent Denver promoter that put on 420 shows this year, said he's aware of the practice but doesn't know how widespread it may be.

"We've had the opportunities before, but we've never dealt with brokers,'' Kauffman said. "We've always considered our company separate from a lot of that stuff.''

As a smaller, local company, Nobody in Particular Presents tries to keep its events at reasonable prices, Kauffman said, citing $22.50 tickets for Rage Against the Machine show on Nov. 24.

But Kauffman said he believes many brokers are getting squeezed out as large promoters and artists raise the face value of tickets to new levels each year, topping out with the $1,000 choice tickets for Neil Diamond's Dec. 31 show at the Pepsi Center.

Operating out of offices just outside Denver's city limits, ticket brokers like Stirman are the scalper's legitimate cousin. But they have one very big advantage over the street scalper: they're legal.

Fey said the way to stop the problem is for fans to stop selling their tickets to these storefront brokers and the street scalpers.

"That's how these scalpers get 90 percent of their tickets,'' he said. "If people wouldn't sell to them, there wouldn't be a problem.''

Copyright 1999 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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