Yup. Live Nation is a spinoff of Clear Channel's promotions division. More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation
I'll spare you the rant, but essentially there's a monopoly going in the music industry: Ticketmaster has exclusive contracts on all the venues; Clear Channel is buying up all the companies that do fan websites (they bought one in Nashville this week in fact) - they already own most of the radio stations, so they can build up bands and then charge whatever they want for tix, memberships, etc.
Nobody does much about it, because the highest profile bands are making LOTS more money than the average Joe, and many folks believe that those who don't want to pay high prices can simply stay home, not buy CDs, etc. Also, Ticketmaster and Clear Channel give lots of money to lawmakers, like every huge company. It's not as though we live in an era of much government protection for consumers, anyway...
All this said, bands are getting screwed in all of this too - big time. It would take a large-scale boycott by a great many bands to do much about any of this, and most of them are somewhat understandably reluctant to bite the hand that feeds. For more info, check out outfits like
www.futureofmusic.org.