Ticketmaster

Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic When: March 6 Where: M&T Bank Stadium Description: Three local teams are taking part in an early-season tripleheader. No. 7 Maryland and No. 1 Duke meet at 11 a.m., No. 5 Johns Hopkins takes on No. 11 Princeton at 1:30 p.m., and No. 13 Loyola and No. 8 Notre Dame face off at 4 p.m. Tickets: Range from $10 to $30; may be purchased at TicketMaster outlets or by calling the Ravens ticket office at 410-261-RAVE Smartlink Day of Rivals When: April 17 Where: M&T Bank Stadium Description: The second annual showcase pits No. 6 Navy against Army at 4 p.m. and Maryland against Hopkins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets: Range from $10 to $30; may be purchased at TicketMaster outlets or by calling the Ravens ticket office at 410-261-RAVE NCAA men's championships When: May 29-31 Where: M&T Bank Stadium Description: Baltimore hosts the semifinals and final of the Division I tournament, as well as the Division II and III championships.

The Black Eyed Peas are getting it started again. The pop/dance/hip-hop group has announced dates for its "The E.N.D. World Tour 2010," its first tour since 2006's "Monkey Business," and the group is heading to Washington. The Black Eyed Peas -- aka Fergie, will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo -- are scheduled to play the Verizon Center in Washington at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 23. Tickets go on sale at noon Dec. 12. Tickets cost $49.50, $72.50 and $92.50. The floor will be general admission and will have no seats.

Awards Spoiler alert: Don't read this if you plan to watch ESPYs Swimmer Michael Phelps, a Rodgers Forge native and Fells Point resident, set an ESPYs single-year record Wednesday night in Los Angeles by winning five awards: Best Male Athlete, Best Championship Performance, Best Record-Breaking Performance, Best Moment (as part of the 1,600-meter Olympic relay) and Best U.S. Male Olympian. PGA standout Tiger Woods, who had received Best Male Athlete the previous five years, had held the single-year record with four awards.

What a difference a year makes. Last summer, the two-day Virgin Mobile Festival boasted top-tier names like Kanye West, Jack Johnson, Bob Dylan and the Foo Fighters at Pimlico Race Course. Tickets for both days ranged from $175 for general admission to $450 for VIP passes. This year, the festival cuts back to one day, moves to the smaller Merriweather Post Pavilion and books slightly less glamorous headliners Blink-182, Weezer and Public Enemy. But - and this is a big "but" - this year's festival is free.

Ticketmaster does it again. In February, the quasi-monopoly botched sales for Bruce Springsteen's current tour and sent fans to Ticketmaster's TicketsNow.com scalper site, where they had to buy seats at huge markups. Last week, Tickets- Now said it sold too many tickets for the Springsteen show at DC's Verizon Center. The company called fans, who thought they had locked up seats at hundreds of dollars apiece to tell them the bad news. TicketsNow said it will give people refunds along with free tickets in the cheap seats.

Fed chief says strategy to ease crisis working CHARLOTTE, N.C.: While acknowledging that the Federal Reserve was "extremely uncomfortable" about bailouts of big financial companies, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Friday that the central bank's strategy to ease the financial crisis is working. Bernanke was referring to the Fed's decisions last year to step in and financially back JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s takeover of investment house Bear Stearns and throw its first of four financial lifelines to insurance giant American International Group Inc. At a Fed conference in Charlotte, Bernanke said it had to act because collapse of those companies would have dealt a serious blow to the financial system and economy.

The New Jersey attorney general's office has reached a settlement with Ticketmaster over the recent sale of tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert there, calling for major changes in how Ticketmaster does business. The settlement - announced yesterday, a day before hearings open in Washington on the proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation - requires Ticketmaster to reform several of its business practices, in particular with regard to its ticket resale operation, TicketsNow.

So I asked Ticketmaster spokesman Albert Lopez about the experience of a Baltimore-area grandmother who tried to buy Disney on Ice tickets online from Ticketmaster. She was shocked to find out later that she had actually bought from TicketsNow, Ticketmaster's scalper site, for much more than face value. "When I read your article about TicketsNow scalper site, I realized we, too, had been directed to TicketsNow and were charged exorbitant prices for those tickets," she wrote. "I figure we were overcharged $17 per ticket, not counting fees, for a total of $136.

Marylanders who got stiffed on Bruce Springsteen tickets by Ticketmaster are but one reason to be skeptical of a proposed merger between the behemoth of ticket sellers and the powerhouse promoter Live Nation. Justice Department lawyers who are scrutinizing this deal should recognize that competition in the marketplace now is virtually nonexistent and consumers deserve more choices - not fewer - in buying tickets to concerts and other shows. Live Nation owns more than 140 venues and has multiyear comprehensive deals covering the tours of Madonna, Jay-Z, U2, Nickelback and Shakira.

Construction begins on housing in Middle River Construction has begun on Renaissance Square, a 196-home development in Middle River that includes senior housing, Baltimore County officials said yesterday. The developer, Enterprise Homes, has secured financing for the project, which will include 115 townhouses and detached homes priced from $225,000 to $375,000. Help with closing costs and down payments will be available on some homes. Evergreen, the senior housing component to be built by Bozzuto Construction, will include 81 one- and two-bedroom apartments.