The timing of the center’s negotiations with the ticketing monopoly raises questions about who initiated them and why. (It’s also worth mentioning that the Trump Administration has been incredibly helpful to Ticketmaster with its many legal issues of late.) Grenell became Kennedy Center president in February 2025, before joining Live Nation’s board in May of that year, which sure seems fishy. NPR reports that Live Nation’s filings with the Securities And Exchange Commission show payments to Grenell totaling $260,205 and that he received 102 shares of company stock for his board service (worth $14,200 at the time). And wouldn’t you know it? The center’s latest tax filings show Grenell received no compensation as its president. How’s anybody supposed to profit from public service under those conditions, we ask you?
In an attempt to squash such suspicions, a spokesperson from the Kennedy Center told NPR that talks with Ticketmaster kicked off in 2024 (preceding Grenell’s appointment), and that any agreement between parties followed “standard procurement review.” An anonymous source within the Center disputes that statement and claims Ticketmaster was never seriously considered that year. A former executive wrote, “Ticketmaster could say they were trying to talk to us, but they absolutely were not negotiating with us.”
The role of the Center’s new artistic director, Rick Canny, further muddies the waters in this apparent pivot to Ticketmaster. Appointed last month by the Center’s current president, Matt Floca (who replaced Grenell in March), Canny was reportedly instrumental in shaping the deal. “I’ve been advising on this for almost a year,” Canny wrote to the center’s then-chief financial officer, Donna Arduin Kauranen, in an email obtained by NPR. “I’ve shaped many or most of the terms of the deal and I’m reviewing the final agreement tonight.” Canny also expressed frustration with the International Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), whose unionized box office workers he blamed for impeding the center’s transition to Ticketmaster. “The unions got in the way and [Ticketmaster] could no longer make money with us. With care and time, they can come back,” he wrote. The Kennedy Center laid off the IATSE-represented box office workers earlier this fall.
As for Ticketmaster’s position amid all this, the company told NPR: “We categorically deny that anyone pressured the Kennedy Center to choose Ticketmaster. In fact, Kennedy Center ticketing staff first approached our team in February 2024 and almost immediately indicated wanting to switch to Ticketmaster because of limitations with their existing ticketing system.”
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